I enjoy some of these podcast episodes but I was really hopeful the labor pause ep would be directed more towards mothers, or periodically. It’s important for us too to understand how to better redirect our focus and comfortability. How do we get past the uncomfortable, the pauses, how do we naturally progress. What is your feedback? Because of being pushed in the birth center to hurry along I ended up in the hospital with 3rd degree tears. I want to understand how to reclaim my birth power and not live in fear. Help direct towards our mothers too; we need it!

Love the knowledge and the great sense of humor!

What an incredible pod! Anyone who is pregnant and their partners should get a chance to hear the wisdom from these three. Thankyou. This podcast is a healing balm that helps us remember the power and capacity of our own bodies.

This episode was extremely helpful and informative . here in the US so many moms get home from a hospital birth with absolutely no resources to lactation consultant. If they even knew about nipple shields, it could get them through until they could find someone. When I teach couples prenatally, I suggest that they become familiar with nipple shields and since they are so inexpensive to have a few around before the birth just in case. Thank you for this episode. It was so great.

These ladies are a mainstay in my education! After I have wrapped my head around the textbooks, I check in to see what’s what!

Absolutely love and devote time to listening to this podcast. As an OOH midwife, wife, and mother - I love easy to digest information that I can nibble on the go and this is perfect! Katie and Rachel are engaging and reach past dogmatic medical practices to really grasp at true evidence and traditional practices that are holistic and mamababy centered. Hoping this podcast is around for the long run :)

This my absolute favorite midwifery podcast! As a midwifery student and (pregnant) mom of littles, this is my favorite place to come to get in touch with the latest research, and hear about what is happening with birth work around the world!

I absolutely love this podcast. I am currently 15 weeks pregnant with my second child, and am devouring these podcast episodes. As someone with a scientific background I absolutely LOVE the science-based approach to providing information. And as someone getting ready to give birth in the U.S. I feel like I really need to be educated to give myself the best shot at the physiologic birth that I desire. Thank you for making this podcast!

I am a new listener here and have been truly enjoying the wisdom and fun on this podcast. This is how midwifery stays alive. Thank you, thank you 🥰🙏

After 18 years as a midwife in large California HMO, I have reached a new level of dissatisfaction with the status quo of maternity care in the US. This podcast not only names the many areas of moral injury for midwives but it does it in a kind, funny and compassionate way. We are going to use this podcast as a taking off point for a “book club-like” meeting for local midwives wanting to reclaim our midwifery expertise. Thank you so much Katie and Rachel.

I’ve listened to many many birth/women/midwife podcasts. And this is by far the best I found! Not only are Dr Rachel Reed and Katie James so knowledgeable, but their friendship is the best!! I learn so much but have such fun listening to them having fun. Their friendship really translates through the podcast. Ahh I love it! Thank you ladies for all of it!!! The info and just your beautiful selves❤️❤️❤️❤️

I’m a new mom in the US who was desperate for accurate information about pregnancy and breastfeeding while I tried to navigate this important life event in a broken system. I partially credit this podcast to my success with breastfeeding after a breech C-section and 24 hour separation from my baby. It also helped me feel comfortable in understanding my pregnancy as an “older” plus-sized mom. While I did not get the unmedicated home birth of my dreams, I feel I was armed with good information that afforded me agency in making health choices and the resilience to push through some early challenges to achieve my breastfeeding goals. 6 months and going strong! Thank you so much for making this podcast. I’m one and done but will keep listening because you two make this subject so interesting. Women around the world need you. ❤️

I have been a nurse In Mother-Baby over 15 years, and a nurse 32 years. I entering my 3rd year as an IBCLC in a Hospital setting. I have always been a huge advocate for breastfeeding and now I get to do it full time!! Just listening to Katie and Rachel makes me want to visit Australia and see midwifery in action!! I have to say I thoroughly love listening to the Midwive’s Cauldron and wish I could have taken Katie’s course as I was preparing to take my IBCLC exam!! Thank you ladies!! Love to listen to you!! So much good information. Keep it coming!!

This podcast is so informative and to the point! I love it when things aren’t sugar coated and honest. I have learned so much as a woman, mother, and birth worker. Thank you for all that you do, and the wisdom you impart on your audience. It is so appreciated!

I have loved listening to Katie and Rachel and their fun, engaging, educational, and up to date research on all things midwifery! I’ve listened to them during my whole midwifery training over the years and can’t thank them enough for how much it’s helped me grasp the tricky bits of information relating to this field! I highly recommend giving them a listen!!

I wish I could convince everyone to listen to this pod. It’s full of powerful information that so many people are so ignorant of and the knowledge could be redemptive for so many women. I am looking at a free standing birth center to deliver my third child after birthing in the hospital twice, and the response from my family and friends has been disappointing to say the least… my l&d nurse friends have been trying to convince me how unsafe it is and my mom is upset I’m denying myself pain medication. If the evidence and information from this podcast were more widely known, women would be so much safer during birth. Birth is physiological, natural, and safe. Rant over 😅 thank you for this podcast!

I came to this podcast because I am a first time Mom who had to make a decision about Anti-D and someone had told me about that episode with Sara Wickham. But I STAYED to listen to many of their other episodes, I have learned SO MUCH even though I am in no way a medical person, quite the opposite, but they have really has inspired me to help others who have had such challenges as I have with breastfeeding my now 6month old. I really appreciate these ladies bringing such great content and empowering me with better tools for whenever the next round of birth and breastfeeding comes in my future! ❤️ the show notes have great links for more great resources you will probably not find with a standard Google.

Katie & Dr Rachel bring on some incredible guests, as well as being a wealth of knowledge themselves. I can always count on being entertained and informed!

I’m a trained home birth Midwife about to get my CPM in the USA. My mom was a birth keeper and I started attending births with her when I was 10years old. I’ve never stopped going to births. This year I've seen my first (and hopefully only) two fetal demises in labor. This podcast has kept me encouraged and reminded me why I do what I do on the tough days. Thank you for sharing ALL your nuggets(gold and other wise), a young midwife here in the States is holding on to all your wisdom and grateful for your pioneering.

I’m a pregnant first time mama who heard about this show through an instagram comment! The hosts are chill, funny, and very knowledgeable and the guests are amazing. Give it a listen and you will not regret it✨

Thanks for all you information, laughter, great guests and knowledge. I love to listen while I drive. Feels like I am sitting with good friends, discussing birth.

A wonderful podcast with wonderful guest. I enjoy the light hearted warmth that infuses the podcast. As a homebirth midwife in the US i appreciate learning about birth in the UK and Australia. The universality of our shared midwifery experiences as well as the overlapping struggles of current maternity care within the medical model. Thank you

I listen to this podcast while running and at this point a run without Katie and Rachel doesn’t feel right. I appreciate the depth of information, knowledge and experience they share without being stuffy. The informality, bird noises and guests keep me coming back. Thank you for creating this show!

I have really been enjoying listening to this podcast! I’m a big fan of Dr Reed and was excited to hear she had a podcast. The podcast episodes bring up some excellent points, research, and explore complex topics with such depth! It doesn’t feel one sided or pushing an agenda but rather exploring both sides of different topics, plus the reality of our birth experiences.

Love this podcast, I found it about 9 months ago in my first trimester of my first pregnancy. Its been incredibly informative and interesting, it’s helped me come up with questions for my own midwife and has made me feel like a well educated new mom. Sometimes I even learn things that my doula mother doesn’t know! My only gripe is that the intro still gives me a little wave of naseau every time I press play. That’s what you get for bingeing a podcast at work when you’ve got morning sickness…

I love this podcast- it’s on heavy rotation in my home and on my EarPods. These hags sure know a thing or two about birth! And they always have amazing guests. It’s chock full of information and a little chuckle here and there. Truly a MUST listen to for any person interested in pregnancy, labor, birth, lactation, or women’s health in general. You won’t be disappointed! It’s the perfect podcast.

what a wonderful show! i am asked all the time about bedsharing because here in the usa it is frowned on. now i have research to support what comes naturally to many parents

…as a practicing community based midwife in the USA I look forward to every episode that Katie and Rachel put out, their content enhances my practice with the breastfeeding nuggets and Rachel’s work with physiological birth continues to inspire and challenge me to look at how I practice and why I do what I do and ways I can change to support a woman’s physiological journey into motherhood. Thank you Rachel and Katie!

Love their sense of humor and their really quality guests

I’m so grateful my midwife directed me to this wonderful podcast. This is my first pregnancy and I feel so much calmer and more confident making decisions after marinating in all the wisdom I found in these episodes. A great springboard for more research and reading and thoroughly inspiring. Thank you!

I found this podcast during my third pregnancy and I’m so grateful that I did. The day before I gave birth, I had listened to their episode about cervical dilation and pushing. It gave me the confidence, along with my midwives, to trust my instinct to push when the time came. I only wish I’d found the podcast sooner.

It’s so refreshing to listen to this podcast! I always finish feeling grateful to the people doing all the different kinds of work to promote physiologic birth (and all things womanhood), and of course to Rachel and Katie for their dedication. It’s good to know I’m not alone, and excellent to be surrounded by other birth nerds!

Such an amazing podcast. Truly is essential listening for every birth worker and even moms to be. Also very hilarious.

I am a certified childbirth educator and mother in the US. The Midwives’ Cauldron is an incredible resource for pregnant people and birth workers alike. I frequently refer to episodes in my childbirth classes and tell everyone to check it out to further their knowledge. The information is easy to digest and comical simultaneously. Buy Rachel Reed’s book “Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage” too, regardless of where you are in your reproductive journey!

By far, one of the best podcasts out there. I’d give it 6 stars if I could. Love listening to you ladies and love the work that you’re doing.

I was a huge fan of the Birth Kweens podcast, and this is the British/Australian version! The friendship between the hosts is endearing and their banter is so funny. All the while I’m learning so much about birth support. I’m a birth doula in the Boston area, and I highly recommend this podcast!

Honestly I’m here to hear them laugh. Contagious laughter. I recommend starting with the intro episode!

I had almost given up on midwifery and birth podcasts. Finally, a woman- centered, no disclaimers podcast centering the power and magick of female biology, with joy and humor, and without pretense! Thank you!!!

I am an aspiring midwife and this podcast FUELS MY FIRE! I have two little ones at home, both delivered by me with the help of two amazing home birth midwives! I am currently in an in-between stage of being a SAHM and listening to you both chat gives me the chills! So much amazing info with your fun back and forth banter-love it! Well executed podcast with two very articulate and educated women! I can’t get enough!

A wonderful listen. I constantly find myself chuckling, tearing up, or learning something new. It’s hard to find a podcast that aligns with what true midwifery is, that is entertaining, and actually TEACHES you new things, practices and just better ways of taking care of mamas. Thanks, you guys are amazing!

These two are a pleasure to listen to and really emulate what true midwifery is all about. Perfect for doulas and midwives. Can’t wait for more.