46 - From Maiden to Mother: The Identity Shift No One Prepares You For (Guest: Anna Lundqvist)

In this deeply soulful and eye-opening episode of Doula Talk: Postpartum, Babies, and the Battle for Sleep, Deb sits down with former midwife and The Natural Birth Podcast host Anna Lundqvist to explore one of the most profound transformations a woman can experience: the sacred and often-overlooked transition from maiden to mother.

Together, Deb and Anna dive into the emotional, physical, and spiritual shifts that happen as women move through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum — a process that’s far more than just gaining a new title. It’s a complete rebirth of identity, purpose, and self. Anna sheds light on why our culture doesn’t prepare women for this shift, how we’ve lost the communal “village” that once supported mothers, and what it means to reclaim birth and motherhood as sacred rites of passage instead of medical events or identity crises.

Listeners will find themselves nodding along as Anna explains how the brain literally rewires during pregnancy, how grief and joy can coexist in the postpartum years, and why redefining “sacrifice” as a sacred gift changes everything about how we mother. Deb brings her signature warmth and humor to the conversation, reminding parents that they can honor their transition, rebuild their village one connection at a time, and find peace in the messiness of becoming.

This episode is both grounding and empowering — perfect for anyone who’s ever thought, “No one told me it would feel like this.”

✨ Key Takeaways:

• The maiden-to-mother transition is a sacred rite of passage — not just a new job title.
• Your brain, heart, and identity all evolve during this journey — and that’s normal.
• It’s okay to grieve your old self while celebrating your new one.
• The “village” might not appear overnight, but you can begin building it in your own community.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Doula Talk
• 2:07 Introduction to Anna
• 4:12 The Maiden to Mother Transition
• 6:36 Reclaiming Birth as Sacred
• 10:44 Identity Shifts in Motherhood
• 12:56 The Importance of Community and Support
• 13:33 Navigating Postpartum Challenges
• 16:58 Creating a Supportive Village
• 21:45 Holding Space as Birth Workers
• 24:01 Preparing for Postpartum Nourishment
• 27:08 Resources and Courses for Birth Workers
• 30:39 The Role of Birth Workers in Today's Society
• 31:50 Final Thoughts
• 34:34 Take Aways

Transcript

Deb (00:50)
Hey friends, welcome back to Doula Talk, Postpartum Babies, and the Battle for Sleep.

I'm your host, Doula Deb, and Today, we're diving into one of the biggest identity shifts that no one really prepares you for. The transition from maiden to mother. That in-between space where your old self starts to dissolve, your new self hasn't fully formed yet, and you're sitting there thinking,

Wait, who even am I now? My guest today, Anna, is a former holistic midwife and the host of the Natural Birth podcast. She's also the founder of Sacred Birth International, where she helps women and birth workers reclaim birth as a sacred rite of passage that it's always meant to be. In this episode, we talk about what really happens during that Maiden to Mother shift.

not just the physical changes, but the emotional, spiritual, and identity transformations that ripple through every part of your modern culture how to reframe sacrifice as a sacred gift,

and what it means to rebuild your village when society seems to have forgotten what that even is. So go grab your coffee and let's get into it.

Deb (02:08)
Thank you so much for being here on Doula Talk. We're so happy to have you. First, let's just start off with who you are and what you do. You've worn a lot of hats, so I want to hear about your journey.

Anna (02:20)
Wow, well, my journey could take the whole podcast. I'm gonna keep it short. Yeah, so, ⁓ you know, I am a former midwife. I decided to step out of the system, but what brought me into the midwifery, which kind of is why I'm here, right? Doula talk, it's all about birth work. So what brought me into birth work from the beginning was women and holding space for women. So before I was a midwife,

Deb (02:24)
Right?

Anna (02:46)
I was a women's rec facilitator for many, many years, holding workshops and circles and ⁓ coaching women. And I was also a yoga teacher, massage therapist. I had many hats before I kind of dove into midwifery. And then as I dove out of being an active midwife in the system, I stepped into the mentorship role. And now I've combined kind of all my wisdom that I've collected as a young girl sitting in women's circles.

learning all kinds of healing arts and nature medicine and diving into women's work and doing that for many years and marrying all of that with my midwifery knowledge into the sacred birth worker mentorship which is kind of my main big thing that I do today. I teach women who want to become somewhere in between a midwife and a doula so want more kind of in-depth knowledge. So the training is a full year, the kind of intensive portal is half a year of lots and lots of information.

Deb (03:30)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Anna (03:45)
We do a lot of inner work and that's where I bring kind of the women's work, agent women's business stuff. you know, really working with all the rites of passages, not just the birth, but our menarche, so our first bleed, right? And menopause and understanding that we're cyclical beings and how to be a feminine creature in the world and kind of just all the things around that before even stepping into birth work.

Deb (03:58)
Yeah, so many more. ⁓

Amazing. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, I think it's so important that we recognize that as humans that it's not just that that sacred birth, but it's like so many different transitions that we have throughout our lives. ⁓ So today we are going to talk about one of the biggest transitions that maiden to mother shift. So why do you think that this is such a big deal? And it's something that we I don't think we really give

Anna (04:13)
Yeah.

Deb (04:40)
a lot of parents an understanding or a true understanding of how what a big shift this is. ⁓ So yeah, we'll just start there.

Anna (04:49)
Yeah, well we don't. I think as a general society that is the thing isn't it that most women have never heard of the maiden to mother transition and don't have an idea about the shifts that will happen not just physically becoming a mother but emotionally, mentally, spiritually, culturally. I mean it's just on all levels and one of the most

you if you want to talk science or whatever, like, you know, one of the things that really, that's the thing that happens is that our brain shifts and changes and develops. And so as you get pregnant until two years postpartum, your brain chemistry changes. You actually rewire your brain. Mama brain is a real thing. And it's because it's driving you to be the best mother, the most attuned caregiver, just like the superhuman that mothers become, right? When they have babies.

Deb (05:19)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right,

yep.

Anna (05:44)
that they

know when their baby's crying, even though the baby might be not even the same room or same house. They just feel their baby, right? So, you know, the Maiden to Mother transition, as you just said, it's one rite of passage that we have as women. And really, we lay the groundwork even before that. Our culture teaches us who we are through our rite of passages, what it is like to be a woman in our culture.

Deb (05:50)
Right, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (06:13)
what it is to be a mother when it comes to this rite of passage in our culture. And I think why women come into this so unprepared and why it's not talked about is because we've had a culture of not talking about hard stuff. And it is a hard transition for many. It probably is more difficult than it should be because we don't talk about it, because we're not prepared for it.

Deb (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Bingo. That is so true. Yeah, definitely. ⁓ So a lot of your stuff talks about reclaiming birth as sacred. ⁓ And a lot of us, at least in America, grew up with the TV and everything like birth is so...

hard and scary and give me all the drugs and people yelling at you and very traumatic. ⁓ How do you feel with, you know, all the stuff that you do and the work that you do? ⁓ How do you how does that help us get out of that fear mongering and like fear factory of ⁓ birth and that this is something that we can honor and hold sacred?

Anna (07:19)
Yeah, there's so much to say about that. But one of the biggest, one of the best things to program yourself to have a birth without fear, mean, fear will always be a part of birth, but not being so fearful for it is to actually reprogram your subconscious mind by listening to a different narrative. So you're right, because we've all been fed this narrative that very much comes from Hollywood and

Deb (07:40)
Yeah.

Mmm.

Anna (07:49)
and media because it sells, you know? never forget, yeah, I never forget, you know, when Charlotte in Sex in the city, her waters break on the streets, right? And it was like straight into a hospital to have a baby. And that is most scenes. I don't know if this is going to happen, but I'm watching Grey's Anatomy, one of the latest seasons now and.

Deb (07:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's dramatic.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Anna (08:13)
One

of the characters is going to have twins and they're so scared for her and the babies and like it's so dangerous, it's high risk pregnancy. Right? And it gives me the shits when I see this because it's not true. Yes, is risk in birth and in pregnancy, but it's risky to live. It's risky to drive a car. It's risky to drink water. You can drown yourself with too much water. mean, it's really living is inherently risky.

Deb (08:18)
It's so dangerous. Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure.

Right. Right.

Right.

Anna (08:42)
and death is a part of life. It's not more so because we're having a baby. So it's really out of proportion. So what I say to all my clients and why I also created the Natural Birth Podcasts that I've had for the last five years is to help women reprogram their subconscious mind with a positive, empowering narrative. So all the stories on my, Natural Birth Podcast are women who've had a natural and empowering and positive birth in the hospital, home or birth center or free birth.

Deb (08:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (09:12)
And this

is one of the most potent things, to listen to storytelling. That is really, that's what you do when you listen to podcasts. That's what you do when you watch TV and series. You're kind of in this dreamlike state. So whatever you're seeing on TV or listening to through your ears, in that state, it just goes through into your subconscious. So if you can focus and only listen to the kind of narrative you want to program your mind with, it will happen.

Deb (09:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That's one of the things I tell all my birth clients is like, we need to stop listening. know, if someone stops you on the street and tries to trauma dump about their birth, like, actually, right now, we're focusing on positive birth stories and learning about what, know, positive births are even like, because you just, have no knowledge of that in our culture. Yeah.

Anna (10:01)
Yeah.

And if you're a person that do view life as sacred, yourself, this transition, then seek out those birth stories. Just as if you are wanting a hospital birth, you seek out those stories. If you want a home birth, you seek out those stories. If you want a water birth, you seek out those stories. You seek out that which you want to have in your own life.

Deb (10:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Yeah, I think it's so important to tell your subconscious that that like, this is possible. This is OK. This is safe. and if you're all you're doing is reading those stories that are scary and it just yeah, it definitely goes in deep. ⁓ So I want to talk a little bit about the transformation and it's not of.

you know, made into mother and it's not just like adding the new title of being a mom. ⁓ What do you think is one of the biggest identity shifts when you come across that threshold?

Anna (11:01)
Hmm, well everyone has an identity, shift

You know, throughout all my years of following women through the birth portal, ⁓ I see that the women who very strongly identify with their work identity.

especially the first baby, can really struggle. Because all of a sudden, she's stripped of that main identity that she was carrying, being the title of her work, or who she is at work, her purpose in life is that. And all of a sudden, she's kind of forced into then, now, now, my purpose needs to be my baby. For however long that looks like for some women, okay? So some women, it looks like financially they have to go back to work earlier.

Deb (11:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Anna (11:47)
For some, they can financially stay home longer. Some rearrange their lives to be able to stay at home longer and maybe chooses to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. I think the ones who struggle most is if you have a strong identity outside of now becoming mother, that can be so hard. It can be so much in resistance of what is that you've created suffering for yourself. Another thing is that, especially the first time around, women realize that mothers are not valued in our society.

Deb (11:53)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Anna (12:17)
And that's quite a cold shower for most women waking up kind of the days postpartum and realizing that maybe being left alone at home, no husband, no family, caring for them, no village, no people around them, noticing they're getting no financial support potentially from society or their job or whatever. And they're just left to all of a sudden take care of this new life. And most are ill equipped with that as well because no one prepares for the postpartum, which is a whole different story.

Deb (12:29)
Mm-hmm.

Ugh, 100%.

Anna (12:44)
You know, there's

so many layers, right? How this is just, it becomes this, you know, layer upon layer upon layer where your own identity shifts who you are in the world, what society, how they look at you, how they treat you, how they mistreat you actually as a woman, as your mother. ⁓ How you're also relationship with change, with your partner, with your friends, with family, everything changes, not just within you, but just around you. And that doesn't help that that's not supportive for many women.

Deb (12:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (13:14)
And then of course you're handling like, you know, this new life and your breasts are leaking and you're bleeding and you're, you know, it's just, it's this huge thing that you just so often unprepared for. And I wish women would prepare for this and understand that this will happen to expect it. The women I see who move best through this transition is the ones who already in pregnancy.

Deb (13:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (13:40)
kind of have grieved their maiden, that their maiden is going to dissolve and she has to step into the mother, and that it is a sacrifice and understanding that sacrifice means sacred gift. So it's a sacred gift, but it's a sacrifice of who I was and to be ready to step into the new. If you can start journaling, reflecting and processing this in pregnancy, I see that those women more easily accept and adapt into this new role.

Deb (13:46)
Mmm.

I love that.

Right.

Anna (14:09)
as well as the women of faith, whatever faith that is. But when you can lean into that, somehow you have already practiced surrender to something higher than yourself. And that actually does help in that transition. I've witnessed that a lot.

Deb (14:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah, I really love that, you know, that sacrifice is a sacred gift ⁓ because I think when we look at sacrifices, I'm just now I have to sacrifice as a mother and give everything of myself. We're not giving honor to the other part of like, this is such a beautiful time. And while we may be giving up one thing, we're going to be gaining so much in the in a different phase of our lives. And and that can be full of grief, but also so much beauty.

⁓ That is just awesome.

Anna (14:56)
Yeah, and I think actually, I

think even though you might be like so happy to be pregnant when you have your baby, so in love with your baby and absolutely adore and love it, it's okay to feel grief. It's okay to feel all the things. I think that's also something we don't talk about that actually in the postpartum months and years potentially, it's okay to feel everything. You can be exhausted and excited and happy and, you know, and sad and all the things. Everything can co-exist in you.

Deb (15:08)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. And because you're having a hard day and the baby pooped on you and like all the things, it doesn't mean that you're not grateful for the life that you're living, you know. that's so it's such a nice shift ⁓ to accept. And like you said, just kind of move through this transition consciously, you know, rather than just having it smack you in the face postpartum. And you're like, what just happened?

Anna (15:46)
Yeah.

And to know that you always have a choice. So, birth is not without suffering, mothering is not without suffering, life has everything. And it's what we resist that persists and becomes suffering in long term. You can still have, like it can be hard, it can be challenging, it can be everything, you can feel all the things. And you can also have a level in yourself going like, you know, nothing is permanent, this too will shift, right?

Deb (15:52)
Yeah.

right.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Anna (16:18)
How can

you be with that which is hard? Because probably some people are listening are you know, our mothers and are going through it and might be in a hard period. It's like, I'm not saying to you like just, you know, surrender to it and be happy. Yeah. But when you can adapt that way of thinking and feeling, it becomes easier. It just does.

Deb (16:30)
Just sit back. Yeah, Right, right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's like that zooming out and looking at the whole picture of like this is this is not forever This is just gonna be that period but what is it? are the things that could help me get through this versus this is where I live now Yeah, which can make it more tolerable ⁓ so I'm gonna talk more about like the ideal of a village ⁓ and How do we you know, I definitely struggled with this with both my kids of

I understood as a doula, like we need the village. Like that is important. And, you know, when you're in your postpartum, because you just, you literally can't do it all. But our society is not set up that way. Everybody is so busy. So it left me feeling like, okay, I know I need the village and I, my friends will do what they can, but where's everybody? So what are you left with? What do you do in that? You know?

Anna (17:35)
Yeah.

This is the hard, hard, hard thing because we in this generation of women really don't have the grandparents like they had their grandparents and their parents. Everyone's working. Everyone's very independent. Everyone's also very much like, you know, actualizing their own life, which is great, but that's where we lost the village. And so I think first I want to honor that this sucks.

and this is the reality for most women, and where the beep is the village, what the beep do we do, how do we recreate the village that we've lost? Because we can shout all day that we need it, but we just don't have a culture of understanding. For example, maidens would be the perfect people to step in and being that village and bridging that gap, but they have no clue. Not until you become a mother do you realize, or if you're not a birth record, then you also realize, like...

Not until you that shift, do you really click on how much help you need and support you need. And so we can call them the maidens, but I think not until we have a societal change, a cultural change, will they wake up to that until they're mothers themselves. We can tell our mothers and grandmothers that we need them and want them, but at the same time, we still live in a culture where they're now out there doing their own thing. And they might or might not have gotten lots of help, but they got more help than...

Deb (18:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Anna (19:03)
women now are getting from their own parents and grandparents and they've kind of lost sight of that, I think, that that's not existing anymore. So what do we do? I had this conversation last week with my sacred birth record mentorship students because we're in that module of postpartum right now and talking about this topic. Like, what do we do? And I think what we do is this.

Deb (19:04)
Right. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Anna (19:27)
We need to talk about it. The more we talk about

it, the more people will wake up to this reality. The more we talk about the maiden to Mother transition and the need of mothers to have support, the more things are going to happen in our communities. And I think this is just where we need to start. And when it comes to having Village Now, I think it's, even though it's exhausting and you're probably super exhausted yourself, you need to start it.

You need to be the lighthouse because we have no one else who's doing it for us. So you need to be the one that starts reaching out to your mama friends and like, how can you create a mama circle that you see each other every week and just have a place to share and dump what's going on? That's really helpful, right? Can you potentially do a meal train together and just like, how can you support each other somehow in the weeks and months to come? Like start brainstorming with your girlfriends and your mama friends.

Deb (20:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

right.

Anna (20:23)
And that's where we need to just start somewhere.

Deb (20:26)
Mm-hmm. I think that's so true is that it really just starts in our community our own communities and just building that ⁓ Brick by brick of like like you said every week really of like just establishing those connections and when you have those connections in your community You feel an obligation to each other, you know of like supporting you through the hard times or maybe someone's going through tough times with a death or a divorce or Whatever is going on ⁓ You're willing to step up

Anna (20:45)
Yeah.

Deb (20:56)
because you have those connections and without those we just are like, nope, we're all doing our own thing. Yeah.

Anna (21:02)
Exactly. And you know what? It's

like relationships demand commitment. Not just in your intimate husband or partner. Like your friendships. And you might want to have these people in your community that might not be like your soul sisters, but they're your neighbors and they're like, they're close and they can pop by in five minutes if you need them. Cultivate relationships with them.

Deb (21:12)
Absolutely.

Sure.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Anna (21:31)
Reach out to your neighbors.

Deb (21:34)
Yeah, it definitely, that is so true that I mean hardly people in our neighborhoods speak to each other. We're just like again, so busy with their own lives. ⁓ So for all the doulas and midwives and birth workers listening, how can they hold space for moms without just handing them like a checklist of this is what you should be doing or planning or prepping?

Anna (21:57)
Well, my favorite thing to talk about is sacred space holding. Right? And the essence of that is cultivating yourself to be a presence that can hold space for others. And for many that's like, very fair, what does that mean? And it's also not something that comes easy for most people because we're very much taught.

Deb (22:02)
Mm.

Anna (22:19)
talk, talk, talk, and like, and your experience and my experience, ⁓ and I want to share mine. And this is what you can do. And as birth workers, we might want to be experts. here is the checklist. You should do these positions, blah, blah, But actually, that which really matters for all human beings, not just mothers who are pregnant, is to actually be seen, heard, and witnessed in our process. And so what I, you know, the biggest focus of my sacred birth worker mentorship is to cultivate yourself as a sacred spaceholder.

Deb (22:29)
Right, yeah.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (22:49)
Cultivate your nervous system to be calm. Cultivate a neutral mind. Being able to tap into being the ocean of awareness. Holding someone else without feeling the need to talk or to be the expert and realizing that she is. And the beautiful thing is that when you learn how to really listen to someone and you're quiet for longer than a second, she's gonna continue to share and go deeper. And maybe she's asking you a question and if you don't instantly answer but you mirror and go like, what's your intuition telling you?

Deb (22:50)
now.

Anna (23:19)
What do you think? She's going to take another breath and actually find her own inner answers. And that is so much more powerful coming from her than from you.

Deb (23:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That is so true. mean, I think people really look toward birth workers as like the information hub and tell me exactly, I don't know about this. You tell me what to do. And so often I'm like, well, I can show you the options, but really you need to decide what feels good, what feels right for you. Because ultimately you already know. We're just here to facilitate that and guide you through finding out what that is.

Anna (23:29)
Bless you.

Yeah.

Deb (23:57)
That's

so true. Yeah, so you teach a lot about nourishing postpartum, so, and not just surviving it or getting through. So ⁓ instead of an afterthought, what are some of the things that you teach in that ⁓ prepping for the postpartum?

Anna (24:16)
Yeah, so much. I think it's really important to prep for the immediate postpartum, especially the first time around. Like actually doing like a postpartum course and understanding just the basics of breastfeeding because so many women are scared of not being able to breastfeed or to struggle breastfeeding. And women do because we also have this lack of information and just lack of knowledge about seeing babies and support everything. So like learn a little bit.

Deb (24:41)
of support.

Anna (24:46)
about the basics of breastfeeding, about baby care so that you feel like you're confident at least, you know, dealing with the basics. Yeah. And then just understanding and prepping for the identity shift ⁓ really, because I think most people, the extent of postpartum prep they do is buying a lot of stuff, right?

Deb (24:55)
Yeah.

It's all the stuff,

Anna (25:11)
Buying all the things that

they think that they need and that's great of course to have. I'm not saying it's not, but do that for sure. Everything to support you and nourish you and like to prep food is really I think important. I mean if you can I would even fill a whole extra freezer which is so much pre-cooked food that you can just take out for months. Like why not? Just have lots of food and involve your neighbors and friends if they're open to come and support you with meal training maybe.

Deb (25:14)
Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah, right.

Anna (25:39)
practical stuff or and I also I really invite ceremony I think that it's really beautiful to honor this rite of passage both as a mother blessing before you have a baby and a postpartum ceremony to kind of close at around six weeks this really huge portal where your whole body has really opened

Deb (25:47)
Mm-hmm.

Anna (26:00)
not just body but spiritually, like you've opened so wide and for weeks after you might feel really open and tender and vulnerable. So to close that with close friends or birth worker that can hold you and witness you in that, I think that's as beautiful to prepare for your postpartum.

Deb (26:03)
Mm-hmm.

Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I think that's super important. I've more recently learning about closing of the bone ceremonies and I'm like, is it too late? I have a 14 and a 10 year old, right? That actually sounds amazing.

Anna (26:27)
No, it's never too late. Never too late.

Never too late. And even like, that's something I do with my birth workers and something I've done throughout my training is like, as you complete something, you can do that ceremony as well, like closing that chapter. Maybe if someone's getting a divorce, bring your girls around and do that for her. Like, you know, completing something to mark with ceremony, I think is really potent, something we're missing in our modern lives.

Deb (26:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

for sure. Yeah, we used to have so many ceremonies around our human experience and now it's really reduced to weddings and funerals, I guess. Which is sad. Okay, so I want to hear all about all your things going on and how you are spreading all this wealth of knowledge to birth workers and families. So tell us what you have going on.

Anna (27:19)
Wow, a lot.

Deb (27:21)
I know I saw all of

the things I'm like wow this is amazing tell me

Anna (27:26)
Yeah. Well, first I have my free

resources, which is first the Natural Birth podcast that is really for, I I created that for the first time, mama, to be able to reprogram her subconscious mind to believe in birth, believe in her body, believe in the womb, understand the design and just trust, right? Because I know how that really affects her going into labor and birth and will help her have that birth that she wants.

Deb (27:49)
Mm-hmm.

Anna (27:52)
Of course, a lot of birth workers found their way there too. So like a lot of midwives and doulas would write to me, love it too. And that helps them as well to just program their minds in believing in birth too and learning a lot from all these stories. And recently I actually just started a new podcast. It's just a month old and it's called the Sacred Birth Work and Business Podcast where I really am pouring in my new kind of passion, which has been the last few years of really

Deb (27:56)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So nice.

Anna (28:21)
you know, helping women step into sacred birth work and daring to follow their calling, but also stepping into business woman and actually owning that as you are a doula or an independent midwife or, you know, fill in the blank what you call yourself. But if you work for yourself, you're not just a birth worker and a space holder and like, you know, all that fluffy yummy stuff. You are a business woman and a lot of, I think, right, a lot of, a lot of birth workers are really bad.

Deb (28:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Yeah, right. So important.

Anna (28:50)
at being business almost, know, myself included, I was really bad too, right? I was shying away from marketing and showing up on social media and didn't understand tech. And I was not looking at my money, not budgeting or understanding finances and not charging what it's worth and fill in the blank. Like I've gone this path myself, right? And now I've, you know, the last few years really stepped into thriving as a business woman in birth work. And now I want to help other women. So this podcast, I really bring

Deb (28:50)
Yeah.

All

Right, yeah.

Amazing.

Anna (29:20)
both nuggets of wisdom that I kind of teach my sacred birth worker mentees as well as my business students. So what's going on currently? Well, right now I'm in the middle of a business course for birth workers. We just started last week and it goes for a month and I'll be running another one in end of February, 2026 if anyone's interested in upping their business skills and getting going online. And then I have the sacred birth worker mentorship coming up.

Deb (29:43)
Yeah.

Anna (29:49)
in January, 2026, if you want to join that. And then of course I serve women that want to prepare for a natural and empowering birth experience through the natural birth course. I have the nourshing postpartum course and I have my village where I kind of gather all women, maidens, mothers, magas, birth nerds, birth workers, pregnant mamas, postpartum mamas, toddler mamas, teenage mamas, know, every mama, all the women and the young and the old. And yeah, so it's it's kind of a...

Deb (30:12)
Love it. Yeah. Yay!

Anna (30:18)
collective of just women that see birth as a rite of passage, know, honors the feminine, our psychic nature, a space to just share as women in a kind of safe container removed from the metaverse.

Deb (30:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

so important as birth workers what you said about

needing to have those business skills as much as we pretend like we don't need those things. It is so important because it is such an important piece of work in the world and it's so sacred that if we don't do the business side to make it sustainable, we can't do our work. We can't do this important work. so investing in yourself or a course like what you're doing

Anna (30:45)
You

Deb (31:08)
⁓ for your business to thrive is just do it from the beginning. Just invest. Just do it. Yeah. Yeah.

Anna (31:16)
Absolutely. I couldn't say that better. mean,

because the burnout rate is so high for a profession, right? And it doesn't have to be. Like, it doesn't really have to be. We can have a sustainable, beautiful birth business until we don't want to work anymore, like when we're 80 or whatever. I mean, it can be done. many women don't get that and they just kind of fall off. And don't be a person that falls off. Like, learn skills.

Deb (31:22)
So high. No.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Yes,

we need you. We need you so much. Yes. Perfect.

So thank you so much for being here. That's all my questions. Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?

Anna (31:54)
Just that, you know, right now we're just living in this very intense, divisive, know, turbulent time, right? And the world needs lighthouses more than ever. And I feel like us as birth workers, that's our job to be the lighthouse, to be the anchor to, you know, whatever's gonna go on in the world, war.

you know, natural disasters, all the kinds of things that's happening. Women will still birth babies. You're so needed. And I think if anyone is a birth worker, understanding that your role is so pivotal and so sacred and so important. And if you're called to birth work, follow it because you are needed more than ever, especially as our maternity system is gearing more and more towards catastrophic over-medicalization, just

Deb (32:28)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (32:51)
skyrocketing with cesareans, that just increases so much mortality and morbidity amongst women and babies. We're just going towards really, really over medicalized, really, really traumatic times in that era. At the same time, we have this other movement towards home birth, free birth, and women really claiming sovereignty. And there we need, like the bridge is the birth workers. We are the birth, like we are the bridge.

Deb (32:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anna (33:18)
for all women in all birthing settings to serve them and remind them wherever they're birthing, whether that is free birthing, birth center, home birth with midwife, hospital or whatever, that to remind them that they are the expert of birth, that they know within their cells and their bones how to birth and that they just have to remember that and claim it in all birth settings. They have to claim it.

Deb (33:24)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

yeah, I couldn't have said it better.

that is something that's so missing is, is that knowledge, the sacred knowledge that we have to go through this transition, and then we just have it right and we can just like, put that hive mind together and just help each other and, and hopefully just build a better world for women and in turn families and the whole world.

I think that's all for today. Thank you so much for making time to be on Doula Talk today.

I'm to let you enjoy your evening ⁓ and I would love to have you back anytime. So feel free to reach out.

Anna (34:23)
Beautiful. Thank you so much,

Deb (34:28)
Thank you so much for joining me on Doula Talk today. I told you this was going to be a powerful one. Let's take a second to ground ourselves and recap some of those big takeaways from today's conversation with Anna. The maiden to mother shift isn't just about gaining a new title. It's a total rebirth of identity, purpose, and self.

Sacrifice can be sacred. Letting go of your maiden self doesn't mean losing who you are. It's about transforming into something deeper, wiser, and more connected. It's okay to feel all the things. Joy, grief, exhaustion, gratitude, they can all coexist and it doesn't make you any less of an amazing mom. And finally, we need the village,

but sometimes we have to build it ourselves, brick by brick, mama circle by mama circle. If you love this episode, go check out Anna's work at Sacred Birth International and definitely listen to the Natural Birth podcast. It's full of empowering birth stories that can help reprogram the fear, and remind you just how incredible your body is.

And if you're walking through your own maiden to mother transition, remember you do not have to do this alone.

you can find all the things that Anna mentioned in the podcast from resources to classes to mentorship programs on her website that is linked in the show notes.

Until next time, take a deep breath, give yourself some grace, and remember, you're becoming something extraordinary.