Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health, motherhood, and the sacred mess of life’s transformations with Diane Ortega

72: Holistic Healing Through Pregnancy and Motherhood with Ashley Andrews

This week, Diane is replaying a favorite conversation with Ashley Andrews, an Integrative Nutrition & Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Instructor and Reiki Practitioner, who shares her journey into motherhood and the practices that carried her through it. From unexpected pregnancy and birth experiences to the power of integrative nutrition, Reiki, and intuitive movement, Ashley's story is a real look at what it takes to find yourself again after everything changes. What We Cover: * Ashley's path to pregnancy, including a miscarriage and the conception of her son Kai * Her plans for a home birth or birth center delivery, and the unexpected turn of events that led to a hospital C-section with her daughter Mia * The emotional process of grieving the birth experiences she envisioned and finding beauty in the unexpected * Ashley's early introduction to yoga and holistic healing, and how those practices evolved through her world travels and studies in France, India, and Integrative Nutrition * The principles of Integrative Nutrition and how nourishing the whole self, relationships, career, creativity, and spirituality, can impact physical health * Ashley's personal journey with food, movement, and intuitive guidance during pregnancy and postpartum * Strategies for postpartum rehabilitation and balancing motherhood, career, and self-care * Advice for mothers facing unexpected birth outcomes, and the importance of emotional processing and community support * Resources for exploring Reiki, intuitive nutrition, and virtual wellness sessions with Ashley If Ashley's story of losing sight of who she was, and finding her way back, hits home: The In-Between Workbook walks you through naming what's ending, sitting in the middle, and figuring out who you're becoming. $37.  https://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between [https://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between] Connect with Ashley: * https://www.valleymamma.com/ * https://www.instagram.com/valleymamma Connect with us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.midwife.life.co/ * Website: themidwifelife.co * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Midwife-LifeCo/61559303575840/ * Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/themidwifelife/

71: Nobody Told You Summer Would Feel Like This

In this episode, I talk about the math of this summer season, whichever version of it is yours. If you're the mom in the thick of snack duty and referee duty and a phone that will not stop buzzing, this one is for you. If you're the mom like me, standing in the last summer before her youngest leaves, this one is for you too. My son just graduated high school. I thought that would feel like getting myself back. It felt like whiplash instead. I talk about why being last on your own list is not a character flaw, what actually happens when you hit zero, and the one small thing that can put something back on your side of the equation today. IN THIS EPISODE: *    Why the juggle isn't actually the problem you think it is * The math of giving out more than you take in, and why that isn't a personal failing * My own version of this summer: my youngest graduating, and the whiplash of not being needed the same way * What zero actually looks like, and why it doesn't look like collapse * Why the impulse to wait for a big fix keeps you stuck * Why boredom is not your problem to solve, for your kids or for you * The one small thing that can put something back on your side of the equation today KEY TAKEAWAYS / REFLECTION PROMPTS * What am I pretending not to know? * What would I do if I stopped trying to get back to who I was? * What do I actually want? NEXT STEP Three Questions for the Season You're In If you've been running on empty and calling it normal, you already know something is shifting. This free ten-minute audio walks through the three questions above slowly enough that you can actually sit with them. No pitch at the end, no next thing to buy. Get it here: https://themidwifelife.kit.com/22d2e5d807 [https://themidwifelife.kit.com/22d2e5d807] Connect with Diane * Website: ⁠themidwifelife.co⁠ [http://themidwifelife.co/] * Instagram: @‌the.midwife.life.co

70: Starting Over at 40 (And Why That's Not a Crisis)

In this episode, I talk about starting over, not once, but twice. The first time I was forty, and I walked away from what I knew to become a midwife. The second time, I was in my fifties, standing in a birth center I built with my own hands, signing paperwork that meant it was over after sixteen years and three birth centers. I talk about why starting over gets filed under midlife crisis when it's actually something else entirely, and the three questions that keep surfacing for me every time I don't know what comes next. In this episode, we talk about: * What starting over at 40 actually feels like from the inside, not the outside * Why it gets called a midlife crisis when it's actually something you've outgrown * What it's like to start over twice, ten-plus years apart, and still not have it figured out * Living through bankruptcy, a closed business, and a day job, all in the same year * The three questions I ask myself when I don't know who I'm becoming yet * Why disorientation is a signal, not a crisis Key Takeaways / Reflection Prompts: * What am I pretending not to know? * What would I do if I stopped trying to get back to who I was? * What do I actually want? Next Step: Three Questions for the Season You're In If you've been Googling "starting over at 40" at midnight, you already know something is shifting. This free ten-minute audio walks through the three questions from this episode slowly enough that you can actually sit with them. No pitch at the end, no next thing to buy. Get it here:  Three Questions   [https://themidwifelife.kit.com/22d2e5d807] Connect with Diane * Website: ⁠themidwifelife.co⁠ [http://themidwifelife.co/] * Instagram: @‌the.midwife.life.co

69: What's Been Running You: Healing the Patterns Underneath Your Patterns with Molly Rubesh

There is a version of you that you didn't choose. She was built quietly, over years, by everything you watched and absorbed and inherited. And at some point, she starts running your marriage, your relationships, and the way you move through life. In this episode, I sit down with Molly Rubesh, relationship and divorce coach and creator of The Modern Marriage Blueprint. Molly helps women heal what's been running them quietly so they can build marriages and lives that actually feel like theirs. Her work lives at the intersection of conflict, intimacy, and money. Three places where we are most ourselves and most defended at the same time. In this episode, we talk about: * The inherited patterns we carry into marriage without ever examining them * Why marriage is not supposed to be really, really hard (and what to do when it is) * The rocks-on-a-tray framework for recognizing what is yours to hold and what isn't * The difference between a fixable marriage and one that cannot be fixed with better communication * Intimacy beyond the physical: intellectual, emotional, and spiritual connection and why they come first * Financial independence as a non-negotiable, regardless of who earns the income * What women get back when they finally do this work Key Takeaways / Reflection Prompts: * What did you absorb from your first family about what marriage, conflict, and money look like? Are you still living from that? * Look at your tray. What are you holding that was never yours to hold in the first place? * Is your marriage hard because it is fundamentally broken, or because you have been carrying too much of it alone? Next Step: The In-Between WorkbookIf this conversation opened something up in you and you're sitting with a question you haven't had language for before, start here. The In-Between Workbook is a 33-page guided companion for the season when something has shifted and you're not sure what comes next. Five sections. One honest look at where you actually are. Get it here: https://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between [https://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between] Resources and Links: * Connect with Molly: mollyrubesh.com * Molly on Instagram: @Molly_Rubesh * The Modern Marriage Blueprint (Molly's course): mollyrubesh.com * More episodes of The Midwife Life: Listen Here [https://themidwifelife.co/the-midwife-life-podcast/] Connect with Diane Website: ⁠themidwifelife.co⁠ [http://themidwifelife.co] Instagram: @‌the.midwife.life.co

68: You Don't Need Permission

There is a life a lot of women are living that looks completely fine from the outside. Maybe even wonderful. And it is quietly draining the life out of them. This week, Diane gets honest about the thing nobody says out loud: you do not need permission to change your mind, change your life, or admit that the version of yourself you have been performing no longer fits. Not from your partner. Not from your kids. Not from the woman you were ten years ago when you built all of this. This episode is for the woman who has been waiting for someone to tell her she is allowed to want something different. It is also for the woman who can no longer remember what she wanted in the first place, because the daily grind has been loud for so long that her own voice has gone quiet underneath it. This is not a how-to. It is a witness. In This Episode, We Cover: * Why the life that looks great from the outside can still be the wrong one * The specific fear underneath every big change: if I let this version of me go, who am I? * How the daily grind does not just exhaust you, it numbs you, and what that costs * What it means that your dreams are still there, just buried * Why the first step is not a plan. It is getting still enough to hear yourself again Key Takeaway You are not waiting for permission. You are waiting to remember that you never needed it. Ready to go deeper? If this episode named something you have been carrying quietly, I made a workbook for exactly this season. The one where something is shifting and you can feel it, but you are not sure yet what is on the other side. The In-Between Workbook: http://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between [http://dianeortega.gumroad.com/l/the-in-between] Share This Episode Know a woman who has been waiting for someone to say it is okay to want something different? Send her this one. Connect with Diane Website: themidwifelife.co [http://themidwifelife.co] Instagram: @‌the.midwife.life.co