Why Motherhood Activates Your Inner Critic

Birth as an Altered State of Consciousness with Whapio

In this episode of Transformed by Birth, I'm joined by elder, midwife, educator, and visionary Whapio Diane Bartlett for a conversation about birth as a journey of consciousness and transformation. Together, we explore what it means to move beyond a purely medical understanding of birth and into a multidimensional experience that includes emotional, relational, and spiritual layers. Whapio shares her decades of experience supporting families, offering a powerful perspective on why every birth has the potential to be transformative, what it means to have your own birth, and how partners, caregivers, and advocates can support rather than interrupt this process. This conversation invites a deeper way of seeing birth, not as something to be managed, but as a rite of passage to be experienced. LEARN MORE [https://brittabushnell.com/whapio/]

Why Birth Opens Us to Mystery with the Baby Whisperer

In this episode of Transformed by Birth, I'm joined by full-spectrum doula, assistant midwife, and "baby whisperer" Sufi Ertur for a conversation about the inner emotional and spiritual world of pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood. Together, we explore intuition, labor trance, conscious conception, nervous system sensitivity, symbolism during pregnancy, and the ways birth can open us to experiences that move beyond the purely physical or rational. Sufi shares stories from more than two decades attending births, reflecting on what she has witnessed at the "gates" of transformation and how pregnancy and birth can reconnect people to mystery, nature, intuition, and the deeper inner world often overlooked in modern maternity culture. This conversation is an invitation to approach birth with more curiosity, flexibility, openness, and reverence for both the seen and unseen aspects of becoming a parent. LEARN MORE [https://brittabushnell.com/baby-whisperer/]

The Power Dynamics Inside Maternity Care with Cristen Pascucci

In this episode of Transformed by Birth, I'm joined by human rights in childbirth advocate and Birth Monopoly founder Cristen Pascucci for a conversation about bodily autonomy, respectful maternity care, and what it means to navigate birth inside increasingly corporate healthcare systems. Together, we explore the growing monopolization of maternity care, why concepts like informed consent and trauma-informed care often struggle inside institutional systems, and how understanding your rights can fundamentally change the way you move through pregnancy and birth. This conversation moves beyond policy and into something much deeper: the experience of learning to trust yourself, recognizing what respect actually feels like in your body, and discovering your own authority in a system that often asks people to surrender it. LEARN MORE [https://brittabushnell.com/power-dynamics-inside-maternity-care/]

Why Motherhood Activates Your Inner Critic

In this episode of Transformed by Birth, I'm joined by author, therapist, and creator of the Mother-Centered Approach, Jessica Tomich Sorci, for a conversation about the inner landscape of motherhood. Together, we explore why parenting has a unique way of activating the many voices inside our minds, from the inner critic to the parts that try to hold everything together, and the ones that step in when it all feels like too much. Jessica introduces Internal Family Systems (IFS) in an accessible way, helping us understand how these "parts" develop, why they get so loud in motherhood, and how we can begin to relate to them with more curiosity and compassion. This conversation is an invitation to see maternal struggles not as failures, but as deeply human responses to a role that asks so much, often without enough support. LEARN MORE [https://brittabushnell.com/motherhood-activates-your-inner-critic/]

The Metamorphosis of Motherhood with Lucy Jones

In this episode of Transformed by Birth, I'm joined by award-winning journalist and author Lucy Jones for a conversation about matrescence and the profound metamorphosis of becoming a mother. Together, we explore how motherhood reshapes the brain, body, identity, relationships, and sense of self. Lucy shares insights from her book Matrescence, helping to name an experience that is often minimized as an adjustment, when in reality it can be a complete restructuring. We also talk about the isolation many mothers experience, the pressure of idealized motherhood, and the cultural failure to properly hold people through this transformation. This conversation is an invitation to understand motherhood not as something to bounce back from, but as a process of becoming. LEARN MORE [https://brittabushnell.com/motherhood-is-a-metamorphosis/]