Episode 11 7/24/2020

Navigating Birth Choices: What's the birth worker's role?

with Liz Hochman

What do you do when your client says they want one thing, but the choices they are making are not in alignment with that? This is a common, yet tricky situation to navigate as a birth worker. On one hand, you don’t want to disempower a client by telling them what to do. On the other hand, it’s our job to help our client’s work towards the birth they want- whatever that may be. Liz Hochman of BirthEd has an absolutely genius way of helping clients figure out what they want in a way that both empowers the client and also prepares them for discovering what it is they really want for their birth. We had a great discussion about the alignment of values between the provider and birthplace choice and the client’s personal values as a medical consumer. She is a masterful doula and childbirth educator and she shares her secrets with us in today’s episode.

As the owner and lead teacher of birthED, Liz Hochman has been heavily involved in the Twin Cities professional birth community since 2009. She has served several 1,000 families as a Lamaze educator, lactation counselor, and doula. With an intention of lifting birthing people and families up, Liz’s focus is always and will always be on creating a healthy and content parent-baby dyad in order to create a thriving culture and society. Liz served several years on the board of The Childbirth Collective and is currently the President. She also has spent the last several years as a board member of the Outcomes in Reproductive Health Conference.

Website: birthED

Instagram: @birthedmn