The Birth Experience with Labor Nurse Mama

November is Prematurity Awareness Month, and Trish is joined by Jodi Klaristenfeld, a NICU and preemie parent expert, coach, and founder of FLRRiSH, the premier resource for NICU families working through the unexpected journey from hospital to home and the years beyond.
Jodi’s own journey started at 28 weeks and 4 days, when she went from shopping for baby furniture to an emergency C-section in a matter of hours. A bloody nose that wouldn’t stop, orange urine, sudden weight gain, and double vision all turned out to be signs of severe preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. She met her daughter Jenna three days later.
Jodi shares her full birth story, the fear and disconnection she felt when she first met her baby, and why coming home was even harder than the NICU stay. That experience is exactly why she created FLRRiSH, built by a preemie parent for preemie parents. Through coaching, resources, and programs, Jodi helps moms reclaim their strength and reframe their mindset through it all. That includes deciding when to take maternity leave, facing a forced career pause, choosing the right education and support for their child, and learning to travel the road less traveled. She’s also launching The Steady Circle, a community helping NICU moms build confidence as their child’s advocate.
⚠️ A heads-up from Trish: This is a rare but very hard birth story. If you’re currently pregnant, you’re welcome to skip this one or come back to it later. You never have to listen to the hard stories while you’re expecting.
In this episode, Trish and Jodi talk about:
The warning signs of preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome that Jodi didn’t recognize until it was nearly too late
Waking up after an emergency C-section under general anesthesia, and meeting her daughter three days later
What life in the NICU really looks like, from asking permission to hold your own baby to the desats and bradys
Why the transition home is often harder than the NICU stay
Grieving the motherhood you expected so you can embrace the one you have
Separating fact from fear, and learning to trust your mother’s intuition again
Why Jodi doesn’t believe in “wait and see” when it comes to early intervention
Jodi’s 3 tips for any mom in the NICU right now or just heading home

Connect with Jodi Klaristenfeld:
www.flrrish.com
Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, & FaceBook: @FLRRiSH
Helpful Timestamps:
00:00 Prematurity Awareness
02:14 Trigger Warning: Hard Birth Story
03:11 Symptoms and Red Flags
06:00 OB Visit and Emergency Transfer
08:56 Emergency C-Section and Aftermath
11:32 Meeting Baby in the NICU
16:06 What Flourish Offers Families
18:28 Life After the NICU Mindset
23:18 Three Tips for NICU Moms

Join The Calm Labor Birth Bundle - everything you need from bump to baby! Use code POD50 for $50 off!
Over 15k mamas have used our classes to prepare for a birth that they love 🤍
⭐ Download immediately ⭐App available ⭐Life-time access⭐
Connect w/ Trish:
On Instagram
On YouTube
For more pregnancy & birth education, subscribe to The Birth Experience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

Your water just broke. Do you grab the hospital bag, wake up your partner, and race to labor and delivery? Or eat a sandwich and take a shower first? 🤔
Trish explains what really happens when your water breaks: what to do first, when it’s okay to labor at home, and the red flags that mean you head straight in, do not pass - go. Her answer to “do I have to rush to the hospital?” is: it depends.
In this episode, Trish covers:
How to tell if your water actually broke or if it’s discharge or pee, plus her simple pad-and-cough test
Why your water breaking does NOT automatically mean you’re in labor
The C.O.A.T. acronym every pregnant mama needs to know: Color, Odor, Amount, Time
Expectant management: when low-risk mamas at term can stay home and wait for labor to start
What changes if you’re GBS positive and want antibiotics
Trish’s 4-1-2 rule for first-time moms and 5-1-1 rule for experienced mamas, plus how to adjust if you live far from the hospital
The red flags that mean go in now: heavy bleeding, green or brown fluid, a foul smell, preterm rupture, or reduced fetal movement
What to do while you wait for contractions to kick in, and why nothing goes in your vagina 🙅‍♀️

Send this episode to every pregnant friend you know so she knows exactly what to do when her water breaks.
Mentioned in this episode:
Listen to episode 279: Labor Nurse Mama’s Adoption Birth Story: Stuck in India
Helpful Timestamps:
00:00 Did Your Water Really Break?
07:04 Water Breaking Doesn't Mean Labor
09:19 COAT Quick Checklist
14:01 When To Go To Hospital
25:24 Contraction Timing Rules
28:40 Red Flag Scenarios
32:33 Waiting At Home Safely

Join The Calm Labor Birth Bundle - everything you need from bump to baby! Use code POD50 for $50 off!
Over 15k mamas have used our classes to prepare for a birth that they love 🤍
⭐ Download immediately ⭐App available ⭐Life-time access⭐
Connect w/ Trish:
On Instagram
On YouTube
For more pregnancy & birth education, subscribe to The Birth Experience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

Thanks to our Sponsor Haakaa
What if the most powerful postpartum tool you own isn’t a gadget at all, but a piece of fabric that keeps your baby close?
This week, Trish sits down with Skye Amundsen and Mallory Bransfield, the best friends and co-founders behind hope&plum. They’re the size-inclusive baby carrier brand that moms across Trish’s community can’t stop talking about, and Trish’s own team happens to be full of fangirls. In 2018, Skye and Mallory were two new moms who were fed up with carriers that didn’t fit every body and brands that turned babywearing into a race to “score the drop.” So they built something better.
Skye shares how a ring sling became her first “faith purchase” during IVF, and how babywearing helped her reclaim her motherhood during her daughter’s two-week NICU stay. Mallory opens up about how it kept her connected to her baby through a hard breastfeeding journey. Trish, a mom of seven who has watched babywearing go in and out of style for nearly three decades, brings the real talk. Moms have been sold a myth, she says, that keeping baby close holds them back. It actually gives them more freedom.
In this episode:
How a frustrating shopping experience turned into an eight-figure, size-inclusive brand
Skye’s NICU story and why babywearing felt like a way to take back control
Babywearing through breastfeeding struggles, triple feeds, and pumping
The research-backed benefits: co-regulation, less crying, support for nursing, and lower rates of postpartum depression
Why babywearing is a cultural practice, not a trend, and why education matters as much as the carrier
Safety, the legal bar that’s “entirely too low,” and brands chasing a money grab
Staying true to your mission as a founder (and a mom) when things get hard
Two pieces of advice for expecting mamas: find your community, and trust your intuition

More from Skye & Mallory:
Website: hopeandplum.co
Instagram: @hopeandplum
TikTok: @hopeandplum

Thanks to our Sponsor Haakaa: Grab the Haakaa Petal Soft Silicone Milk Collector and use code ‘LOVELNM10’ for 10% off!
Helpful Timestamps:
00:00 Hope and Plum
06:17 Skye’s NICU Babywearing Experience
08:27 Mallory’s Breastfeeding Struggles
14:45 Benefits of Babywearing
30:04 Business And Motherhood Never Pause
38:43 Where To Find Hope And Plum

Join The Calm Labor Birth Bundle - everything you need from bump to baby! Use code POD50 for $50 off!
Over 15k mamas have used our classes to prepare for a birth that they love 🤍
⭐ Download immediately ⭐App available ⭐Life-time access⭐
Connect w/ Trish:
On Instagram
On YouTube
For more pregnancy & birth education, subscribe to The Birth Experience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

At 28, with four little boys at home, no money for the trip, and a stomach virus she couldn’t shake, Trish boarded a plane to India alone to bring her daughter home. She didn’t know if she’d leave with her. She definitely didn’t know that September 11th would happen while she was there, and that every flight to America would be grounded.
This episode is deeply personal. Trish’s adoption story went viral as an Instagram carousel, but she’s telling the parts a carousel couldn’t hold. There’s the courtroom, the embassy, the stranding in Mumbai, and the homecoming that still chokes her up. It’s a story about being scared and going anyway, and about the people who show up to carry you when you can’t see the whole path.
In this episode, Trish shares:
Why she stopped waiting at home for a court date and decided she had to show up in person
The surprise buddy pass that made the trip possible, first class, y’all
Meeting her 15-month-old daughter, who screamed and ran the other way, and the lollipop that changed everything
Getting in trouble in an Indian courtroom for crossing her legs
A taxi door to the head, a very sick baby, and refusing to leave the American Embassy without her paperwork
Being stranded in Mumbai on 9/11 with no flights and no phone lines home, and the one person she met that saved them
Flying home with a plane full of military men passing her baby around, and the 50 people waiting in Chattanooga
The three lessons from that trip that shaped who she is today

What Trish carries with her:
You can make a meaningful decision without feeling confident about it.
You can stick with something important when it gets complicated.
You can take the next step without knowing the whole path, and let people come alongside you to help.

If there’s a decision in front of you right now, ask yourself: what’s one thing you can do with what you know today, and who can come alongside you? Then take the scary step.
If this story moved you, share it with a mama who’s facing her own leap of faith.
Helpful Timestamps:
00:00 Adoption Leap Begins
04:23 First Meeting Sithara
05:55 Courtroom Culture Shock
09:58 9/11 & Stranded in Mumbai
10:52 Help from Shikha
14:21 Homecoming
15:03 Three Lessons from This Trip

Join The Calm Labor Birth Bundle - everything you need from bump to baby! Use code POD50 for $50 off!
Over 15k mamas have used our classes to prepare for a birth that they love 🤍
⭐ Download immediately ⭐App available ⭐Life-time access⭐
Connect w/ Trish:
On Instagram
On YouTube
For more pregnancy & birth education, subscribe to The Birth Experience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

You spend months preparing for birth, but what about the feeding journey that starts the moment baby arrives? Breastfeeding isn’t just a “from the chest up” experience. It’s a whole-body journey for both mama and baby.
This week, Trish sits down with Melissa Bradley, a pediatric occupational therapist, certified lactation counselor, and mom of four. Together they talk through how to prepare your mind, body, and home for breastfeeding before baby gets here. They cover the emotional prep no one talks about, the “mommy injuries” that come from poor positioning, why the hospital’s Breastfeeding 101 class is only the beginning, and the few supplies Melissa says you truly need.
In this episode:
Why breastfeeding is a whole-body experience for mom and baby
How to plan for emotional regulation and support before you come home
Setting boundaries around visitors without the guilt, and choosing your “village”
Mommy shoulder, mommy wrist, and mommy thumb: what they are and how to prevent them
Creating a comfortable, supportive feeding space
Why the medical system is reactive, and how to have support ready before problems start
Debunking breastfeeding myths from social media and even providers
Pumping vs. nursing, wearable pumps, and choosing what works for you
Melissa’s short list of must-have breastfeeding supplies

Connect with Melissa Bradley, OT, CLC:
mamababecharlotte.com
Follow her on Instagram @mamababecharlotte
Helpful Timestamps:
00:00 Preparing for Breastfeeding
04:45 Emotional Prep And Support
08:26 Setting Boundaries
12:13 Physical Setup And Injuries
17:07 Get Proactive Lactation Help
21:59 Personalized Goals And Myths
26:52 Minimal Must Have Supplies

Join The Calm Labor Birth Bundle - everything you need from bump to baby! Use code POD50 for $50 off!
Over 15k mamas have used our classes to prepare for a birth that they love 🤍
⭐ Download immediately ⭐App available ⭐Life-time access⭐
Connect w/ Trish:
On Instagram
On YouTube
For more pregnancy & birth education, subscribe to The Birth Experience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services