The VBAC Link

She’s the chick who helps moms and babies, the one and only Nina Spears, founder and CEO of The Baby Chick®, is hereeee! Nina is a certified baby planner, birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, newborn care specialist, infant massage instructor, and perinatal nutrition expert who has worked with more than 800 families in person, thousands virtually, and has supported over 350 births over the past 15 years.
She’s also the host of Chick Chat: The Baby Chick Podcast and the author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy, which just published June 2026. She says it’s, “essentially what I’ve been wanting my clients to have for the last 15 years”. 
And what does it mean to have a positive pregnancy? 
Nina says it’s all about feeling informed, supported, and empowered. 
But, it’s also having conversations about the realities of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum that just aren’t happening…until this episode. 
What we aren’t talking about enough that we take a deep dive into today: 
The invisible load of motherhood that starts DURING pregnancy
Not just holding the baby, but also holding the mama
Patrescence and the hormone shift of dads 
What actually helps women feel prepared and supported for a baby
Why peace on earth begins with birth
Villages are never free
Deciding to VBAC and honing in on what YOU really want
The pressures that VBAC moms carry
Debunking the superiority of birth
Nina is an absolute joy! We promise this episode is SUCH a good one. 

The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy: How to Prepare Your Mind, Body, and Partner
The Baby Chick Website
The Baby Chick on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
Chick Chat: The Baby Chick Podcast
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Hannah's first labor began at 40 weeks, the day after a membrane sweep. She opted for an epidural but due to fetal tachycardia, had an unplanned cesarean. It was a lonely and confusing postpartum not coping well with the emotional trauma of that birth. 
Hannah prepared for a VBAC and planned a home birth with a midwife hoping for a different experience. She felt peaceful about transferring to the hospital when labor stalled at 9cm. She talks about what made that transfer feel empowering, including the sweetest affirmations from her cute husband. 
She also shares about her baby girl’s diagnosis with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) at just 7 weeks old and how walking through a rare childhood illness (quite literally 1 in a million!) changed her perspective on birth, motherhood, and life's hardest seasons.
Hannah was a TVL podcast listener herself long before she had her own VBAC. We hope you can find the same inspiration and love that Lily, Paige, and Hannah did when prepping for their own births!
To Lily, she said, “The way that you and Paige honor women’s birth stories is just so beautiful. It’s such a powerful service you provide. It was so inspirational and hopeful, and I still listen every week.”
Our birth stories are meant to be held and shared communally. And this is why we are here.
Keywords: VBAC, planned HBAC, hospital transfer, cesarean birth, tachycardia, membrane sweep, epidural, PPA, birth trauma, husband, birth advocacy, Histiocytosis, infant cancer

Hystiocytosis Association
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

One of Paige’s dearest friends and fellow doula in South Korea, Ali Craft, joins the pod today sharing her incredibly inspiring (and hilariously narrated!) seven birth stories, including four cesareans and three vaginal births. Ali was able to advocate for not only a VBA2C in Korea, where it is extremely uncommon for hospitals to offer VBAC support, but she also had TWO VBA4Cs. 

Ali’s stories remind us that every.birth.is.different. From long labors to short ones, planned cesareans to unplanned CBACs, induction, epidural, spontaneous labor, and so much more in between, we know you will take away so much inspiration from her stories. 

“I love supporting moms now because in labor when they’re dying, I can say, I KNOW. When it’s taking forever, I KNOW. When they end up with the C-section they didn’t really want, I know.” 

VOTE for The VBAC Link
Craft and Co. Doula Services
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

For the first time EVER, all four of The VBAC Link hosts are together in one episode! Founders and original pod hosts Julie Francom and Meagan Heaton join current hosts Lily Wyn and Paige Lloyd to answer your live VBAC questions. With more than 15 years of combined doula experience and hundreds of births attended, this episode is jam-packed with wisdom, evidence-based birthy tips, and so much love for our listeners who have been with us all of these years.  
Topics include:
How to decide between a VBAC and repeat cesarean
Preventing PROM and chorioamnionitis 
39-week induction recommendation early in pregnancy
Engaging baby's head before labor
How to trust your intuition 
Coping with fear
Tips on practical birth prep

Tiny Blessings Doula Services
Julie Francom Birth Stories
Love Wyns Doula Services 
The Birth Narrative Doula Services
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Today we sit down with Alex, a nurse practitioner and mama of two, who shares her journey from a scheduled breech cesarean to a fast, spontaneous VBAC at a birth center. After two unsuccessful ECV attempts, Alex planned for a cesarean with her first baby. Along the way, she also experienced the heartbreak of miscarriage before welcoming her daughter. Alex opens up about navigating conflicting medical opinions (including being told by an MFM that her baby would die– not okay!!) and how her and her medical doctor husband’s views on out-of-hospital birth evolved over time. 
Alex also shares why practicing for labor could only take her so far before surrender became the greatest lesson, the importance of surrounding yourself with more than just a supportive provider, and how having an encouraging birth team made all the difference. Alex especially talks about how her VBAC-certified doula was an invaluable part of that team. 
We also discuss some of the evidence behind using ultrasounds to measure scar thickness as a predictor of a VBAC outcome or uterine rupture, and why ACOG does NOT recommend it.
The Ultimate VBAC Prep Course for Parents
Online VBAC Doula Training

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands