Episode 21: Birth Affects Us All with Bill Nation

In episode 21 of the Birth Like a Mammal™ podcast, host Lindsay engages in a deep and personal conversation with her former elementary school teacher, Bill Nation, now a licensed professional counselor in Texas. 

Bill is 70 years old, has never witnessed a woman give birth, and is certainly not the target audience for this community. But after listening to episode 13 with Audrey Ross of @ajoyfulbirth, Bill realized his own birth was nothing like Lindsay and Audrey describe when sharing their own birth stories for him, or his Mother. And that hit him hard.

In this heartfelt episode, Lindsay and Bill discuss their shared past and Bill's evolving understanding of birth trauma after listening to the podcast. Bill reflects on his family’s historical attitudes toward pregnancy and birth, highlighting the contrast between mammalian and medicalized birth, as well as the societal expectations around Motherhood. Through these discussions, the episode underscores the deep emotional connections influenced by birth, and how important an awareness and understanding of birth trauma is for all of us.

This is an episode you do not want to skip. This is also an episode that you want to share with all of the men in your life. This is the episode you may want to share with your own parents. This is the episode that truly illustrates how deeply significant giving birth in alignment with our mammalian biology really is, and it affects ALL of us no matter what.

Key Takeaways:

1. Birth deeply affects all of us regardless of our gender or family status.
2. Birth has a profound and direct affect on how women Mother their children. 
3. The disruption of mammalian imprinting has life-long effects.
4. Until we hear birth stories of triumph and joy, we believe our culture's narrative about birth: dangerous and scary.

Notable Quotes from Bill:

• “I cannot tell you how many things came to me listening to you and Audrey tell your birth stories. The most difficult thing to handle is the realization that the birth experience for me and Mom was so unlike what you two described. Coming to grips with how we missed out on SOOOO much that could never be replaced is overwhelming for me.”
• It makes me angry to know my mom, and most moms, I know have gone through this shit.”
• “Imagine what the world would be like if we all had been birthed like mammals and our parents had been as well. It would be a completely different world."

Bill Nation is a licensed counselor, a native Texan, and Lindsay's 6th grade Science teacher! He's known for his quirky sense of humor, appreciation of the absurd, and his research about his uncle, killed in WW2, for whom he was named. He lives in Texas with his wife, Maggie.