Ep 78. Questioning What We’ve Been Taught About Birth with Dr. Nathan Riley, MD, OBGYN

<p>You can know everything about birth and still not feel prepared to be <strong>inside</strong> of it.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Rewire for Birth</strong> bridges that gap through education, nervous-system preparation, somatic tools, and self-advocacy—so when birth asks something of you, you have the capacity to meet the moment, pivot with intention, listen to your true self, ask questions, and use your voice.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Rewire your mind. Reclaim your birth.</strong></p><p>Learn more here: ⁠⁠<a href="https://rewireforbirth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Rewire for Birth</a></p><p><br></p><p>What if being prepared for birth isn&#39;t about knowing exactly what will happen—but knowing how to think, question, and advocate for yourself when it does?</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nathan Riley, OBGYN, alongside Midwife360 founder Fadwah Halaby, for a fascinating conversation that will invite you to look at birth—and the maternity care system surrounding it—through a different lens.</p><p><br></p><p>Nathan shares how he went from traditional obstetric training to questioning many of the practices he had been taught to accept as routine.</p><p><br></p><p>His journey led him to learn from midwives, witness home and vaginal breech births, and reconsider what it actually means to support physiological birth rather than manage it.</p><p><br></p><p>And throughout this conversation, we return again and again to one powerful question:</p><p><br></p><p>Why are we doing this?</p><p>If you&#39;re preparing for birth, this episode will help you:</p><p>• Ask better questions about your care rather than assuming that “routine” automatically means necessary for you.</p><p>• Understand interventions with greater nuance so you can have more informed conversations about induction, cervical exams, C-sections, breech birth, and other decisions that may arise.</p><p>• See birth through a different lens—including what can happen when providers create space for physiology rather than automatically stepping in to manage it.</p><p>• Feel more permission to participate in your own care by staying curious, understanding your options, and recognizing that expertise and your own voice can coexist.</p><p>• Think differently about birth preparation itself—because preparing for birth isn&#39;t just about collecting information. It&#39;s about developing the capacity to stay connected to yourself when you&#39;re actually in the experience.</p><p><br></p><p>One of the most important ideas in this conversation is that good care doesn&#39;t require having all the answers.</p><p><br></p><p>Sometimes, humility matters just as much as expertise.</p><p>And supporting birth doesn&#39;t always mean doing more.</p><p><br></p><p>For me, that&#39;s also where this conversation connects so deeply to Rewire for Birth.</p><p>Because knowing what questions to ask is one thing.</p><p>Feeling grounded and confident enough to ask them when you&#39;re in the room is another.</p><p><br></p><p>Rewire for Birth helps you prepare for that moment—so instead of trying to memorize the “right” way to give birth, you build the knowledge, nervous-system capacity, self-trust, and advocacy skills to navigate <em>your</em> birth as it unfolds.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Rewire your mind. Reclaim your birth.</strong></p><p>Learn more:<a href="https://www.rewireforbirth.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"> https://www.rewireforbirth.com</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>CONNECT WITH DR. NATHAN RILEY</strong></p><p>Website: <a href="https://www.bornfreemethod.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.bornfreemethod.com/</a></p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nathanrileyobgyn/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.instagram.com/nathanrileyobgyn/</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>CONNECT WITH FADWAH HALABY</strong></p><p>Website:<a href="https://midwife360.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc n