Birth-ourway

10/21/2026

Umbilical cord blood is simply a location that is part of the baby’s circulatory system, much like “inferior vena cava blood” or “ascending aortic blood”.

Before the baby is born, fetal circulation includes the placenta for nutrient and gas exchange. After the baby is born, there is a transition period (if left undisturbed and un-clamped) where blood that is circulating through the placenta is shunted to the baby before the cord physiologically closes on its own. This ensures the baby is still receiving oxygen and nutrients as they transition to neonatal circulation with their full complement of their own blood.

Early cord clamping interrupts this physiological process. It’s known to increase neonatal death due to low blood volume as well as increase neurological challenges in the child due to reduced ferritin needed for normal development.

What it does is leave the baby’s own blood sitting in the placenta and within the umbilical cord that was not allowed to reach the baby. Calling this “umbilical cord blood” implies it belongs to the cord and is available for harvesting rather than belonging to the baby for their optimal development.

A change in language would be a start in recognizing that neonatal blood, which is rich in stem cells, belongs in the baby for a reason. Harvesting this blood should come with an acknowledgment that the baby may be compromised by this blood loss. Continuing to call this “umbilical cord blood” reinforces the misconception that the blood has no value to the baby, is extraneous, and is available for others’ uses and intentions.

You can learn more from my October research rant by joining my free network harriganhive.com.

10/20/2026

Supplemental vitamins may be a good idea for some pregnancies. But one size does not fit all.

Inadequate folate is associated with neural tube defects. Some countries have addressed this by adding synthetic folic acid to their food supply (most often flour products). It may or may not work at the individual level depending on their methylation pathways and genetic variabilities.

Population wide, it may result in a 25% reduction in neural tube defects.
Australia began medicating their food supply in 2009 with synthetic folic acid (not folate). Since then they’ve seen a 300% rise in gestational diabetes.

A 2025 study looked at prospective cohorts before and after mandatory fortification and found a mechanism that may explain this phenomenon. Excess maternal folate interacts with placental hormones in a way that alters glucose tolerance and insulin secretion.

Population-wide recommendations may have good intentions, e.g., medicate the food supply to target and small and specific sub-group. However, this must be tracked over the next several years (and generations) to determine if it was a hasty brain fart or a good population-wide measure. Given excess folic acid is also linked to an increase in certain types of cancer as well as insulin resistance and obesity in children, it’s worth a re-visit. Which is highly unlikely.

Work with someone who is invested in your individual wellness so you can make wise choices.

Schedule a consultation with me to understand your options for pregnancy wellness. Link in bio.

𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦:
𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘴: 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘤𝘪𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟧)

10/17/2026

One thing. Leave it in the comments. Somebody pregnant right now is going to read it.

10/16/2026

On The Birth Lounge #218, I said something that the host was not expecting: by the time some families get to me, they present much like refugees do.

They are, in fact, refugees in the sense that they are fleeing from oppressive and coercive treatment from the medical system. They may have previous medical trauma, experiences with the ‘dead baby’ threat of coercion, interactions with child services to punish them for not complying. They may be fearing for the safety of their unborn child and the safety of their family from threats of apprehension. And unsurprisingly, they also tend to experience the same health challenges we see in the refugee population: PTSD, sleep issues, substance overuse, hypertension, blood glucose issues, malnutrition.

That’s not a metaphor I reach for lightly. It’s what years of intake conversations actually look like.

You cannot companion someone out of that kind of fear with a pamphlet and a 15-minute appointment. It takes someone trained to recognize what a nervous system in survival mode looks like, and to build enough safety that a person can actually receive care.

That’s the whole point of Becoming Trauma Informed — teaching people to see this clearly, and respond to it like it matters, because it does.

Full episode of The Birth Lounge #218 wherever you get your podcasts.

Comment BTI and I’ll send you the details for the most comprehensive exploration of trauma-informed care specific to childbearing. This is for us.

10/10/2026

It’s time

09/25/2026

“I’m three days overdue and I’ve been told I need to be induced because my placenta is calcifying, and that means it’s dying.”

I have been receiving that message for years. It is the number one search that brings people to my website. You can read my blogpost When not to induce – reason #408 – a placenta with calcium deposits where I unpack this.

Read it at https://billieharrigan.com/blog/2018/10/18/when-not-to-induce-reason-408-a-calcified-placenta

To begin, the placenta is your baby’s organ made of the same genetic material as the baby. It grows and matures alongside the baby, fed by the same maternal nutrition as the baby. It’s responsible for nutrient exchange, filtering, and chemical signaling.

Because we love to put numbers on things, placentas are given “grades” when examined through an ultrasound:

- Grade 0 means under 18 weeks
- Grade I from 18 to 29 weeks
- Grade II from 30 to 38 weeks
- Grade III from 39 weeks until birth
- Grade III is not an expiration, it’s merely what a placenta is supposed to look like when the baby is at term.

A healthy placenta develops calcium deposits at term in the same way a healthy person develops a few gray hairs as they age. Wrinkles are not a sign of imminent death.

So where did the fear come from? From studying preterm babies who were already compromised, whose placentas showed heavy calcification early. That finding then got applied to healthy women at 40 weeks, which is not what the research says at all. A study of over a thousand pregnancies found the dividing line is 32 weeks: significant calcification before 32 weeks was associated with real problems, and after 32 weeks there were no increases in adverse outcomes — even in mothers with diabetes, high blood pressure or a smoking history.

One more. Those granular bumps you can see and feel on a placenta after it is born are not calcium deposits. They are infarcts — deposits of fibrin where some cells have died. These are very common in healthy full-term pregnancies and have no clinical significance.

Make wise choices, my friends.

The Hello October newsletter goes out on the 1st, and next month’s research rant is one you will not want to miss. Get on the list at www.billieharrigan.com so it lands in your inbox.



𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀:
Chen, K. H., Chen, L. R., & Lee, Y. H. (2011). Exploring the relationship between preterm placental calcification and adverse maternal and fetal outcome. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 37(3), 328-334.

Chen, K. H., Chen, L. R., & Lee, Y. H. (2012). The role of preterm placental calcification in high-risk pregnancy as a predictor of poor uteroplacental blood flow and adverse pregnancy outcome. Ultrasound in medicine & biology, 38(6), 1011-1018.

09/23/2026

This idiot study makes the rounds from time-to-time so it warrants another poke.

A group of just over 3000 healthy first-time mothers were assigned to either induction at 39 weeks or usual care. The results showed that if the American physician was allowed to induce a healthy first-time mother early then that same American physician was less likely to perform cesarean surgery.
Really. I can’t make this up.

It’s called the ARRIVE trial and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018. Since then, it’s been used as an excuse for inducing healthy women for no reason other than that the physician gets to play with a toy (induction) so that they’re less likely to want to play with another toy (surgery).

I call this a physician placebo.

It’s much the same as giving a child candy before dinner so that they’re less likely to ask for candy during dinner.

Given that the US has the most expensive and the worst maternity care outcomes in the developed world, this comes as no surprise.
Out in the real world, induction increases cesarean surgery, especially in first-time mothers. Because babies who are being forced out before either they or their mother are ready is a recipe for problems, whether the induction is for a “risk factor” or for an actual medical need.

Any time you’re told something that doesn’t sound right, stop, drop, and roll. Your practitioner may have been “informed” by another idiot study that placates the surgeon’s preference for surgery above common sense.

If you’d like to discuss your pregnancy options and make sense of the information you’re being given, schedule a consultation with me. You don’t need to lay your womb on the altar of technocratic medicine because some study figured out how American physicians operate.

Book your consultation here: https://billieharrigan.com/talking-with-an-elder

09/23/2026

resource

Around 1720, a pastor named Johann Starck wrote a book of prayers for mothers. In it he instructs a woman to gratefully accept and enjoy her six weeks of confinement (that period of rest and recovery) after the baby comes. Not endure. Enjoy.
She was not to show off her vigor by getting up and moving about, in case she brought on serious sickness or grievous injury. God, he explained, is wise, and ordained this time for her recovery. Her husband was not to ‘bother’ her.

A Lutheran pastor three hundred years ago had a better postpartum care plan than most of North America manages today.
Nearly every culture on earth has had a traditional time dedicated for a mother’s postpartum recovery, generally between a month and 6 weeks. In our Western hurry-up, get-on-with-things, get-your-body-back, do-it-alone culture, we’ve traded this season for a six-week check-up to get “cleared” to resume sexual relations. Apparently, we need medical approval for sharing intimacy and love now.

We have a society filled with disempowered, depleted, anxious, sore, under-nourished mothers who are told to be grateful for what happened to them, get back into their pre-pregnancy jeans, get the kids to school, and think about going back to work.
Postpartum requires careful planning, dedication to healing, appropriate nutrition, and practical information that prevents those 3am sessions of scrolling online trying to find an answer where everything comes up like an imminent disaster waiting to happen. It’s an investment in her long-term health and her family’s wellbeing.

Get prepared for this most important season. Mother Billie’s Postpartum Roadmap is eight modules on healing, nourishment, newborn care, postpartum moods, feeding and intimacy after birth, with weekly live group calls. You won’t be alone in this.
Comment ROADMAP and I’ll send you the link.

09/06/2026

**p

Most women pass a bit of stool while they are pushing. It is the thing women apologise for most in labour, and it is the thing I most want them to stop apologising for.

Here is what is actually happening.

Your baby is about to be born and in need of an abundant microbiome. Within a few hours of birth his gut is colonised by whatever bacteria he encounters. This colony of bacteria goes on to train his immune system and form the basis of several chemical signalling processes. It’s a critical process with long-term consequences.

So what do we bring to this colonisation process? Your vaginal flora. Your skin. Your kisses. Your milk. And yes, your gut flora — which is precisely the population his gut is meant to inherit. Your body has not made an embarrassing mistake. It is wisely creating the conditions for an abundance of bacteria from your gut flora to be present in order to provide your baby with the most important starter culture needed for his development in the particular environment in which he will be living!

You don’t p**p on the baby. You p**p first. It falls away. The bacteria your baby needs hangs around the area to benefit baby.

Now picture the other version. An environment filled with antibiotic resistant bacteria. People whose flora have nothing to do with this baby or the environment they will be living in. Hands, scrubs, sheets, and towels that introduce bacteria from alien sources. We have engineered a different set of bacteria into the most important moment of a person’s immune life and called it “safer”.

While some births really benefit from this alien environment, it comes at a cost that is finally gaining more research. What we know is that it does impact the baby’s immune functioning. And what we know is that it can be modified with intention.

With the ongoing demise of physiological birth within the technocratic birth services industry, we need to reclaim those skills for ourselves. We can make birth safer and saner for more babies.

And if you p**p in labour, anyone who is in the room who knows what they are doing will be quietly pleased about it.



If you need an extension to apply for Becoming a Traditional Birth Companion, reach out to me.

Source: Milani, C., Duranti, S., Bottacini, F., Casey, E., Turroni, F., Mahony, J., Belzer, C., Delgado Palacio, S., Arboleya Montes, S., Mancabelli, L., Lugli, G.A., & Ventura, M. (2017). The first microbial colonizers of the human gut: composition, activities, and health implications of the infant gut microbiota. Microbiology and molecular biology reviews, 81(4), 10-1128.