Through the Portal: Erika Stories of Deep Healing, Birthing in Freedom, and Respectful Parenting

Erika Wirth of Wirth Wellness and the Crunchy Mom Club podcast is on today to share her stories of healing her body on a deep level as she prepared for pregnancy, her sovereign pregnancy and birth experience, and then we have a conversation about respectful, new-earth parenting and mothering.

We talk about:

• How Erika witnessed her mother loving her role, and how that led her to knowing mothering was one of the most important roles she could choose in life
• Entering motherhood as a stepmother first, and the differences between step-mothering and biological mothering
• Her deep healing pre-conception path: healing depletion and chronic illness, and all the diet, lifestyle, gut healing, cycle, hormone, and boundary changes she implemented
• Her pregnancy and birth experiences, starting with midwifery care and then her choice to freebirth
• A conversation on the choices we make and the history surrounding birthing alone vs. having female friends
• How it was to integrate a new baby into the family dynamic and her beautiful and supported postpartum experience. Then the reality after her mom left and immediately put back into the overwhelm of (essentially) solo mothering
• The importance in these times of finding like-minded mothers to surround ourselves with, when choosing instinctive parenting
• How becoming mothers has changed both of us and a conversation on how we view children, their souls, and the call to approach our children in a truly respectful way.
• The importance of awakening and shifting how we view our children compared to the mainstream approach to children
• How the energy of the mother affects the energy of our children: "One generally finds that infants are the most content and cheerful in the hands of mothers who move with ceremonious slowness" - Dr. Emmi Pikler

Erika is the creator and founder of Wirth Wellness, host of the Crunchy Mom Club podcast, mother to one, step-mom to one, and wife. After embarking on her own health reclamation adventure in her early 20s following years of chronic illness, mental health crisis, and burnout, she decided it was time to take healing into her own hands and get to know her body as brilliant not broken.

This process led her to step into the world of holistic health, energy medicine, and ancestral nourishment traditions. Eventually she healed her body, got pregnant easefully, and went on to have a natural pregnancy and free birth. Now, she supports women on the path to embracing Nature's blueprint for thriving. Whether that's in the preconception season of life, in pregnancy, birth, or postpartum, Erika is passionate about helping sisters create the life rhythms and rituals that feel deeply nourishing, intuitive, and gentle for both themselves and their young.

Connect with Erika: IG

Resources Mentioned:

"Lying In: A History of Childbirth in America" - Richard + Dorothy Wertz

"Elevating Childcare: A Guide to Respectful Parenting" - Janet Lansbury

My episode on Erika's podcast

Music: Hanna Leigh

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