Why to Listen to the Asking for a Pregnant Friend Podcast

Welcome to the Asking for a Pregnant Friend podcast. This podcast is based on the book by the same name and is all about diving into pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood topics our culture has made taboo. We’ll also explore topics that I, and you guys, find fascinating. With that said, this is a collaborative podcast. If you have a topic you’d like me to cover, please email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com You can also learn more about me here.

Essentially, this podcast is like the modern day Dear Abbey for pregnant women and new moms, or just curious people, who want to get straight, yet loving, answers to the pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood questions they’re too afraid to ask.

While the journey to motherhood unlocks a wonderland of joy and transformation, it also unlocks a flood of questions women often feel too embarrassed or ashamed to ask. They hold in queries and concerns about their swollen-to-capacity labia, an almost constant desire to masturbate, fears that their partner will cheat on them, strange smells coming from various orifices, being disappointed about their baby’s sex, and a litany of other question marks they stuff down, afraid they’ll be judged if the words spill out.

So these women frantically search through pregnancy, childbirth and mothering books, and online forums, hoping they’ll find someone who has had these questions and found compassionate, accurate answers. But they don’t. They either find watered down versions of what they seek, or in the case of online forums or chat-rooms, the “shameful” question is often met with vicious judgments that make the woman feel mortified and confused. What they seek are candid answers to their questions no one wants to talk about in an uncensored way. They yearn to explore, and eventually move past, these topics in an upfront manner that’s free of judgment.

As a childbirth preparation educator and birth doula I’ve found that once I’m able to get my clients away from the ears of their partners they spill these hidden questions. And as we work through them, I see the women lighten. They feel understood and less alone in what they perceived as their weird or shameful conundrums.

This podcast and the book it’s based on is the culmination of all the questions I’ve heard in whispers after childbirth classes, from girlfriends who look over their shoulder at the cafe to make sure no one is listening, or from my YouTube viewers who email questions because they don’t want them seen on public comments. These women are leading a secret life in a scary pocket of their mind and want a way out. They want a way to free these hidden concerns by way of answers.

My hope is that every time you listen to this podcast you’re relieved to find information about one of the questions you didn’t think other women had, feel more connected to the worldwide community of soon-to-be mothers and new moms, and find peace as you become informed about the aspects of your journey most shy away from.

So, why am I the one to do this podcast? As I’ve mentioned, I wrote the book on it, but more so this all stemmed from all the shame I felt during my own pregnancies. I had so many questions that I was sure made me other than. I wanted women and their partners to have a one stop shop to go deep into these topics.

In addition to personally relating to pretty much everything I talk about on this podcast I’m also deep in the fertility, pregnancy, birth and mothering world professionally. In addition to being an author of pregnancy and birth books, I’m a childbirth educator and birth doula, and own the egg donor agency Graceful Beginnings. I also write for publications like Working Mother, Fit Pregnancy, Pregnancy and Newborn, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Scary Mommy, American Baby and other places about pregnancy and beyond. In addition, I write the website content and blogs for many of the biggest fertility clinics in the United States. So yeah, this stuff is my life.

The goal is that each week, you’re able to tune in and explore taboo topics and those that are just really wild and cool, so you can have a more enlightened, curiosity filled journey into a through motherhood.

Thanks for joining me!