Birthing Instincts

Dr. Stuart Fischbein is a board-certified OB-GYN who transitioned to attending home births, and Blyss Young is an experienced midwife. Together they bring over 55 years of combined experience to a podcast that's been running for 441 episodes and counting. The pairing of an MD and a midwife creates conversations you won't hear on most birth podcasts -- they can speak to both the medical and the midwifery perspective from actual clinical experience. Their format is loose and conversational. They'll discuss recent births they've attended, break down new research, or bring on guests ranging from doulas to lactation consultants to mothers sharing their stories. Dr. Fischbein has a dry sense of humor that keeps things from getting too heavy, even when they're tackling serious subjects like birth trauma or navigating hospital policies. The show holds a 4.8 star rating from 662 reviews, which puts it among the highest-rated podcasts in this space. The episodes vary widely in length -- some are tight 35-minute discussions, others stretch past two hours when they get deep into a topic. They cover breech birth, VBAC, twins, and other situations where mothers are often pressured toward surgical delivery. Their perspective is clearly pro-physiological birth, but Dr. Fischbein's medical background means they can speak credibly about when interventions are actually warranted. If you want a podcast that respects natural birth while keeping one foot firmly in medical reality, this one delivers.