Birthing Instincts

Dr. Stuart Fischbein is a home-birth OB with decades of experience, and Blyss Young is a licensed midwife based in Southern California. Their weekly show, Birthing Instincts, is one of the more opinionated entries in the pregnancy podcast world, and that is exactly why its audience keeps growing. Stu and Blyss answer listener questions in almost every episode, and they tend to give the kind of direct answers you rarely get from a 15-minute prenatal appointment. Recent topics include breech vaginal birth, the risks and benefits of routine ultrasounds, postdates pregnancy, placenta previa, twin birth, and the politics of hospital birth in the United States. The hosts do not pretend to be neutral; they favor physiologic birth and are critical of what they see as unnecessary medicalization. If you are looking for a second opinion on something your provider said, or if you want to hear experienced birth attendants think out loud about real cases, this is the show. Episodes usually run 60 to 90 minutes and feel more like a conversation you eavesdropped on than a produced program. It is best suited for listeners who already have some background knowledge and want to go deeper rather than complete beginners still figuring out basic terminology.