Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Carlie Diedricksen
Credentials: Owner of Simply Sacred Births
Carlie Diedricksen: Yeah it’s whenever someone asks me that it’s really hard because I feel like there was little parts of each of my own experiences and becoming like a mother and like postpartum that kind of like attributed to that but I think it was with um my third baby I I had a doula um and I was my first un medicated birth and it was also an induction it was just like a lot of things at once but I was able to have like this unmedicated induction with the support of adulla and I remember just um I might tear up thinking about it but just as soon as my baby was born and on my chest I remember just saying like I did it I did it I did it and like what a different experience it was overall um from my first two births and that like empowered feeling the connection I had to my baby um feeling like I had someone in my corner through the process and like overall just feeling more educated about the whole experience and I was like I want to bring like that feeling and that like badassery like to all women and parents like feeling like holy crap I just did this amazing thing um and then like to go hand inhand with that like my postpartum experiences were very scary with my first too especially I I was in the ER postpartum day five with my second because of depression and anxiety and I don’t want other women to one go through that because no one wants to go through that but two if they are going through that to feel like they have someone in their Corner that is nonjudgmental that’s been there and that has resources for them so they don’t feel alone like there is a light or a hope and that you know they’re not scared and so like all of those things combined kind of was this Catalyst of like I want to be in the corner of these families like encouraging loving them having like feeling like they have someone to trust and so that was kind of like the okay it’s time to jump in and be there for families
Dr. Betty DeLass: Absolutely so great so great um and then next question What Makes You Different
Carlie Diedricksen: Making me think about myself I’m not one to like oh talk about me um I think the level of love and like friendship that I offer my clients like I always joke with them but in all seriousness like you’ll never get rid of me like once I’m your Doula like I would love to stay connected you know forever and um the very like deep emotional connections I think that I have a lot like a lot with my clients um some of my very first clients from three years ago like we’re still very connected and chat I’ve had clients like come to my own baby showers and bring me Mills postpartum and when Jordan was in the NICU for his esophageal stuff like so many clients past present and you know even like future reached out with like places to stay and food and so I just think like on that emotional level um I offer like a very deep connection if it’s the right F and it like brings me so much joy to have those relationships
Dr. Betty DeLass: Absolutely absolutely it’s all about relationships right okay who’s an ideal fit for you
Carlie Diedricksen: I am a people person so like really narrowing it down sometimes can be really hard but I have kind of gathered my unicorn is um I have like two so one is like firsttime parents I really love being able to be there for educational purposes helping them fill more confident not only in like pregn like labor and birth but helping them get ready for like postpartum like what can you expect like let’s get you ready for breastfeeding like here are all your resources and kind of helping them feel so much more educated through the whole process my second one that I like feel really passionate about as well is parents um who are looking for healing Redemptive like better experiences for a consecutive birth and that’s something that I I had myself and I feel very passionate about people having so that’s why I’m v-back trained and Trauma informed and have done a lot of training for that because I really truly believe that you can have a healing experience no matter what kind of birth you have whether it’s like a repeat C-section or something I feel like if you have the right support and education that you can have a positive experience even if things don’t go necess clearly is planned and so that’s kind of I love offering that to parents
Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing amazing okay what does the process look like to work with you
Carlie Diedricksen: Yeah so first we do a free console I always offer a free console whether that’s in person or virtual um and then after that we I and there for you for your entire pregnancy via text call whatever you need to talk about ask questions um I do two prenatals with my clients usually in the third trimester like early third trimester where we go over education birth preferences Comfort measures breastfeeding postpartum kind of just get both parents ready to go I teach my goal too is to have Dad be as involved as he wants to be so I make sure that he’s prepped and ready to go and also if he can’t handle a lot of like the fluids and the blood and like the whole thing then I am prepared to kind of Step In where he can’t so we kind of make sure we’re like this cohesive team um then I’m there for all labor and up to two hours after birth I’m there to be in your corner help support um and then postpartum I usually do one postpartum visit in person where we get to like process your birth and chat about how things went I’m there to answer any questions for like newborn care that kind of thing and then um I do like a mental health check-in once a week for the first six weeks postpartum and a lot of times that might be extended to of sometimes down the road I’ll just check in and a lot of my clients I follow back on Instagram like through my person or my business account and so I kind of get to watch babies grow up and watch my clients become parents and it’s really fun so kind of you’re stuck with me forever once
Dr. Betty DeLass: Okay perfect segue into the next question which is what does recovery look like um especially in your role in your ethos through that
Carlie Diedricksen: Yeah so recovery looks a lot like I’m going to text you within that first 48 hours to see how you’re feeling physically how recovery is going answer any questions we actually prepare for recovery and I’m actually writing like a postpartum Prep Prep course of like what to expect recovery wise so during those that second prenatal visit we talk about like the night sweats and that first bow movement and kind of like the tearing and how to like recover from tearing we talk about like the 555 rules a lot of of midwives do like five days in bed five days on the bed five days around the bed um nursing like Breezy babies who will come right to your home to do lactation and so we kind of pre them for all those recovery to make it as smooth as possible because I remember I prepped so hard for like birth like labor and birth that once postpartum hit I was like oh crap like I have no idea what’s going on and so that’s kind of like a big deal of what I want to talk to my clients about like what’s your support look like do you have family around do you have like a meal train setup like what you know and then I you know Dad like how can you help Mom is she recovers um same with C-sections like I recommend this C-section recovery kit I’m like go see Betty especially like even with a C-section you need to go have some pelvic FL PT and so yeah we do a lot of recovery prep that way and then there to answer questions too of like hey is this normal I’ve gotten pictures like is this you know is this an okay thing so just having them have a safe place to ask those questions because I wish I would have had that because man you have no idea what you’re doing no one talks about the night sweats or like a lot of those things so
Dr. Betty DeLass: Okay hey what’s something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know about and it could be any nugget
Carlie Diedricksen: This is a one that I feel like people know may to a degree but I don’t think it’s talked about enough is that epidurals can fail um and that they’re not fail prooof and I’ve seen it quite frequently like for having only been to like 75 births I’ve seen quite a few epidurals not take on both sides or like hot spots and so even if you’re planning on an epidural I highly recommend that you mentally prepare for an unmedicated birth right I think everyone should just have that like okay like even though I’d like an epidural sometimes babies are born way too fast yeah I had a an accidental home birth and she was planning on an epidural like you never know and so it’s very beneficial to prepare for that possibility because then it’s not as a traumatic of an experience so that would be my like nugget like prepare to go unmedicated even if you plan to not
Dr. Betty DeLass: Right right birth is unpredictable right in all the ways in all the ways yes okay um do you have anything that you want anything special you want to promote to the audience that’s listening here
Carlie Diedricksen: So I am also a birth photographer which can be really helpful if someone wants like uh less people but still want like a Dua and photography I am currently learning videography and so I’m offering like a very discounted like rate for people who want a video and are willing to let me practice with their births
Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing so cool and then last question my favorite question is what do you want to be known for
Carlie Diedricksen: Oh man I I want to be known for and it almost sounds like Michael Scott like in the office when he’s like I want do I need to be loved no do I want to be loved like yes but instead like flip that I want to be known for like the love and the relationships like I have with my clients for them I want them to feel so like cared for so loved so supported like that’s what I want to be known for is like Carlie was in our Corner she loved us so much like we can’t imagine like anyone else like just I just want to be that person for them
Dr. Betty DeLass: It’s amazing um where can we find you Carlie website social media
Carlie Diedricksen: Website is simply sacred birth.com my Instagram is simply period sacred period births um Tik Tok I’m also not as active on there but I got some fun stuff on there it’s ATS simply sacred births and then yeah Facebook you can just search simply sacred births and I should pop up
Dr. Betty DeLass: Awesome well thank you so much for your time today and chatting through all the things um I look forward to seeing you soon
Carlie Diedricksen: Thank you Betty