Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Trista Birdzell

Experienced in: Midwifery

Welcome, Trista. Thank you so much for being on our spotlight series for the Best in Utah Public Health. And I’m really excited to jump in and have our audience get to know you and go through some questions to learn all about you and your services.

Let me introduce you here first. Trista is a proud mom of four, including one angel baby and a passionate home birth midwife serving Utah County. With a career in birth work that began in November 2017, she has spent six years as a doula and childbirth educator before advancing her training to become a midwife.

Trista is committed to providing passionate and women-led care and support to families during their childbirth journeys. Thank you so much, Trista, for being on here. I’ve known you through a good chunk of that time of like as a doula training and now a midwife.

It’s like really cool to see that evolution. So why don’t you walk us through what got you into this birth world and all the transitions through that?

Well, thanks for having me. It’s kind of fun to just share birth.

I can talk about birth literally all day. So I feel like it happened a few different ways. My whole life I’ve been obsessed with the body, pregnancy, the babies, evolution, like all the things is fascinating to me.

I’ve always been drawn to like anatomy, physiology, biology class, like those were my favorite subjects to learn. And then I wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse because that was the route that I felt like, oh, I can do this. I can work with moms and babies and all the things.

I didn’t know there was any other option. And then fast forward, I had my second baby. This is jumping way forward.

I had a really awful birth. I had a very traumatic experience in the hospital, which I wasn’t expecting because my first in the hospital was a breeze. And so, of course, going forward with this pregnancy, I assumed it would have been the same, but it was the opposite.

And I went through healing journey. I hired a life coach. I did all these things and tried to dive into like what it is that I’m supposed to be doing on this earth.

I had worked with an OB before, which I loved, loved so much as a medical assistant. So I’ve seen that side of this world. And so after I had my son, I was done working and that’s when I went through this life change and was like, OK, what am I going to do with my life? I love being a mom, but I also feel like there’s something else I’m supposed to be doing with this, the things that I know.

And I found out what a doula was. I watched this video of this training and I was like bawling. I was like, this is something I can do.

I can help people have like healing experiences and better things and advocate for them. And if I had a doula, I feel like my birth would have been so different. So that’s kind of where that came from.

I googled the first doula training I could find and I went to it, became a doula. My son was like a year, 11 months old when I did that and just like went headfirst into this world. And I knew that eventually I would do midwifery because I knew like being a doula is amazing and beautiful.

And some people love doing that forever. But I felt like I couldn’t make the impact I wanted to 100 percent being just a doula. And I don’t mean just a doula, but because it is so hard.

Doula work is so hard.

It’s more from scope of practice.

100 percent.

I just felt like I couldn’t 100 percent like help them in the way that I felt like I wanted to. So I wanted to be their care provider. So I went forward and did my midwifery training after I had two more babies.

So I had four babies within those, or I guess three babies within that span of time. So I had two hospital births, both epidurals, one failed, one didn’t, a C-section and then my home birth. And so I have had a wide variety of experiences.

Yeah. So I think like that also has helped contribute to how I can provide care for my clients. Yeah.

So in short, that’s kind of how I kind of stumbled through this work and just keep evolving as I learn more and more and more.

Wow. Incredible. Kate, what do you feel like makes you different in the way that you deliver your care?

So I really like to practice through woman led care. So that meaning like. So maybe I’ll explain just a little bit the different models of care.

So there’s the medical model of care or the technocratic model, which is like science is the leader. Science tells us what we need to do, right? And then we have the holistic model, which is like, we listen to the whole body, the whole care. And then we go one step further and kind of blend holistic care with women’s intuition.

And it really builds resiliency in the women. It helps them like find confidence in their body, their motherhood experience, all sorts of things. So that’s kind of how I practice.

And I’m trying to think of like how that can look. It can look like. Instead of relying on science to tell us like this might be wrong, we kind of ask the woman first, how is your mind feeling? How is your spirit? How are you emotionally feeling? How are you physically feeling? Where are you feeling stuck emotions? We work really diligently on the mental side of it, the emotional and spiritual side, because all of those pieces can play a role in how our bodies are proceeding.

We have. So if I have a client that has had labor pains and been in labor for days and days and days and days, and nothing seems to be wrong, like baby’s in a good position. We kind of look at maybe emotionally what could be going on, what’s going on in her mind.

Is there any fears coming through? So that holistic side is it’s whole care, you know? And then we add the element of like woman led. It just creates a little bit extra. I don’t know.

I feel like, like I said, confidence and resiliency in the woman and her journey into becoming a mother. If I act as I’m the expert, then that pulls power from her. Right.

So if I am asking her first, how is your baby feeling? Have you talked to your baby today? What position do you think your baby’s in? Where are you feeling kicks at? You know, I feel like that can build these, this confidence that we so easily as providers can strip away unintentionally when we act as we are the expert. Yes, we have a lot of knowledge, but the woman has been with her baby and her body for her whole life, right? Like her baby is inside of her. Right.

And if in pregnancy, we can encourage her to connect to her baby in pregnancy, tune in, then in labor. If something feels off, like we have to trust that maybe the heart tones are great. Maybe there’s nothing outside that is wrong, but she in tune into, into, oh my gosh, intuitionally is feeling like, Hey, something doesn’t feel quite right.

We have to trust that. We have to believe that even though maybe our ears and eyes don’t see that. And I think that could be how I practice a little bit differently.

Yeah. That’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah. Who would you say would be an ideal fit for you?

Um, so someone that is ready, someone that is ready to dive in someone that is, they know what they want. Um, I, this is one of the questions I ask at consults is why are you wanting a home birth? What is it about a home birth that is calling to you? And if someone is saying, well, I really saw this really pretty video on Instagram, I saw the pretty lights and I really want to water birth.

That’s beautiful. However, that’s not really deep enough when you are choosing this birth, um, or this way of giving birth. We have to be really diligent on so many things on nutrition.

So somebody that is willing to put in the work on their nutrition, their physical and their mental and their spiritual health, because without those elements, it doesn’t quite help. Um, and to be able to trust that they are willing to put in that work, I think is really huge too. Um, and some people don’t know quite why they want that yet.

And that’s okay. And maybe you need to have a different experience first before you know why, and that’s okay. Or maybe you need to dive in and do some deep work with, um, like some healing, maybe it’s a healing, maybe it’s a generational healing thing that you’re wanting to do.

Maybe your mom and your grandma had horrible work experiences, and you really know that this is how you want to give birth and you’re wanting to heal that. And I have lots of clients that are doing that. Most of my clients, honestly, I feel like I call in a lot of people that are wanting to have a healing birth.

And that could be because that’s kind of what happened with me. Um, but a lot of my clients are those that have had hospital birth experiences or even a birth center or home birth, perhaps that wasn’t quite ideal. And they’re wanting to kind of rewrite their story and they’re wanting to take ownership of their experience.

And they’re, they’re just want to put in the work they’re willing to do that this time. And they’re just looking for something different. They’re wanting to be more in charge of their care.

And I absolutely adore that. I, I love it so much as those are probably my favorite ones too. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Awesome. Okay.

Um, what does the process look like to work with you? Do they just reach out? Do they call you? Do you have to set up like a phone console?  Like what does that look like?

Yeah. Um, most people find me on Instagram or word of mouth. Um, I have a website, they can reach out and have like, I have a form on the bottom of the website that says like request more information.

Uh, but I’m always open to a text or you can message me on Instagram. Literally I’m very easy to get ahold of. Um, I am busy sometimes with birth, so be patient, but also I will do my best to get to you as soon as possible.

Um, but yeah, texting me getting on Instagram and looking through my posts and you can just kind of get a feel for my vibe and kind of like who I am through there. And I love Instagram. It’s kind of like the new age resume, but just kind of fun.

So yeah. Awesome. Um, what’s something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know, whether that’s about birth, pregnancy, postpartum, midwifery, like anything within that realm, what’s a nugget you can share with us?

Well, I’ll just share, I’m sure I can come up with a thousand things, but right now in this time what’s relevant for me and some of like, just my practice is breastfeeding.

Um, I feel like breastfeeding is obviously natural, but sometimes it doesn’t come as natural for babies or moms. And I really think that we could dive into that a little bit more and maybe prepare for that a little bit more of all the obstacles that could come through and, you know, getting new information for lactation support and maybe putting a little bit of money aside to have one. There are some that do take health insurance, which is so amazing.

Um, so that’s also something to dive into. And, um, yeah, I think if this is a goal for you, then I think it’s really, it’s worth looking into before you have your baby, um, and doing as much education on it as you can. Cause I don’t think that we prepare for that immediate postpartum, those first two weeks enough, um, and putting the money aside for the postpartum care.

So that could be like pelvic floor therapy, right? It could be breastfeeding. It could be a postpartum doula to help come cook you meals, clean your home, take care of your other children. So that would probably be my little nugget is be very diligent on how you are preparing for postpartum.

I would say that too. Like the same thing with like getting married, like yes, the wedding day is important, but the, you’re preparing for marriage is the same thing. Like the birthday is important, but you’re also preparing for becoming a parent.

A hundred percent. I agree with that. Yeah.

So, okay. Is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience about anything at all that you have going on?

Um, I guess just currently I, I try to do a birth class every other month. And so the next class I have is the second week in December and I do four couples at a time.

So it’s pretty intimate and small, which I love. And it’s like four hours on a Saturday morning. So if that’s something that people are looking for, then they can find that on my website too.

Amazing. Amazing. Okay.

My last question to ask everyone is what do you want to be known for?

Oh, oh my, what do I want to be known for? Oh, I, hmm. That’s, that’s a hard one. I honestly haven’t really thought about that, but what I feel like maybe is coming through is I just want to be known for like making a difference in other people’s experience and helping them find that resiliency and that confidence within themselves.

Love that. That’s awesome. Okay.

Where can we find you? Social media website, all things listed out for us. Um, super easy. It’s just Trista Brazil on Instagram.

And my website is Trista Brazil.com. So very easy, as long as you know how to spell my name. So yes, that’s true. Awesome.Well, thank you so much for being on our spotlight series. It’s a pleasure to have you on. And as always, thank you for serving our community.

Well, thank you so much for having me.