Birth and Poetry with Doula Sarah Auna

This week, I’m joined by Sarah Auna, a birth doula whose story we first heard live on stage at Intersections, a live storytelling event produced by the Center for the Art of Medicine in Minneapolis in 2024 through our program, The Nocturnists Satellites.

In her story, she takes us into a freestanding birth center, where chaplain Katie labors surrounded by her family, her midwives, and the steady encouragement of Sarah’s hands. The story captures what happens when the human body—guided by trust, safety, and love—takes over. It’s a reflection on lineage, nervous system regulation, and the quiet holiness of birth.

Below are a few moments that stayed with me. Please enjoy!

Enjoy,Emily and The Nocturnists Team

Favorite moments from this week’s episode

The Sphincter Law “Humans have lots of sphincters in their bodies. Their eyes, their mouths, their cervix—all talking to each other like a walkie-talkie system. When the room feels safe, they open. When the room feels tense, they close. So oxytocin isn’t just about labor—it’s about love, safety, and belonging.”

Lioness at the Birth Throne “Her curls have fallen out—tumbles of brown and gray ringlets. There’s not a scrap of clothing in sight. She stalks up to the silks, runs them between her hands, gets as low as she can, and bites down. The midwives’ headlamps tilt toward the floor. Her husband’s arms hold her like scaffolding. And then Jasper is there—all ten pounds of him.”

A Birth that Healed a Family “Down the hill, Katie’s mother—an L&D charge nurse—is waiting, along with her two sisters, also charge nurses. Birth, for them, has always been a story of emergencies. But when Katie gave birth outside the hospital walls, their family’s story changed. It became one of joy.”

Lioness Returns “Two years later, after a divorce and a pandemic, I walked into a bar for what I thought was a business meeting. I met Rachel—a musician, a single mom, a late-in-life bloomer like me. She told me she’d written a song called ‘Lioness.’ I laughed. That word had carried me through everything. And then I realized—I was falling in love.”

The Song of Power “There’s nothing as dangerous as a woman who knows herself. There’s nothing as powerful as a woman who knows herself. That song made it safe for me to proceed on my journey of authenticity and love. It became my anthem, and tonight, it became the room’s.”

Upcoming Satellites Live Storytelling Events

Lost and Found: A Night of Physician StorytellingSunday, Nov 9 | The Box Riverside, Riverside CA | Free

Hosted by the Riverside–San Bernardino Chapter of the California Academy of Family Physicians, this Nocturnists Satellites event brings together five local physicians to share stories of loss, discovery, and what it means to find one’s way in medicine.Free admission — RSVP required.

UCSF Institute of Global Health Sciences: A Night of StorytellingWed Nov 12 | UCSF Institute of Global Health Sciences, San Francisco CA | FreeAs part of the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences’ 25th anniversary celebration, IGHS is hosting a special evening of live storytelling. Five members of the IGHS community will share personal narratives of challenge, connection, and humor, inviting us to reflect on the past and envision a more compassionate and inclusive future for global health. Free admission — RSVP required.

EXTENDED: Call for stories for Trust in Medicine series

We’re excited to announce our new podcast series, Trust in Medicine.This series explores how trust in healthcare is being built, broken, and reimagined in a rapidly changing world—where shifting guidelines, systemic inequities, and new digital voices all shape how patients and clinicians experience medicine today.

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