Born Free Method: The Podcast Humanizing Hospital Birth: Insights from an OBGYN with Dr. Nicole Rankins
The 2026 Born Free Twins-Breech Conference is coming to Austin, TX, November 12-15, 2026, and tickets go on sale Black Friday, November 28th, 2025 at midnight! There are a limited number of tickets for sale at the early bird pricing! To take advantage you’ll have to be quick, and you’ll need the code JUICYWORM26 at checkout!
Nicole Calloway Rankins, MD, MPH is a board-certified OB/GYN and hospital-based hospitalist who focuses on providing evidence-based support for families to have empowered hospital births. She is the host of the Birth With Power podcast—formerly All About Pregnancy & Birth. Dr. Rankins also teaches an online Birth Preparation Course. She shares her story of her own c-section with inadequate anesthesia and the challenges of supporting her own child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Find Dr. Rankins’ free guides and other resources at her website. She can also be found on Instagram @drnicolerankins .
00:16:45 - The pros and cons of hospitalist medicine. You get reeeeally good at building trust and making decisions quickly. Feeling safe is different from people doing things to you to “keep” you safe. Naming fears can be powerful as the patient. Having hard conversations around birth preferences ideally happens long before your labor begins.
00:26:44 - Dr. Rankins shares how the experience of a mother dying in her care and how the memory will forever stay with her as a reminder that this work isn’t always joyful. And occasionally “bad outcomes” take place without any way to prevent them. How can we optimize the experience for a mother who experiences a stillbirth or similar outcome?
00:35:40 - Dr. Rankins shares her experience with a child in the NICU for duodenal atresia and experiencing a c-section with a malfunctioning epidural. Fathers are often left out of the conversations through difficult hospital experiences.
00:42:15 - Physicians aren’t necessarily taught to humanize birth. Sometimes humanizing childbirth starts with remembering that we ourselves, as practitioners, are human, and this can be as easy as taking a breath! Nathan shares a story of a baby born without a trachea who is made comfortable to die shortly after birth and the challenge of being present with death.
00:50:00 - Advice for families that transfer from home to the hospital and don’t prefer any interventions whatsoever. Dr. Rankins visits local birth centers so that birthworkers in the community are familiar with her and her practice. You have the right to decline any intervention as long as you’re informed about the risks, benefits, and implications of all options on the table. Dr. Nicole weighs in on Vitamin K, Rhogam, and other common interventions offered throughout prenatal care and childbirth. We must avoid imposing our value system on that of others.
00:58:10 - We can’t advocate for autonomy in reproductive rights but not for a woman to give birth on her own terms. You either believe in autonomy or you don’t. How do you respond if a woman says “I’d rather die than have a c-section”? What is coercive language. In counseling around repeat c-sections, OBGYNs often neglect to describe the challenges of emergency c-section after multiple abdominal surgeries due to scar tissue
01:06:45 - Dr. Rankins’ thoughts on continuous fetal monitoring versus intermittent auscultation and lack of validation of this technology
01:11:00 - Dr. Rankins weighs in on the Hepatitis b vaccine, pediatricians, veering from the vaccine schedule, polio vs ddt neurotoxicity, package inserts, removing the word “allow” from our counseling.
Find Dr. Rankins’ free guides and other resources at her website. She can also be found on Instagram @drnicolerankins .
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References from the conversation:
* Hepatitis B vaccine package insert from FDA website
* The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
* Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology, and Consequence, by Jacqueline Wolf, PhD
Related episodes:
* #80 - Jacqueline Wolf, PhD: On the Sordid History of C-Section in the U.S.
* One Womb, Two Stories: The Echo of What Was and the Cry of What Is (Trigger warning: this is a story of homebirth and then a subsequent rainbow baby!)
* Babies Need to Feel Safe with Nathan Riley, MD, FACOG
This episode was sponsored by Born Free Method.
When we aren’t hosting gatherings to re-skill the birth workforce in twins/breech, we are supporting families and birthworkers through this massive online platform/community!
The Born Free Method digital playground includes over 60 hrs of pre-recorded lessons (w/ slides) spread out over 180+ lessons when you enroll. You will also be invited to a Zoom call (recorded) every other week hosted by me, Sara, and both. We also often have guest speakers, and you will have access to recordings for all 100+ of our past calls/interviews.
* 12-month access is $750
* Lifetime access is $3997 (This option comes with some other perks as well, including direct support from me and Sara for life by phone/text/email)
* Fertility Deep Dive ($499) if you just want to focus on pre-conception planning and fertility, but this content is included in both of our other offerings above.
We have payment plans available for the lifetime package, and we have discounts available for any of our programs for students and birthworkers. Just shoot Nathan and Sara an email: support@bornfreemethod.com
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Medical Disclaimer: Born Free Method: The Podcast is an educational program. No information conveyed through this podcast should be construed as medical advice. These conversations are available to the public for educational and entertainment purposes only.
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