Sep 24, 2026 · 55 min · 11 segments
Feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, or like you’re constantly trying to keep up? In this episode, Andrea sits down with birth doula, birthing educator, and Happy Birthing AZ owner Rachelle Navarro to…
Rachelle NavarroGuestAndrea AllenHostRachelle, I'm so excited that we could actually finally make this happen and have you on the podcast today.
Tell us how you got into this field with nervous system and birthing and all these things.
So I had my first two children in the Netherlands, and those two births literally could not have been more different.
So my first birth was super, super traumatic, but then my second birth was one of those, like, annoyingly perfect births that you see on Instagram.
Where I'm like, "No, no, no, it actually is real." Genuinely had the best home birth, and because of that, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this has to come down to, like, nervous system regulation." Like, how come my first was so traumatic? How come my first was so beautiful? So what ended up happening is eight years later, I had another baby, um, and that was here in Arizona.
I had already been a birth worker for, you know, seven years, teaching women, like, how to n- r- regulate nervous system, how to have an amazing birth, all the things.
Um, but honestly, what's really interesting is if you would have taken my third birth experience and given it to someone who was planning a hospital birth with an epidural, they probably would have looked at it and said like, "That was the best experience ever." But for me, it wasn't what I expected.
I elected to be transferred, and so it was a really hard, long, two-year grieving process for me with that birth.
Transfer, do you mean like you started at home and had to go to the hospital? I don't know what that means.
My third birth, I was like, "Sweet, I'm gonna do another home birth," and then I ended up getting transferred again.
And dealing with, like, that was really, really, really difficult for me postpartum.
Rachelle, I'm so excited that we could actually finally make this happen and have you on the podcast today.
Tell us how you got into this field with nervous system and birthing and all these things.
So I had my first two children in the Netherlands, and those two births literally could not have been more different.
So my first birth was super, super traumatic, but then my second birth was one of those, like, annoyingly perfect births that you see on Instagram.
Where I'm like, "No, no, no, it actually is real." Genuinely had the best home birth, and because of that, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this has to come down to, like, nervous system regulation." Like, how come my first was so traumatic? How come my first was so beautiful? So what ended up happening is eight years later, I had another baby, um, and that was here in Arizona.
I had already been a birth worker for, you know, seven years, teaching women, like, how to n- r- regulate nervous system, how to have an amazing birth, all the things.
Um, but honestly, what's really interesting is if you would have taken my third birth experience and given it to someone who was planning a hospital birth with an epidural, they probably would have looked at it and said like, "That was the best experience ever." But for me, it wasn't what I expected.
I elected to be transferred, and so it was a really hard, long, two-year grieving process for me with that birth.
Transfer, do you mean like you started at home and had to go to the hospital? I don't know what that means.
My third birth, I was like, "Sweet, I'm gonna do another home birth," and then I ended up getting transferred again.
And dealing with, like, that was really, really, really difficult for me postpartum.
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