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PODCAST

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health, motherhood, and the sacred mess of life’s transformations with Diane Ortega

Diane Ortega of Willow Birth Center

Welcome to The Midwife Life—part podcast, part revolution that empowers and educates women on all things related to pregnancy, birth, postpartum care, and careers in healthcare. Whether it"s understanding the options available to you, advocating for yourself in a health care setting, or simply knowing that you"re not alone, I want you to leave each episode feeling stronger and more equipped.

health & fitness alternative health

All Episodes

16:34

81: I Deserved Every Penny

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/10/05

This summer, one of the women in my pilot group came to week three with a story. When a real estate deal went sideways, she'd always quietly absorbed the cost. This time, on what she called "a miserable transaction," she fought for her commission and kept every penny. "That was super uncomfortable, but afterwards it was like, I should do this more often!" This episode is about the wall she hit, why mothers hit the same one every time they want something for themselves, and what got her over it.In

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28:09

80: Reclaim You: The Workshop

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/09/28

Last Tuesday I taught a free workshop called Reclaim You. Two women came. I taught it like the room was full, and I walked out surer than I walked in. This is the teaching, start to finish, so you can do it with me. Grab a pen. There are two places where I'll ask you to write, and I want you to actually pause me when I do.In this episode: Why I went into this workshop treating it as a test, and what happened when one woman came The Missing Phase: how mothers absorb everyone else's

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13:01

79: Do I Need a Costume?

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/09/21

A woman I worked with spent twenty-six years as a midwife and is becoming a lawyer. She told me both outfits feel fake. This episode is about what she said next, the real question underneath "which one is really me," and why the answer isn't about choosing the right costume at all. In this episode: The line a 26-year midwife said to me about leaving her career for law, and why it stopped me Her worth monologue, and the specific thing she doesn't believe about herself that has nothing to

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12:07

78: I'm Scared You Won't Think You're Worth It

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/09/14

Eight days out from the workshop I've been building toward all year. I almost didn't record this one, because the truth in it isn't the polished kind.In this episode: Where the idea for The Rebirth Journey actually came from, and the rebirth I was living while I built it What it was like to sit in a room during the pilot and watch women say out loud how seen they felt The fear I didn't expect to have about this launch, and it isn't that nobody shows up The twenty minutes I sat

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12:05

77: The Workshop I Cancelled

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/09/07

It's my birthday. I'm recording this a few days ahead, a little tender, and more honest than I planned on being. This episode is about the pattern underneath every role I've ever held, and the workshop I cancelled because of it.In this episode: Why I don't call what's happening this year a pivot, and what I call it instead The real reason I went back for my doctorate in the middle of running three birth centers What walking out of Willow for the last time actually felt like The

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69:23

BONUS REPLAY: Your Body Isn’t Broken: Rethinking...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/31

For decades, women have been told that fatigue, weight gain, slower recovery, brain fog, and hormone shifts are simply part of aging. But what if the real issue isn’t that women’s bodies are failing them? What if the real problem is that we’ve been given incomplete information about how our bodies actually work - especially in midlife. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane sits down with Stephanie Gambetta, founder of Loop and host of The Loop Podcast, to explore a new way of thinking about

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14:29

76: There's No Such Thing As Dad Guilt

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/24

Last week at Rebirth Conversations, I asked a room full of women one question: what do you want that you haven't let yourself say out loud. What showed up right after they answered is the reason this episode exists.In this episode: The question I asked the room tonight, and what showed up the second they answered it The retreat story that came out of that conversation, and the one sentence that mattered more than the rest of it What the whole room agreed on, without anyone planning

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9:47

75: The Room That Held Up a Mirror

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/19

This weekend I sat in a room full of women I'd never met, at a business event, not my usual crowd. By the end of it, one of them said something out loud that I haven't stopped thinking about since. This episode is about what she said, why it has nothing to do with business and everything to do with the work I do, and why the mirror is the actual mechanism, not a nice metaphor for it.In this episode: What I witnessed this weekend, in a room that had nothing to do with motherhood The exact

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62:01

BONUS REPLAY: You Are Not Broken — Nourishing Your...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/17

This replay is for the woman who looks like she's holding it all together — but feels very tired in her bones. Diane is joined by Courtney Smith, registered dietitian, exercise specialist, certified lactation counselor, and founder of Maternally Nourished. Courtney supports high-achieving women through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, burnout, menopause, and major life transitions using nutrition, functional movement, nervous system regulation, and sustainable care. This conversation isn't about

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12:16

74: More Than One Moment of Birth

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/10

This week, my oldest got married, my second oldest moved out, and my youngest started getting ready for college, on top of a fourth threshold I already lived through last year. This episode is about what that did to me, why eighteen years of catching literal births taught me something I needed this week more than any five-step plan, and the belief underneath everything I teach: every woman has more than one moment of birth.In this episode: Why I'm recording this the same week it happened

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10:49

73: Burn, Slow, Listen, Move: What My Pilot Taught Me...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/08/03

For four weeks, every woman in my pilot opened each session with one word. On the last day, we went back through all of them together, and one woman's four words lined up into something none of us expected: burn, slow, listen, move. This episode is about what that pattern taught me, why the moment that actually moved the room wasn't the one I planned for, and what that means five days out from the August 8th masterclass.In this episode: ● The one-word ritual I use to open every session, and why

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51:50

72: Holistic Healing Through Pregnancy and...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/07/27

This week, Diane is replaying a favorite conversation with Ashley Andrews, an Integrative Nutrition & Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Instructor and Reiki Practitioner, who shares her journey into motherhood and the practicesthat carried her through it. From unexpected pregnancy and birth experiences to the power of integrative nutrition, Reiki, and intuitive movement, Ashley's story is a real look at what it takes tofind yourself again after everythingchanges. WhatWeCover: Ashley's path to

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14:54

71: Nobody Told You Summer Would Feel Like This

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/07/20

In this episode, I talk about the math of this summer season, whichever version of it is yours. If you're the mom in the thick of snack duty and referee duty and a phone that will not stop buzzing, this one is for you. If you're the mom like me, standing in the last summer before her youngest leaves, this one is for you too. My son just graduated high school. I thought that would feel like getting myself back. It felt like whiplash instead. I talk about why being last on your own list is not a

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8:13

70: Starting Over at 40 (And Why That's Not a Crisis)

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/07/13

In this episode, I talk about starting over, not once, but twice. The first time I was forty, and I walked away from what I knew to become a midwife. The second time, I was in my fifties, standing in a birth center I built with my own hands, signing paperwork that meant it was over after sixteen years and three birth centers. I talk about why starting over gets filed under midlife crisis when it's actually something else entirely, and the three questions that keep surfacing for me every time I don't

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43:38

69: What's Been Running You: Healing the Patterns...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/07/06

There is a version of you that you didn't choose. She was built quietly, over years, by everything you watched and absorbed and inherited. And at some point, she starts running your marriage, your relationships, and the way you move through life.In this episode, I sit down with Molly Rubesh, relationship and divorce coach and creator of The Modern Marriage Blueprint. Molly helps women heal what's been running them quietly so they can build marriages and lives that actually feel like theirs. Her

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14:58

68: You Don't Need Permission

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/06/29

There is a life a lot of women are living that looks completely fine from the outside. Maybe even wonderful. And it is quietly draining the life out of them. This week, Diane gets honest about the thing nobody says out loud: you do not need permission to change your mind, change your life, or admit that the version of yourself you have been performing no longer fits. Not from your partner. Not from your kids. Not from the woman you were ten years ago when you built all of this. This episode is

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49:27

67: You Are the Medicine: Holly Million on What...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/06/22

Some people arrive at their power quietly. Others pass through fire, more than once, before they understand what they are actually made of. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane sits down with Holly Million, shaman, artist, herbalist, and founder of Soul Arts Workshop, to talk about what it means to move through spiritual emergence and come out different each time. Holly came from a dark place, rebuilt herself into a guide and a master builder, and right now is in what she calls the best

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55:57

66: When the Life You Built No Longer Fits

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/06/15

What happens when the woman who has held space for a thousand others finally lets someone hold space for her?Jennifer Hoeprich spent over a decade as a licensed homebirth midwife, witnessing the raw, sacred threshold of new life. And then she reached her own threshold. Leaving clinical practice wasn't just a career change. It was an unraveling, a metamorphosis, and ultimately a rebirth into something she couldn't have planned. In this episode, Jen and I talk about what it really means to

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55:03

65: You Were Always Creative: Reclaiming Your...

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/06/08

What if creativity wasn't something you had to find, but something you never lost? In this episode, I'm talking with Lydia Phelps-Alexander, an art education consultant who has spent 18 years and thousands of hours reminding people - especially women - that their creative potential is not gone. It was never gone. It just got buried under everything life piled on top of it. Lydia grew up as a minority in a rural community, often lonely, often on the outside. But her parents gave her something

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16:59

64: The Next Page Is Coming

Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health,... ·

2026/06/01

Who am I when the thing that has defined me for years no longer fits?This week I removed “birth center owner” from my Instagram bio. What looked like a simple profile update turned into something much bigger: a conversation about identity, grief, reinvention, and who we become when the roles that once defined us no longer fit. In this episode, I’m sharing what it feels like to let go of an identity you’ve carried for years, navigate the uncertainty between chapters, and trust that the next

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