We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Liberatore Natalie Hackett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Liz Liberatore , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

We started the Golden Hour Birth Podcast in May of 2022 and share birth stories of all kinds. This podcast has been our passion project since we met, became sisters-in-law, and bonded for our love of all things birth. We drew up this idea over a few glasses of wine and put plans in motion by the next day. What started as asking friends to share their birth stories turned into something much bigger. We now have hosted over 50 women sharing their stories across the US. The reason behind our podcast is the importance of sharing birth stories. Telling birth stories can better help us process and make sense of what happened. These stories allow birthing people and partners the ability to create a community, and knowing they’re not alone.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We are both born snd raised St. Louisians, We were lucky enough to meet by marrying brothers, and forming a special relationship. We quickly bonded over our International travels, to then everything birth and motherhood. Once we were both pregnant, we felt more prepared going into childbirth from listening to others sharing their stories, but still both battled with breastfeeding, postpartum anxiety, and other important topics we commonly hear from our guests. As we found our community being mothers, we saw the importance of getting these stories out there, and giving birthing people the space to share their stories. We have found a wonderful community of our guests, listeners, and Facebook Group – The Golden Hour Birth Circle.

In the past year, we are most proud of the growth of our podcast, the community we have made, and our recent St. Louis News Channel 5 segment! We look forward to the next year and see where this podcast and community takes us!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When we first bonded over our love for birth, we bonded over our passion for natural childbirth, and being holistic as possible. As we listen to more stories, and share space with several incredible humans, we have let go of our natural approach. Every birth and birthing person is SO different, and what’s right for one person, isn’t right for the next. There are so many variables to birth, and no birth will play out the same way. In addition, we have had to unlearn our biases to create the most safe and supportive space for our guests and connections. There is already so much shame and pressure on birthing people and mothers, so we have taken the time to let this narrative of natural birth and biases go, and instead allow people to share their truth, and their experiences, and meet them where they are.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

This year has been so rewarding in so many amazing ways. Hearing the feedback from our listeners is so special and surreal. The connections and community we have made, the stories we get to listen to and put out there, the space and support we give birthing people just to name a few. We have to agree, the most amazing feedback we have is from our guests, sharing how they have processed, or come to terms with, or how healing the experience of sharing their story was. That is the truest form of reward we could ask for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goldenhourbirthpodcast.com
• Instagram: @liz_golden_hour & @nat_goldenhour
• Facebook: The Golden Hour Birth Podcast & The Golden Hour Birth Circle
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegoldenhourbirthpodcast7503
• Other: Find us anywhere you listen to your podcasts!

Image Credits
Jason Hackett