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In this episode, Katie sits down with Cori — nurse-midwife, gestational carrier, and quite possibly the most interesting person you'll meet this week. Cori has spent her career advocating for better birth experiences after her own traumatic deliveries pushed her away from obstetrics and toward midwifery. But her story doesn't stop at the delivery room door.

Cori opens up about the deeply personal decision to become a gestational carrier and what it's like to navigate that journey when you actually know what all the consent forms mean. From unpacking the ethics surrounding gestational carrying to the medicine and the emotions behind carrying a pregnancy that is someone else's, Cori keeps this conversation unfiltered and fascinating. She also shares how her late mother's memory has quietly shown up at every milestone: in a tattooed handprint, a cherished nightgown, and a calling that started long before nursing school. Cori's story is truly one of the most layered conversations this podcast has had.

This episode pairs best with a mango smoothie!

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Holly never set out to have a career. She wanted to be a wife and a mom — and for a long time, that's exactly what she was. But somewhere between homeschooling three kids, working night shifts as an L&D nurse, and her husband's quiet encouragement, she found herself in midwifery school.

In this episode, Katie and Holly explore what happens when a person becomes
someone new — and what that can cost. Holly opens up about the toll midwifery
school took on her family, the shock of a marriage unraveling just as she was
finally finding her stride, and the years she spent wondering if she'd made the
wrong choice. Now on the other side, Holly is exceling professionally, hauling her own camper, planning trips to places like Alaska, and creating weekly challenge lists with friends. She's building a life that continuously surprises her — and
apparently, she has a lot to add to her 2027 (yes 2027!) bucket list.

This episode is best paired with campfire whiskey (on Holly's list to try!)

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Before water births were trendy, before fathers were allowed in delivery rooms, before midwives could legally do a pelvic exam in Maryland — there was Kathy. the midwife who wouldn't be managed.

In this episode, host Katie O'Brien interviews her mentor and the mentor of many other midwives in the Baltimore area: Kathy Slone.

Kathy traces her career from an Indiana labor and delivery floor in 1968 to the halls of Johns Hopkins, where she negotiated her own salary with an unflinching stare, pioneered in-room deliveries (no more wheeling patients down the hall to birth!), taught physicians how to fit diaphragms, and testified before Maryland's legislature to rewrite outdated midwifery law.

Oh, and how about the time she accidentally ran a clinic solo for a year while the doctors were in Southeast Asia shortly after becoming a midwife, or when she introduced in-hospital waterbirth to the Baltimore area!

With Kim's (Kathy's longtime office manager) legendary memory and Kathy's refusal to take "no" for an answer, they created a Baltimore practice that became the rare place within hospital walls that actually felt human.

Recorded over tea in Kim's cozy Baltimore living room, this conversation is part origin story, part love letter to mentorship, and part field guide for anyone who wonders how much of an impact one midwife can make.

This episode pairs best with a cup of english breakfast, prepared traditionally, of course!