Birth Agni  By  cover art

Birth Agni

By: Divya Kapoor
  • Summary

  • This Podcast explores how indigenously Birth has always unfolded, among women - our tribe, where children could see how breastfeeding was done and how birth happened. This an attempt to fetch the stories of the past as well as bring out the new India’s Birth culture to expose the defining features in both. This shall join the dots to where the increasing problems of postpartum anxiety, rising rate of surgical births and poor breastfeeding outcomes are coming from.

    Birth Agni - Agni meaning Fire, the Fire that brings us alive, transforms us and has the ability to burn. Birth is designed to affect a woman’s integrity. It is the fire of awakening that makes her life experience wholesome. Deep down her body knows what Birth is supposed to feel - a euphoria of bringing a new life on Earth. The cocktail of hormones are designed to give her a high.

    However, birth today has quickly swayed away from a phase of joy to the one marked by Fear, the constant questioning of a woman’s capacity to Birth naturally and the ugly calculation of the odds of a healthy baby at the expense of the mother’s health. We forget that their health is interlinked and flourish as a dyad. In India, the urban rate of Cesarean Sections on an average until 2020 is a whopping 40% which is concerning.

    Birth is linked to Patriarchy, Healthcare Politics and Women’s Rights. Respect in Birth is long due to women and it affects the core of who they are.


    Join me Divya Kapoor, a Certified Birth and Lactation Counselor and aspiring Traditional Birth Attendant in the quest to shine light on what we can do as parents and a community to change the narrative.

    © 2024 Birth Agni
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Episodes
  • #104- Part III - Birthing Realities: Social, Cultural, and Political Landscapes with Sanjana Krishnan
    May 5 2024

    "Birth" encompasses a multitude of social, cultural, and political dimensions. Whether considering human rights, power dynamics in families, bodily autonomy, government schemes, hospital protocols, reproductive rights, or policies, all the macro and micro aspects of our existence that constitute 'Life' impact a woman's birth.

    Today, I'm joined by Sanjana Krishnan, a Political Scientist by profession, with a passion for regeneration. She is the co-founder of the Beejvan Biodiversity and Collaborative Research Foundation and also a home birthing mother of two daughters, who enjoys learning about various indigenous healing modalities.

    Together, we delve into:

    1. What is Politics and how it intertwines with our social and cultural fabrics, impacting a woman's birth experience.
    2. Gender Roles and Power Dynamics.
    3. Social Positioning and Power Dynamics in families affecting Birth.
    4. Government Policies and Schemes affecting Birth.

    and more...

    Explore Parts I and II in Episodes 102 and 103, and Episode 92 with Public Health Researcher, Baneen, delving into similar themes!

    Support the Show.

    Sign up for Traverse the Labor Land and Own your birth programs! visit www.birthagni.com/contactus

    Support the show:

    • If you like what you hear, leave us
      • a rating on Spotify app and answer the question at each episode!
      • a review on Apple podcasts.
    • Share on Whatsapp/Insta/FB
    • Share on Instagram and tag us @divyakapoorvox
    • Support the production by making a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birthagni. This ensures the continuity and quality and a good coffee on sleepless recording nights!
    • Subscribe to the FREE newsletter at https://www.birthagni.com/#subscribe and receive DISCOUNTS, SALE updates and GIFTCARDS on our premium 'Own your Birth' program
    • You can book a 20 min FREE Discovery call at https://www.birthagni.com/...
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 27 mins
  • #103 - Part II - Sanjana's Ecstatic Home Birth Story | Pregnancy, Moon and Womanhood
    Apr 26 2024

    Sign up for the Free Birth Awareness Session:

    https://www.birthagni.com/contactus - Select 'upcoming free birth awareness' in the form
    Direct Registration: https://forms.gle/kYeTcRPMzZvWKcYA9

    Contrary to her previous experience (EP 102) of a quick birth at the birth center, Sanjana manifested a slower transition this time and knew instinctively that she wanted to give birth at home, with her daughter as a witness to the simplicity of life and birth.

    We are often presented with the narrative of a painless birth and today the 'option' of a painless birth with medical interventions at play. What if these narratives are carefully selected to create an image that suits the industrialized system, benefiting from the victimhood of women in their own bodies? What if the natural bliss of birth is being carefully shielded away from us?

    In this episode, we discuss:

    • Experience of Pregnancy
    • Sanjana's preparation for birth and postpartum
    • Experience of Labor and events leading up to birth—unmedicated, undisturbed
    • Ecstasy of Birth, when birth becomes painless
    • Postpartum Experience

    Resources discussed:
    Book : Ten Moons: The Inner Journey of Pregnancy, Preparation for Natural Birth

    About Sanjana:Sanjana is a Political Scientist by profession focused on urban-rural linkages, urban studies, and inequalities in India. She is the co-founder of the Beejvan Biodiversity and Collaborative Research Foundation. A winner of the Erasmus scholarship, the German Chancellors’ Fellowship, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her project, Beejvan, won the Lush Spring Prize 2023 in the UK.

    Sanjana is also a home-birthing mother of two daughters and very passionate about immunology, and enjoys learning about various indigenous healing modalities. Her quest for truth, led by her intuition, beyond what science and religion have attempted to understand and preach, is what led her to birth her daughters and raise them on her own terms. The journey of healing is non-linear and ongoing, and she trusts it is a beautiful one, even on the worst days.

    Support the Show.

    Sign up for Traverse the Labor Land and Own your birth programs! visit www.birthagni.com/contactus

    Support the show:

    • If you like what you hear, leave us
      • a rating on Spotify app and answer the question at each episode!
      • a review on Apple podcasts.
    • Share on Whatsapp/Insta/FB
    • Share on Instagram and tag us @divyakapoorvox
    • Support the production by making a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birthagni. This ensures the continuity and quality and a good coffee on sleepless recording nights!
    • Subscribe to the FREE newsletter at https://www.birthagni.com/#subscribe and receive DISCOUNTS, SALE updates and GIFTCARDS on our premium 'Own your Birth' program
    • You can book a 20 min FREE Discovery call at https://www.birthagni.com/...
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 27 mins
  • #102 - Part I Sanjana's Natural Birth at a Birth Center | Travelling for Birth- Mumbai to Kerala | Meeting the Divine
    Apr 18 2024

    Every woman sheds a part of herself as she goes through the rites of passage - Menarche, Birth, and Menopause - the life-altering experiences that hold huge significance. We all arrive in pregnancy with something we have learned from our life experiences, which helps us visualize our birth in a certain way. Some of us desire it to be a breeze, some of us desire it to be painless, some of us desire it to be with friends and family, some of us want to avoid surgery at all costs even if we do not know what birth can look like, some of us consider it our identity linked to birthing naturally as women.

    Sanjana's journey has been the same, very much like many of us. She is self-aware, reflective, and growth-oriented: inward in her journey of pregnancy and birth. Her transitioning definitions about herself contributed to the decision of prioritizing her ideas about birth over the little juggles of life.

    Listen to the journey of transformation for a woman through pregnancy and birth as we re-discuss them as the rightful dimensions of growth a woman is gifted with, which she has all the right to experience guided by herself rather than any authority or outward force.

    About Guest: Sanjana is a Political Scientist by profession focused on urban-rural linkages, urban studies, and inequalities in India. She is the co-founder of the Beejvan Biodiversity and Collaborative Research Foundation. A winner of the Erasmus scholarship, the German Chancellors’ Fellowship, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her project, Beejvan, won the Lush Spring Prize 2023 in the UK.

    Sanjana is also a home-birthing mother of two daughters and very passionate about immunology, and enjoys learning about various indigenous healing modalities. Her quest for truth, led by her intuition, beyond what science and religion have attempted to understand and preach, is what led her to birth her daughters and raise them on her own terms. The journey of healing is non-linear and ongoing, and she trusts it is a beautiful one, even on the worst days.

    Support the Show.

    Sign up for Traverse the Labor Land and Own your birth programs! visit www.birthagni.com/contactus

    Support the show:

    • If you like what you hear, leave us
      • a rating on Spotify app and answer the question at each episode!
      • a review on Apple podcasts.
    • Share on Whatsapp/Insta/FB
    • Share on Instagram and tag us @divyakapoorvox
    • Support the production by making a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birthagni. This ensures the continuity and quality and a good coffee on sleepless recording nights!
    • Subscribe to the FREE newsletter at https://www.birthagni.com/#subscribe and receive DISCOUNTS, SALE updates and GIFTCARDS on our premium 'Own your Birth' program
    • You can book a 20 min FREE Discovery call at https://www.birthagni.com/...
    Show more Show less
    1 hr

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