73 | Informed Consent in Pregnancy, Birth & Breastfeeding: Using the BRAIN Method with Doula Taylor Shaffer from Holistic Pregnancy Podcast

If you care about autonomy, informed consent, and saying no to pressure in pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding, this episode is for you.

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by doula and Holistic Pregnancy Podcast host, Taylor Shaffer, to unpack what real informed consent actually looks like (and why those hospital “consent forms” usually aren’t it).

We walk through the BRAIN method—Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition, and doing Nothing—so you can use it to make confident decisions about:

• Prenatal tests

• Inductions (especially in the busy holiday season)

• Epidurals and birth interventions

• Newborn procedures

• Tongue tie releases

• Formula “top offs” and early breastfeeding decisions

Whether you’re still pregnant or already holding your baby, this episode will help you recognize coercive language, spot red flags, and stand firm in your right to say no—in the hospital, at home, and in the postpartum/breastfeeding trenches.

You are not a “difficult patient.” You are a mother making informed, intentional choices for your body and your baby.

• What informed consent really means (and why signing a hospital form is not the same thing)

• The difference between liability-focused consent forms and true autonomy-centered informed consent

• How to use the BRAIN method in real conversations with providers:

  • Benefits

  • Risks

  • Alternatives

  • Intuition

  • doing Nothing / waiting

• Red flags that your provider is not giving you full informed consent:

• How to tell the difference between a real emergency and “manufactured urgency”

• Why it is never too late to switch providers—even late in pregnancy

• How informed consent continues into postpartum and breastfeeding, not just birth

• What informed consent looks like when:

  • Nurses are “helping” with latch in the hospital

  • You’re being pressured to supplement with formula

  • Someone says your baby is tongue tied and you “need a release”

• Why you need a breastfeeding plan (not just a birth plan)

• The role of doulas, IBCLCs, and holistic practitioners in supporting autonomy-centered care

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Topics Covered in this episode:

informed consent pregnancy, informed consent birth, informed consent breastfeeding, BRAIN method birth, birth autonomy, pregnancy autonomy, natural birth informed consent, physiologic birth support, how to say no to interventions in labor, induction pressure holidays, informed consent tongue tie, tongue tie release informed consent, breastfeeding informed consent hospital, breastfeeding plan vs birth plan, advocacy in pregnancy and birth, holistic pregnancy podcast