Ama Karikari | Empowering Your Clients for Birth: The Missing Piece in Birth Preparation

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Show Notes:

Birth preparation is about more than muscles, mobility, and mechanics.

In today’s episode, Ama K. Karikari, esquire, author and empowerment coach, talks with Lynn about one of the most important ways pelvic health therapists can support their clients in birth preparation. Ama shares how pelvic health therapists can create more empowered birth experiences – regardless of outcomes – by helping clients lean into their voice, connect with their wisdom, and trust their body’s guidance. 

While physical readiness matters, empowering your clients to recognize, communicate, and validate their own experiences may be equally important for creating a positive birth experience.

Clinical Takeaways from this Episode

• Effective birth preparation includes emotional and relational readiness, not just physical preparation.
• Validating your client’s experience helps build confidence and self-trust before labor begins.
• Promoting self-advocacy in birth starts long before contractions begin.
• Clients who understand their options and support systems often feel more empowered during labor.
• Partners, doulas, and trusted advocates can play a critical role in protecting a client’s birth preferences.
• Pelvic health therapists are uniquely positioned to help clients develop confidence in their body’s wisdom.

What Is Essential to a Client’s Birth Preparation?

Birth preparation should include preparing clients to communicate their needs, preferences, and experiences during labor.

Many women enter labor expecting healthcare providers to guide every decision. While providers offer valuable expertise, clients also bring essential knowledge: they are the experts on their own bodies.

Key ways self-advocacy impacts birth:

• Helps clients communicate concerns sooner
• Encourages informed decision-making
• Supports autonomy during labor
• Builds confidence and trust in their body’s signals
• Reduces feelings of helplessness when unexpected situations arise

As practitioners, we can help clients understand that their voice matters throughout the birth process.

How Can Pelvic Health Therapists Help Clients Trust Their Bodies?

Helping clients trust their body’s wisdom is one of the most valuable gifts we can offer during pregnancy.

Many clients have spent years questioning their instincts or minimizing their experiences. Birth often brings these patterns to the surface.

Consider encouraging clients to:

• Notice what feels supportive or comfortable in their body
• Practice listening to internal sensations without judgment
• Explore movement and positioning that feels natural
• Develop confidence in expressing what they are experiencing
• Recognize that intuition and clinical guidance can coexist

When clients learn to trust their own experience, they often enter labor with greater confidence and less fear.

Why Is Validating Your Client’s Experience So Important?

Validating your client’s experience helps build the foundation for confidence, agency, and self-trust.

Many women have experienced some form of dismissal throughout their lives:

• “It’s not that bad.”
• “You’re overreacting.”
• “That’s normal.”
• “You shouldn’t feel that way.”

When practitioners consistently listen and validate, clients learn that their experiences matter.

Ways to validate clients:

• Ask open-ended questions
• Reflect back what you hear
• Avoid minimizing concerns
• Acknowledge uncertainty when appropriate
• Honor their lived experience

What Role Does Emotional Healing Play in Birth Preparation?

Emotional patterns often show up during labor just as much as physical patterns.

The conversation with Ama highlighted a powerful truth: unresolved experiences from childhood, relationships, or previous births can influence how clients respond during labor.

Areas that may be worth exploring include:

• Difficulty speaking up for needs
• Fear of authority figures
• Boundary challenges
• Perfectionism
• People-pleasing tendencies
• Previous birth trauma

As pelvic health therapists, we don’t need to become psychotherapists. However, we can recognize when these patterns emerge and encourage clients to seek appropriate support when needed.

How Can Practitioners Promote Self-Advocacy in Birth?

Promoting self-advocacy in birth begins long before labor starts.

Clients often need permission and practice before they can confidently speak up in high-pressure situations.

Helpful coaching questions include:

• What kind of birth experience do you hope to have?
• What are your non-negotiables?
• Who will help advocate for you if you’re focused inward during labor?
• How will you communicate concerns if something doesn’t feel right?
• What questions would you like to ask your provider?

Practical strategies include:

• Creating flexible birth preferences
• Role-playing conversations with providers
• Discussing common labor scenarios
• Reviewing informed consent principles
• Encouraging clients to ask questions during prenatal appointments

Why Are Doulas, Partners, and Advocates So Important?

Labor is often not the ideal time for critical thinking and decision-making.

During active labor, many women naturally shift into a more instinctual state. This is where a trusted support team becomes invaluable.

A strong support team can:

• Help communicate preferences
• Ask questions on the client’s behalf
• Provide emotional reassurance
• Create a sense of safety
• Help clients stay focused on labor

For clients who tend to be quiet or accommodating, having a strong advocate in the room can be especially beneficial.

What Should Clients Know About Their Options During Labor?

Many clients are unaware of how much agency they actually have.

While every situation is unique, clients can often:

• Ask questions before consenting to procedures
• Request clarification
• Seek alternatives
• Ask for additional time when appropriate
• Request a different provider or nurse if needed
• Involve their support team in discussions

Helping clients understand their options before labor can significantly reduce anxiety and increase confidence.

How Can Pelvic Health Therapists Create More Empowered Birth Experiences?

Empowering your clients doesn’t mean encouraging conflict. It means helping them become active participants in their own care.

When clients trust themselves, understand their options, and have strong support systems, they are often better equipped to navigate the unpredictability of birth.

As practitioners, we have the opportunity to:

• Validate their experiences
• Foster self-trust
• Encourage informed decision-making
• Promote self-advocacy in birth
• Support emotional as well as physical preparation

Sometimes the most important birth prep isn’t teaching an exercise – it’s helping a client discover that they are the expert on their body and that their voice matters.

Timestamps From This Episode

[00:00:00] Introduction

• Meet Ama Karikari, author, attorney, and founder of the Soaring Sister Community
• Supporting mothers through healing, empowerment, and self-advocacy

[00:01:00] The Most Important Thing Birth Professionals Can Do

• Why listening and validating your client’s experience matters
• Helping women feel heard and respected during pregnancy and birth

[00:03:15] When Women Are Told Their Experience Isn’t Real

• Common examples of invalidation during labor
• The impact of dismissing a mother’s intuition and body awareness

[00:05:00] Helping Clients Find Their Voice Before Birth

• Encouraging self-expression during labor
• Why birth is a time for expression, not suppression

[00:07:30] Trusting Body Wisdom During Labor

• Ama’s experience giving birth on hands and knees
• Following what feels right in your body versus following routine protocols

[00:10:15] Why Self-Trust Matters in Birth Preparation

• Recognizing mothers as experts on their own bodies
• Balancing provider expertise with personal intuition

[00:11:45] The Role of Doulas and Birth Advocates

• How doulas can bridge communication gaps in labor
• Supporting mothers when they feel unheard

[00:13:30] The Hidden Work of Birth Preparation

• Why emotional healing matters before becoming a parent
• Exploring the connection between inner child healing and motherhood

[00:16:00] How Childhood Experiences Show Up During Birth

• Mother wounds, boundaries, and people-pleasing patterns
• Understanding how past experiences influence labor and parenting

[00:20:15] Empowerment Through Boundaries and Self-Advocacy

• Learning to speak up respectfully
• Honoring family wisdom while making independent decisions

[00:24:00] Why Practitioners Must Do Their Own Inner Work

• Healing ourselves to better support clients
• Conscious parenting, self-awareness, and therapeutic presence

[00:27:00] Supporting Clients Who Want an Alternative Birth Experience

• Navigating hospital births while maintaining autonomy
• Creating supportive birth environments regardless of location

[00:31:00] When Clients Feel Judged or Dismissed in the Medical System

• Practical strategies for self-advocacy
• Knowing when and how to ask for support

[00:33:30] A Simple Communication Tool for Difficult Conversations

• Repeating a provider’s statement back to them
• Bringing awareness to dismissive or invalidating language

[00:35:30] The Importance of Support Systems During Birth

• Why clients should not enter birth feeling alone
• Building an advocacy team of partners, doulas, family, and friends

[00:37:45] Understanding Maternal Health Disparities

• Discussion of the Black maternal health crisis
• The importance of awareness, advocacy, and support

[00:41:00] Questions Clients Can Ask During Labor

• How to encourage informed decision-making
• Understanding options and maintaining agency during birth

[00:43:00] Helping Clients Stay in Their Birth Space

• Why laboring mothers should not have to manage every decision
• The critical role of partners and support people

[00:45:00] Final Reflections on Empowered and Sacred Birth

• Trusting yourself
• Finding your voice
• Supporting mothers in creating meaningful birth experiences

Resources & Links Mentioned

Books

• A Silence to Soaring by Ama Karikari
  • Healing from chronic silent treatment, emotional abuse, and toxic relationships
• No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz
  • Introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS)
  • Understanding and healing wounded parts of ourselves

Therapeutic Models & Concepts

• Internal Family Systems (IFS)
  • Developed by Richard Schwartz
  • Framework for understanding and healing different “parts” of the self
  • Commonly used for trauma healing, self-awareness, and emotional growth
• Inner Child Healing
  • Exploring unresolved childhood experiences
  • Understanding how early relational patterns affect adulthood, relationships, and birth experiences
• Self-Advocacy in Birth
  • Communicating needs, preferences, and concerns during labor
  • Supporting informed consent and autonomy
• Validating Your Client’s Experience
  • Active listening
  • Reflective communication
  • Building trust and emotional safety
• Body Wisdom
  • Trusting internal sensations and intuition during labor
  • Following positions and movements that feel supportive
• Agency in Birth
  • Recognizing that clients have choices and options throughout labor
  • Participating actively in decision-making

Key Topics Covered In This Episode

• Empowering your clients during pregnancy and birth
• Promoting self-advocacy in birth
• Validating your client’s experience
• Emotional preparation for birth
• Inner child healing and motherhood
• Trauma-informed care
• Birth autonomy
• Hospital birth navigation
• Partner and doula advocacy
• Maternal health disparities
• Therapeutic presence for practitioners
• Building confidence and trust in body wisdom

Frequently Asked Questions

How can pelvic health therapists help clients advocate for themselves during labor?

Pelvic health therapists can encourage clients to ask questions, clarify birth preferences, practice communication skills, understand their options, and build a strong support team before labor begins.

Why is validating your client’s experience important during pregnancy?

Validation helps clients develop self-trust, confidence, and emotional safety. When clients feel heard, they are often more comfortable expressing concerns and making informed decisions during birth.

What is the role of self-advocacy in birth?

Self-advocacy allows clients to communicate their needs, preferences, and concerns throughout labor. It supports informed consent, autonomy, and collaboration with the healthcare team.

What should be included in comprehensive birth preparation?

Comprehensive birth preparation includes physical readiness, emotional preparation, education about labor options, communication skills, support planning, and strategies for promoting self-advocacy in birth.

About Today’s Speaker

Ama K. Karikari, Esq. is a transformational guide, author, and community leader dedicated to helping mothers heal from emotional abuse, toxic relationships, and chronic silence. Drawing from her own lived experience, as well as a distinguished background in law, finance, and entrepreneurship, she creates empowering spaces where women can reclaim their voice, confidence, and sense of self. Ama holds degrees from Harvard University, The Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and is the founder of supportive communities, courses, and restorative circles that help women move from surviving to thriving. She is also an accomplished author whose work explores themes of healing, identity, resilience, and personal transformation.

Learn More About Ama and Access Her Free Book

Connect With Lynn

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

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