Legacy Mentor Series: Healing Our Own Birth Story with Jo Kilburn

In this Mentor Legacy series episode, I am introducing you to Hypnobirthing educator and doula Jo Kilburn. Jo welcomed me in as a new educator. We later became President and Vice President of the San Diego Birth Network and loved serving our community together. Jo was one of my early education mentors, modeling non-competitive, hands-on, engaging education. She then went on to show me what “normal” birth looked like – not what has become “normalized” in the birth room of today.

Jo shares her 1970s beginnings attending communal home births and explains how birth workers can hold sacred space by adapting to each family’s home, boundaries, and energy. She taught me the trick to removing disruptive people in a birth room in a calm and intuitive way so that the mother could stay in her process. Jo also helped me with the art of referring clients to other doulas when I could see that I would not be the best fit. 

Jo highlights her mentors like Ina May Gaskin, Suzanne Arms, and Anna Verwaal. Anna’s message that birth workers often need to heal their own birth stories led into Jo’s exploration of her own birth history and her advice to live joyfully and unapologetically.

I am excited for you to get to know how Jo helped expand my heart and ability to connect with birth in a vital way.

Let’s connect: Have questions or comments for this episode?   BirthEducationPodcast@gmail.com

Work with Care or Ashley: 858-251-4204