Demystifying Birth Psychology
A Public Education Channel for the Birth Psychology Movement
Demystifying Birth Psychology is APPPAH’s public education channel dedicated to bringing the field of birth psychology into wider cultural awareness.
Through accessible conversations, education, and storytelling, we explore how our earliest experiences — from preconception through pregnancy, birth, infancy, and early relational life — shape the foundations of human development, health, attachment, identity, and lifelong well-being.
Hosted by Ashley Makan and Wendy Bruns, this podcast brings forward conversations with thought leaders whose work lives at the intersection of science, lived experience, somatics, consciousness, and the human condition.
Grounded in the work of APPPAH — the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health — and more than 40 years of research, education, and advocacy, each episode invites listeners into the growing field of prenatal and perinatal psychology, making the science and lived wisdom of birth psychology more accessible for families, professionals, and communities.
At its heart, Demystifying Birth Psychology exists to help reframe the beginning of life as a vital foundation for personal, relational, and cultural transformation — inviting parents, practitioners, and the public into a deeper understanding of how early experience shapes the way we grow, connect, and become. Because when we bring awareness to the beginning, we don’t just gain insight — we begin to shift the foundations of how we live, care, parent, heal, and belong.
About the Podcast
Birth psychology explores how life before and around birth shapes who we become.
Through interviews, reflective conversations, and educational episodes, Demystifying Birth Psychology explores how early experiences influence nervous system development, attachment, identity, emotional capacity, health, relationships, and our sense of belonging in the world.
This podcast is designed for parents, birth professionals, healthcare providers, educators, researchers, and anyone curious about the profound influence of early life.
Each episode invites us to look more closely at the beginning — not as a distant moment in the past, but as a living foundation that continues to shape individuals, families, and culture.
What We Explore
On Demystifying Birth Psychology, we explore topics such as:
- Prenatal and perinatal psychology
- The womb and birth environment
- Bonding, attachment, and early relational health
- Nervous system development
- Birth memory and implicit experience
- Trauma-informed and baby-aware care
- Conscious conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum
- The science of early human development
- Cultural healing through awareness of the beginning of life
Meet Your Hosts…
Ashley Makan
Ashley Makan is the Executive Director of APPPAH, a prenatal and perinatal educator, full-spectrum doula, and advocate for the field of birth psychology. Her work traces the formative influence of our earliest beginnings—where body, psyche, birth, and belonging first take shape—and explores how these foundational experiences ripple outward into embodiment, relationships, and the architecture of culture itself.
Wendy Bruns
Wendy Bruns is APPPAH’s Outreach and Communications Director and a passionate advocate for expanding public awareness of prenatal and perinatal psychology. Through her work with APPPAH, she helps bring the science and wisdom of birth psychology into broader conversation with families, professionals, and communities.
About APPPAH
APPPAH — the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health — has spent more than 40 years advancing research, education, and advocacy in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology.
APPPAH supports professionals, families, educators, researchers, and birth workers in understanding how early experiences — from preconception through infancy — shape lifelong health, relationships, and human potential.
Through education, public programs, professional training, membership, and community, APPPAH works to bring birth psychology into the wider world.
Listen & Subscribe
New episodes of Demystifying Birth Psychology are released regularly.
Subscribe and follow the podcast to join the growing conversation around birth psychology, early life, and the foundations of human experience.
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