"Her rational brain said this is what happens at the border sometimes. Her body registered it as a sexual assault."
Explore this episode and deeper teachings on somatic sexual healing: https://rahichun.com/podcast/tema-mercado-birth-consent-sexuality/
Who this episode is for: Anyone navigating postpartum disconnection, birth trauma, or the quiet question of whether desire and a felt sense of self can return after everything the body has been through.
Tema Mercado is a Licensed Midwife in California, Partera Profesional Certificada in Mexico, and founder of La Matriz Birth in San Diego. A first-generation daughter of Purépecha and Yoreme lineage, mother of six, grandmother of two — her own births span the full spectrum from medicalized hospital settings to reverent home births. Before midwifery, she spent years as a sexual assault survivor advocate. When she entered birth work, she expected it to be different. It wasn't.
What she found in the delivery room — the same power dynamics, the same coercion, the same PTSD symptoms in mothers who were supposed to be celebrating — changed everything. Out of that recognition, she built a practice grounded in somatic consent, ancestral medicine, and the truth that sexuality doesn't disappear when motherhood begins.
In this conversation:
- Why the delivery room mirrors the power dynamics of a sexual assault investigation
- How somatic prenatal care metabolizes fear before it becomes armor in labor
- The woman who arrived saying "I have no trauma" — and what her pelvis revealed
- Why postpartum loss of desire is almost never about hormones
- How a father's newborn caregiving rewires his brain — and reopens intimacy
- Belly binding as ancestral somatic practice
- How being truly seen during birth transforms how a woman moves through the world
Timestamps:
- 00:08 — Tema's origin story
- 14:33 — Consent as somatic practice
- 22:58 — Ancestral medicine and belly binding
- 32:13 — The woman who "had no trauma"
- 46:18 — What actually brings desire back postpartum
- 59:29 — From disempowerment to sovereignty
Resources & Links
Tema Mercado: https://lamatrizbirth.com — @matrizmidwife
Somatic sexual healing and embodied intimacy: https://divineunionforlovers.com/course
Awaken Pleasure course: https://rahichun.com/reclaimingyourpleasure/
If this resonates — follow, share with someone postpartum or healing, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps this work reach those who are ready for it.
