Health Content Advisory: This conversation centers on pregnancy and birth, including personal experiences. Please listen with care – mahalo. In this life-affirming episode, we sit down with PuaOEleili Pinto - mother of two, cultural health provider, and keeper of lomilomi, lāʻau lapaʻau, and Hawaiian childbirth traditions. Raised in Kailua, Oʻahu, with ancestral roots across Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, Pua honors her lineage through both research and lived practice via Ēwe ʻOiaʻiʻo, the company she founded to teach Hawaiian healing and birth. She shares how Hawaiian history, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, sound, and land restoration shaped her journey and guided the reclamation of ʻŌiwi birthing practices. Reflecting on her own birth experiences, Pua explores rebuilding trust in body wisdom, blending Hawaiian and Western healing methods, and restoring birth as a family-centered journey. The conversation also touches on food sovereignty, highlighting traditional Hawaiian food and the distinction between food and medicine, and the critical role of restoring Hawaiian forests as the foundation of well-being for all life. This episode is a reminder that indigenous practices are living, vital, and essential for healing families and communities today. Episode Highlights 00:52 – Exploring Hawaiian birth practices 01:30 – Connecting to home: Kailua 05:32 – Navigating joy and challenges in Hawaiian healing 07:21 – In her ancestors' footsteps - re-membering birth practices 10:09 – Traditional Hawaiian medicine 14:27 – Connecting past and present in birthing practices 24:16 – Creating safe birthing spaces 26:57 – Discovering pregnancy and early challenges 29:05 – Helping others overcome birth trauma 30:29 – Empowering couples in birth 32:29 – The role of ancestral practices in birth 37:22 – The importance of Hawaiian diet in pregnancy 38:38 – Advocating for Hawaiian food and food sovereignty 42:35 – Restoring the Native Hawaiian forest 46:00 – Future hopes --- 🌺 Pregnancy & Birthing Resources PuaOEleili’s Online Birth Course 👉 https://ewe-oiaio.mykajabi.com/ Cookbooks & Resource Library 👉 https://ewe-oiaio.mykajabi.com/resource-library Must We Wait in Despair 👉 https://uhawaii-manoa.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=01UHAWAII_MANOA:MANOA&docid=alma9919353764605682&context=L ʻO ʻOe nō Paha Ia e ka Lau o ke Aloha An Essay by Kīhei de Silva 👉 http://www.hikaalani.website/uploads/3/4/9/7/34977599/o_oe_no_paha_ia_for_hweb.pdf Nohopapa – Hawaiian Cultural Heritage Stewardship Services 👉 https://www.nohopapa.com/projects Motherwit – Postpartum Food Delivery 👉 https://motherwit.co/ Kauluakalana 👉 https://www.kauluakalana.org/ Native Books Hawaiʻi – Grow Hawaiʻi Book: 👉 https://www.nativebookshawaii.org/products/go-native Hawaiʻi Forest Institute – Go Native: Growing a Native Hawaiian Urban Forest: 👉 https://hawaiiforestinstitute.org/our-projects/go-native-growing-a-native-hawaiian-urban-forest/ Awaiaulu Kīpapa – Hawaiʻi History Educator Resources 👉 https://awaiaulu.org/kipapa/ 📚 PuaOEleili's Academic Research Pua kanikawī kanikawā: The Intimacy of Hawaiian Childbirth 👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/PINPKK Native Hawaiian Complementary Feeding Practices as Told by Grandparents 👉 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8242222/ --- Episode Photo: PuaOEleili Pinto and Kicking Bird Photography
Health Content Advisory: This conversation centers on pregnancy and birth, including personal experiences. Please listen with care – mahalo.
In this life-affirming episode, we sit down with PuaOEleili Pinto - mother of two, cultural health provider, and keeper of lomilomi, lāʻau lapaʻau, and Hawaiian childbirth traditions. Raised in Kailua, Oʻahu, with ancestral roots across Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, Pua honors her lineage through both research and lived practice via Ēwe ʻOiaʻiʻo, the company she founded to teach Hawaiian healing and birth. She shares how Hawaiian history, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, sound, and land restoration shaped her journey and guided the reclamation of ʻŌiwi birthing practices. Reflecting on her own birth experiences, Pua explores rebuilding trust in body wisdom, blending Hawaiian and Western healing methods, and restoring birth as a family-centered journey. The conversation also touches on food sovereignty, highlighting traditional Hawaiian food and the distinction between food and medicine, and the critical role of restoring Hawaiian forests as the foundation of well-being for all life. This episode is a reminder that indigenous practices are living, vital, and essential for healing families and communities today.
Episode Highlights
00:52 – Exploring Hawaiian birth practices
01:30 – Connecting to home: Kailua
05:32 – Navigating joy and challenges in Hawaiian healing
07:21 – In her ancestors' footsteps - re-membering birth practices
10:09 – Traditional Hawaiian medicine
14:27 – Connecting past and present in birthing practices
24:16 – Creating safe birthing spaces
26:57 – Discovering pregnancy and early challenges
29:05 – Helping others overcome birth trauma
30:29 – Empowering couples in birth
32:29 – The role of ancestral practices in birth
37:22 – The importance of Hawaiian diet in pregnancy
38:38 – Advocating for Hawaiian food and food sovereignty
42:35 – Restoring the Native Hawaiian forest
46:00 – Future hopes
Pregnancy and Birthing Resources:
PuOEleili's Academic Research
Episode Photo: PuaOEleili Pinto and Kicking Bird Photography