What happens when a woman’s pain is dismissed at one of the most vulnerable moments of her life?
For Jenny Hoffmann, it nearly cost her everything. Just hours after giving birth to her daughter, Jenny hemorrhaged internally while medical staff brushed off her repeated cries for help. “I kept saying it really hurt,” she remembers, as Motrin was offered while she was losing over two liters of blood.
In this raw and powerful conversation, Jenny and I uncover the haunting parallels in our own birth experiences — moments of crisis where women’s instincts were ignored until it was almost too late. Our dialogue reveals a troubling truth about maternal healthcare: women’s voices are often minimized, even in life-threatening situations.
But Jenny’s story doesn’t stop with survival. Nine years later, she founded Story of Strength, a groundbreaking organization that gathers women’s stories of birth complications and transforms them into actionable data for systemic change. With her background in bioengineering, Jenny bridges the deeply personal with the scientific, creating resources that can influence healthcare policy, inspire innovation, and ultimately save lives.
This episode explores:
Why postpartum hemorrhage remains the leading — and preventable — cause of maternal mortality worldwide
The lifelong psychological impact of birth trauma
How storytelling can be both healing for individuals and revolutionary for healthcare systems
Jenny’s voice is a reminder that trusting our instincts and speaking our truth isn’t just survival — it’s advocacy. And every story told creates space for another woman to be heard.
🎧 Listen now to hear how Jenny turned her trauma into a movement — and how your story might change someone else’s outcome.
Connect with Jenny on Story of Strength, where you can also share your postpartum birth experiences and support the work she is doing.
Sign up for her Newsletter to get updates about her upcoming book release in October.
You can also find her on Social:
LinkedIn – Jenny Hoffmann
Facebook – Story of Strength
Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.
New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.
For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit
xo, Danielle
