I Had My Baby in Brazil And It Was The BEST Decision

Tune in or read the blog version below!

Why I Chose Freedom Over Safety

Most people plan their lives around safety and stability..
But I plan mine around time freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom — and that meant escaping the 9-5, having my baby in Brazil, and building a life that most people told me was reckless.

And I want to be really clear about something before we get into this:
I am not here to tell you the nomad life is easy (particularly digital nomading as a family!)

I’m here to tell you it’s worth it — and I’m going to show you exactly what that looks like, the parts the highlight reels leave out, and the one decision that changed everything for me.

Meet Danielle: Building a Location-Independent Life and Business

For those of you who are new here — hi, I’m Danielle. I’ve been traveling full-time for years, visited over 65 countries, and I’ve built a multiple six-figure online content and coaching business. I run all of it from my laptop, wherever I happen to be in the world.

Right now I’m nomading with a baby, and it’s been just over a year since we welcomed him into our world.

I gave birth last year abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with my husband Ragz by my side. Before flying there during my third trimester, neither of us have ever been to Rio, which is crazy to say out loud.

But it was the best decision.

I want to take you through the full story today — because I get questions about this literally every single week and now that it’s been over a year since I gave birth, I can really reflect on my postpartum experience and what this has meant for us as a family.

This video is for you if you’re somewhere on the spectrum of: I want this life but I have no idea if it’s actually possible — especially if you’re thinking about family, or you already have one, or you’re building a business and wondering how the nomad life fits into that.

The Decision: Overcoming Fear and Choosing Your Own Path

I want to start with the thing everyone asks me first.

“Were you scared?”

Yes. Obviously. I was terrified.

Not in the way people assume though. They think I was scared of being in a foreign country or of not speaking the language, or of something going wrong medically in Brazil.

The fear I felt was different. It was the fear that I was making the wrong choice for other people’s reasons.

Let me explain.

When I found out I was pregnant, the advice came fast and most of it was unsolicited. Like be near family, Brazil is so dangerous, c sections are only for emergencies, this isn’t the time for adventure.

And I get it. That advice comes from love and care.

But the thing is home looks different when you’re a nomad and when your husband is foreign. Ragz would have to leave the US after a few months and I would have to leave the UK if we chose either of our homes.

Ragz and I had been traveling for years. Brazil wasn’t a random choice. We had spent the pandemic in another part of the country. We had found a place where we felt grounded. We surfed there. We had a rhythm and it would be summertime.

And I had to ask myself a question that I want you to sit with too:

Is the fear I’m feeling mine — or is it someone else’s voice repeating in your head?

Because there’s a huge difference.

My fear of giving birth abroad when I actually examined it? It was almost entirely borrowed. It was my family’s fear and society’s default setting.

When I stripped that away and looked at the actual situation — good hospital, great healthcare system, my husband with me, living by the beach, my business set up to run remotely — the rational case for staying was honestly stronger than the case for upending my entire life to go back somewhere I didn’t live anymore.

We had our baby in Brazil.

And it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Giving Birth Abroad in Brazil: What It Was Really Like

I had always known I wanted an elective c section. And Brazil is one of the best countries to have one in.

My doctor was amazing, I got to choose the date and time of my baby’s birth and there were absolutely no surprises.

I scheduled the surgery at 39 weeks on February 25, 2025, at 8am, and he was born in 41 minutes.

I experienced no pain and was cleared to start surfing again 6 weeks postpartum.

I had built a business that didn’t need me to be working all the time. I had passive income streams that sustained The Wanderlover through my months of maternity.

That’s what freedom actually means. What happens when real life hits and your business can support it.

How I Built a Business That Runs Without Me

Which leads me to the next topic I want to talk about the business side of this because this is where I think people have the most confusion.

The number one question I get is: How do you keep a business running when you’re pregnant, or when you have a newborn?

And my answer is always the same: you build it to run without you before you need it to.

This is not something you figure out in the third trimester. This is something you build from day one.

When I started Wanderlover Business Academy — when I created The Travel Influencer Handbook — when I built Digital Nomad Society — I was thinking about this from the start.

Not because I knew I was going to have a baby in Brazil. But because I was traveling. And when you travel, your life is inherently inconsistent. You don’t have the same desk every day. You don’t have the same Wi-Fi. You don’t have the same schedule.

So I had to build something that could flex.

The Systems Behind Passive Income and Flexibility

Here’s what that actually looked like for me:

Number one — digital products that sell while you sleep.

My courses and handbook are always available for purchase and they have marketing running to them 24/7. They don’t require me to be available. Someone can buy The Travel Influencer Handbook at 3am in Tokyo while I’m surfing in Brazil. That’s the baseline. Passive income is powerful.

Number two — content that makes money on autopilot.

My blog and podcast provide monthly revenue because of advertising. And this is not something available on all platforms, like Instagram doesn’t offer this for example. This is why I’m super intentional about building things with longevity, and why I’m focusing so much on YouTube now.

So right now recording YouTube videos will hopefully provide another income stream if I were to have another baby in the future.

Number three — I was honest with my coaching clients.

Private coaching and running masterminds is the one piece that requires me directly. And I was upfront. I told clients where I was in my pregnancy and I didn’t try to pretend I was superwoman.

People respect honesty more than you think.

And here’s the thing I want to say directly to anyone building a business right now:

If your business can only run when you’re 100% available, you don’t have a business. You have a job.

The whole point of an online business — especially the kind we build in this community — is that it gives your life room to breathe. It gives you room to go have a baby in Brazil. Room to travel and enjoy life the way you want to.

If you haven’t built that flexibility in yet, that is the work. That is the most important thing you can do this year.

The Reality of Running a Business as a New Mom

I want to be honest about something else though.

It was not all smooth. There were weeks postpartum where I was just, not functional. Where the baby wasn’t sleeping and I wasn’t sleeping and I looked at my phone and the thought of writing a single email felt impossible.

And those weeks were hard. Because I was holding this identity of the person who has it together and reality was humbling me very quickly.

I think a lot of creator moms — or honestly any parent building a business — carry this pressure to prove that they can do it all perfectly, simultaneously, and operating at the same level pre-baby.

And that pressure is a lie we tell ourselves.

You have to build something that can hold you when you can’t hold everything.

That’s the real lesson.

You can read more here about my secret to thriving as an entrepreneurial mom.

The Truth About the Digital Nomad Life With a Baby

Here’s what the digital nomad life with a baby actually looks like because I want to give you the full picture and not just the highlights.

Airports are harder. Full stop. You have a carry-on, a stroller, a baby who’s decided this is the moment to have a breakdown, and you’re trying to get through security. It’s a lot.

You will not be able to stop thinking about your baby. Your days and weeks and months and years revolve around your baby’s feeds and naps and care. Which means your priorities completely change whether you want them to or not.

Your identity shifts. I had been Danielle-the-traveler, Danielle-the-creator, Danielle-the-business-owner for years. Suddenly I was also Danielle-the-mom, and those identities don’t always feel like they fit together cleanly at first.

I had to do a lot of internal work to integrate all of that.

Also nd the judgment doesn’t stop. People have opinions. Strangers on the internet have opinions. Family members who love you have opinions. And you have to build a level of self-trust that is stronger than all of it.

The Upside: Raising a Child Without Limits

But here’s the other side.

My son is growing up watching his parents build something. He’s going to know that work isn’t a place you go, it’s a thing you create and design around your life.

He’s going to have a passport full of stamps before he can read his own name.

He was born in Brazil with 3 citizenships. That’s a part of his story and I think it’s a beautiful one.

Ragz and I get to raise him around the world in many different cultures and ideas of what life is supposed to look like, so that he is not confined to one way of thinking.

The Framework: How to Build a Freedom-Based Life

If you’re watching this and you’re somewhere at the beginning — you want this life but you don’t know how to build it — let me give you the framework.

Step one: Build the income before you build the freedom.

I see so many people quit their jobs and then try to build a business from a beach somewhere. That’s doing it backwards. Build the income stream first. Even if it’s small or a few hundred dollars a month from a digital product. Prove the model before you bet your life on it.

Step two: Choose your base before you go fully nomadic

Ragz and I didn’t just wander randomly. We had bases. Places we returned to. Brazil was one of them. Having a base — a place that knows you, where you have community, where you can ground — that changes everything.

Step three: Build your support system intentionally

Your village doesn’t have to be geographic. My community is global. My clients, my students, my online friends — they showed up for me harder than a lot of people who live in my hometown. Build the community. Don’t wait for it to appear.

Step four: Give yourself permission to redefine normal

This is the one nobody talks about. The biggest block isn’t money. It isn’t logistics. It’s the story you’ve been told about what a normal life looks like. Normal job. Normal hospital. Normal neighborhood.

You are allowed to write a different story.

I am living proof that you are allowed to write a different story.

Stop Borrowing Fear and Start Trusting Yourself

At the beginning of this video I asked you a question.

Is the fear you’re feeling yours — or is it someone else’s fear that you borrowed?

I want to leave you with that.

Because most of the time when we stay small, when we play it safe, when we don’t go — it’s not our own voice telling us not to. It’s accumulated voices. Parents, teachers, society, algorithm comments from strangers.

And here I am. I had my baby in Brazil. I ran my business from my phone. I surf. I travel. I build. I am raising a child who will grow up knowing that the world is hers.

That is the life I chose.

And it started with one decision to stop borrowing other people’s fear and start trusting my own vision.

If you’re ready to start building that — I’ve linked everything in the blog links above. The Academy, the Handbook, the community. Come find us.

And if this blog hit something for you — share it with someone who needs to hear it. You never know who’s on the edge of a decision that could change their entire life.

I’ll see you next week.

Read Next

Navigating Marriage, Business, and Full-Time Travel as a Digital Nomad

My Birth Story in Rio de Janeiro

How to Give Birth in Brazil as a Foreigner: Everything You Need to Know 

10 Lessons from 10 Weeks of Motherhood

Traveling With A Baby! Digital Nomad Life as a Family

My 3-Month Maternity Leave Recap and Insights

Wondering If Motherhood Is For You? Here’s What Helped Me Decide

Reflections From My Wales Road Trip

Tips for Traveling With A Baby

My Secret Formula for Thriving as an Entrepreneurial Mom

1 Year of Motherhood Reflections