Birthing at Home: A Podcast

This is the 70th birth story and it’s shared by Haley mum of 2 living on Awabakal country. 

After a traumatic first caesarean with her first baby Nora, Haley eventually chose to hire a private midwife and plan her homebirth and vaginal birth after caesarean with baby Remy. 

Haley shares her pregnancy journey, her labour at home and ultimately the decision to transfer into hospital, which ended up resulting in a second caesarean. Hale...

This episode is a part of the homebirth around the World Series. 

In this episode, I chat with Renee, a community midwife or a ‘LMC’ on the North Island of Aotearoa  ‘New Zealand’. 

I was really excited to chat with Renee as New Zealand is often looked up to in terms of its midwifery care and homebirth access. Renee shares her journey to becoming a midwife and how the system works in Aotearoa. We cover homebirth rates and access, the...

Episode 69 is shared by Brooke, a first time mum who chose to freebirth her first baby, Mana-kai. 

Brooke talks us through her pregnancy, her reflections on mothering and grieving her maiden self and then her very cosy birth of Mana-kai, labouring without electricity due to power outages for much of her labour. 

She also shares her post partum journey, chatting about breastfeeding and the challenges of her prolapse.  

Resources: 

• H...

Episode 68 is shared by Genna who lives on Wurunderji land. After Genna’s IVF journey, she chose to have a homebirth with her first baby, Freddie through the publicly funded homebirth program. She also shares how invaluable midwifery care was during her pregnancy, labour, birth and post partum experience, especially in the context of her significant prior mental health struggles including at the time undiagnosed ASD, and her ADHD, ...

This is the first episode of Homebirth Around The World. A series where I chat with homebirth midwives and they share how homebirth works in their area. From cost, culture, insurance, becoming a homebirth midwife and working as one, this series aims to try and dy-mystify homebirth and raise awareness for homebirth. 

In this episode, I chat with Lucy from @lucybuddingwood who shares her journey to becoming an indepedent private midwi...

Episode 67 is shared by Amy who lives on Gubbi Gubbi country in Queensland. Amy shares her two homebirth stories, which includes one in a publicly funded hospital homebirth program and then her second with a private midwife. We chat about her experiences with both models, her episiotomy  and then her fear around tearing, her desire for a water birth and so much more. 

Please make sure to share this episode or any others you’ve liste...

Episode 66 shared by Tegan in Queensland. 

This episode unfortunately, is a roller coaster & I’m so grateful to Tegan for sharing her story. It’s difficult to summarise Tegan’s story into a quick intro, but how’s this - after being accepted and excluded from the local publicly funded program MULTIPLE times in her pregnancy with her second baby, Tegan made the decision to birth at home, unassisted. We talk about so much in this e...

This is episode 65 and it’s shared by Meg in NSW who shares her experience being a first time mum who chose to have a homebirth. 

She shares her journey to finding homebirth, her pregnancy journey, the birth of her baby girl Dylan & then her post partum experience including post partum hameomorrahe and breastfeeding difficulties influenced by a severe tongue tie. 

A fantastic episode for anyone planning a homebirth for the first ...

Episode 64 is shared by Amber who is a mum to two homebirth babies. 

Today she shares the fantastic story of the birth of Delilah at 42 + 5 weeks at home, and then the birth of Bette, who was a planned homebirth with midwives, but ended up being an accidental freebirth at home  as the midwives didn’t make it in time! 

We also chat about family centred birth and changing the narrative around homebirth and birth. 

Resources

• Evidence ...

Episode 63 is shared by the amazing Alice. 

Alice is the creator of Halo Mumma, which is a free website resource to support those on their pregnancy after loss journey. 

Alice herself today shares the loss of her twins Ayla and Millie, and the trauma which this created, not just from the pregnancy, but the induction of labour, post partum, and including a delayed PPH. 

During the pregnancy of her rainbow baby, Vinny, she ended up swit...

This is the 62nd episode and it’s shared by mum of 3, Mel from Newcastle who shares her incredible stories with having 2 babies after 42 weeks and planning 3 home births through the publicly funded system. 

Mel chose to have a publicly funded homebirth with her first baby, but at 42 weeks, she was coerced into an induction due to the criteria of the program. After a 5 day induction, Oscar was born. 

For her second baby, she planned a...

In episode 61, I chat with Emma who is a student nurse and midwife who shares her positive homebirth turned hospital birth story. 

After labouring for well over 20 hours at home, Emma was forced to come to terms with transferring to hospital. We chat about her experience of a publicly funded (ie. free) homebirth program, having a doula, her long labour, the emotional journey of accepting the need to transfer, and she also shares her...

This is the 60th birth at home story!
And it shared by Racheal in Victoria, mum to 2 babies both born at home. Growing up Rachael, alike many people, thought homebirth was a bit ‘woo woo’. Meeting her home birthed husband, now paramedic, they began on a homebirth journey for their 2 babies, choosing private midwifery care.
We also chat about the emotional experience of the baby when it is born, its transition to life outs...

This is another partner episode in the partners supporting birth at home series.

Today Cian, dad to 2 girls, shares his experience witnessing two very different births, a c-section and then a homebirth after caesarean. As with all the partner episodes be sure to share them, as we reflect in this episode, they are powerful and play an important role in understanding, choosing and feeling comfortable with homebirth. 

In episode 59, Sahara a midwife and IBCLC shares her 3 homebirth stories. 
Sahara shares her journey to finding homebirth and choosing to become a midwife. We then hear about her experience in a publicly funded homebirth program during the start of COVID 19 in Melbourne and the challenges she faced — she then shares her two home births under the care of private midwives. We go on some interesting tangents in this episode and we...

Episode 58 is shared by Sam from WA. She is a midwife of 13 years, who has recently become endorsed and is working privately. She is mum to 3 children, 2 of which were born at home. Today she shares her story of finding homebirth and eventually having 2 of her own homebirths. She shares her birth stories and we chat parenthood along the way. 

Resources: 

• Fiona Hallinan https://www.thepelvicspace.com.au/

Support the ...

This is birth story 57, and it is shared by Monique from the Northern Beaches in Sydney. She shares her freebirth story with her first baby, Jonathan or Jojo. Monique’s normal boring freebirth story is so interesting given her own birth imprint includes both her and her brother being born via c-section. 
It’s a beautiful story and lovely to listen to how Monique learnt about freebirth and the confidence she had in her body. 

In episode 56, Emily, an emergency nurse who chose to homebirth with her first baby 'Benson' shares her unexpected, non-emergency transfer to hospital story. 
Emily shares her pregnancy journey, her labour at home, and her decision to transfer into hospital, where she had a very positive experience in birthing Benson in an assisted vaginal birth, supported by her private midwife. 
She also shares some insights int...

Episode 55 is shared by Emilie who is a Melbourne based doula, and HBAC mama who today shares her two extremely different experiences. She birthed her first baby Reuben under general anesthic during COVID in the UK, an experience which she soon after recieved a PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) diagnosis from. Following moving to Australia, Emilie was determined to have a different experience and so chose to homebirth daughter ...