Birthing at Home: A Podcast
Hosted by Elsie. Homebirth mama x2, mental health nurse, and an ex-student midwife that still has a strong passion for birth and supporting women. Sharing stories from births at home around Australia. Using the power of story telling, this podcast will hopefully empower, inspire, and motivate. If you would like to share your birth at home story, please reach out at 'birthingathome_apodcast' on Instagram - I would love to hear it!
Episodes
Episode 40! Today we hear how after 4 obstetric led hospital births, Kate began exploring her options for birth at home - but with uncertainty around private midwife availability, Kate instead chose to have a freebirth with her 5th baby. Whilst we don't cover her 4 hospital births in detail Kate does not go in to detail about her 4 hospital births however it is helpful to note that she experienced a post ...
Episode 39 is shared by first time mum, Chloe, who had a homebirth with her baby Matilda.
This story is actually pretty amazing - it’s not often that you come across birth at home stories, where the intention and prearation has spanned a number of years - especially with your first baby — which is what Chloe did and shares today!
This is such a good example of how pregnancy and birth should be, feeli...
Episode 38 is a first time mum freebirth story from Bronnie in Melbourne. Bronnie shares how she grew up petrified to be pregnant but after a lot of self discovery and unlearning, she set her intention to freebirth her first baby. In this episode we talk about the mental and emotional work that goes into planning a freebirth, healing, media shaming of social media freebirth communities, and then her quick, int...
Today I chat with Anna as a part of the midwife stories series.
Anna is actually Swedish and currently lives in her midwitch cottage in Sweden, but to my delight, the day of this interview, I learnt she studied and practiced midwifery in Australia!
She shares her eclectic journey pre birth work and how her passion for human rights is what has continued to motivate her in this work. Anna has so much k...
Episode 37 is shared today by Emma in South Australia. Emma is a Mental Health Doula with 2 children, 1 who was born at home! Today she shares what a mental health doula is, her work in post partum and antenatal counselling, the importance of post partum planning, and of course her experience in finding and choosing homebirth! A very interesting episode especially if, like me initially, you aren't sure of...
Episode 36 is shared by mum to 4 under 6 years, Shelby. Shelby felt naive going in to her first 2 births, and although she learnt about homebirth (via freebirth first!) after her 2nd baby, she chose to have another birth centre birth. It wasn't until after reflection many months later, that she decided for her 4th baby she would plan a homebirth. An episode that makes you think about why 3 non-homebirths ...
Episode 35 is shared by Courtney, a doula and personal trainer, in NSW. After never really thinking of having children, Courtney ended up in a birth rabbit hole which led her to choosing a birth centre birth for her first baby, and then in an effort to reduce the risk of more interventions, she chose homebirth with her second baby. We chat about birth, pregnancy, post partum & all the varying experiences. ...
Episode 34 is from Mel, who whilst recording her homebirth story on the podcast in episode 11, was planning a frebirth during her wild pregnancy with Lakai. So today, we hear the beautiful and inspiring story of how Mel birthed Lakai at home, trusting her body and intuition completely, having done a lot of preperation for this radical responsiblity.
Links to resources:
- What is a Mother Blessing/B...
Episode 33 on the 22nd...fitting for a twin freebirth story, and not just any story - because we know these are special...but Georgia shares how she only found out she was having twins as Freddy was being born!
Georgia talks us through her first birth with daughter 'Bo' and the immense trauma she experienced. It is an example of how denying women options based on 'low risk' 'high ...
Episode 32 --- what a feel good episode! Was so great to chat with Britt from Perth who had homebirths with all 4 of her babies, and with all 4 she had the same midwife as a part fo her care! We chat all things physiological birth and how although all born at home, they were all individual birth experiences.
A great episode for anyone planning a homebirth!
Links to resources:
Today's midwife story is from Ineka - mum of one little boy born at home, and a homebirth/private midwife. Ineka is based in the Newcastle region and today share's how initially, she didn't think she would be able to get the results to be accepted in to a Bachelor of Midwifery program. After some soul searching through travel, including attending a talk by Ina May Gaskin, Ineka returned to Austr...
Episode 31 is shared by the amazing Crystal who after having had a traumatic hospital birth, had 4 births at home, 3 of which were freebirths. They weren't without their challenges but these stories reinforce that every birth is different, and that in today’s westernised societies especially, we are encouraged to only view one version of birth as ‘normal’ the one that is usually labelled as ‘low risk’. It...
Episode 30! Today's episode is shared by (Adelle) Del from Perth. Del talks us through her journey to finding homebirth. Going in to her first birth hoping for a 'low intervention birth' ended in fighting a diagnosis of down syndrome, then finding an induction and eventually falling victim to the cascade of intervention which ended with a traumatic c-section. Determined to reclaim her power that...
Episode 29! Wow, I really loved hearing Rachel's stories. Rachel is mum of 4 from Aotearoa that had her first 2 babies in a 'maternity home' or birth centre in Aotearoa, then travelled to Australia planning her first homebirth which resulted in a traumatic transfer related to bleeding in her pregnancy, which also was retraumatsising. Rachel then returned to Aotearoa and had a wild pregnancy and ...
Episode 28 is shared by Madi a first time mum that trusted her body and birth so much that she freebirthed with her first baby. Madi discusses her decision to freebirth as a first time mum, her initial fears, and what helped her overcome and work with her fears. This is a great example of trusting your self, your body and trusting your intuition.
Links:
- The Authentic Birthkeeper https://www.insta...
In today’s episode, as a part of the midwife stories series, I chat with Jessie, mum to 4, including 1 born at home, and midwife and academic from the Sunshine Coast on Gubi Gubi country. Very specially, Jessie was also one of my own tutors as a student midwife. In this episode, we chat about how Jessie found midwifery, her work as a midwife and birth culture in Australia. It was amazing to speak with jessie a...
Welcome to episode 27! In this weeks episode, Nathalie shares her journey to finding homebirth, after having a very negative experience in the hospital system, further complicated by the label of gestational diabetes. Nathalie thought that she could navigate the system with her GDM diagnosis, however over half way through her 2nd pregnancy, her doula suggested finding a homebirth private midwife to support her...
In episode 26, Shelby from Western Australia shares her amazing freebirth with her first baby, Hawk - she is also planning her second freebirth for early-mid 2024! You don't come across a lot of freebirth stories as a first time mum - so this is such a beautiful story to add to teh collection of women taking back their power and autonomy in birth --- it also highlights problems with the maternity system, ...
In episode 25, Jordan is joined by her husband Ryan, to share the story of the birth of Leo at home. Jordan is a first time mum to Leo and a midwife that has worked in the medical maternity system in NSW and was able to see firsthand how intervention was the cause of so many women needing to be 'saved'. This is a beautiful story and features a lot of great resouces linked below!
YOU TOO can...
In episode 24 Alaura, the partner of Trent who shared his experience of homebirth a few episodes ago, shares with us her birth of baby Arius. As we know, homebirth for first time mums is relatively rare, but through preconception education, Alaura knew homebirth was the best option for her, even when the GP tried to talk her out of it!
All first time mums should hear this beautiful story!
L...
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