642 | Erin Holland - Twenty Rounds of IVF, IUGR Baby, planned Caesarean, great breastfeeding experience

In this episode Erin Holland takes us from the very beginning, when a routine AMH blood test sent her and her husband Ben looking for answers, through four egg retrieval cycles, two spontaneous pregnancies that ended in loss, an ectopic pregnancy treated in Melbourne while she was away for work, a …

Midwife Jo Hunter- Why Home Birth Is on the Line in Australia

Jo Hunter has been at the heart of the home birth movement in Australia for almost thirty years. She birthed three of her four babies at home, became the National Convener of Home Birth Australia, worked as a doula and childbirth educator, and then studied midwifery and went straight into private p…

640 | Laura - physiological birth, public hospital, midwife, early pregnancy bleed, The Birth Class

In this episode I chat with Laura, a midwife and first time mother from Melbourne who birthed her daughter Ariella in the very hospital where she works. Laura takes us through an unexpected pregnancy discovery during a fertility ultrasound, a frightening early bleed on the same day, a week of frust…

639 | Mel elective caesarean, pregnancy loss, emetophobia - fear of vomiting,

Today I chat to Mel about her path into motherhood. Mel met her partner Antonio later in life, after having come to terms with the idea that she might never become a mother. Living with emetophobia, a fear of vomiting, shaped nearly every decision Mel made in pregnancy, from her choice of care prov…

638 | Kate Jones - Vaginal water birth, Gosford Hospital, fertility tracking, short cord

Today I chat to Kate Jones about becoming a mum for the first time to her daughter Lila. Kate takes us through months of frustrating fertility tracking, a tricky local hospital landscape after her area's only private birthing suite closed, and the vaginal water birth she had hoped for from the very…

637 | Beth - two physiological births, MGP, unmedicated hospital birth and a family centered home birth

Beth shares two beautiful birth stories. Her first with Bernie was an unmedicated hospital birth at the Mercy, and Quinn's home birth through the Joan Kerner programme, where her partner Paddy caught their daughter in their own lounge room. Beth talks honestly about the power of continuity of care,…

636 | Sarah Viliamu - two contrasting births, induction, miscarriage, pregnancy after loss, doula support, spontaneous labour, Pink Elephants

In this episode, I chat to Sarah Viliamu, content creator, model and founder of The Self Love Supply, about her two very different birth experiences four years apart. Her first birth took place in Melbourne during the height of the 2020 lockdowns and ended in a long induction with a frightening pos…

Mel | IVF, emergency caesarean, postpartum anxiety and depression, mother and baby unit stay

In this episode I chat to Mel about her road to motherhood, which began with a year of unexplained infertility and a round of IVF squeezed in during a short trip home from remote Northern Territory. Her pregnancy played out almost entirely in a small community several hours from the nearest town be…

It’s Time to Fix Postpartum Care with Senator Marielle Smith

In this episode, I speak with Senator Marielle Smith about the newly established Senate Select Committee on Women’s Health and what it could mean for women and families across Australia. We unpack what a Senate Select Committee actually is, how it differs from a Royal Commission or state-based inq…

Mia | Two vaginal births, birth centre, single mum to blended family, Canberra

In this episode I chat to Mia, a mother of two living in Canberra, about her two vaginal births, close in age but very different in circumstance. Mia's first birth followed an unplanned pregnancy at twenty three, was quick  and left her with a healthy respect for gas and air. Her second birth was c…