I wanted to stop by and say thanks for supporting this podcast, and to introduce my new one- Mum As You Are. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mum-as-you-are/id1577282849

This new podcast is unpolished and unfancy. A 10 minute or so convo each week to explore ways to work with parental burnout and depletion and isolation and guilt that are really practical, focussed on radical self-compassion and really having fun. 

This less of a here’s the A-Z on parenting topics and more about Motherhood as an identity and an institution and where mental health fits within that. 

Earlier this year I stopped using social media for my business and personally as well. It’s been one of the most rebellious things I could do and it’s been life changing. It has really brought me to question the ways in which I have used numbing and what you might call shadow comforts as replacement for real proper fun and real proper support. 

This is not about saying don’t use social media – if you are a mum in business and genuinely seen results from it more power to you sister, however, I do come from the standpoint that this is our generation’s addiction. I think mothers are settling for substandard, faux-fun and while we are familiar with the old ‘do self care” I think a huge part of what’s missing in the motherhood mental health conversation is the idea of fun – like real, belly laugh I feel like myself not just someone’s mother or a worker – fun. That’s the crux of what I’m interested in exploring here.

If you want to follow me over there, new episodes come out weekly https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mum-as-you-are/id1577282849 

You can reach me: [email protected]

Books:

More Than a Healthy Baby: Finding Strength & Growth After After Birth Trauma

https://amzn.to/3PbdohA

Birth Trauma: Tools to Cope

https://amzn.to/3Ri67i8

Courses:

Birth trauma training for birth workers the online course has over 2700 students from 42 countries

https://doctorerin.com.au/btt-full-sales-page

More Than a Healthy Baby: How to Cope With Birth Trauma is perfect for people who are navigating their own trauma.

It’s an a la carte menu of some of my best tools and strategies. It’s not a replacement for therapy but it’s a starting point.

https://www.udemy.com/course/more-than-a-healthy-baby-how-to-cope-with-birth-trauma/?referralCode=092FFCAF4E5C01984978

Course Creation for the Caring Professions - how to make your own online course!

https://doctorerin.com.au/course-creation-full-sales-page

*note* this is a very condensed version of my conversation with Bruce for those with short attention spans. It's an edited down version of a video so it will sound a little choppy. It's better viewed as a video - you can watch in both short https://youtu.be/iX0tSWeYdkU and long form on my Youtube channel https://youtu.be/XpkjS1AER4Q 

It was really important to me to have this conversation with my guest today. I’ve interviewed him as part of my second book I’m writing – parents of the pandemic but it also just made so much sense to turn our conversation into a podcast

Some of you may remember the story of Amber Rose Isaac. A beautiful soul who died a really unnecessary death. Amber had HELLP syndrome which results in low platelet counts which is treatable, except Amber was continually ignored. She knew her body. She knew she didn’t feel right and yet she kept being dismissed and ignored. It wasn’t until she decided she’d switch to a midwife and homebirth model that they discovered how high risk she was. Doctors were signing off on her bloodwork and yet by the time she went to be induced her blood was like water. Induction resulted in an emergency c-section.

Instead of being with her partner Bruce and her mum, she bled out in a hospital room alone. She didn’t even get to met her baby boy, Elias. I just don’t believe it wouldn’t have happened if she were white.

In my first book, more than a healthy baby I talk about how in the Bronx in New York City black women are 12 times more likely to die than white women. Not just statistics. I don’t want us to forget and just say “oh well, that’s sad” I want things to change. This is in 2021, not 1821.

Since I first her of her story, it has haunted me. Maybe it’s because like me, Amber had a psychology degree and was getting her masters. Maybe it’s because my parents are Glaswegian and Amber’s partner Bruce McIntyre has one of the most Scottish sounding names you can have.

Maybe because I know a little of what it’s like to lie on a hospital bed, terrified while knowing I was losing a lot of blood.

3 days before she died Amber tweeted about how she wanted to write a tell all book about the negligence. Her partner Bruce has channelled his grief into activism. It was such an honour to be able to speak with him. This episode is a little longer. It is a beautiful love story with such a tragic ending.

As you listen to Bruce and Amber’s story – I ask you to channel your sadness and anger into action. Go to the Save a Rose foundation

@savearosefoundation

https://www.gofundme.com/f/JusticeForAmberRoseIsaac?member=5876644&rcid=21691913083746949a8aff83d145f184&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=customer

More than a healthy baby: Finding strength & Growth After Birth Trauma

https://doctorerin.com.au/more-than-a-healthy-baby-birth-trauma-book/

Join over 1500 people in my Birth Trauma Training for Birth Workers

https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4

There’s also my Supporting Birth Partners After birth Trauma masterclass

https://www.udemy.com/course/supporting-partners-after-birth-trauma/?referralCode=507DAEDCAA7E7449E5FA

*note* both the full version of this interview & a 15 minute highlights reel can be found on YouTube & wherever you listen to podcasts

It was really important to me to have this conversation with my guest today. I’ve interviewed him as part of my second book I’m writing – parents of the pandemic but it also just made so much sense to turn our conversation into a podcast

Some of you may remember the story of Amber Rose Isaac. A beautiful soul who died a really unnecessary death. Amber had HELLP syndrome which results in low platelet counts which is treatable, except Amber was continually ignored. She knew her body. She knew she didn’t feel right and yet she kept being dismissed and ignored. It wasn’t until she decided she’d switch to a midwife and homebirth model that they discovered how high risk she was. Doctors were signing off on her bloodwork and yet by the time she went to be induced her blood was like water. Induction resulted in an emergency c-section.

Instead of being with her partner Bruce and her mum, she bled out in a hospital room alone. She didn’t even get to met her baby boy, Elias. I just don’t believe it wouldn’t have happened if she were white.

In my first book, more than a healthy baby I talk about how in the Bronx in New York City black women are 12 times more likely to die than white women. Not just statistics. I don’t want us to forget and just say “oh well, that’s sad” I want things to change. This is in 2021, not 1821.

Since I first her of her story, it has haunted me. Maybe it’s because like me, Amber had a psychology degree and was getting her masters. Maybe it’s because my parents are Glaswegian and Amber’s partner Bruce McIntyre has one of the most Scottish sounding names you can have.

Maybe because I know a little of what it’s like to lie on a hospital bed, terrified while knowing I was losing a lot of blood.

3 days before she died Amber tweeted about how she wanted to write a tell all book about the negligence. Her partner Bruce has channelled his grief into activism. It was such an honour to be able to speak with him. This episode is a little longer. It is a beautiful love story with such a tragic ending.

As you listen to Bruce and Amber’s story – I ask you to channel your sadness and anger into action. Go to the Save a Rose foundation

@savearosefoundation

https://www.gofundme.com/f/JusticeForAmberRoseIsaac?member=5876644&rcid=21691913083746949a8aff83d145f184&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=customer

More than a healthy baby: Finding strength & Growth After Birth Trauma

https://doctorerin.com.au/more-than-a-healthy-baby-birth-trauma-book/

Join over 1500 people in my Birth Trauma Training for Birth Workers

https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4

There’s also my Supporting Birth Partners After birth Trauma masterclass

https://www.udemy.com/course/supporting-partners-after-birth-trauma/?referralCode=507DAEDCAA7E7449E5FA

The interview with my guest today took about a year to coordinate! This happens a lot on this podcast because babies get born, we get sick, there’s the whole parenting and home schooling in a pandemic thing. There are times when I feel like I can barely run a bath let alone run a podcast, so if you’re feeling frazzled, know you are not alone!   If you are interested in trauma informed parenting, then you may have heard of the lovely Mama Manon.   No matter how much we cognitively know how we want to parent our kids, and we read books, and we take courses, we still get triggered. We still struggle with feeling resentment, rage, numbness and depletion. As a parent, I personally find Manon’s videos and resources so helpful.  When she posted a video last year about using somatic experiencing with her own traumatic birth, I knew we would get on like a house on fire. Self-compassion for our traumas is something we are all working on.   Manon has a voice that makes you feel like you’re being wrapped in a warm blanket. She combines Aware Parenting and somatic experiencing to offer deep, gentle and empowering support. She chats to me today about her birth, her healing and growth and the lessons that come with working alongside your child in that process.   

Manon offers 1-1 sessions online and in person. She also has online programs and workshops all around Australia. You can find her at https://mamamanon.com/

You can reach me: [email protected]

Books: 

More Than a Healthy Baby: Finding Strength & Growth After After Birth Trauma

https://amzn.to/3PbdohA

Birth Trauma: Tools to Cope

https://amzn.to/3Ri67i8 

Courses:

Birth trauma training for birth workers the online course has over 2700 students from 42 countries

https://doctorerin.com.au/btt-full-sales-page

More Than a Healthy Baby: How to Cope With Birth Trauma is perfect for people who are navigating their own trauma. 

It’s an a la carte menu of some of my best tools and strategies. It’s not a replacement for therapy but it’s a starting point. 

https://www.udemy.com/course/more-than-a-healthy-baby-how-to-cope-with-birth-trauma/?referralCode=092FFCAF4E5C01984978

Course Creation for the Caring Professions - how to make your own online course!

https://doctorerin.com.au/course-creation-full-sales-page 

Erin Underwood is a movement therapist from Oregon that specializes in prenatal and postnatal health. She is passionate about education around pelvic floor and core strength and function. She has studied extensively and certified and trained with the top minds in the country connected to pelvic floor and core wellness. She currently is focusing on her local community by serving through workshops to the prenatal and postnatal community as well as local birth workers, providing them with the most up to date science broken down into practical and helpful tools. She also has four beautiful boys and, post deliveries, has personally healed from a grade 2 uterine and grade 2 rectocele prolapses and a four finger Diastasis Recti using all the tools she teaches in her movement therapy, which further fuels her passion for seeing women fully functional and getting all the information necessary to heal.

Erin Underwood: https://www.erinunderwoodmovement.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erinunderwoodmovement

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinunderwoodmovement/

Free Workout Videos for Upper Body and Back Care: https://www.erinunderwoodmovement.com/pl/142602

Psoas Release Video: https://youtu.be/dMsYwy1Uolo

Pelvic Floor and Core 4 Week Class Online Series: https://www.erinunderwoodmovement.com/core-pelvic-class-lf-standard

Thriving Birth Worker Movement Method: https://www.erinunderwoodmovement.com/pl/125595

Thriving Birth Worker Podcast: https://www.erinunderwoodmovement.com/blog?tag=podcast

You can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or [email protected]

Birth trauma training for birth workers the online course now has over 670 enrolments. Most people who have never bought a course on Udemy before are able to snap it up for $14 or less. 

https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4

My other course, More Than a Healthy Baby: How to Cope With Birth Trauma is perfect for people who are navigating their own trauma. It’s an a la carte menu of some of my best tools and strategies. It’s not a replacement for therapy but it’s a starting point. Again, it’s under $100 (usually way less).

https://www.udemy.com/course/more-than-a-healthy-baby-how-to-cope-with-birth-trauma/?referralCode=092FFCAF4E5C01984978

How we birth is a political statement. Birth trauma is a political issue because it’s a human rights issue.

Imagine you’re pregnant and with kids and you’re sending your partner out for food or nappies and wondering if they’re going to be harassed, arrested or shot at?

Imagine going to the hospital to birth your baby and being told that your pain isn’t real? That you’re being too dramatic, that your health problems are your own fault. Imagine wondering if you’re even going to make it out of the hospital alive to see your family again?

In order to even begin to work on trauma, we need mothers to be alive

Black women are three to four times more likely to die in birth than white women.

Again, we’re not talking about the third world here. This is current daily life in New York City, and some stats are indicating that for new York, black women are even 12 times more likely to die than white women. This is in the Bronx, where my guests today grew up and are doing lifechanging humanitarian leadership on the ground. Brother and sister goals – the amazing Hawk and Chivona Newsome from Black Lives Matter New York chapter took time out to speak with me. We had a chat in the car while they were on their way back from delivering food to over 200 people. The Bronx is the global epicentre for covid-19. Hawk, Chivona and their team work and work and work so that people can have access to proper food, healthcare, housing and an end to oppression. I could see the see the exhaustion on their faces, and yet there’s a fire in there that can felt from oceans and oceans away.

Their parents met at a civil rights rally in the 1960’s, so you can say that they were born into this fight. They have both pledged their lives to bringing justice to this unjust system. If you can donate to the people’s food program, please do. 

https://au.gofundme.com/f/PEOPLES-FOOD-PROGRAM

Donate to Save a Rose foundation, set up by Bruce, partner of Amber Rose Isaac to raise awareness of the disparities in the maternal mortality rate amongst women of colour. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/25fr1s6epc?member=5876644&rcid=21691913083746949a8aff83d145f184&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=customer

You can watch the video version of the podcast on my IGTV @doctorerinbowe or on YouTube

Follow Hawk: @hawk.newsome

Follow Chevona: @newyorkvonni

You can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or www.doctorerin.com.au

Birth trauma training for birth workers the online course now has over 1400 students from 36 countries and 12 languages.   https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4

My other course, More Than a Healthy Baby: How to Cope With Birth Trauma is perfect for parents and birth workers who are navigating their own trauma. It’s an a la carte menu of some of my best tools and strategies. It’s not a replacement for therapy but it’s a starting point. 

https://www.udemy.com/course/more-than-a-healthy-baby-how-to-cope-with-birth-trauma/?referralCode=092FFCAF4E5C01984978

Udemy also supports affiliates. This means that if you qualify, you can use a unique code for either of my courses to add to your website, socials or to give clients and you will receive a percentage of the course fee. It’s free to register, it’s just a bit of work to get yourself signed up https://www.udemy.com/affiliate/

Let’s talk about flashbacks. When I saw midwife Kristy Watson’s ad for birth trauma research popping up on my social media feed I instantly had a flashbulb memory of being 20 and knee deep in my honours year of research. Truthfully, my memories of my honours year was that it was one of the most difficult years of my life. I was ever aware that I probably didn’t really deserve to be there. My year was a bigger intake than normal. The anxiety levels and competitiveness were high. Online research was not really viewed favourably back then, so I really felt like I was scraping together whatever research participants I could find for my project on PTSD. I did a comparison of people who were injured during trauma versus people who were not injured and found that people who sustained a physical injury had more severe PTSD symptoms. Most of those research participants were my friends and that research never saw the light of day!

So, fast forward to seeing a mum who is trying to get participants in an area I’m super passionate about, and she’s a midwife who is juggling all of this with covid-19, home schooling and 3 kids. Of course I felt pulled to help her. And, after listening to Kristy’s passion, I’m sure that anyone who can help her will want to do what they can. Ultimately, research is what leads to policies. Policies is what leads to organizations being convinced to spend money and make changes. If you can help a sister out, this could actually lead to phenomenal changes in birth trauma research.

Participant criteria:

Live in Victoria and have had a vaginal birth that was traumatic between August 2018 -August 2020 (roughly)

You can get in touch with Kristy at: [email protected] 

You can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or [email protected]

I support birthing people and birth workers in a range of ways. I do 1:1 work, supervision and mentoring, and I have a couple of online courses. 

Birth trauma training for birth workers the online course now has over 500 enrolments. Most people who are new to Udemy have snapped it up for $14 or less. The price fluctuates according to sales the platform is running, but rest assured it will remain under $99 for the foreseeable future. https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4 

My other course, More Than a Healthy Baby: How to Cope With Birth Trauma is perfect for parents and birth workers who are navigating their own trauma. It’s an a la carte menu of some of my best tools and strategies. It’s not a replacement for therapy but it’s a starting point. Again, it’s under $100 (usually way less). 

https://www.udemy.com/course/more-than-a-healthy-baby-how-to-cope-with-birth-trauma/?referralCode=092FFCAF4E5C01984978 

Udemy also supports affiliates. This means that if you qualify, you can use a unique code for either of my courses to add to your website, socials or to give clients and you will receive a percentage of the course fee. It’s free to register, it’s just a bit of work to get yourself signed up https://www.udemy.com/affiliate/

I’ve been really mindful about what messages I want to put out about overwhelm and anxiety. Now is not the time for adding more stuff. A distressed brain cannot learn or retain new information well. That’s true for adults and kids.

If you want 1:1 support for counselling or coaching, reach out :)

I work with birthing people and birth workers 1:1. You can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or [email protected]

Birth trauma training for birthworkers the online course is now more accessible than ever! Over 350 birth workers have snapped it up for less than $14.00AU! The price fluctuates according to sales the platform is running, but rest assured it will remain under $99 for the foreseeable future. https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4 

A few weeks ago I went to a 2 day Breath work workshop with Theo2awakening. I share my personal and professional insights into this technique. There are SO many parallels with the psychophysiological techniques I've researched and used, and with hypnobirthing and just the altered consciousness state of birth itself. 

you can also find the video of this podcast on my youTube channel https://youtu.be/3DFXt0x3WWg 

I work with birthing people and birth workers 1:1. You can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or [email protected]

Birth trauma training for birthworkers the online course is now more accessible than ever! Over 350 birth workers have snapped it up for less than $14.00AU! The price fluctuates according to sales the platform is running, but rest assured it will remain under $99 for the foreseeable future. https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4

I run through the 10 most downloaded episodes of the birth trauma training for birthworkers podcast of 2019. 

you can reach me @doctorerinbowe on instagram or [email protected]

Birth trauma training for birthworkers the online course is now more accessible than ever! Over 350 birth workers have snapped it up for less than $14.00AU! The price fluctuates according to sales the platform is running, but rest assured it will remain under $99 for the foreseeable future. https://www.udemy.com/course/birth-trauma-training-for-birth-workers/?referralCode=ABA1D879884EBBF44BA4