Cuppa with a doula

Find my FREE Youtube series “I’m pregnant! Now what?” To help you navigate the system and learn about the different models of care available, what normal means, what consent is, questions to ask your health care provider and so much more, you can find it on my channel @Cuppawithadoula or via this link https://www.youtube.com/@cuppawithadoula

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here ⁠https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA⁠ 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: ⁠www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula⁠ 

Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula⁠ 

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I chat with Carla, who at the time the recording was a mum to one and pregnant with her second and has since welcomed her second son into the world.  

In this conversation we chat about 

✔️falling pregnant while not completely planning it but leaving it to faith 

✔️wanting to find a birthing option that was less medicalised and more wholistic in its approach to better align with Carla 

✔️self-referring herself to the local midwifery group practice (MGP) to ensure she would get continuity of care during and after her pregnancy 

✔️as a very athletic women, Carla not noticing too many changes in her body’s ability to move or exercise until late into her 3rd trimester 

✔️shifting her focus from looking athletic and being strong to accepting her pregnancy body and moving with it in ways that would help her to reduce body aches and help with labour 

✔️forming her birth wishes by informing herself of recent research, asking friends and relatives about their birth experiences and going to pregnancy circles and mum’s meet-up

✔️Being bullied by OB on call to agree to an augmentation of labour with syntocinon as OB believed labour wasn’t happening fast enough and Carla’s baby needed to be out within 24 hours of her membranes rupturing 

✔️Experiencing uterine hypertonia (essentially a contraction that will NOT stop, no relaxation of the uterus muscle) due to augmentation of labour which was putting her baby at risk 

✔️Getting drugs to stop the syntocinon from working due to uterus hypertonia, which meant Carla was unable to birth her baby vaginally and had to have an elective c-section 

✔️Feeling happy in the end with her decision to have a c-section and feeling great in the hours following it, being mobile within hours of the surgery 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. In today’s episode I am finally giving you a quick update on my 3rd trimester (a bit late as baby has obviously been born now 🤣), but more importantly, I am telling you the story of our second girl’s birth 

In this conversation I am telling you about 

✔️model of care we decided to go through after changing our birthing plan in the 2nd trimester 

✔️feeling like I was going into labour at 37 weeks and panicking as I didn’t have my hospital bag and birth prompts ready and handy 

✔️working through my fears, especially working on “not panicking” during labour (which I did during my first labour) and wanted to avoid this time around 

✔️the benefits of having a student midwife when you don’t have access to continuity of care through the public system 

✔️mapping my birth with my birth partner and preparing my partner for what I wanted, told him what to look out for and what I was declining 

✔️what I did to try and flip baby when I learned that she was in a breech position

 ✔️seeing baby’s breech position as a variation of normal and changing my birthing map around it but wanting to have a breech vaginal birth 

✔️presenting to hospital at 40+6 for reduced foetal movement and being prepared to decline an induction

✔️having a crisis of confidence at 40+6, loosing faith that labour would start on its own, needing reassurance that my body was working towards labour 

✔️labour beginning at 40+6, birthing baby girl at 41 weeks, on the floor of our caravan after a very quick 2-hour labour 

✔️being in total shock of everything that happened and not realising fully that my labour was over and baby was here, pure bliss! 

✔️finding having a newborn much easier the second time around, but difficult to deal with a toddler at the same time 

If you haven’t listened to it, you can find my first birth story here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/cuppa-with-a-doula/id1663704129?i=1000624323163

My first trimester update for this pregnancy here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/cuppa-with-a-doula/id1663704129?i=1000609190548

My second trimester update for this pregnancy here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/cuppa-with-a-doula/id1663704129?i=1000621320865 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Welcome back to another episode of Cuppa with a pro where I interview professionals that work within the pregnancy, birthing or parenting space to chat about their expertise. 

In today’s episode, I am chatting with the lovely Beth who is a birth photographer in the Hawkesbury region, NSW. 

In this episode we chat all about 

✔️what is a birth photographer and how does Beth try to get the best photos and adapt to the birth environment without disrupting it 

✔️capturing raw and genuine moments during both labour and birth 

✔️how to hire a birth photographer and what happens after the initial reach out 

✔️birth photography expectations 

✔️dads and partners sometimes being reluctant to the idea of birth photography but coming around when they see the moments captured and being thankful that they have such photos 

✔️what happens if the birth is missed, whether that is because it all happened too fast or the birth plan changed in the case of a caesarean 

✔️when is the best time to call your birth photographer in for your birth 

✔️pricing of birth photography reflecting the emotional and physical involvement of the job, as well as the on-call time which can be draining 

✔️what pricing to expect based on the experience of the birth photographer and their equipment 

You can view Beth’s work and get in touch with her through her website https://naturalfocus.com.au/ 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am chatting with the lovely Hannah, who shares with us 2 pregnancies and births.

TRIGGER WARNING, in this episode, Hannah talks about the pregnancy and birth of her baby girl Olive who unfortunately passed away hours after being born. 

✔️getting pregnant with her first daughter Billie and experiencing anxiety (both due to her knowledge as a midwife and having a pre-existing anxiety condition) 

✔️how Hannah prepared herself and her partner for her labour and birth 

✔️finding out in labour that Billie was in a brow presentation and being at peace with having a c-section but finally birthing her vaginally 

✔️having shingles in the early weeks postpartum 

✔️finding out at 20 weeks that Hannah’s cervix had shortened, which meant getting weekly monitoring at the hospital and potentially getting a cervical stitch 

✔️Hannah’s waters breaking at 22 weeks and 3 days 

✔️seeing a neonatologist to discuss potential outcomes of a premature birth and what could be expected 

✔️Hannah and her husband Ben facing an impossible decision to continue with the pregnancy or induce labour at 22 weeks 

✔️Hannah’s labour and birth of Olive who lived for a few hours after being born 

✔️how Hannah has been working through her grief and is creating projects to carry on Olive’s legacy

✔️going through a postpartum journey and ongoing health issues while grieving the loss of her baby girl 

✔️telling her 2.5 year old daughter about the loss of her sister 

The beginning of Olive’s pregnancy and birth story is at 00.36.45 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am chatting with the lovely Michelle, who shares with us her unique births and pregnancy stories. From being pregnant at a time where very limited information was available for mums-to-be, to birthing overseas and expanding her family when she thought she was done having children, we cover it all with Michelle! Here is what we chat about in this episode 

✔️becoming a step-mum when entering new relationship with then husband and soon after falling pregnant unexpectedly 

✔️what her experience of pregnancy was like 20 years ago with limited resources available 

✔️having a very long labour, where looking back, things could have been different if Michelle had been able to labour in her own space 

✔️giving first to her first daughter, who was born unresponsive, had to be resuscitated, tested positive for group B strep infection and was sent to the neonatal unit 

✔️being pregnant and giving birth in Malaysia where the culture is so different to our Australian one 

✔️entrusting the system and the medical professionals for her first 3 births 

✔️reflecting on her first 3 births, including one spontaneous labour and 2 inductions and wanting to do things differently for her 4th birth 

✔️being scared into having an induction for her 4th baby only die to her age, despite having a healthy pregnancy without any complications 

✔️getting access to more information compared to her first birth, learning more about the physiology of birth, being drawn to a homebirth and trusting her body could birth her baby 

✔️how Michelle is preparing her body and mind for a homebirth without any drugs or interventions 

✔️changing the narrative around the language we use to talk about pregnancy and birth 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am the one stepping behind the mic to finally deliver to you the birth story of my first born, while pregnant with our second. In this talk, I tell you all about my journey from deciding to become a mum, to conception, pregnancy and beyond. I chat all about 

✔️navigating trying to conceive, not knowing my cycles and my body well yet and learning all about ovulation 

✔️experiencing a miscarriage after 9 months of trying to conceive and the perspective that it gave me  

✔️using the BRAIN acronym during pregnancy to help determine my options for birth 

✔️how I managed my pregnancy as an Exercise Physiologist

✔️how I prepared for my birth, decided what I preferred and navigated the system 

✔️finding the wait from 37 weeks (full-term) very challenging and being of two minds of wanting to have the baby soon but also wanting baby to stay in to mature for longer 

✔️my prelabour, how I managed it, finding my zone, doing what felt right for me and how things changed once I arrived to hospital 

✔️finding the transition into parenthood very challenging and experiencing the baby blues 

✔️feeling sadness and other negative emotions in the first 6-8 weeks of baby’s life 

✔️feeling anxious about partner returning back to work and looking after our daughter on my own 

✔️the process of deciding to have another child and what that was like 

I am currently 33 weeks pregnant, if you are interested in my current pregnancy journey here are the summary of my first and second trimester 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I chat with Maddy, mum to baby boy Sully. In this conversation we chat all about 

✔️being so in-tune with her body that she knew she was pregnant within days of conception 

✔️beginning her pregnancy thinking she was quite informed due to her background as a nurse but realising she didn’t know as much as she could have 

✔️having extra growth scans to check for potential growth restriction due to bicornate uterus 

✔️having the mindset of “I just want a happy and healthy baby, I’ll be fine with whatever” 

✔️having a relative close to her lose her baby at term and how this shaped Maddy’s view of “just wanting a healthy and live baby” 

✔️experiencing postpartum rage, not being heard by her GP or antenatal psychiatrist and trying to find strategies on her own to navigate it 

✔️choosing to be induced due to reduced foetal movement late in pregnancy and past trauma and what the induction was like for Maddy 

✔️having an unwell 3 day old newborn, taking him to the emergency department where he was diagnosed with febrile seizures 

✔️having her newborn baby in NICU for 2 weeks 

✔️mix-feeding due to hospital stay but trying to keep a good breastmilk supply by pumping regularly 

✔️managing to reverse mix-feeding by 2 months and exclusively breastfeed her son 

✔️what Maddy plans to do for her next pregnancy and breastfeeding journey 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I chat with Amber, musculoskeletal physiotherapist with an interest in women’s health and soon to be a mum of 2. In this episode, Amber takes us through her first pregnancy and first for her son and how she decided to do things differently for her second pregnancy, we also chat about 

✔️waiting to have an established career before having children despite having a strong desire to start a family 

✔️societal expectations on pregnant women and mothers when it comes to work load, maternity leave and return to work 

✔️how Amber prepared for both pregnancy,  postpartum and breastfeeding during her first pregnancy 

✔️setting herself for a successful breastfeeding journey by beginning her learning before baby arrived

✔️spontaneously going into labour at 37+4 without expecting it as a first time mum 

✔️how Amber managed to stay in her zone at the hospital despite being made to feel that there was a real sense of emergency 

✔️having to bargain with the hospital to have her wishes respected and even then being bullied into doing things she didn’t want to 

✔️the power of breastfeeding education and how it helped Amber to get a good start to her breastfeeding journey and be confident to troubleshoot potential issues 

✔️challenges that come with having an oversupply of milk and how long it took to regulate her supply 

✔️donating unwanted milk to her local community 

If you are looking for or wanting to donate breast milk to help families, there are Facebook groups that might help such as 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 

Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I back behind the mic to give you an update on how my pregnancy has been going as well as all the things that have changed since my first recording including 

✔️living full-time in our caravan with a 19 months-old and we see our travels moving forward with a newborn 

✔️listening to your intuition and changing my care over as it didn’t feel right for me 

✔️transferring my pregnancy care interstate from QLD to NSW and how I did it 

✔️taking an active part in your pregnancy, preparing for birth, following up on referrals 

✔️current pregnancy symptoms in my second trimester 

✔️birth education I did for my first birth and for this upcoming one 

✔️birthing tools I used for my first birth and ones I am hoping to practice more and use this time around 

✔️postpartum preparation, considering sleeping arrangements, naps, meal prepping 

To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 

If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 

This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 

Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 

If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)