February 11, 2024

EP10 - Emily's HBAC (PPROM, NICU, premie baby, public hospital, fragmented care, postnatal anxiety, HBAC, homebirth after caesarean, private midwife, doula)

1 hour 34 minutes

On today's episode of Australian VBAC Stories, we are thrilled to bring you Emily's incredible birth stories.

Emily's first birth unfolds a bit differently to many of us. For a first time Mum, Emily was very prepared and very educated on the system and physiological birth, and knew exactly how she wanted to approach getting the birth she envisioned.

However, that vision shifted drastically when her waters broke unexpectedly at 34 weeks pregnant, and needed to be transferred to a large tertiary hospital further from home and eventually accept a caesarean section to ensure the safety and wellbeing of her son. She talks so beautifully about how she reframed her perspective as she headed into theatre to meet her baby, and then shares with us her journey as a new mother to a premie baby.

Emily knew she wanted a VBAC immediately, and she sought out the services of a privately practicing midwife for a homebirth, and you'll hear about the way she overcome the challenge to accessing this model of care with a due date near Christmas.

Emily shares her experience with such openness, honesty, and vulnerability and we have no doubt there will be so much that our listeners will be able to take away from her episode.

Emily wishes to thank her beautiful homebirth midwife, Leisa Gittings @leisa_homebirth_midwife and doula, Kellie Whiskin @ourdoula.com.au

Please join us on our journey to bringing you all kinds of VBAC stories from across the country from here on in by subscribing and following us on social media, @australianvbacstories on Instagram and Australian VBAC Stories on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to rate or review, and tell your friends!

If you are feeling that you might benefit from mental health support after listening to our podcast, please reach out to one of the organisations below:

PANDA https://panda.org.au/

Gidget Foundation https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/

COPE Australia https://www.cope.org.au/

If you've experienced mistreatment or disrespectful care in your pregnancy, birth or postpartum and are seeking advocacy support, please contact one of the following organisations:

Maternity Choices Australia https://www.maternitychoices.org/

Maternity Consumer Network https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/

Thank you for tuning in to our podcast.

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By Australian VBAC Stories