Oni Blecher spent twelve years preparing for motherhood from the moment she witnessed one of her sisters giving birth.  This event led her into exploring the many facets of women's work, in particular birth, where she served as a doula, and maternity services advocate, facilitator of the Earthed to Birth pregnancy and postpartum circle, presenter for this podcast, commenced training as a midwife and practising as a cranio sacral therapist.

This deep preparation is rare in these times where many women begin their preparation when they fall pregnant.

This is a follow up interview with Oni after an initial interview when she was 35 weeks pregnant with her first child.  The first interview with Oni prior to her birth can be found here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/a-most-intentional-pregnancy-with-oni-blecher--68549829

Now 18 weeks postpartum, Sally follows up with Oni who takes us through the last weeks of her pregnancy, her labour, birth and post partum period.  In particular we hear about:

• the impacts of having a big belly and contending with people's comments about it
• how that shook her confidence in the last weeks
• how she regained her confidence prior to going into labour
• letting go of wanting the baby the come and just letting him choose the right time
• thanking her baby in early labour for the life changing experience of growing him and acknowledging their next journey together through the rite of passage of birth
• how in spite of being at 41 weeks' gestation, she couldn't quite believe that she was really in labour
• labour coping strategies (e.g., not saying 'No', insteading saying 'Yes' to contractions)
• birthing the baby in the water
• birthing the placenta
• her newborn's breast crawl
• post partum support
• claiming the success of her birth as being in large part due to all her preparation, leaving no stone unturned
• what she would do differently next time
• tips for expectant mums

Enjoy the many nuggets of golden wisdom Oni has to share for other mothers embarking on their journey.

Also mentioned: Best Birth Finder for reviews of birth services www.bestbirthfinder.org.au

Links:
www.oniblecher.com
Instagram @earthedtobirth

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Oni Blecher

Copyright 2026 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Leila Armour is the Founder of Village for Mama, a project for bridging the gap in postpartum care by fostering a supportive and nourishing community for new mothers.

In this episode Leila, so very generously shares her experiences of not one, but two twin pregnancies in the 40th week of her second twin pregnancy.  We hear how she navigated the complexities of navigating the maternity care system to get the level of care she wanted when birthing her first twins, while also managing to avoid the interventions she didn't want.  We explore the narratives surrounding twin pregnancies and how they're "usually" shorter and what Leila has found to be closer to the truth in her experience.  We also hear of her recommendations for postpartum with twins, importantly ensuring there's plenty of support for older children so a deep, deep dive into learning about the unique needs of two different newborns, who will want and need very different things.

Leila also has a twin pregnancy and birth guide that she's very happy to share if you message her from her Instagram account.  The other resources she mentions that come with her twin pregnancy guide are a reference to the book the Holistic Guide to Twin Pregnancy, which helped inform her about the various types of twin pregnancy, as well as this episode of the Great Rebellion Podcast with Dr Stuart Fischbein: https://www.melaniethemidwife.com/podcasts/the-great-birth-rebellion/episodes/2148000895.

Leila can be found at @villageformama on Instagram and www.villageformama.com.
Image credit: @bennicreative

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

Wendy Jackson, mother and retired midwife with 30 years' experience in the UK and Australian maternity care systems, has a lot to say about the massive cultural, social and political issues that surround the world of birth. 
Main topics covered:

• the importance of honouring and protecting the postnatal period/4th trimester, also known as matrescence,
• women need to know the realities of the maternity system, as well as their incredible biology and how to protect its optimal functioining in the system,
• defensive, interventionist (and often unquestioned) practices that have evolved over the millenia, especially over the last 100 years.
• a resource she has developed for women navigating the perinatal period - her book "Mother Becoming".

Other references mentioned:

• Prof. Archie Cochrane "the father of evidence based medicine" who jokingly awarded obstetrics with the "wooden spoon".
• Jenny Allenson "The Golden Month"
• Transforming Maternity Care Initiative
• Dr Andrew Bissets, featured in "Birth Time"
• Human Rights in Childbirth
• Dr Carol de Costa "The Women's Doc" first professor of obs/gyn in Australia
• Robbie Davis Floyd

NOTE: At 15 mins 51 secs, when referring to Dr Liz Fowler "trying to get vaginal birth in", she neglected to include the word "breech", so "trying to get vaginal BREECH birth in".

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

A continuation of our series on the proposed ACM/RANZCOG legislation that will require that only trained registered professionals can "manage" the process of birth. https://ranzcog.edu.au/news/ranzcog-acm-call-on-health-ministers-to-end-freebirth-deaths

This time Sally speaks with Katherine Eden, doula, birth advocate and mother of two boys based in South Australia.  Eight years ago when birthing her second son, Katherine found herself freebirthing even though she wanted midwifery care, due to the climate of fear and retribution in Adelaide at the time, in large part due to this legislation and the attitudes surrounding it. She also asks whether women's choices would be better enabled through properly supporting private midwifery over the more restrictive, but Medicare funded homebirth services that run from public hospitals.

After trying to sound the alarm years ago to the rest of the country with this blog article, we are now finally all ears.  Katherine's key message: when we work together we can achieve real improvements in maternity care.  (Birth intervention rates dropped during 2009-2010, a time of mass organisation across the country for improvements in birth, culminating in the Mother of All Rallies in Canberra.)

Other podcasts referred to in this interview:
Tessa Kowliw
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/from-south-australia-with-love-with-tessa-kowaliw--68691041
Bashi Kumar-Hazard
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/how-to-criminalise-birth-with-bashi-kumar-hazard--68410484

Katherine Eden is an integrative therapist, therapeutic social worker, doula, kinesiologist, ceremonialist, rites of passage guide, professional supervisor/mentor and trauma-informed spaceholder with a background in psychology, midwifery, and event facilitation. For nearly 20 years, she has been deeply involved in the Adelaide birth community, co-founding the Adelaide Birth Network and the Doula Network of SA, both of which have grown into thriving hubs of connection. 

Katherine's passion lies in trauma-informed, neuroaffirming, and embodied spaceholding, with a strong emphasis on integrity, ethical practice, and the significance of rites of passage. As birth trauma statistics continue to rise, she believes in the power of intentional and conscious spaceholding as well as trauma-informed eduation and supervision to shift these patterns. Her work supports spaceholders in cultivating ethical, heart-led, and attuned practices that foster inner safety and transformation.

Website: www.katherineeden.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/katherineeden_rewilding
Facebook: www.facebook.com/katherineedenrewilding

Blog about the SA's Restrictive Birthing Practices legislation and Katherine's personal experience with it:  https://katherineeden.com/speaking-the-unspeakable-not-celebrating-homebirth/

Other people/references mentioned:

• Rachel Reed's article on the Future of Midwifery and Homebirth in Australia
• Kelli Zakharoff, Midwife Crisis
• Adelaide Birth Network, private Facebook group for Adelaide based women and birth workers
• Catherine Bell, Founder of The Birth Map and Managing Director of Maternity Choices Australia

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

We hear from Tessa Kowaliw (pron. ko-VAH-liyev) about birthing in South Australia since the enactment of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) (Restricted Birthing Practices) Amendment Act 2013, which regulates who can "manage" women's births.  Tessa has 16 years a maternity services consumer advisor in a wide range of roles, but shares her views here as a well informed individual observer, and not representing any organisation.

The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) recently published a joint position statement calling for the rollout of this legislation across Australia. https://ranzcog.edu.au/news/ranzcog-acm-call-on-health-ministers-to-end-freebirth-deaths.

We discuss: - The important role SA can play for advising legislators and policy makers with 12 years' experience with this legislation
- The lead up to this law and the birthing landscape in SA since 2013
- Where we are now, 12 years on
- The risk of legislating and asking a broken system to apply this 'reasonably', unintended consequences
- A more appropriate roadmap for offering support for women outside the maternity system with the right level of urgency, in particular rebuilding trust and strengthening consumer partnerships
- Tessa and her colleagues' current efforts to compile a 'From SA With Love' info pack of their lived experiences under the restricted birthing practices law with a view to sharing this with interested consumer community leaders, advocates and decision makers interstate (due to be completed by early December)

Contact can be made with Tessa either through this podcast or at [email protected].

(Article mentioned by Tessa: https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/homebirthaustralia
Book mentioned near end of the interview: Tew, Marjorie, Safer Childbirth? A Critical History of Maternity Care, Chapman and Hall, 1993.)


Tessa Kowaliw is a South Australian consumer advisor who has been working with birthing women, and the people and organisations which serve them, since 2009. In the 2010s, she was Coordinator for CARES (a former South Australian not-for-profit consumer group which supported women to make birth after Caesarean choices), she assisted national efforts to activate increased access to continuity of midwifery care under the National Maternity Services Plan (2010-2015), she has lobbied Health Ministers and local services to better address women's needs, and she founded (and still runs) 'VBAC Chat South Australia' - an active Facebook group of over 1.1K members designed to educate and support women and care providers. 
 
Tessa has been a Special Purpose Director with Women's Healthcare Australasia, was a Councillor for RANZCOG for seven years, is co-author on the standard set of outcome measures for Pregnancy and Birth developed by the International Consortium for Health Outcome Measurement (ICHOM), and has presented internationally (incl. Washington, London, Utrecht) on value-based healthcare and 'what matters most' to healthcare consumers. By day, Tessa is a Business Architect and consultant, juggling corporate work around mothering duties, and her enduring passion for improving women's health.

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Sally speaks with Oni Blecher, former host on the Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond radio show and podcast, and committee member of our organisation, PBB Media since 2018.

Oni has been a student of birth since she witnessed the birth of her niece 12 years ago, taking her to study midwifery, birth doula care and craniosacral therapy that she provides for mothers and their babies, and facilitating pregnancy and post partum circles.  Now, she stands at the threshold of birth as she waits for the arrival of her first baby. 

This interview was recorded in the last weeks of Oni's pregnancy with the proviso that we wait until after her baby is born before we publish it.  Two months ago, her little one arrived, and Oni has given her permission to share this interview now.  We will catch up with her at some point in the future to hear what she'd like to share about the birth and the early months of motherhood.

Sally interviewed another expectant parent in 2015 and again after the birth, but that time with a father, Paul Crebar.  You can hear that interview here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/paul-crebar-on-expectant-fatherhood--7260253

Links:
www.oniblecher.com
Instagram @earthedtobirth

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Oni Blecher

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Sally speaks with Alecia Staines, Founder and Director at Maternity Consumer Network about the South Australian legislation that the Australian College of Midwives and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have called to be enacted across the country.  This legislation seeks to prohibit "unlicensed and unregulated persons from undertaking the management of labour and birth"..
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G2brGjDA9/

Alecia discusses the issues women face in accessing maternity care in rural and regional areas.  Since the 1990's we've seen a steady closure of maternity services across the country, forcing women to drive hours from their homes to central services.  Naturally this leads to women choosing to birth outside the system.  Some of these women would like to engage a private midwife, but they are so hard to find, especially now with the requirement to have not one but two endorsed midwives at home births.  And is it possible this legislation could be used against the good Samaritan who stops to help a woman birthing before arrival on her way to a centralised service, or a grandmother or aunty helping a woman who has a precipitous labour and decides to stay at home to give birth.  Many questions remain, all due to proposals to further restrict women's access to choice and rights to informed decision making.

Maternity Choices Australia has collaborated with Human Rights in Childbirth International and maternity advocacy groups from around the country to publish the following media release:
https://www.maternitychoices.org.au/post/maternity-advocacy-groups-around-the-country-rally-together-to-protect-women-s-rights-in-birth

Links:
www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Alecia Staines, Maternity Consumer Network

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Sally speaks with Dr Catherine Bell, Maternity Choices Australia and Founder of The Birth Map about the South Australian legislation that the Australian College of Midwives and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have called to be enacted across the country.  This legislation seeks to prohibit "unlicensed and unregulated persons from undertaking the management of labour and birth"..
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G2brGjDA9/

Catherine discusses the dangers to women's rights this legislation poses (and is already happening in South Australia), especially for women who feel they have no other choice than to birth outside the system, how communication between women and their carers can be improved and the pressures the system places on women to fit within the services it wants to provide.

Maternity Choices Australia has collaborated with Human Rights in Childbirth International and maternity advocacy groups from around the country to publish the following media release:
https://www.maternitychoices.org.au/post/maternity-advocacy-groups-around-the-country-rally-together-to-protect-women-s-rights-in-birth

Links:
www.maternitychoices.org.au
www.thebirthmap.life

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Dr Catherine Bell, Maternity Choices Australia, The Birth Map

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Sally speaks with Dr Bashi Kumar-Hazard, lawyer and Board Chair of Human Rights in Childbirth International about the South Australian legislation that the Australian College of Midwives and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have called to be enacted across the country.  This legislation seeks to prohibit "unlicensed and unregulated persons from undertaking the management of labour and birth"..
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G2brGjDA9/

Bashi argues that this will have the effect of impacting women's human rights to birth wherever and with whomever they choose, as it already is in South Australia.  Instead, Bashi asks why governments and lobby groups aren't exploring what it is about their practice that has women choosing to avoid going to hospital.

Human Rights in Childbirth and Maternity Choices Australia have collaborated, along with maternity advocacy groups from around the country, to publish the following media release:
https://www.maternitychoices.org.au/post/maternity-advocacy-groups-around-the-country-rally-together-to-protect-women-s-rights-in-birth

Links:
https://www.humanrightsinchildbirth.org/
www.maternitychoices.org.au

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Dr Bashi Kumar-Hazard, Human Rights in Childbirth

Copyright 2025 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Today, Oni Blecher interviews Sally Cusack. Sally Cusack is a mother of two teenagers based in Northern NSW. She is the co-founder of PBB Media and now runs PBB Media’s weekly free baby and toddler clothes swap and drop in centre, best known as the PBB Hub which was born from the flood relief outreach hub. Sally been a member of Maternity Choices Australia since 2010 where she is currently Company Secretary.  Sally has recently been developing MCA's advocacy project called Best Birth Finder of which the interview is focussed on. Sally is also a researcher with Local Futures. She dedicates her life to human and planet health through localisation and community building. 

This is a special interview for Oni as this will be her last podcast interview under Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond. She pays her respect to her time at Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond and PBB Media and expresses gratitide to all guests, listeners, and experiences. 



You can find Sally and Best Birth Finder below:

[email protected]

https://www.bestbirthfinder.org.au

And if you have any feedback, questions, or curiosities for Oni, you're welcome to contact her via 

@oni_keeperofthehearth

[email protected]