Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with mother of two Kristyn Begnall.

DEAR LISTENER, PROCEED WITH CAUTION (TRAUMA TRIGGER WARNING): in this episode we speak with Australian mother of two Kristyn about her traumatic birthing experience. The content may be upsetting for some - please proceed with caution.

Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system.

If you or anyone you know needs or wants support you can connect with these resources:
www.birthtalk.org
www.panda.org.au
https://headtohealth.gov.au

Lifeline (crisis support) 13 11 14

Original score 'Opening' by Romy Agam Rom from her album of the same title.

Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia

Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bunjulung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

This special series on Birth Trauma is hosted by Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond and brought to you by Maternal Mental Health Matters Australia, a collaboration between four peak Australian consumer advocacy groups: Safe Motherhood For All, Maternity Choices Australia, Maternity Consumer Network & PBB Media

The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media.

All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with Dr Sarah Buckley.

Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system.

Sally speaks with Dr Sarah Buckley about the hormones of birth and how we can maximise them for the most efficient (and maybe even enjoyable) birth. The key to this is to feel private, safe and unobserved, then we instinctively release the right cocktail hormones at the right time.

Dr Sarah Buckley on the hormones of birth. Dr Buckley is a GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics and family planning. She is the mother of four home-born children, and is also a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland,, where her research is focused on oxytocin and the autonomic nervous system in labour and birth, and the impacts of interventions. She is the author of the groundbreaking report Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, which you can download for free at sarahbuckley.com. She is also the author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering.

Dr Buckley can be found at:
www.sarahbuckley.com

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Dr Sarah Buckley

Original score by Romy Agam Rom - 'Openings'

Copyright 2020 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

This week is Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020, where we are working with other maternity health advocacy groups to raise awareness around traumatic birth and the wider implications for inadequate care throughout the pregnancy, birth and postnatal periods of life. Here, Oni Blecher speaks to Rhea Dempsey; esteemed and highly sought after childbirth educator, counsellor, speaker, author and birth attendant with experience at over one thousand births. She is respected, both in Australia and internationally, as an insightful thinker and presenter on the topic of working with pain- both physical and psychological- in childbirth, and the implications of this for normal physiological birth and postnatal wellbeing. Here, Rhea explores, within the context of her work, how we can move forward in a culture that normalises traumatic birth.

Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with Professor Jenny Gamble.

Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system.

Professor Jenny Gamble is Head of Midwifery at Griffith University (Australia) and Director of the Transforming Maternity Care Collaborative. She speaks to the coontributing factors to psychological trauma in childbirth, women and birthing pooled reporting that their birth was traumatic and the development of trauma symptoms. Professor Gamble also looks at helpful early responses and supportive preventive practices.

Transforming Maternity Care Collaborative:
https://www.transformingmaternity.org.au

Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia

Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bunjulung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

This special series on Birth Trauma is hosted by Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond and brought to you by Maternal Mental Health Matters Australia, a collaboration between four peak Australian consumer advocacy groups: Safe Motherhood For All, Maternity Choices Australia, Maternity Consumer Network & PBB Media

The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media.

All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

We're discussing working through big feelings surrounding racism and discrimination, being a woman and the power we have in our hands in this moment, being with what is, not what should be.
Vanessa Alexandra Wood a local to the Northern Rivers, born to a Peruvian Mother and Argentine Father on the border of NSW & VIC in Albury/Wodonga. As a child and young woman growing up in a predominantly white Australian culture Vanessa experiences various forms of discrimination and racism and holds these experiences tight to herself, often locked away. As an adult, mother and practitioner she revisits these big feelings and gives them room, air and space to be felt, honoured and when needed, worked through.

Vanessa is the mother of two creative and beautiful young boys and life partner to Chris. Ten years a Naturopath, Vanessa now cooks and nourishes residents in rehabilitation and recovery from addiction and mental health conditions. Vanessa’s connection to Pachamama has always been the pillar in her life and the guiding force behind her work in the shamanic realms of women’s health and beyond.

Today's guest: Vanessa Alexandra Wood

Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia

Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bunjulung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media.

All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

Dr Bronwyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung woman and elder, an acclaimed artist and mother to three children, Jack, Ella and Rubyrose.

In this episode, Bronwyn shares her experiences giving birth at home in the 1980’s with her oldest two children, and her third vaginal birth at a birth centre at 42 years.

Bronwyn’s story dives into the way that she found and embodied the strength and courage to birth in the way that was right for her, and speaks to the importance of women reclaiming our sovereignty over our bodies and births for the betterment of society at large.

A powerful storyteller and courageous woman, Bronwyn’s words are medicine to those seeking to find, as Bronwyn puts it, the most courageous person inside ourselves, to help us birth the way we envision it.

Bronwyn has also written and/ or illustrated over 41 children’s books. Those listening in NSW who have given birth recently might recognise Bronwyn’s books ABC and 123 which NSW hospitals give to new mums and bubs to take home. We’re so grateful to Bronwyn for sharing her story, her medicine, and her wisdom with us, and for those of you who are familiar with her art, to hear her powerful words as a sovereign woman who fights and advocates tirelessly for the sovereignty of us all.

Find out more about Bronwyn's work at www.bronwynbancroft.com

Hazel Keedle is a midwifery researcher and lecturer at Western Sydney University and a PhD candidate. Hazel has worked in midwifery group practices, an aboriginal medical service, a variety of hospital settings and as a privately practising midwife in both city and regional locations.  Hazels passion for VBAC followed her own experience of having a VBAC with her daughter in 2008 and since then has published research on women's experience of having a homebirth after caesarean and on her PhD work exploring women’s experiences of planning a VBAC in Australia.

Links discussed during this podcast:

1. VBAC Matters page (lots of info & videos): https://www.facebook.com/VBACmatters

2. Hazel's Research, Women’s experiences of planning a vaginal birth after caesarean in different models of maternity care in Australia: https://bit.ly/3aB353j

Hazel is also involved in a new survey exploring the experiences of Australian childbearing women in relation to the COVID19 pandemic, you can take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3h5XDrX

Today's guest: Hazel Keedle

Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia for PBB Media

Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bunjulung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media.

All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org

In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with 'Get Promoted Life'; a high level performance and life coach, specialising in optimising the relationship with self and others. This includes effective communication and how to connect more thoroughly and respectfully with self and others. She works with people of all ages but has a special ability and affinity with working with children, allowing and encouraging various ways of communication. During this conversation, we cover many topics, but most importantly how parents can help support their children in connecting with themselves and communicating their needs and desires effectively. We also speak about how parents can support their own learning experiences communicating with their children and the web-like symbiosis of families. Enjoy this conversation.

What does it mean to have an embodied pregnancy and birth experience? How can we tap into, and move forward, from our inner knowing? And how can we reclaim the sacredness of birth?

In this episode of Pregnancy Birth and Beyond, Kirilly Dawn speaks with Maha Al Musa - internationally acclaimed independant childbirth educator and fierce advocate for centering the sacredness of birth in maternity care.

Maha is a mother of three children, and is the founder of EmbodyBirth, and author of 'Dance of the Womb: The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth'. She birthed her third child, daughter Aminah in a home water lotus birth, at 46 years old, and breastfed her until she self weened at 8.5 years, when Maha was 54.5 years old. As such, Maha is an advocate for extended breastfeeding, home birth, and women being the authorities and experts in what is right for them and their babies.

You can find out more about Maha at www.mahaalmusa.com or Instagram @maha_al_musa
The EmbodyBirth program: https://sales.mahaalmusa.com/embodybirth

Sally speaks with Paulette Bray-Narai, a certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) instructor about how we can reframe the challenges we find in life through the practice of NVC.

NVC was developed by Dr Marshall Rosenberg in the US in the 1960's and has been used since that time to bring groups with vastly opposing views together to form peaceful agreements. The NVC process has 4 main steps:
1. When faced with a situation, observe what is happening objectively.
2. Sense your feelings in response to the situation.
3. Connect your feelings with a need.
4. Make a request (of yourself or the other person), without having attachment to your particular request.

This process is described in full in Dr Rosenberg's book "Non-Violent Communication".

In this podcast we examine some common statements that can lead to disagreement, and then reframe these statements using NVC. Through this process we come to see how judgements in the use of certain words close down curiosity and open-minded discussion, and how by contrast the NVC process keeps seemingly opposing parties engaged with finding solutions.

Also mentioned is the work of US based NVC trainer, Miki Kashtan who can be found at www.thefearlessheart.org.

Paulette can be found at:
www.expresspeace.com
and
www.byronbayhealthycommunication.com.au/

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack
Guest: Paulette Bray-Narai

Copyright 2020 PBB Media and Sally Cusack
All rights reserved.

www.pbbmedia.org