Anna and her partner were thrilled with the news that they would be expecting not one, but two identical twin girls. Anna was carrying monochorionic or MCDA twins, meaning her two girls were sharing one placenta. When the doctor explained the plan for her pregnancy, a long list of potential complications were briefly mentioned. But everything looked like it was progressing beautifully, and Anna allowed herself to imagine her life as a mum of two. But at 19 weeks, everything suddenly changed. Diagnosed with Stage 3 Twin-to-Twin Syndrome, Anna was rushed for surgery on the placenta of her unborn babies. The next day came the devastating news that one of her daughters had not survived the night. What followed was a tumultuous rollercoaster of grief, loss and a tiny sliver of hope. After her waters broke at only 21 weeks, Anna describes the way her ‘little one’ held space for her big sister in the womb as she held on, against all odds, to survive.  

When Jacqueline took her first born son home she appeared to be the embodiment of the idealized new mother. The house was clean, baby Arthur was sleeping and feeding well, and Jac was showered and neatly dressed. However beneath the flawless veneer, Jac’s family began to notice some cracks. Jac’s behaviour began to seem increasingly bizarre, and some of her comments seemed strange. But Jac had no history of mental health conditions, and she didn’t seem depressed. Her odd behaviour could be easily explained away. But underneath the smile and endless energy, Jac was living a nightmare. She was hearing strange voices, and her thoughts were increasingly chaotic. Bizarre and terrifying delusions began intruding into her world, making it impossible for her to distinguish between hallucination and reality. Jac was suffering from Postpartum Psychosis; a rare but often catastrophic psychiatric emergency. In this episode, Jac bravely shares her story and helps shed light on this terrifying but poorly understood pregnancy condition. 
She shares how the love and support of her family and husband James helped her through her darkest of days. 

When Dominique was pregnant with her first child, she had an intuition that something wasn’t quite right. Despite being categorized as low risk, and all her ultrasounds and tests being normal, Dom couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with her baby. Following the birth of Zoey, Dom’s worst fears were realized. Instead of enjoying quiet skin to skin with her newborn daughter, there were suddenly emergency buzzers and doctors streaming into the room. Zoey wasn’t breathing, and was rushed with her dad Greg to the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dom was left alone in the birthing room, not knowing what was happening to her daughter. In this episode, Dom takes us through the next four harrowing weeks at the RCH, as the nurses and doctors tried to pinpoint the mystery of why Zoey was born so unexpectedly unwell, and when the heartbreaking moment came to turn off her life support. Dom reflects on her brief but beautiful time with Zoey, how the experience continues to shape her life in positive ways. Dom talks about how the passing of time over the years has allowed her to appreciate all the wonderful things she does have in life, and to be grateful for getting the chance to carry and meet Zoey. 

When Bec, a first time mum, began feeling tired, short of breath and a little dizzy, her symptoms could easily be put down to the normal physiological changes of late pregnancy and birth. By the end of pregnancy, a healthy woman's blood volume has expanded by 50%, the heart is working harder and faster, and oxygen requirements are significantly higher. But every so often, these seemingly innocuous symptoms of late pregnancy can hide a much more sinister condition. A short time after the birth of her daughter Poppy, Bec found herself back in the hospital, surrounded by doctors, unable to breathe. Bec’s previously normal heart was failing. Her weak heart muscle was not able to pump the blood that her body needed, and her lungs had filled with fluid. Bec was drowning. What followed was a terrifying and emotional journey through peripartum cardiomyopathy, a rare, but potentially fatal form of heart failure in pregnancy. Bec shares how the unwavering support of her family and partner, the trust she built with her care providers, and a shift to focusing only on the little things in life, helped her to slowly recover, one step at a time.

On paper, the birth of Amy’s first daughter was a traumatic experience. Amy experienced a forceps birth in theatre, a third degree tear, and a postpartum haemorrahge requiring a blood transfusion. Following this, she was in a wheelchair for five days, and couldn’t walk properly for weeks. But as Amy knows better than almost anyone else, it is not possible to identify a traumatic birth on paper. As the co-founder and CEO of the Australian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA), Amy understands that birth trauma has many different faces. The events and circumstances that can make a birth traumatic are different for everyone. For Amy, her personal experience of trauma was not related to the birth itself, but began 18 months after the birth of her daughter. Diagnosed with a severe pelvic organ prolapse, Amy found herself physically and mentally falling apart. Amy didn’t know a single other person living with prolapse, and felt stigmatised, isolated and alone. Amy’s sense of self worth, and her identity as a mother, spiralled into a dark place. In this special episode of Pregnancy Uncut, Amy shares her personal story of birth injury, how she recovered both physically and mentally, and how she was inspired to start ABTA to help others experiencing trauma and grief around birth.

Living on a remote farm in rural NSW, Laura’s options for place of birth were limited by geography. Her local hospital provided care to the entire region, and offered personalized care led by a team of dedicated GP-Obstetricians and skilled local midwives. But with only a small number of births per year, there were no facilities for epidural during birth or specialist obstetrics services in the region. In this episode of Pregnancy Uncut, Laura walks us through the pregnancies and births of her four children. Following a caesarean birth for placenta praevia, Laura birthed vaginally after caesarean (VBAC) for her fourth baby. Immediately following birth, Laura suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage and was rushed via air evacuation to a larger hospital. She awoke many hours later in ICU to find out that she had needed over 40 blood products to save her life, and that her uterus had been surgically removed. Laura walks us through the trauma of her ICU stay, the grief arising from her unplanned hysterectomy and the moment her baby fixed her broken heart. Laura’s story is an important reminder of the inequity of access to healthcare in Australia, and the importance of supporting and resourcing pregnancy care for rural and remote families. 

Amie Rohan is mum to three girls. Bella and Sadie are Earth side, and Amie’s second born daughter Willow, is her angel daughter. Following Willow’s short life in 2018, Amie has chosen to reach out to as many families as she can, to share her experience of carrying, birthing, and loving Willow, who was born with anencephaly, a severe and rare congenital abnormality. Amie’s story is made incredibly unique by the fact that Bella and Willow were identical twins. They shared everything; the same mother and father, the same placenta and even the same DNA. But in a tragic and unfair twist, Bella and Willow’s brains developed very differently during their first crucial weeks of development in the womb. When Amie was told at only 12 weeks of pregnancy that one of her twins had a severe birth defect that ‘was not compatible with life’ Amie could hardly comprehend what she was hearing. Whilst her other baby appeared to be developing normally, the situation was precarious. Any complication during the pregnancy from her identical twin had the capacity to cause tragedy for both sisters. In this special episode of Pregnancy Uncut, Amie shares with us the intricate details of the incredible highs, devastating lows, and ongoing impacts of the pregnancy and birth that made her a mother. 

Young and head over heels in love, Sarah was thrilled to welcome her first baby into the world with her loving husband by her side. To the outside world, they looked like the perfect young family. Inside their home it was a very different story. Challenges arose after difficulties around breastfeeding with inverted nipples. Determined, Sarah persevered. However as the emotional and practical help from her partner began to ebb away, the challenges became greater and greater. When her second child arrived in quick succession, Sarah found herself trapped in a controlling and disrespectful relationship. This story explores the subtleties of domestic abuse, a singular violent episode, gaslighting and Sarah's recovery from depression and mental breakdown. We are aware of the chilling statistic that one woman a week is killed in Australia by their current or former partner. Underneath this statistic, are thousands of women who are trapped in emotionally abusive, controlling or coercive relationships, whose very means of survival, sense of self, and capacity to leave have been stripped away. Sarah’s story is a powerful voice of one woman who shall no longer be silenced. 

Being young, fit and healthy, Gabrielle naturally thought her first pregnancy would progress smoothly. Having never known anyone who had experienced or spoken about miscarriage, Gabrielle’s world was rocked by the loss of her first pregnancy. Despite being surrounded by people in New York City, she felt completely alone. Where were the people who understood, the women who had been through something similar, to be with her and to hold her? This was to be the first moment that led Gabrielle to start Gather - a Collective Space for Women, on her return home to Melbourne. Gabrielle also takes us through the subsequent births of her children and how they inspired her to undergo a complete career change and retrain as a Birth Doula . Gabrielle shares the story of her massive postpartum hemorrhage following the birth of her first child, the disconnect in her care experience in her second birth, and finally the healing experience of her third birth. Covering everything from mother guilt, to the importance of the postpartum period, to the beauty of matrescence. This is a story of the birth of a Doula. 

When Holly decided that she wanted to have a baby, her journey to parenthood was anything but straightforward. Holly discovered that she had the ‘Infertility Trifecta’. Unable to conceive naturally due to an ovulation disorder, Holly was also considered ‘socially’ infertile as a Queer person and as a single woman. Undeterred, Holly embarked on the arduous journey of IVF and single parenthood by choice. Holly shares with us the joys and challenges of solo parenting, as well as the trials of navigating the infertility and hospital systems as a queer single person, in a system that is designed at every step to assume the pregnant person is one half of a traditional family unit. 

Holly also shares with us her experience of contracting COVID-19  in 2020 and passing the virus onto her partner, a trans man with cystic fibrosis who was nine months pregnant. Holly and her partner were placed into mandatory isolation in hospital with their children, and were not allowed to leave their rooms, even to visit each other. Her partner gave birth during this time in hospital and they made medical history as the first non-caesarean COVID birth in the world. Holly shares the trauma that persisted after her diagnosis of Covid, and the stigma of contagion that followed her and her partner out of hospital, drawing parallels to the history and politics of ‘Queer Fear’ and the stigma of infection.