In this episode we hear Tera sharing the birth of her daughter Hanna in Reykjavik, Iceland. Tera is Czech, but spent some time working in Iceland where she met her partner. Tera tells the story of how they met and found out early on in their relationship that they were going to be parents and how everything unfolded. She received care in the Czech medical system for a few months before changing over to the Icelandic one and she shares how fundamentally different the care was between these both places.

We talk about birth not being painful, but hard work towards meeting our babies, about labouring in the midnight-sun, midwife led-care, trusting your intuition as well as surrounding yourself with people that you trust and about the importance of good postpartum support.

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I this first episode of 2022 we hear from Alex as she shares the birth of her little girl Avalon. Alex shares her journey of going through a previous miscarriage in California and what kind of support and clarity that experience brought her and her husband. They eventually started to plan for a baby and she shares their journey toward becoming pregnant as well as going through the pregnancy and planning for a birth during COVID-19 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Alex talks about finding her way through the Czech medical system and the choices she made while preparing for birth. Avalon was born via c-section and Alex shares her experience with that and how her postpartum journey went while recovering from surgery. She was only 4 weeks postpartum when she shared her birth story with me so listen in for a beautiful story that is very fresh in memory.

In this episode I tell my own first birth story with my son Phineas from 2016.  Phineas was born in London and I tell you our story of how we ended up there as a family and how it was navigating care within the NHS and deciding on a home birth halfway through the pregnancy. I also talk about trying to get a job while being pregnant and how small I felt when I would get declined because I was expecting and I also hope I really share how much I truly love brith stories and how helpful they have been for me preparing for my own births. My waters broke while seeing a theatre show and Phineas was born at 39+6 in our bedroom in Hoxton after about 7-8 hours of labour with the support of a two wonderful midwives. 

Tune in to hear it all and do leave me a comment and let me know what you think about it all. To be honest I’m quite nervous to put my own one out there for the first time!

In this episode I speak to Nyssa and she’s sharing her birth story from Melbourne, Australia with her daughter. Nyssa and her partner chose to hire a private midwife and still go for a hospital birth within the public system and they had a very good experience. We talk about wishes for birth and how important it is to give consent and to be able to debrief the experiences that we have. Nyssa gave birth to her daughter with a bit of assistance, including epidural and forceps and she had an episiotomy and she shares how it felt in the moment and how it has been to process her birth experiences afterwards.

We have a discussion about postpartum maternal health and the golden month and I have a feeling we might get back to more on this topic in a later episode as we are both quite passionate about maternal health.

In this episode I speak with Tessa, a specialist mental health midwife in the UK and she’s sharing the birth of her son Roo with us. Tessa shares her journey to becoming pregnant, experiencing a miscarriage scare around 7 weeks gestation and experiencing antenatal anxiety. Tessa planned for a midwife-led birth centre birth at the hospital where she works and she shares how the system works over there. Her waters broke at 38+5 and when it was time to push, baby presented OP (posterior) but she shares how her midwife helped guide her through the pushing stage until the birth of baby Roo.

Tessa is very passionate about Mental Health in pregnancy, birth and postpartum and we speak about the importance of asking for help, of recognising that as parents we are never alone and there is always someone to reach out to if we feel like we are not coping. 

Follow Tessa on her Instagram @mentalhealth_midwife for wonderfully supportive and informative posts and you can also reach out to her there.

In this episode we hear Silvana sharing her two births with us. Her firstborn, Aurora, was born via emergency c-section at 35 weeks and was born with complications that led to her passing away at 8 days old. Silvana generously shares her experience going through loosing her daughter and how she and her partner managed. We talk a lot about how important it is to share stories of loss to remove the taboo that surrounds talking about miscarriage, stillbirth and baby loss.

Silvana also shares the birth with her little boy, and how it was navigating a second pregnancy after her experience with her daughter. He was also born via c-section, so listen in for a beautiful story today.

In this episode we hear both parents, Marisa & Kes, tell the birth story of their little boy Aldo. Before having Aldo they experienced a miscarriage just shortly after the baby was diagnosed with Trisomi 13 and they both share their perspective of going through that tough time together. When they were expecting Aldo, COVID-19 hit and they share how it was going through pregnancy, birth and postpartum during that uncertain time, especially because they were going back and forth between Prague and Warsaw as well. In the end, they opted for an elective c-section and both share a very positive experience after making that decision to going through birth and postpartum in a Prague hospital.

‘I was watching myself from above and just kind of observing the sensations instead of feeling it as pain’

‘The things that I have control over are my breathing, my affirmations & my visualisations and also my movement’

In this episode we hear Rachael sharing the births of her two little ones; her daughter was born in Melbourne, Australia and her son was born in her home country of New Zealand. Rachael shares her experiences going through pregnancy, birth and postpartum in two different countries, and how it was going through pregnancy and deciding to move countries during a pandemic. We talk about how birth never ends up being exactly as we planned, and Rachael shares her experience of losing control over some things she really wanted for her births and how she managed to turn inward and really listen in and focus on the things she still had control over to birth both her babies the way she wanted. Listen in for two birth stories really beautifully and joyfully shared with lots of truly valuable insights on how we can actually take control over our births with the right mindset and preparations.

In this episode we hear Anja sharing the birth story of her little boy Frederik. Anja and her husband Pavel tried for several years to have a baby and Frederik was finally conceived naturally when they last expected it. We will hear how it is going through pregnancy and birth in Germany while also going back and forth to Czech Republic for work and family. Towards the end of the pregnancy, Anja had to have more scans because Frederik was a little bit small and they found a profusion on the umbilical cord. In the end she had to go for an unplanned induction and Anja shared how that all went. In the end Frederik was born vaginally but had to stay a couple of weeks in the NICU for some extra support before they were able to take him home. Anja also shares how it is having a baby in the NICU as a new parent and how their breastfeeding journey went.

In this episode Samar shares her two births with her little girls, Sára & Lea. With Sára, Samar had an eventful pregnancy, starting with the first scan showing markers for Downs Syndrome which turned into being nothing in the end. She experienced hyper-thyroidism and didn’t gain much weight and ended up being hospitalised for about a week at 30 weeks gestation. Samar was induced around Sáras due-date and went through a long labour that in the end turned into an emergency c-section under general anaesthesia because Sára was sunny-side up. With Lea, Samar shares a much smoother pregnancy with no major hiccups and opting for a planned c-section. Leas birth was empowering and calm with Samars partner being able to be present in the room and we hear how different postpartum was the second time around.