Hello and welcome to The Real Birth Podcast! This week Cassie shares her story of becoming a mother via surrogacy, after her cancer treatment left her unable to conceive naturally.

I am genuinely SO excited to be sharing this episode with you. When she was just 27, Cassie was diagnosed with cervical cancer - the treatment for which meant she would be thrown into an early menopause, and would not be able to become pregnant or carry a baby herself. Cassie was able to undergo an IVF round before starting her chemo and radiation, which allowed her to create embryos to keep on ice for when she was ready to start the search for a surrogate. 

I’m really thrilled to be sharing a story of surrogacy on the podcast today - I particularly love how clearly Cassie explains the process of how someone might go about starting the process of using a surrogate, and how she ended up choosing hers! I think you’ll agree after hearing her share her experience that she is a real inspiration to anyone facing the prospect of surrogacy or infertility after cancer.

If you enjoy this episode please do share it with a friend, rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you're using, and subscribe or follow to keep up to date with future episodes. If you have found the work I do valuable in any way, you can buy me a coffee - it helps fuel the passion when I’m editing into the night!

Please do follow me on social media - I'm @RealBirthPodcast on Instagram, and Real Birth Podcast on Facebook.

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This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to The Real Birth Podcast! This week my guest is Catherine, who shares her two birth stories. Catherine was induced with her first baby after several episodes of reduced movement. Although she required very little intervention in the end, Catherine’s experience left her struggling physically and mentally. The birth of her second son was at home, which was an incredible fast labour and a physiological 3rd stage - i.e. the placenta was left alone and came away naturally.

Catherine shares her experience of breastfeeding struggles, how she coped with mental health issues, and also details a miscarriage she had in between her two living children. I’ll mention now that Catherine does go into the details when it comes to her pregnancy loss and the surgery she required - just in case you’d like prior warning of this. There’s always a small part of me unsure about whether it’s OK to air these things but I actually think it’s incredibly important that people are aware of what actually has to happen when a pregnancy is lost - it makes us better able to empathise and support the people we love - so thank you for being so open and honest with me today. 

It was a real pleasure to hear about Catherine’s births, and her determination to have as hands-off an experience as possible will resonate with so many of you.

If you enjoy this episode please do share it with a friend, rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you're using, and subscribe or follow to keep up to date with future episodes. If you have found the work I do valuable in any way, you can buy me a coffee - it helps fuel the passion when I’m editing into the night!

Please do follow me on social media - I'm @RealBirthPodcast on Instagram, and Real Birth Podcast on Facebook.

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to The Real Birth Podcast!

This week to start the New Year right, my guest is Stefanie, a mother of three from Canada. Stefanie has been a Lamaze® Educator and doula since 2002. After the birth of her second son, Stefanie saw just how valuable it is to be prepared for birth and to have good support around you.

Stefanie trained as a childbirth educator and doula, running classes from her basement. Now, over 20 years later, she is the founder of Doula School which offers training for birth and postnatal doulas, as well as prenatal yoga teacher training and doula education retreats. Her belief is that the world can be a better place if parents can have more positive childbirth experiences that allow them to bond properly with their babies. She works tirelessly to change the world in this aspect… one family at a time.

Stefanie shares her three birth stories, and talks in particular about how she found birth both with and without epidurals. Big thanks to Stefanie for speaking with me this week - here she is to share her stories!

If you want to find out more about Doula School and Stefanie’s work, you can reach her on instagram @doulaschool or via her website doulaschool.ca. I’ll link to her on my social media too so you’ll be able to find her there.  

Please do follow me on social media - I'm @RealBirthPodcast on Instagram, and Real Birth Podcast on Facebook.

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to The Real Birth Podcast!

This week our birth story comes from Hannah, who discovered during her first pregnancy that she has coeliac’s disease. Hannah’s condition presented with almost no symptoms but the implications of having coeliac disease during pregnancy are far more serious than I knew. As well as managing a brand new health condition during her pregnancy, Hannah’s baby was also breech and she had a successful ECV to turn her. At almost 40 weeks, Hannah was involved in a car accident - not ideal for building those lovely oxytocin vibes which kick start labour!

Thank you again to Hannah for telling us about your experiences of your pregnancy, managing coeliac’s disease, your ECV, your induction, the birth and everything that happened in between!

I am really pleased to have been able to feature a story from someone with Coeliac disease - a condition which affects more than 1 in 100 people in the UK - as I’m sure I will not have been the only one who didn’t know much about how this might affect pregnancy and maternal health. 

Please do follow me on social media - I'm @RealBirthPodcast on Instagram, and Real Birth Podcast on Facebook.

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to The Real Birth Podcast!

This week my guest is Laura, who shares the birth story of her son after two heartbreaking miscarriages. Just so you know, Laura and I talk about these losses in depth at the start of the episode, so you can skip a little ahead if you’re not feeling in the right place to listen just now.

Laura was encouraged to accept an induction after her waters broke before labour began. Although it’s not something she initially wanted, Laura made the decision to have an epidural to allow her to rest properly.

I’ll let Laura tell the rest of her story, and she has some really useful advice to share too as she reflects on her birth one year on. 

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I interview Maha Al Musa, a childbirth educator, mother and birth activist living in Australia. Maha is the founder of EMBODYBIRTH and has been sharing her wisdom surrounding the physiology of birth for almost three decades.

Maha shares her three birth stories - including a home birth with midwives at the age of 46. We also talk about cultivating autonomy in birth, and discuss natural term breastfeeding. Maha gained a fair bit of publicity when she allowed her daughter to breastfeed as long as she wanted, taking cues from her child rather than society's rules!

We also delve into Maha's own childhood experiences, which is an incredible tale. At just 6 months of age, Maha was kidnapped by her father and separated from her birth mother, taken overseas and raised in Australia. We speak about her connection to the maternal lineage and how finding her mother helped heal parts of her which helped her to go on and have her own family.

This episode feels different to my others, and really very special. I hope you enjoy hearing Maha speak so passionately about pregnancy and birth! You can find her at https://mahaalmusa.com/ where she teaches her EMBODYBIRTH programme, and also certifies others to teach her work, too.

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to series 3 of The Real Birth Podcast! Kicking off the series is an interview with my good friend Emma, who gave birth to her son in 2016.

Emma is a teacher and a single mum to her son Wren. She and her partner at the time struggled with unexplained infertility, but eventually did fall pregnant after trying for several years. Emma has a history of Colposcopy - where tissue is removed from the cervix as part of cancer-prevention treatment. Because of this, she needed to have a cervical stitch placed early in her pregnancy, which would stop her cervix opening too early and preventing early birth.

Emma also tested positive for Group B strep during pregnancy, and decided to birth in hospital so she could access antibiotics. Her birth didn't go to plan when there was no one available to administer a much-wanted epidural!

I hope you love this episode - I certainly do - and thank you SO much again for joining me for season 3!

---------------------------------

This season I'm thrilled to be working with my first ever sponsor: Bridge House Pilates.

Bridge House Pilates was founded by Meaghan, a Texan-born pregnancy, postnatal and low back pain specialist Pilates teacher now living in Somerset. Meaghan is a fan of the show and reached out to see whether my listeners might be interested in a special discount for her brand new postnatal Pilates course.

As well as sponsoring the show, Meaghan has created an exclusive discount for my listeners and I'm really thrilled to be able to offer you guys 20% off the Bridge House Pilates postnatal pilates online course. 

Here's a bit more about the course:

Thinking about moving your body after having a baby can be daunting, not least because you somehow need to get yourself dressed and out the house - but Bridge House Pilates' NEW online, on-demand postnatal course can be enjoyed at any time, all from the comfort of your own home. 

The course is flexible, bite-sized and perfectly suited to the chaos of new parenthood! Weekly sessions focus on relaxation, building core strength, healing your pelvic floor and addressing common muscular issues such as diastasis recti and back pain. 

The course is designed with busy new mums in mind. Each week is broken down into 5 videos lasting between 5-15 minutes each. The platform will even track your progress if you get stopped partway through a video

Signing up also grants you lifetime access to all the course material, so you can return to your workouts whenever you need to - even if you go on to have more pregnancies in future.

To find out more about Bridge House Pilates' course and to benefit from our sponsorship discount, click here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the final episode of season 2! Thank you to everyone who has listened and supported me this series, it's been an incredible time and the stories I've been able to share have been amazing.

To mark the season finale, I'm thrilled to have interviewed Cat Strawbridge, who you may know if you're on instagram in the TTC/IVF/pregnancy after loss space.

Cat and her husband started trying for a baby when they got married in 2016, but it was almost a decade of trying, IUI, IVF and pregnancy loss before their beautiful rainbow baby Wren was in their arms.

Due to a shortage of beds in her local hospital, Cat's induction was lengthier than planned, but Cat worked hard to keep positive, knowing her much longed-for baby was soon to be with her at last.

Cat now works with families who are struggling to conceive, or those who are finally pregnant after infertility and loss. You can connect with her on instagram - @tryingyears and @finallypregnant.

I hope you enjoy this week's episode and I'll see you again for season 3 very soon!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week my guest is Oona, who shares two very different birth stories. Oona planned home births for both her babies, but was transferred to hospital with her first daughter for suspected meconium (that's baby poo!) in her waters, and with her second daughter Oona was admitted to the birth centre for having a rare antibody show up in her blood tests in pregnancy.

This meant her baby may need additional care after birth (which no one could predict or know about until the day) and so their plans understandably changed. During her second pregnancy, Oona had a negative experience with her NHS appointments, and was immediately labelled 'high risk' due to a postpartum haemorrhage in her first birth.

In order to feel calm and in control of the birth she wanted, Oona hired an independent midwife - something she highly recommends - who worked hard to protect her from the pressure to be induced once she got to 40 weeks.

Oona lives in Penzance in Cornwall and you'll hear the seagulls overhead while we talk. I love this episode for many reasons but I am really thrilled that I can bring you a story of a mother who can explain what it's really like to hire an independent midwife as this is something I am asked about now and again. I hope you enjoy today's story...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's guest is Andrea, whose son Bodhi was stillborn at 30 weeks. Andrea suffers from endometriosis, and after two failed rounds of IVF, Andrea and her husband Sam found themselves unexpectedly pregnant naturally.

At just over 29 weeks, Andrea noticed Bodhi had stopped moving, and immediately knew something wasn't right. It is every parent's worst nightmare to be told their baby has died - and this episode is understandably very emotional. After Bodhi's death, she and husband Sam made a conscious choice to live good, full lives in their son's honour - and Andrea went on to donate her breastmilk to help care for sick babies who needed it. She regularly raises money, donates to charitable causes and makes positive choices because of Bodhi.

One of the things that helped Andrea and Sam after Bodhi died, was the arrival of a gorgeous French bulldog, Marley. I visited Andrea at her home not to far from me, and you'll hear Marley having a good old snort away in the background - which personally I love as he is such a shining light in Andrea's life and deserves to be featured!

This episode is extremely honest, raw and open about stillbirth - and if you're not feeling in a good place to listen to this right now, then please do skip over this episode and come back when you're feeling ready. I believe it is so important to share all birth stories - and it was a complete honour and a privilege that Andrea has shared Bodhi's memory with me - and by extension, all of you.

Thanks for listening and I hope you fall in love with Andrea as hard as I did!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices