Kyah gave birth to Sammy at the Alice Springs hospital. Kyah received care from this hospital during her birth but not throughout her pregnancy, as Sammy was an unexpected pregnancy. Kyah experienced what felt like intense period cramps and told her mum that she needed her to take her to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, Kyah was admitted and informed that she was in labour. This was unexpected and at the time it was a shock. Whilst coming to terms with being in labour, she heard her daughters heart beat over the monitor, for the first time. Her labour wasn’t long and around 4am Kyah saw her daughter Sammy for the first time. In this interview Kyah shares how she hasn’t always been open about her unexpected pregnancy and birth, but she hopes that through sharing her story she can break the stigma and encourage other women to openly share their stories too.

Kyah realised that on this new life journey into motherhood she needed some space and applied to the mother and baby home in Alice Springs to receive accommodation and support. In this interview Kyah shares how this space helps support pregnant women and mothers of infants in Alice Springs and how this organisation also helped Kyah and Sammy find their own home together.

Kyah and Sammy now live in their own place in the centre of Alice Springs. Kyah celebrates their life together via Instagram, sharing frequent updates about Sammy’s life through photos, stories and posts. The world’s their oyster and it all started with Kyah’s rural birth. Kyah shared that Sammy has taught her so much about herself and motherhood and that she is excited for what’s ahead.

Catherine Bell lives rurally in Bombay near Braidwood NSW. She is the Birth Cartographer and author of the must have guide ‘The Birth Map.

In this interview Catherine shares how her journey as a rural birthing woman inspired ‘The Birth Map’. She shares how ‘The Birth Map’ can support rural women through the maternity care landscape as we navigate distance and other rural-centric “limitations”. She talks about how the ‘Fast Birth Pathway’ section of ‘The Birth Map’ and how that can support rural women explore the potential of ‘birth before arrival’. Catherine shares her own rural birth stories and highlights that with a bit of forward thinking and through asking care providers the right questions, she and her partner felt supported and not afraid, even when faced with their own ‘birth before arrival’ experience.

Overall Catherine’s interview and her book ‘The Birth Map’ remind women that they don’t need to feel stuck. There are options. Rural women are reminded that although they experience a lot of factors that are different to other women, this book can help them. At any distance, at any level of risk and regardless of your financial situation you can map your birth and as rural women we can better navigate our birthing landscape when we have a map.

You can purchase ‘The Birth Map’ via Catherine’s website:

You can connect with Catherine via Instagram:

Melissa Arnott is a mum of three living in Broome. She has personally had beautiful birth experiences and she has found the possibilities in rural birthing. Broome is a town in Western Australia with a strong feminine energy. The birthing community is an empowered community and Melissa contributes to that through her birth work as a doula. She works with women individually and collectively. Her classes are called “Womb Wisdom”. In these classes she works with birthing women to help them remember their power. However, she has doulaed women through experiences outside of birth too working with terminally ill people as they prepare for death. In which ever capacity, when working with women, she is wholly present and guides them to connect to their innate power, passion, sensuality and vitality through every stage of their lives. As a birth doula Melissa has worked with women during as a part of fertility/preconception, pregnancy, pregnancy loss and still birth. She has worked in hospital and home birthing contexts and knows how to create space for women, transforming medicalised environments into spaces for birthing bliss.

Melissa’s doula work began in 2002; however, although she didn’t know it at the time, Melissa doulaed herself through her first birth and postpartum experiences. Doula work is an innate part of Melissa. From the age of 22, when she first moved to Broome and heard the birthing on country stories from local Indigenous elders Melissa knew that there was a world of possibility available during birth and she has tapped into that personally and as a doula. She was guided towards this practice. She listened to life’s call and answered.

Her experiences in this rural community and in birth enabled her to cultivate a deep, powerful and personal connection to herself and her feminine power. In this episode she shares the power of pregnancy, birth and motherhood and how it unlocked the potential within her.

Melissa can offer doula support, pregnancy and couples’ classes and fourth trimester and postpartum support. She also has skills in belly dancing and yoga which further enable her to open spaces for womb wisdom and to enable women to flourish.

Connect with Melissa via:

Allie Hill lives on a property about 45 minutes out of St George in rural Queensland with her husband and 18-month-old son. Although she lives a fair way out of town she is not isolated. She has fond friendships with other local mothers, who live on land close to her property, allowing her to connect, feel supported and share her experiences as a mum.

When Allie first became pregnant she booked in to the St George hospital via a GP Shared Care and also joined the Maternity Group Practice (MGP) program. This allowed for Allie to receive in town care and, as she already lived a distance out of town, the midwifery team were really flexible and fit Allie’s appointments in when she was already in town.

The community of St George is incredibly fortunate as there is a local maternity facility that is available for low risk birthing women. Being a long-term member of this rural community meant that Allie’s care providers were known to her, which is a small-town benefit but can also provide some difficulties. It can be difficult when you disagree with your provider as you can all to easily feel as though you might cause offense if you go against recommendations or assert a different perspective.

Allie used the local resources and also travelled long distances for parts of her prenatal care journey. She received acupuncture in Toowoomba (4 hours away) and took part in Hypnobirthing classes online. Allie did feel the absence of additional maternity care resources in her local community but found these resources to be valuable and appreciated the accessibility provided online.

During Allie’s third trimester she had an eventful experience. While she was preparing for her baby shower luncheon she showed signs of preterm labour and so at 33 weeks pregnant Allie was flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Toowoomba for specialist obstetric support. Allie’s suspected preterm labour did not eventuate but it did activate increased intervention as there was a fear that her baby was big. They were concerned that this could cause potential labour complications if she went over her due date. Allie was induced and this was a difficult change of plan which made Allie feel stuck. Her body did not respond well to syntocin and after a number of hours experiencing painful and exhausting contractions, without a break, she went in for an emergency caesarean. This experience was difficult and it was only recently that she debriefed and explored her birth experience with her mum, who works as a midwife and supported Allie’s birth. Allie really values the care available locally but also hopes to have a VBAC for when she does fall pregnant again. Therefore, in the future, Allie will seek private maternity care in Toowoomba, requiring relocation and ‘sitting in’ in the latter half of her third trimester.

Kate Thomson is a registered Chinese medicine practitioner and midwife currently living in Perth, Western Australia. During Kate’s midwifery training in Darwin she did two rural and remote placements in Katherine in the Northern Territory. During her studies Kate developed an interest in the unique set of circumstances surrounding rural health and different process and procedures rural health practitioners have to manage. With this interest in mind when the opportunity to experience rural midwifery was offered, as a part of her degree, she readily accepted.

In this podcast episode Kate shares what the remote side of rural birthing can look like. The town hospital, in Katherine, has a multitude of resources for a rural facility but also employs resources like video conferencing to seek advice and additional assistance from people like the neonatal support team located in the urban/city hospital. Additionally, Kate shared that this small hospital not only services women living locally/in the immediate surrounds but also Indigenous women from small communities (hours away) and women living on large stock properties. These women would travel hundreds of kilometres and it was commonplace from 36 weeks to “sit down” (permanently relocating to a local residence or a hostel associated with the hospital) to await your babies’ arrival. She shared the lonely side to this remote access form of rural birthing, as women who relocate are often having to travel without family or support persons due to a lack of funding.

Kate described the long yards travelled by women for prenatal care and appointments, and the limitations in regards to remote postpartum care options. She shared her knowledge of women using remote/digital access, which has particularly taken off during this time of covid/social distancing, to access antenatal classes, mother’s groups and postpartum support.

Having grown up in south west Sydney, Kate learnt a lot through her rural midwifery practicums. She discovered that there are a lot of things women living in urban communities can take for granted and that women living in rural/remote communities have several limitations. However, Kate also celebrated the possibilities of rural birthing. She recognised the beauty of community and small midwifery groups, allowing for knowledge and personalised care.

Kate is now working in a small hospital in Perth and loving that this small practice allows for that sense of community to still be a part of her work today. She continues to support women and uses her skills as a Chinese Medicine Practitioner and Midwife to holistically offer pregnant, birthing and postpartum women support through her business The Mama’s Alchemist.

Caity Atkinson lives in Yallingup in Western Australia with her husband and two daughters, Grace and Sage. She moved to the Margaret River for a change of scenery and met her husband, as they both worked in the wine industry. Caity’s first pregnancy was a surprise but as she was living in Margaret River and low risk she was able to locally access GP /midwife shared care as fortunately this town has a maternity facility.

Caity shared that during her first pregnancy her knowledge of birth options and different care patterns was not broad. When she found out she was pregnant, Caity luckily knew a woman who had received maternity care locally and followed suit. Prenatally things went well with the run of the mill check ups all being accessible through this small, local hospital. However, when Caity’s waters broke she was pulled in a few different directions and experienced what many would call the ‘care lottery’.

The Margaret River maternity facility has one birthing suite and had another induction booked in the following day at 9am. This led to a lottery as different midwives had different opinions on what should happen now that Caity’s waters had broken. The first midwife Caity spoke to when she called in instructed her that she better come in today, at 4pm, for induction so they could “get her over with” before tomorrow’s induction. This did not feel comfortable for Caity but being a first-time birthing woman, she was tentative and uncertain about how to assert her feeling about this induction being unnecessary. Caity shared with her partner that it didn’t feel right and so, when they returned to the hospital around 4pm, she told him to leave the bags in the car. The wheel span and lo and behold now that there was another midwife on duty they received different advice. She told them there was no need for induction and it was okay to go home and wait, which felt like a relief. Caity went into active labour naturally later that night, at home and birthed her daughter without needing to be induced. This experience stuck with Caity – the fact that she’d narrowly missed what was now quite evidently an unnecessary intervention for the sake of a schedule.

This experience imprinted upon Caity. Also, in between birthing her first daughter and her second she had started a midwifery degree and discovered the ‘Gold Standard of Care’ (working with a known midwife). Caity knew from her experience and her studies that this is what she wanted. Again, quite fortunately there are two home birthing midwives accessible from the Margaret River Region and so Caity received personalised and in home (occasionally even outdoors/at the beach) care from a known midwife (@loraleemamamidwife). This care experience and the birth of her second daughter was quite different. She was honoured by her midwives and able to birth within her home, with a beautiful sense of calm and peace. This experience has formed the foundation of what Caity hopes to offer to women as she enters the field of midwifery herself.

Caity also runs prenatal yoga and her offerings can be accessed via www.cjyoga.com.au and you can keep up to date with her life on the land in Yallingup WA on Instagram @gunyulgupfarm

Alecia Staines was born rurally. She continued to grow up in rural Queensland and so she always had a keen interest in ensuring equity in maternity service delivery. She grew up on ‘wheat country’ in a rural community called The Gums on the Darling Downs. Birthing options were available locally but not on Christmas Day so when Alecia’s mother went into labour she was shipped off in an ambulance, 2 hours away, during labour to birth Alecia in the city hospital. Whilst personally being born outside of her rural town was the path Alecia trod upon her own entrance into the world she saw a different side of birth when growing up. In her rural community and environment, she was exposed to a localised maternity care as the ‘norm’ with in town access to midwife led care and GP obstetric back-up model.

Alecia’s first birth was a rural birth. She was living in Goondiwindi in rural Queensland. This birthing experience was positive. Here she encountered the potential and possibilities of a community maternity practice. Alecia could walk from her rural home to her maternity appointments. She paints quite a different and beautifully calm image of ease. When I compare this to the other stories there is a stark contrast. I’m saddened that the connectedness, localised care model and standard of care seen in Alecia’s first birth seems inaccessible to rural women living in communities with closed ‘historic’ maternity facilities and I’m not the only one.

Alecia has been a maternity advocate for 9 years. Alecia’s passion for local services developed from a young age and as it gestated over time it grew into this vibrant passion for equity and local access to quality care for rural women. Alecia’s own experiences sparked something as she was directly exposed to quality care and she was further spurred as she heard of the inequities in other communities and the removal/closure of maternal health centres servicing small communities due to numbers. From a very early age Alecia was acutely aware of the contradiction between systematic birth and birth in nature. Seeing animals’ birth unassisted did not fit with the ‘obstetric specialist’ definition of care model availability that people are sold.

Her experiences have supported her high standard for rural care birthing models and through her strength and ability as a generator/advocator Alecia has made her standard known. She united and connected with other like-minded women through the ‘Maternity Consumer Network’. She ignited passionate, research-based debate and cultivated positive relationships with boards, politicians, journalists and care providers to see that the “Bush Baby Crisis” gained attention and traction. The “Baby Bush Crisis” movement did not happen overnight but through positive and persistent data and anecdotal journalism the stories and needs of pre and postnatal women were heard and the health minister made a commitment to pilot four rural maternal health services and not make further closures of rural birthing facilities.

In this interview you will hear how empowering a local maternity service can be and why “it makes no sense at all that having no service at all is safer”. Alecia also provides sage and actionable advice to women in rural centres and invites them to make contact with the Maternity Consumer Network.

Alecia now has 5 kids and juggles advocacy with child birth education (hypnobirthing), pre and postnatal yoga and has a keen interest in ongoing learning.

If you would like to advocate for maternity care and services in your own community there is guidance available through the maternity consumer network.

Myfanwy Bryant lives in Mudgee in NSW. She grew up between the worlds of regional and rural access, living south of Sydney in Nowra. After studying Myfanwy continued to live in Sydney and so many of the birth experiences she had heard and been exposed to were from the perspective of metro access women. When Myfanwy became pregnant she was already living and working as an occupational therapist in Mudgee in NSW. Having not heard many stories of rural women birthing she quickly had many of her previous maternity care expectations subverted as she explored her care options. In Mudgee pregnancy care is available at their public hospital in town or can be accessed out of area in larger rural cities like Dubbo. Mudgee hospital is serviced by GP obstetricians and so (not wanting to leave Mudgee for pregnancy and birth care, and being a public health worker herself) Myfanwy began GP shared care for the duration of her pregnancy.

Myfanwy had a lovely pregnancy and experienced quality care. She found the collegial knowledge she had, having worked with the people caring for her really comforting. She also discovered that being a health care worker gave her the confidence and a strong foundation to advocate for her needs. She felt heard, supported and respected by her GP obstetrician and was able to discuss her concerns and express her desires openly. Myfanwy waited for the onset of natural labour but at 41 weeks, 2 days gestation she opted for induction as she has had personal experience with neonatal death when her sister died and was acutely aware of the potential risks associated with late term/overdue birthing.

Myfanwy was induced through breaking of her waters and the syntocin drip; however, after several hours of labouring and not increasing in dilation she accepted the doctor’s offer of c-section and it was not long at all before her daughter Lucy was lying on her chest. Myfanwy did experience a post-partum haemorrhage and Lucy spent the first little while with her Dad instead but this did not minimise how elated she felt. Myfanwy was overwhelmed with a sense of love and achievement and was ecstatic to finally meet her daughter Lucy. There were some additional postpartum recovery challenges post c-section but Myfanwy and Lucy were well supported by helpful visitors and the proactive Mudgee MatCH nurse team who started a mother’s group and prompted the creation of supportive local connection with other mothers of young children.

Thank you to Myfanwy for sharing her birth story and highlighting how much can be made available locally with a dedicated rural maternity facility and quality rural care professionals.

Simone Stuart lives in Majors Creek near Braidwood in NSW. She is from ‘old stock’ and has a family history that goes back generations in this historical town. She is mother to six children (Leilani, Ariana, Sophia, Ava, Lucas and Hudson) and has had four births. Her first birth, the birth of her third daughter Sophia was not a rural birth. At this time Simone was living in Darwin, as was her sister Holly. She gave birth at the public hospital in Darwin and experienced midwife led care, as is common place there. Sophia’s birth was long and difficult and led Simone to believe that her subsequent births were likely to also be long labours. This was far from the truth. During the third trimester of Simone’s second pregnancy, with her fourth daughter Ava, Simone left the Northern Territory and moved home to Majors Creek in NSW, to create a home near family for her own growing household. Simone transferred from the close proximity urban based care model to a distance care model of GP shared care. Majors Creek is a small rural village close to the NSW / A.C.T boarder. Simone had anticipated using the facilities of the larger ‘Canberra Hospital’ but found that the atmosphere and regimented ‘take a ticket’ care systems weren’t offering what she desired. So approximately 4 weeks off her the due date of her second birth Simone transferred care to Queanbeyan hospital. Ava wasn’t planning on waiting or on slowly entering the world and so at 39 weeks gestation Simone was transferred from Braidwood’s small country hospital facility to Queanbeyan hospital with approximately 45 minutes to spare before Ava was born. Ava’s birth was a quick birth, as was her brother, Lucas’s birth who followed a few years after – proving that births have their own rhythm. Simone’s last birth, the birth of her sixth child Hudson, was exciting too. Hudson was born at 35 weeks gestation. Simone went into labour at home but once her and her partner were on the road they realised they needed fuel and so her partner dropped her off at Braidwood hospital to be assessed. Braidwood hospital doesn’t have an active maternity ward anymore but as with many rural and remote emergency units, this hospital does have the capacity to assist a birthing woman. Simone had the doctor on duty, 2 nurses, the on-duty paramedic, an offduty paramedic who was called in all present as she was assessed. Additional support was called in from both another paramedic team and the neonatal support unit drove into Braidwood for transfer as Hudson was premature. Simone has had a variety of different birthing experiences and her knowledge from these experiences is really powerful. I am grateful to Simone for sharing her stories and helping to inform others of the support that can be made available by both paramedics and rural emergency departments if needed. I hope you enjoy listening to her stories.

Emma Munnings is from Mongarlowe near Braidwood NSW. She is a mother to five children’ Lily, Louis, Gus, Marlo and Theodore. I met Emma through teaching at the local school and we quickly became fast friends. Emma has supported me in numerous ways throughout my time in Braidwood and a year ago she attended my son’s birth, to support my husband Lloyd and myself. I was not the first woman Emma supported during labour, she was also present at the birth of another dear friend’s son and her sister-in-law’s daughter’s birth. Emma is a giving woman and as she shares her story with us she gifts her experiences both as a birthing woman and a birth support person; not every one of these births was a ‘rural birth’ but discussing the variety of Emma’s experiences gave us the opportunity to contrast the availability of prenatal and postpartum care in urban centres compared with rural townships.

In my opinion Emma is an unofficial ‘birth expert’, she has given birth in a multitude of different ways and not one of her 5 births had a similar run or rhythm. Emma’s first born, her daughter Lily, was born in Melbourne CBD at the Royal Women’s Hospital Birth Centre and after this first experience Emma intended to use the birth centre again for her second birth but due to a late-term, large-scale bleed, Emma’s plans shifted quickly and she gave birth to her first son Louis via caesarean. Her second son Gus was born via VBAC and his birth was blissful under the guidance of a highly experienced midwife at the Canberra Hospital Birth Centre. Her third son, Marlo, was also born via caesarean; however, this was a planned caesarean as he was born early (at 36 weeks) and at a low birth weight. With her fifth and last birth came Theodore. During his birth Emma, her husband Nick and their growing family were living on a rural property in Mongarlowe. Again, Theodore’s birth moved at a slightly different rhythm again as Emma’s waters were broken by the obstetrician on duty in order to induce labour. This was Emma’s first rural birth; however, with the close proximity between Braidwood and Canberra (and as she had family living close to the birth centre) Emma didn’t have to do a last-minute dash. She began labouring in Braidwood but travelled to her brother’s home while she waited to go into hospital.

Emma’s stories are broad and highlight how every birth is different. Some of the themes in this podcast may be confronting for women dealing with birth trauma and I wish to highlight that the themes of emergency caesarean, preterm birth and induction are discussed.

It was thoroughly enjoyable to chat to Emma. Together we celebrated my son, Shanley’s birth (as we come up to the one year anniversary of his birth) and got to reflect again on her own birth stories and how much support she has offered to other women, giving of her own energies to be with women as they birth their first children and begin their journey into motherhood.