The She Births® Podcast

⁠SheBirths.com.au ⁠ | ⁠She Births® Online Courses⁠ | ⁠ She Births® Weekend Courses

Maiden to Mother Birth Story : The power of slowing down with Tayla & Jaime

Today's podcast is with Tayla and Jaime, a She Births® couple who gave birth on the south coast of NSW about 10 minutes before their midwife arrived.

We share a lot of laughs in this podcast and a lot of insights and truths. They are a really fun and playful couple. I was recently inspired by their rewilding of their relationship recently.

Tayla took pregnancy as a time for really slowing down. Which I believe is one of the most important things we can do, in resistance to our hyper productivity culture but also because it is a step towards being able to listen and receive all the wisdom and gifts from both our instinctual bodies and our intuitive higher self during pregnancy.

As we move into more being and less doing there is more stillness and therefore silence. We can tune in and listen to the way our bodies and all of Nature around us communicates with us continually 

I love how Tayla could feel the subtle moments when her maiden self was arising and dying throughout labour. And I love how much laughter these two bring to their life. Why can’t birth also be fun and playful?

We talk about

We also discuss the superpowers and gifts from birth such as intuition, intimacy and the awesome strength and competency as a mother all of which I am writing more about in my upcoming book.

As this is our final podcast episode for 2023 I want to thank you all for listening and engaging with my work here at She Births. 

It has been so nourishing to meet mums post partum who said they learnt and were so inspired by the birth stories we share here.

Also, by the openness and vulnerability I share too.

I look forward to a new year ahead and sharing some very new and exciting projects and offerings. 

SheBirths.com.au | She Births® Online Courses | She Births® Weekend Courses

What is a Private Midwife? Should you have one? What is relational based care? How to choose a provider for your beautiful birth...

Today's podcast is with Liz Wilkes who is the Managing Director and Founder of My Midwives.
My Midwives was established in 2010 and has supported thousands of families. 
They are change agents in the maternity system offering true individualised care that we so often talk about at She Births.
My Midwives is the first midwifery practice in Australia to admit women to hospital with Medicare rebates and also the largest private midwifery practice.
They provide continuity of care through pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum. 
Their care covers all the normal visits and aspects from booking into hospital, doing blood tests and scans etc.
They will remain a mothers primary care provider but work autonomously and collaboratively with a range of hospitals and practitioners. 
They have exceptional outcomes and their data will be published very soon.
Liz Wilkes was one of the first Medicare provider midwives in Australia and conducted the first Medicare rebated birth.
LISTEN ON APPLE  |  LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
Most women I know will make a phone call quickly after they pee on a stick and choose whatever care provider their latest friend or perhaps their GP tells them, without actually knowing that outcomes can vary greatly in different models of care. 
This podcast is designed to help you and any of your pregnant friends out there understand the different models of care and guide you in choosing the best place for you. 
Because finding out midway through pregnancy at a She Births course can sometimes feel really deflating and frustrating.
Today we talk about...
→ The spectrum of care
→ The importance of relational care
→ What research tells us is gold standard
→ How midwifery continuity is different to obstetric continuity
→ How Liz started My Midwives and what makes it so unique
→ How collaboration and advocacy are key to your better birth. How midwives, doulas, and hospitals interact well together to help avoid unnecessary inductions or other medical interventions.
→ Birthing on Country care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
→ Freebirthing - what it is and isn't
→ Giving yourself permission to shop around and trusting what you feel is the best care for you
I hope you enjoy this very special episode.
Nadine xx 
She Births®
PS. Join me this month in Sydney for an in-person She Births® Weekend Course! Only TWO spaces left! 

LINKS

My Midwives : https://www.mymidwives.com.au/

Instagram My Midwives : https://www.instagram.com/mymidwives/

She Births® Holistic Pregnancy Guide : https://shebirths.com/pg

shebirths.com⁠

Today's podcast is with Laura Latina, who has been a midwife, consultant and trainer for over 15 years and has a huge breadth of international experience. 

After graduating in Midwifery in Italy she completed her first assignment in the African country Burundi. 

Laura continued her work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as a supervisor in Malawi and then South Sudan and Kenya.

She has also worked as a community midwife in London and a midwifery team leader.

Laura completed her fourth MSF assignment in Afghanistan as a manager of a maternity hospital where more than 20,000 women (per year) give birth.

She has been an MSF Women's Health Advisor, providing technical expertise and training in countries such as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Chad, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Pakistan and more. 

Laura is currently interning with Compassionate Inquiry, a somatic based psychotherapy developed by Dr Gabor Mate and Sat Dharam kaur. 

She is working as an independent consultant around the world preventing birth trauma and medicalisation and promoting gentle, respectful births. She offers sessions for women and families to reclaim their authentic inner power.

Today we talk about birth in remote and less resourced areas of the world. 

We discuss the importance of community, elders and culturally appropriate woman centered care.

We explore women's wisdom and knowledge and birth as a community event and  celebration.

We discuss the safety of so called high risk births and also what actually contributes to morbidity and mortality in these less resourced areas. 

The importance of access, hygiene, nutrition and medicine to prevent hemorrhage. 

We mention the power of culture and the evidence of effective TBA’s, traditional birth attendants.

I hope you enjoy this very special episode.

Nadine xx

Links

https://www.lauralatina.com/

Instagram @heal.birth.heal.earth

shebirths.com | Birth Harvesting Sessions With Nadine Richardson

How to get through birth & breastfeeding hell.

Birth Initiation - Doing the inner work with Cristina & Damian

Today's podcast is with Christina and Damian, a wonderful She Births® couple that gave birth on a houseboat in San Francisco.

They both did a huge amount of the psychological and spiritual work in preparation for not only birth but their relationship and parenting. 

They still however had moments in birth and breastfeeding of it feeling like absolute hell. 

Doing the work does not mean we don’t face challenges. But rather that we are prepared to face them and have tools to pass through them with more grace, ease, resources and understanding.

We discuss healing from our inherited beliefs, softening and developing more of an embodied presence - plus more, what I call superpowers and gifts from birth.

LINKS

Find out more information about Birth Harvesting sessions with Nadine Richardson. https://shebirths.com/product/birth-harvesting-package-880

NadineRichardson.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-bowling-94109927

http://linkedin.com/in/dbayona

shebirths.com | mathieucarlot.com

S8 Ep4 The power of meditation in our busy lives with Mathieu Carlot

How to be free of stress and remember who we really are

Hello and welcome, 

Today I have a wonderful friend and meditation teacher Mathieu Carlot here to help us answer all your questions about meditation.

Mathieu Carlot is a Vedic Meditation teacher based in Byron Bay.

With a background in the creative industries, he originally came to Vedic Meditation as a way to live his fullest creative potential. The practice takes only 20 minutes and easily integrates into a busy day. It is now practiced by millions of people around the world.

As a mentee of spiritual teacher Thom Knoles for over ten years, he is now passionate about sharing this ancient practice to enhance our modern lifestyles.

When he’s not teaching or creating, you’ll find him on his surfboard or out in nature, two places of constant inspiration. 

You'll soon find him changing nappies too as a papa :)

In our conversation today we discuss how meditation can help us birth and parent. 

I hope you enjoy

LINKS

@mathieucarlot

www.mathieucarlot.com

Show Links | shebirths.com

Make a submission here to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry Select Committee on Birth Trauma here: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/listofcommittees/Pages/committee-details.aspx?pk=318#tab-submissions

Reach out to us or Hygieia Health https://www.instagram.com/hygieiahealthltd/ for help with the submission and letter examples.

BESt (Birth Experience Study) Links:

https://www.facebook.com/BirthExperienceStudy 

⁠australianbirthstudy.com/about-the-study⁠

Birth Time & Jerusha Sutton Links:

jerusha.com.au

@jerushasutton

birthtime.world/

⁠@birthtimeworld ⁠

midwifehazel.com/

She Births®:

The She Births® study: https://shebirths.com/research/

Introduction:

Hello, welcome to another episode of the She Births Show. Today I have a dear friend and fellow doula Jerusha Sutton on the podcast. 

Jerusha has been a birth worker for 17 years, as a birth and postnatal doula in Australia and UK, and an international award winning birth photographer and videographer. 

Together we are talking about her film that has won 24 international film festival awards that she made in collaboration with Jo Hunter, Zoe Naylor and Selina Scoble, Birth Time. 

We discuss the changes that Birth Time is making both culturally and politically to our conversations about birth experiences and birth trauma. It has sparked a fire that I am happy to say is now blazing.

I'm sure a lot of you have seen Birth Time and been very moved by it and also had multiple questions arise about your own experiences of giving birth in the system and the care you received.

Today we dive into the core message of the film which revolves around the question; what would it take for all women to come out of their birth not only safe but emotionally well?

On the back of Birth Time a study at Western Sydney University launched, the same place that did the She Births® study. Over 9 months they collected over 8,000 submissions about women's experiences of giving birth in Australia in the last 5 years. 

You might know this as the BESt study. You can stay up to date with the study via a facebook link in our notes. 

What was found was heartbreaking but has subsequently changed legal ease already and initiated a NSW parliamentary inquiry. 

If you are in NSW please, I encourage you to submit any traumatic experience you have had to the inquiry. The link is in our notes.

If you are a birthworker and have ever witnessed anything traumatic in New South Wales you are also invited to submit before the 11th of August.

Birth trauma is defined as inappropriate, disrespectful or abusive treatment before, during and after birth. We expand on these definitions in our chat.

In the BESt study it was found that 30% of women experience some form of birth trauma in Australia. Shockingly, 1 in 10 women experience obstetric violence. 

We go into more detail around what obstetric violence is. Please note it is not specifically referring to an obstetrician but includes all birth workers. And violence is not just actions but words too and what is commonly experienced as coercive language and a lack of informed consent.

Within the 30% of women experiencing birth trauma 70% of those say that it was due to the way they were cared for, or spoken to. 

58% of women felt dehumanized. 26% of women felt violated and 16% of women felt  powerless. All of these experiences have very significant effects on women, their relationships and of course partners and babies too.

None of this is okay. So how do we fix it?

Well tune in to discover the most evidence based solutions. Jerusha and I discuss

Welcome to episode two of Corinne and Andy’s story. Today we share the natural births of their twin girls, Ivey and Rocky, frank and complete breech which is an extremely rare story.

I hope you enjoy the way that we talk not only about the mechanics of birth but also traversing the psychological and emotional challenges and the reminder of how important it is at these times to have people around you that are giving power back to you!

Sharing our stories in a deeper way to honour all parts of ourselves allows for embodiment and integration. I call this Birth Harvesting. I am writing more about this and how to prevent birth trauma in my upcoming book. Make sure you follow me and She Births® on socials and subscribe to our podcast to hear more conversations about what really matters to all of us, on the inside.

In this episode we talk about

I hope you enjoy. 

Nadine Richardson, She Births® Founder

LINKS:

https://shebirths.com/

http://www.thenestofmoruya.com.au/

More about the upcoming book @nadine_shebirths 

Birth images by @birthwithlauren     

Mum Corinne Histon is here to help any twins mumma’s out there @_corinneanne_

shebirths.com

Corinne’s Birth Story 3 Under 2. Healing through the mind body connection. One of the most rare twins birth story ever - no epidural, double breech

Hello, welcome to a very special two part birth story podcast with parents, Corinne and Andy who have three little girls under the age of 2.

In a sense this podcast is three birth stories… all with a lot of change, flux and challenge. Also with a lot of power, agency and triumph. 

In today's episode we talk about the care and support received at a midwifery group practice, Nest on the South Coast of NSW Australia for the birth of their first daughter, Navy. Then in our second episode (live now) we share the story of navigating the birth of twins within the hospital system.

After being told that a c-section was best by two hospitals, then told that an epidural was essential if a vaginal birth was attempted Corinne and Andy managed to have a beautiful natural birth of double breech girls under the care of Prof Andrew Bisits. 

In today’s episode we talk about:

I hope you enjoy. 

Don’t forget to subscribe and share with anyone you think needs support and inspiration to create a beautiful birth.

shebirths.com

Free Holistic Pregnancy Guide: shebirths.com/pg

Join Nadine's VIP Book List: shebirths.com/book

Ask Us Anything with Nadine and She Births® Educator Nichola Kinnane.

This is a recording from an Instagram live - an Ask Us Anything session between myself and She Births® Educator, Nichola who teaches in Newcastle, NSW.
Nichola is a mother and doula with a background in Kinesiology and a Bachelor of Counselling.
She loves working with couples to demystify birth, explore the physiological process as well as the transformative process.
In today’s episode we talk about:
+ Why is it important we demystify birth
+ What is the essence of the transformative process
+ Why Newcastle is my favourite Australian city
+ The best breathing techniques for birth
+ Our POV on hospital courses and online courses
+ How to help friends get educated without overstepping
+ Advice and resources for a holistic twins pregnancy and birth experience
+ Induction and why it’s important to change the word consent to decision
We also chat about recent growth of drop in centres for families. The latest evidence on breast crawl and treating mastitis. Catherine Bell’s birth mapping work.
We also spend time discussing my favourite topic, intuition. Which I am writing a lot about in my new book, and how in this age of misinformation, disinformation and conflicting research it is more and more important that we connect with our inner knowing. 
We hope you enjoy listening to this special episode.
 
Nadine xx

shebirths.com | bodylove-mamas.com

In today’s podcast we share an Instagram live conversation between Ali Handley, Founder of Bodylove Pilates / Bodylove Mamas and Nadine Richardson, Founder of She Births®.

Together they talk all about preparing your body for birth from a unique 20+ years of experience teaching pilates and yoga to pregnant and postpartum women. 

In fact Nadine is one of the original creators of a unique and dynamic prenatal yoga beyond the norm in Australia. She is the only Australian yoga teacher included in the award winning yoga documentary, YogaWoman.

Ali and Nadine start by talking about how important it is to take care of ourselves through important life transitions and the very powerful hormonal shift happening from maiden to mother.

They discuss whether it is safe not to exercise during pregnancy because of the enormous benefits for body, mind and childbirth.

They talk about building strength physically as well as emotionally. 

Topics covered include: 

Both Ali and Nadine have two fantastic free trials on offer so that you can really feel the benefits of both pilates and yoga for yourself. 

Simply go to https://bodylove-mamas.com/ and sign up to a free trial for experience the best pre and postnatal pilates

Use this special code SHEBIRTHSLOVES so you get an amazing 1 month free (on top of the standard 14 day free trial).

And go to shebirths.com/prenatal-yoga to receive our 7 day introduction to the foundations of safe and effective prenatal yoga. All for free. 

Inside our She Births courses both online or face to face you also receive multiple yoga class options to do regularly over in the lead up to birth.