In this episode, I share my experience of going from one baby to two (and three). 

I remember when I was pregnant with our second baby and I wondered if I could love another child as much as I loved our first.  Or could I give our second one as much time as our first. 

Mother guilt at times consumed me and I worried about how to balance my time and love between two little ones. 

I also thought my firstborn would be losing out on time from me as well. 

I'm going to answer some of the common questions and thoughts that mums going from one to two children may be thinking. 

Here are some of the questions I go through in this episode:

Consider your support circle : 

Organise freezer meals:

Is it hard?  

This depends on many factors which I discuss:

Enjoy this episode, 

Ashley x 

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this episode, we meet amazing Lizzie.  Mother of two boys who lives in Carolina, USA. 

Lizzie shares her first pregnancy & birth story which happened during 2020 when Covid hit. 

She had many missed appointments due to the pandemic and the ones she had were short and impersonal.  

She ended up being diagnosed with hypertension and was told she would be induced. 

Throughout the induction process, Lizzie found it a long and drawn-out experience and after the waters were broken at 6cms she ended up going in for a C-Section. 

She had complete mistrust in the medical community after that experience. 

10 months later she found herself accidentally pregnant again and knew she wanted to have a VBAC. 

She hired a homebirth midwife but felt red flags throughout the pregnancy, but felt like they were her only option for a home birth. 

While they were better than the OBGYN before, she felt they would transfer her again so hired a doula at the last minute for extra support. 

Lizzie knew she needed to go into labour by 42 weeks or she would lose the support of the midwives, so she did as many "natural" things to induce her baby around 41 weeks, including a stretch and sweep and went into labour just before 42 weeks. 

She was in labour and found comfort in standing upright and continued to labour like this for 12 hours.  A second midwife showed up around this time and she feels there was an energy shift.  The baby's heart rate wasn't reading well so she was told to lie down on my back on the bed so they could get a better read.  

She found this quite uncomfortable and the midwives called an ambulance to transfer her to hospital. 

She was strapped in the back of the ambulance in the final stages of labour.  Her main midwife told her doula to stay and help empty the birth pool that Lizzie never used and they both never made it to the hospital in time. 

She ended up birthing her baby vaginally within an hour or so of arriving at the hospital. 

There is so much more to this story than I can share here I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Ashley 

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this episode, I talk about creating a safe circle of support for your VBAC Homebirth. 

I start this episode by sharing my experience with creating friendships and some of the challenges that I've had over the years making friends. 

I share some tips for finding friendships with the people who light you up and make you want to be a better version of yourself. 

Sometimes we stay stuck in old friendships that no longer serve us, and just leave a cloud of negative or old energy.  

When we grow as people we need to find those who are right for us now.   Many people can struggle to find those friendships. 

I want you to understand where you are now with your circle of support and how you can cultivate & grow new circles of support. 

And as always I share with you my own experiences and stories. 

3 Ways to create your circle of support

1. First you have to believe you are worthy of having the support you crave.  Of being around people that treat you the way that you feel you deserve to be treated

2. Put yourself out there to connect with people.  You have to go out in public to mingle and meet people, or if you meet people online you need to take the next step to go out in person.  

So many people myself included feel anxious about going out and meeting people in person - but I believe deep and real connections need to have a physical presence - even just to feel that person's energy and hug them.  Or look into their eyes.

3. Be generous and vulnerable

I notice that people get super busy in life, especially mothers.  And everyone is different.  Some people are anxious, some people are introverted so they may not like to talk or get out as much as your average extrovert.

Enjoy this episode now!

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this podcast episode, I discuss how you can connect with your intuition more deeply. 

I thought it would be good to talk about connecting to your intuition. And I think this is a really good topic because it's something that is I find one of the most important things at our disposal, that we as people can use and utilise. 

And so some of us might naturally have very strong intuition. And some may find that we may be strong in our intuition, but we don't listen to it. 

Sometimes it's a little bit harder for us to listen to that voice or even recognize that voice at all. So I kind of want to share my experience and where I've been coming from, and how I've been reconnecting with my intuition lately.

You will hear some of my journey up-leveling my intuition and I will give you practical examples of how you can start connecting with your intuition today!

Ashley x

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this episode, I talk about letting go of control and learning to surrender. 

I found through my own journey while pregnant that I had to fully embrace this idea of surrendering and letting go of what could happen.

It took me a while to understand what surrendering actually meant, but eventually through conversation, practice, and trying to embody this ethos I finally found some peace in amongst the noise. 

And it was deeply peaceful & sweet to be in that space of surrender. 

It was also deeply vulnerable to offer myself to the universe and just believe that all will unfold the way it needs to and embracing that deep trust. 

For someone who identifies as a Type A personality that likes control it was quite the journey - but well worth practicing through my freebirth VBAC pregnancy and birthing experience. 

Join me as I share my experiences and stories on this topic. 

Ashley x 

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this episode, I am answering a question that a listener sent in recently. 

Thanks so much for sending in your question. It's an important topic that I wanted to speak to as I have been in this position before - and it can feel quite powerless being in a position of vulnerability and not feeling safe to trust people.

I'd like to know how you can find trust again in your instincts. I had a lot of failed support that I paid for last year. Every single person let me down. I'm pregnant now and I don't trust anyone.

My past is affecting my ability to find the support that I crave during this pregnancy.

Quite often it feels personal because it is personal. It's happening to us and people let us down - but often it isn't about us at all.  People are often focused on their own chaos and lives.

I discuss the different groups of support people and what can be stopping them from showing up in a way  you need & deserve:

How we can call in the right support:

Enjoy this episode! 

Ashley x 

If you want to ask a question I would love to hear from you please send me an email at:  [email protected]

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

In this episode, we meet Meagan from The VBAC Link. 

Meg and I talked about VBAC statistics along with part of her over VBA2C birth story. 

We discuss the statistic rates for the below topics:

And sooo much more. 

Meg and I just had so much fun talking and we had so much to talk about. 

You can find the resources for the episode that we discussed here:

https://www.thevbaclink.com/length-between-pregnancies-c-section-to-vbac/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20410775/

Uterine Rupture Rates:

https://www.thevbaclink.com/uterine-rupture/

Rupture in pregnancy:

https://reference.medscape.com/article/275854-overview

VBAC after C-Section:

https://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/vbacup/vbacup.pdf

VBAC Supportive Directory - Worldwide:

Please note, this is a list of providers who have been recommended to us by members

of our online communities. Each provider operates independently of The VBAC Link. It

is the responsibility of the parents to properly screen their provider and make sure they

are a good fit for their individual birth needs.

You can find this PDF in the VBAC Link Facebook Community in the featured section- 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VbacLinkGroup/?ref=share&mibextid=unz460

Meagan co-founded the VBAC Link in 2018. 

You can connect with Megan below:

@thevbaclink

More from Ashley

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

Check out the free Homebirth Workshop here!

In this episode we meet Laura mum to three little ones. on the surf coast in Victoria.

Laura experienced two miscarriages before she conceived her first baby, which left her quite devastated.

Laura shares that she went into her first pregnancy and birth with an OBGYN in her team that supported her during one of the miscarriages. This made her comfortable to move forward when she fell pregnant with her first baby.

She explains when it came to birth planning, she wasn't intentional, she was flowy and go with the flow.  Although she wanted to have a vaginal birth but felt like a passive player in her birth journey.

Later towards the pregnancy Laura was told she had a "big baby" on board and there was conversation around induction as she didn't want the baby to get "too big" and not come out of her pelvis.

She went through the induction process and found that it wasn’t as straight forward as she had hoped.

She found herself agreeing to a C-section that was quite emotional for her.

She felt like she had a positive birth experience. Her baby was born 4.1 kilos.

She was very motivated for a VBAC the second time and she felt she was on track for a VBAC.

She got to 40 weeks and there was chat happening about "baby needs to be born soon

There was conversation of a repeat C-Section after a certain timeframe 40+ 9 and that was the plan if Laura went over that timeframe.

The night before the C-Section Laura started feeling period cramps and couldn't stand still, she lost her mucus plug and called the hospital to let them know that things were happening.

She spoke to her OBGYN who said it was good. This went on for 24 hours and she went into hospital and was positive something was happening. Her cervix was closed, tight, shut, zero CMS.

She felt disappointed and felt like her body was broken and failing her. She was offered a C-section and decided that must be the best option.

Her baby was born 40+9 and 4 kilos.

She decided she would have a maternal assisted caesarean birth with her next baby. She felt like worrying about the VBAC was a lot, so her positive spin was an easier maternal caesarean delivered baby.

Laura had moved to a different location and didn't want to travel 1.5 hours to her OBGYN with this next pregnancy and looked for a new OBGYN and found one male DR who was willing to try the maternal assisted delivery, after sharing his concerns with her.

After a couple of appointments Laura felt like this wasn't the right path for her and she started to think about a different way to birth her baby.

She found a supportive midwife to support her in a homebirth.

The midwife was only willing to support Laura if she was able to birth closer to hospital. Laura was originally okay with this, but around 35 weeks felt that it no longer felt like the right option. She parted ways with her midwife and decided to freebirth with her doula.

Listen along to hear Laura’s long three day freebirth story!!

You can connect with Laura below:

Website: physiolaura.com

Instagram: instagram.com/physiolaura

More from Ashley 

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

Welcome to the first episode of 2023!!

It is good to be back and bringing more episodes & birth goodness into the new year. 

In this episode, I discuss your VBAC homebirth journey's most taboo and scariest question.

Will my baby die if I rupture?

Let's discuss the answer to this question and examine how it affects our perspective on VBAC homebirth.

Come and find me on Instagram & share your thoughts! 

Enjoy this episode!

Ashley x

WANT TO WORK WITH ME?

15-minute coffee chats are open!

If you are interested in working with me in, You can book now – spaces are limited – book a call with me here

MORE FROM ASHLEY:

Get access to this free Homebirth Workshop here!

Find out more on how I can support you + you can have me as your guide + biggest supporter – Click here!

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

Ashley x

Welcome to the last episode of 2022!!

In this episode, I'm going to recap on the year for the podcast and share some amazing content for you to get onto over the Summer holidays until the podcast is back Jan/ Feb 2023. 

Here's what you can expect for 2023 - 

More amazing VBAC Homebirth Stories, expert interviews sharing their wisdom & episodes on helping you feel more prepared and confident to have a VBAC homebirth on your terms. 

What's coming next year? Exciting things!!

MY NEW AMAZING PROGRAM COMING AFTER APRIL 2023

Exciting news! I'm working ona program that helps you to feel more supported and prepared to homebirth on your terms.  Want to be the first to know about it?- jump onto the waitlist here to get access to the early bird pricing and more information as I release it! 

WANT TO WORK WITH ME IN 2023?

15-minute coffee chats opened for next year if you are interested in working with me in 2023 I'm booking up now - spaces are limited - book a call with me here

FREE HOMEBIRTH WORKSHOP

HOMEBIRTH: How to get the emotional & mindset support you need in pregnancy

Get access here

MORE ON THE EPISODE HERE - 

Have you been told that your baby was too big and that's why you had a C-Section?

So many women are told that their babies are "too big" to birth vaginally and that c-section is the only option to birth their baby. 

I'm going to talk about some of those fears and unpack some of the challenges women who are suspected of having a big baby have to face. 

Listen to this episode now to empower yourself with knowledge and information to feel more confident to birth a big baby like so many women before you have! 

Let me share a couple of podcast episodes where you can hear big baby birth stories:

Enjoy this episode!

Ashley x 

MORE FROM ASHLEY:

Get access to this free Homebirth Workshop here!

Find out more on how I can support you + you can have me as your guide + biggest supporter - Click here!

Join our VBAC Homebirth Support Group here 

Insta: @ashleylwinning

Ashley x