In this episode, we meet Ellie who lives 2.5 hours Northwest of Dubbo, NSW on a corporate farm.

As we were recording this episode Ellie has the tractors sewing the next crop on the farm which didn't help with the temperamental internet connection on the farm. But we got there!

Ellie expected to have a vaginal birth with her first baby after completing a hypnobirthing course and being educated about birth.

She found herself traumatised after a long and tiring, unsupported induction in the public hospital system.

When she was pregnant with the second baby she had hoped she could have a homebirth and lucky for her a new private midwife popped up in her area.

But, the midwife was yet to source a second midwife to support her for homebirths so Ellie went through her pregnancy up until 30 weeks with a publicly funded midwife until the good news came through that she could now have a homebirth!

At the pushing end of the birth, the baby's head popped out to Ellie's surprise and the shoulders also made it out, but the body got a little stuck - referred to as soft body dystocia.

Ellie was told to move out of the birthing pool by her midwives and helped to get into a different position.

Ellie beautifully birthed her rather healthy-sized 5.75 kilo or 12'6 pound baby girl earthside at a home organised by her midwife closer to the hospital.

Her baby required some resuscitation and even though minutes later she was perfectly fine as per requirements they were transferred into hospital for a check over bub and where Ellie could receive some stitching for a third-degree tear.

Ellie and her husband had to advocate for their baby after she was admitted to special care after some borderline low blood sugar levels.

Ellie felt she had a positive and powerful experience birthing her baby on her terms!

Listen to this episode now to find out all the details on Ellie's homebirth!

In this episode, we meet Lisa who lives in America and had her second baby in the Covid Pandemic. 

Lisa planned for a vaginal birth with her first baby, and during labour ended up birthing her baby by a surgical birth.  

During the surgery, the surgeons needed to cut above the vertical scar to remove her baby safely and Lisa ended up with what we call an Inverted T Special Scar. 

When Lisa was pregnant with her second baby she felt anxious, nervous, depressed, very angry, and defensive most of the pregnancy. 

A few emotional breakdowns. Feelings of loneliness, negative thoughts towards birth, and low self-esteem. 

The stress of getting things done at home, and usually being alone at work and home. 

And at 36 weeks she decided to homebirth with Chris Miller who by Lisa's words  "Chris - My incredible midwife; skilled, experienced (50+ years, 3,000+ births)"

Lisa says "Emotionally, deciding home birth helped me feel more peace. I feel relaxed and calm about waiting for birth. I don't feel like I'm fighting anyone and I don't feel abandoned."

She birthed her special scars baby safely at home. 

To hear Lisa's incredible homebirth story listen to this episode! 

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Want to work with Ashley during your pregnancy? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

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In this episode, when meet Hayley - mother of two and absolute birthing legend who vaginally birthed her 4.2-kilo baby, footling breech!! Whoop Whoop!  

Hayley expected to have a vaginal birth with her first baby and planned to birth in a birth center.  She found herself in labour with her first baby with an "undiagnosed breech" which paved the path to her first baby being born via cesarean section. 

Armed with more knowledge with her second baby Hayley hired a private midwife and planned to birth at home.  

She wanted to be sure this baby wasn't breech and had an ultrasound at 36 weeks. 

Unfortunately, the baby was breech and she went into an appointment with Dr. Andrew Pesce, the breech OB at Westmead.

She felt very grateful that she came across Dr. Andrew Pesce after her appointment with him as he was understanding and very supportive of her choice to birth vaginally, after a c-section, and with a breech baby. 

After a failed ECV it was decided she would be birthing in hospital and her homebirth plans changed with the path this journey took her.

Hayley's story shows that even the best-laid plans to birth sometimes need to be adapted to suit different obstacles that come up and that women can birth big breech babies vaginally with the right support and can-do attitude by birth providers. 

I am so pleased that Hayley experienced a positive vaginal breech birth with a surprise footling presentation (birth is always full of surprises!) 

Listen to this episode to find out more!

Join our free Facebook Support Group HERE!

Want to connect with Ashley? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

Insta & FB: @themotherhoodcircle

In this episode, I share some of the money mindset blocks that I often see with mothers. 

Often neglecting to value themselves due to money mindset blocks, as well as self-care blocks that are ripe in the western motherhood culture. 

There is a huge energy shift when we become mothers.  

Becoming a primary caregiver and constantly putting our children's needs ahead of our own, it's easy to stay in this mindset throughout motherhood. 

But I am going to let you in on a little secret about why it's important to notice these changes and start investing in your emotional wellbeing and mindset, and show you why sometimes investing financially will help you see much better results in the long run. 

If you ever feel stuck, overwhelmed, alone or unsupported in your VBAC Homebirth journey then this is the episode for you. 

Learn how you can finally have someone in your life to work through fears and help you feel more supported & confident in your journey so you feel less overwhelmed and alone! 

In this episode, I share the past five months of being a mother of three, and the up's and downs of that journey!

I believe in story sharing and the powerful benefits that women can gain from hearing about the challenges and how people deal with those challenges in their everyday lives. 

I walk through breastfeeding, how I worked through tie issues with Millie and some of the mindset issues I've had in my breastfeeding journey. 

Some of the illnesses I've had that I believe are related to pelvic prolapse issues which I believe are well and truly on the way of healing. 

Rewriting some of the stories that are coming up with the trauma of my hospital stay and Millie being in special care.  Having to navigate huge feelings of anger, grief, sadness and finding the positive's in the experiences I have had. 

Working with being a highly sensitive person and mothering a highly sensitive child - which has led us to choose to unschool our oldest child. 

And finally, I discuss how much I love using modern cloth nappies!

If you would like me to talk more on these topics further or if you are currently going through one of these challenges and want to chat more send me an email [email protected] or PM/DM me on my of my social media platforms @themotherhoodcircle

Enjoy this episode!

Ashley x

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Want to connect with Ashley? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

Insta: @themotherhoodcircle

In this episode, we meet Rachel new midwife and mother of two based in New South Wales. 

Rachel shares her birth stories only 6 weeks postpartum of her second baby.  

Rachel found herself surprised by her first pregnancy and decided to have GP shared care with her local hospital.  Expecting to have a natural vaginal birth just like her mother, she didn't think much of birth. 

She had HG throughout her entire pregnancy and suffered while working as a nurse up until very late in her pregnancy. 

At 38+2 she thought her waters had broken and she had cramps.  She went into the hospital and was told her waters hadn't broken and that she wasn't dilated enough to keep her in. She was sent home. 

She later started having closer contractions and headed back into the hospital to find she was already 8 cms.  

She had early pushing, a cervical lip and a posterior baby with assisted vacuum and eventually forceps were tried in the operating theatre. 

This birth ended up in a c-section and her baby in special care for 48 hours afterwards.  Rachel also found herself back in the hospital a week later with a womb infection and suffered PND and breastfeeding challenges. 

Her baby was born 4.2 kilos. 

Baby number two was a planned pregnancy and during this time Rachel had been training as a midwife and had Hazel Keedle as one of her lecturers who had made her feel much more comfortable about having a vaginal birth after c-section with her studies & research.

She had met a student midwife in her class who suggested homebirth and recommended a homebirth midwife Louise. 

When Rachel was pregnant she was in two minds about where she would birth her baby and decided to book into an MGP (midwifery group program) while she continued to educate her now-husband on the benefits of a homebirth. 

Eventually, around 15 weeks, she decided to book in Louise and plan for a homebirth and so that's what she did.  Louise and her student midwife were a great support for her during that time as she worked as a midwife and often had to overcome fear and concern about what could happen in her homebirth after seeing it unfold during her shifts. 

After the 20-week morphology scan she was told that this baby was another big baby, Rachel didn't think much of it and continued on with a healthy pregnancy and didn't worry much about her babies size. 

Although she did think about her babies position as she wanted to avoid a posterior baby this time around so she practised spinning baby techniques. 

Towards the end of her pregnancy, she was expecting to go into labour around 38 weeks and was surprised to find herself still pregnant at 39 weeks and experiencing prodromal labour each day.  She had an S+S at 39 weeks and the day before she went into labour she had acupuncture. 

Rachel had a very quick birth at home and birthed a fair-sized baby of 5.2 kilos at home with her midwife and student midwife present. 

Listen to this episode now to hear about Rachel's amazing birth stories & how she managed to birth her 5.2 kilo like a pro!! 

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Want to connect with Ashley? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

Insta: @themotherhoodcircle

In this episode, we meet Vanessa, a school teacher, mother of two based in Brisbane. 

Vanessa decided to trust in private health care and selected a private OBGYN who had been recommended to her.  She loved having continuity of care and took a calm birth class planning for a vaginal birth for her first child. 

At 38 + 2 her waters broke while on holidays and a total surprise to her, and she was admitted into hospital later that night. 

After a cascade of interventions & a failure to wait that birth ended up in a c-section with her little babe being sent to special care for low temp.

Vanessa met a photographer who was also a doula who started to plant seeds of information and let Vanessa know about the type of care she should have received during her birth. 

She did book in with another OBGYN at the start of her second pregnancy, but she felt she wasn't receiving the type of care she wanted and needed and started to question whether this OBGYN would do a bait and switch at the end of pregnancy and not support her vaginal birth.

Vanessa joined VBAC support groups and decided to go through a public hospital this time round.  (keeping in the back of her mind that a homebirth may happen and that wouldn't be so bad in these times of Covid when only 1 support partner was at times permitted in the birthing suite). 

When Vanessa went into labour she was expecting a really long labour and thought she had much more time than she had.  She called her doula and not long after her doula arrived she was birthing her baby at home en caul! 

Listen to this episode now to hear more about Vanessa's accidental VBAC Homebirth.

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Want to connect with Ashley? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

Insta: @themotherhoodcircle

In this episode, we meet Breana who planned on having a vaginal birth with her first baby, but found herself undergoing an emergency classical c-section after being diagnosed with preeclampsia. 

Breana was told it would be impossible for her to have a vaginal birth, carry to term or even labour after a classical scar, and that she would definitely rupture. 

Of course, Breana being the brave and intuitive woman she is, she decided to do some research of her own and decided that home birth would be her safest option. 

She followed the brewer diet after some research to help her avoid preeclampsia for this birth and it worked well for her, she avoided it this pregnancy.

 Then she went on to find the support of an Amish midwife and supportive doula to support her through pregnancy and the birth of her next baby. 

After a 21 hour labour and a lot of faith in her ability to birth her baby, Breana birthed her new 9 pound baby into the world without any troubles or interventions. 

This time she was able to do delayed cord clamping and have her wishes for an undisturbed golden hour (something that she did not experience with her first baby). 

If you want to feel empowered and like you can birth your baby out of your vagina, even with higher risk factors like a special scar I invite you to listen to this episode!

Join our free Facebook Support Group HERE!

Want to connect with Ashley? Book your free 30-minute discovery call here 

Insta: @themotherhoodcircle

In this episode, I share how I planned, organised and had a peaceful & calm postpartum full of support & love while healing from pregnancy and birth. 

I share how I went from previous postpartum's feeling isolated & alone to feel supported, loved and nurtured by my amazing circle of support, as well as calm & peaceful from the paid support that I organised during pregnancy. 

I hope you have a peaceful & calm postpartum with your new baby. 

Ashley x

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In this episode, I share the third and final part to my vaginal freebirth story!

After receiving poor care during my second pregnancy and being kicked out of the hospital at 37 weeks, it's an interesting turn in tales that I ended up in a full circle at the place that caused my lack of trust of health care professionals and a significant amount of trauma. 

This time while parts were certainly difficult and in ways traumatic, overall I had a positive experience through respectful and informed care by the obstetric team.

While my baby was in and out of special care I found that the special care team did not practice informed consent with parents and often left parents out of the decision making process for their little babies. 

I share some of the mindset battles I had during this time and some of the hard conversations I had to have with health care professionals while advocating for both myself and my newborn baby girl. 

It's a bittersweet ending to such an epic and powerful birth.  I am so happy and grateful for the birth I had and yet still mourning over the first few hours and days to weeks after healing from a postpartum haemorrhage of about 3L's. 

I learned a lot about the system during this time.  I learnt that there are some amazing health care providers out there with the ability to show compassion, great communication and willingness to practice informed consent.  As I am ever hopeful, it's my vision that this podcast and women sharing stories can and will change the way health care professionals treat and involve their patients in the medical decisions that are often pushed or made to "consent" to. 

If you would like to share your birth story email me at [email protected]

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