Birth Tales

In today's episode we're hearing about Shanna's two births; one at the hospital and the other at home. Throughout her pregnancy she had a very clear idea of what she was and wasn't comfortable accepting in terms of intervention and she was very confident in her intuition around the birth. She explains how she resisted the pressure to accept an induction until she was nearly 43 weeks and shares how...

In this episode we're hearing from Annie about her amazing HBAC. This is Annie's second time on the pod so you might remember her first birth story; a lengthy induction that lead to a c-section. Today we're hearing how that experience heavily influenced the choices she made this time around. She knew that birthing at home would give her the best at the VBAC she wanted, so she gathered her support...

In today's episode we're hearing about Jessi's two vastly different births. Her first - an induction that sent her into uterine hyperstimulation and was heavily influenced by covid restrictions. Her second - an empowering waterbirth in her living room with continuity of care from an amazing homebirth team. She shares how her first birth influenced the choices she made around her second, what a phy...

In today's episode we've got India back on the podcast to tell her second birth story. Having had a planned c-section after discovering her daughter was breech, India was keen to try for a VBAC this time round. She talks us through the preparation she did; lots of reading, gentle movement, acupuncture, reflexology and taking a hypnobirthing course. Her care team encouraged her to book in a c-secti...

In today's episode Anaïs shares the story of her freebirth. She always knew she wanted to give birth to her baby at home and whilst it wasn't necessarily the plan to birth without midwives present, when her labour began she felt so calm and confident that she never felt the need to call them. She spent a lot of her labour in the shower and felt herself communicating with her baby throughout as a w...

In today's episode we're hearing from Louise about the birth of her son Rex. She shares her experience of miscarriage; how that changed her perception of pregnancy and how she used keeping busy as a coping mechanism.   At 39 weeks a scan suggested she was carrying a big baby so she decided to accept an induction which lead to uterine hyperstimulation and after a long and exhausting labour her baby...

In today's episode we're hearing from Alice about her two births; the first in the birth centre, the second at home. Her eldest daughter Izra, who was born in the pool on the MLU, needed some special care after the birth due to meconium aspiration and Alice shares her experience of having a prolapse soon after the baby arrived. When she fell pregnant again, despite her husband not supporting her c...

In today's episode we're hearing from Sophie who was one of the very first guests on the podcast and she is back to share her homebirth experience. After finding out she was pregnant by surprise at her friend's wedding, Sophie admits she found this pregnancy tougher than her last due to sickness, tiredness and lots of travel for her partner's work. She hired the same lovely doula who supported her...

In today's episode I'm speaking to Rosie who had her baby girl Poppy 9 months ago. At her 12 week scan blood tests showed low levels of PAPP-A which resulted in multiple extra scans through her pregnancy and conversations starting early around a potential induction. As it turns out, Rosie's labour began spontaneously shortly before 37 weeks on the day she was supposed to be moving house. When her...

In this episode I'm chatting to Rochelle about her second birth which took place just 2 weeks before recording! Her pregnancy differed in so many ways from her last; she suffered with terrible morning sickness for the first 5 months, had the added worry of a subchorionic haematoma and found at 20 weeks that her baby had a ventricular septal defect. Despite all the extra tests and complications, Ro...

In today's episode we're hearing from Katie, who is back on the podcast to tell her second birth story. She shares how different her pregnancy was this time around from the symptoms she experienced to the support she received, plus the fact her first was heavily affected by covid restrictions. Having suffered with postnatal depression after birthing her first son, Katie was careful to prioritise h...

In today's episode we're hearing from Velika just 10 weeks after giving birth to her son Elio. At the start of her third trimester, having hired a doula and learned about hypnobirthing, Velika opted for a homebirth to guarantee her access to a birth pool. She laboured at home until she was fully dilated, at which time her contractions started to become less frequent.   When labour didn't pick up a...

In today's episode we're hearing from Olivia who gave birth to her daughter Sienna in the midwife lead unit. Following a diagnosis of endometriosis, adenomyosis and PCOS it took her years to conceive, so she shares all about her conception journey and the things she did to support the process.   She had a busy pregnancy; travelling, moving house and working on her business so admits she didn't thi...

In today's episode we're hearing from Rochelle about the birth of her son, Jude. Despite having had a previous early pregnancy loss, she felt confident and intuitively very positive right from the beginning of her pregnancy. Thanks to minimal symptoms she was able to stay busy with work, but as a result feels she might not have prepared for the birth as much as she would have liked. When her labou...

In today's episode we're hearing from Katie about the first of her two births. She conceived just before the pandemic hit so her pregnancy and birth were both heavily affected by the restrictions; from the antenatal classes she could attend to how much her partner could be with her during labour. Due to her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome Katie experienced a lot of leg and hip pain, as well as some joint d...

In today's episode Chantal reflects on the birth of her little girl just 3 weeks postpartum.   In her third trimester it was suspected that her baby was measuring large for gestational age, so Chantal's care providers were keen to monitor baby's growth and potentially induce her before her due date. An elective C-section was booked and having accepted a few sweeps to try and get things moving, Cha...

In this episode I'm chatting to Chloe about her son's water birth. As a hypnotherapist, Chloe was well aware of the mind-body connection and the importance of a good mindset when preparing for birth, so she did lots of reading, took various classes, learned hypnobirthing, hired a doula and practised visualisation and affirmations. Having always assumed she was very sensitive to pain she was convin...

In today's episode I'm speaking to Helena who birthed her daughter Bonnie 9 months ago. Having worked as a TV producer on a birth show Helena was lucky enough to have witnessed a variety of births first hand which helped her to feel prepared in the lead up to her own. She planned to birth her baby at home, but on the day her contractions began she received a message from the homebirth team saying...

Today we're hearing from Arron Suzzette who was told at 21 she would be unlikely to have children due to having endometriosis and PCOS; amazingly she fell pregnant naturally just as her and her partner were about to start looking into their options. After an early diagnosis of gestational diabetes at 9 weeks pregnant, Arron Suzzette suddenly found both her diet and birth options restricted, so she...

Today I'm chatting to Anna about her daughter's birth in the midwife lead unit. Anna grew up hearing her mum speak positively about her own birth experiences so she was excited to throw herself into preparing for her own and she shares about the different courses, books and exercises that helped her through her pregnancy.   Anna's contractions started a few days before her estimated due date and s...

In this week's episode we're hearing from Leonora just 8 weeks after the birth of her daughter. She shares about her conception journey including the difficulty of her 4 early losses and the anxiety that came with her subsequent pregnancy; midway through which Leonora was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. She underwent a cervical cerclage to prevent her going into preterm labour and was put on...

In this episode Clementine shares her experience of birthing her son Wilf. Having always known she wanted to be a mother and growing up hearing her own mum talk very positively about birth, she was super excited to find out she was pregnant. During her pregnancy she did lots of birth prep; reading books, taking antenatal classes, joining a hypnobirthing course and seeing a local physiotherapist. C...

In today's episode we're hearing from Harriet about her experience of conceiving via ICSI, struggling with hyperemesis gravidarum during her pregnancy and how her work as a midwife informed her decision to birth her daughter at home. Having witnessed numerous physiological births prior to her own, she felt confident in her body's ability to birth her baby and devoted her time to preparing herself...

In today's episode we're hearing from Lottie about the birth of her little boy. She was lucky enough to feel physically well during her pregnancy, but emotionally found it quite overwhelming. Her and her husband took an antenatal course in preparation for the birth which they found really useful for learning about all their options, so when she was offered an induction at 41 weeks Lottie felt conf...

In today's episode I'm speaking to Lottie about her daughter Scarlet's birth. Her and her husband were living in Mexico City when they conceived and her pregnancy came with plenty of anxiety - from a subchorionic haematoma in the first trimester to her daughter's diagnosis of hydronephrosis at the anomaly scan - and she shares how difficult it was dealing with all these extra worries without the s...