The Renegade Mama

Wow - here we are at the last episode of season 3! I was pondering what I should do for the last episode and then I thought - a lot of people have been asking to hear the speech I did at the Australia Homebirth Confernce in November last year. So here it is! The title of the presentation is: Freebirth - Taking Radical Responsibility. For those of you that already understand freebirth - I hope that...

Today on the show I speak to Fiona about about her two vastly different births. For her first Fiona found out via ultrasound that her babies organs were forming on the outside of his body. An elective c-section was strongly advice and she consented under duress. She ponders if these early ultrasound may have contributed to this condition and talks about how the over medicalisation of this pregnanc...

Today on the show I speak to Prue about the wild ride that led her to freebirth. Starting at 14 Prue started dabbling in drugs and alcohol. By her 20’s she realised it had become an addiction and she checked herself into rehab. She then ended up at the other end of the spectrum on extremely strong anti-depressants which she said made her a zombie and literally drool. She ended up weighing 100kg an...

Today on the show I speak with Cass about her 2 freebirths. I love a story where first time Mums freebirth. Cass herself was born at home and we hear the story of her growing up on the Wolery - the longest running intentional community in the south west of Western Australia. Even with her upbringing there was still some undoing of conditioning to be done and she dipped in and out of the system dur...

Today on the show I speak to mother of eight Elise. After losing her first (and only girl) in a hospital birth, Elise was devastated. She talks us through the process of being told her baby had died during labour and how having nearly every intervention possible didn’t save her baby. She doesn’t vilify the hospital or staff but rather reflects that sometimes as sad and as grief struck as we are -...

Today on the show I speak with my brother Alex and sister in law Laura about the freebirth of their second child Georgia. Having had a private midwife for their first, who they decided not to call on the day - they discuss the difference in preparing for a freebirth right from the start. This episode is definitely a great listen for dads who are preparing for freebirth and Alex somehow manages to...

Today on the show my husband Oliver Wenn and I discuss 10 reasons why we homeschool and why you might want to too.  In recent years the new wave of homeschooling has increased exponentially. Why is this so? Well - here are our top 10 reasons of why we homeschool:  1. Intuitively feels right 2. Freedom and sovereignty 3. Keeping the light in their eyes ablaze  4. Travel 5. Play 6. Mixed age learnin...

Today on the show I speak to the wonderful and bubbly Sarah. Hailing from Ireland - Sarah is a natural story teller and you just won’t be able to stop listening to this one. Sarah has 3 children and has had 4 losses. She is the epitome of ‘high risk’ for the system! Having had a c-section with her first, an advanced maternal age because she is 40, she’d had significant postpartum haemorrhages and...

Today on the show I speak to experienced doula and Mama of 3 Moran. Originally hailing from Israel - Moran fell pregnant with her first at 24 (nearly 20 years ago now!) after she had moved to Australia. Not knowing any friends who were pregnant or much about pregnancy at all - she went down the typical route and hired a private obstetrician and ended up with a birth that had ‘all the intervention’...

Today on the show I speak to the wonderful Christie about her own freebirth as well as the launch of her children’s book about undisturbed birth - ‘Birth is magic’. Christie tells us how she was physiotherapist in a hospital for many years and consequently ended up with a whole heap of indoctrination through the medical system. For her first she ended up with a traumatic vaginal birth in hospital,...

Today on the show I speak to freebirth doula and Mama of 2 Olivia. After a traumatic hospital birth with her first, Olivia decided to have a homebirth with midwife for her second. Living in Spain at the time, Olivia had planned to have her Mum attend and was waiting for her to arrive from Germany. The week leading up she had all sorts of sensations and she feels like she was holding off, until her...

Today on the show I speak with radical registered midwife Sharon Robinson. Hailing from the US, Sharon tells us of her training in Brooklyn, New York and how she promptly left, and continued learning on the job, helping serve birthing women in Cambodia. Sharon now lives in New Zealand and is a local community midwife there, but it has not all has always been smooth sailing. She tells us how her re...

Today on the show I speak to Jas - mother of 5 and ex-midwife. Some of you may also know Jas from her popular Instagram account - Chasing The Summerfields  where she showcases her photography and beautiful life in the south west of Australia. Jas has been on quite the journey for her births and has ticked nearly all the boxes from hospital birth, birth centre, an accidental birth in the car before...

Today on the show I speak to the phenomenal Gloria Le May. Gloria is a ex-midwife turned birth attendant after the Canadian government co-opted the word in 1998. Gloria starts by telling us of her own birth story and how she gave up her daughter for adoption when she was 17. Later she met her husband who was a physician and was a stockbroker herself. She never thought she would get into birth work...

Today on the show I speak to the wonderful, mother of 3, Reanne Waddell. Reanne came into this world at 27 weeks via c-section after her mother had a placental abruption. Reanne also contracted sepsis and spent the first few months of her life in hospital. Her start to life definitely wasn’t the best and why I think her story is so amazing. Her first she had in hospital and ended in a c-section at...

Today on the show I speak with Hayley Wilson about her journey to surrogacy. Hayley had two children of her own and decided she wanted to experience having another birth but without the baby at the end. She researched surrogacy and found a family she aligned with to carry their biological baby for them. She had five attempts to fall pregnant with the embryo, and it finally took on the last attempt...

Today on the show I speak to Christie about her home birth and subsequent freebirth on her partners family farm in New Zealand. Although her first birth was overall “pretty great” there were things that she wasn’t quite happy with such as coached pushing, her babe being yanked out and a syntocinon shot for the placenta. For her second, even though her partner was gunning for a freebirth right from...

Today on the show I speak to the gorgeous and young first time Mama Emma. Hailing from Burma Emma grew up in a world of pathology with both her parents as doctors and her Mum  a literal pathologist. Emma’s birth was as far as you could get from freebirth with a planned c-section and her Mum making a decision from the start to not breastfeed her. After meeting her husband and them both converting t...

Today on the show I speak my good friend and now ex-midwife Norafiah Lever. Norafiah is a picture of integrity and vibrancy. She used to tell me every year that she questioned herself each time she went to renew her registration.  Could she still continue to work in the system that was so egregious to women.   Despite working with the guidelines of private practice, the reporting to AHPRA by other...

Today on the show I speak with mother of 3 Mary Allen. After becoming a Doula, understanding real birth and seeing the abuse that occurred in hospitals, she began accepting freebirth clients. When she became pregnant with her third, after having two inductions, she knew  she wasn't stepping into a hospital. Her baby came when she was ready, at 40 weeks and 4 days and was caught into her daddy&...

Today on the show I speak with Jamie about the freebirth of her fourth child. After 2 unnecessary caesarean’s - Jaime had a left the system at 30 weeks and had a freebirth for her 3rd. You can listen this story in season 2 of the podcast.  For 4th, of course, there was no going back and she had a wild pregnancy and freebirth. We get to hear about how this baby come to her, even though her husband...

Today on the show I speak with Fin McKenna Fox from the The Grounded Masculine. Fin is a father of 3, podcaster and empowerment coach for fathers. I get many requests for a podcast from a Dad’s point of view so here it is! We start by hearing Fin’s baptism of fire into fatherhood and how it was mixed with bliss and struggle and then talk through to his journey to where he is today. We talk about h...

Today on the show I speak with Aisha. Aisha is a birth worker, mother of 4 and strong Maori woman. After birthing her first in the hospital with a private obstetrician, which ended with her babe in NICU, she decided a different path was needed for her subsequent pregnancies.  Her 2nd was a home water birth with a midwife and she had a vastly different and positive experience. With her 3rd, Aisha w...

Today on the show I have first time mama Asha who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult. Going into her first pregnancy she wanted a home birth but of course with her diagnoses the system labelled her automatically as ‘high risk’. Knowing that taking full responsibility for her birth was what was needed, Asha’s journey led her to Freebirth, with the support of her husband and a like minde...

Today on the show I have a family interview with Hikari, her husband Yohei and her gorgeous 12 year old daughter Haruko. Hikari hails from Japan and requested we did the interview all together and I am so glad we did. Her daughter helps translate but more importantly it becomes apparent quickly how integral she was in the pregnancy and birth of her little brother Kotaro. With her first 3 children,...