Australian Birth Stories

Today I chat to Kate Jones about becoming a mum for the first time to her daughter Lila. Kate takes us through months of frustrating fertility tracking, a tricky local hospital landscape after her area's only private birthing suite closed, and the vaginal water birth she had hoped for from the very beginning. She's honest and funny throughout, especially when describing labouring at home, the ment...

Beth shares two beautiful birth stories. Her first with Bernie was an unmedicated hospital birth at the Mercy, and Quinn's home birth through the Joan Kerner programme, where her partner Paddy caught their daughter in their own lounge room. Beth talks honestly about the power of continuity of care, hiring a doula for both births, and why birthing at home felt like the most natural thing in the wor...

In this episode, I chat to Sarah Viliamu, content creator, model and founder of The Self Love Supply, about her two very different birth experiences four years apart. Her first birth took place in Melbourne during the height of the 2020 lockdowns and ended in a long induction with a frightening postpartum haemorrhage. In between her two children, Sarah experienced two miscarriages and speaks hones...

In this episode I chat to Mel about her road to motherhood, which began with a year of unexplained infertility and a round of IVF squeezed in during a short trip home from remote Northern Territory. Her pregnancy played out almost entirely in a small community several hours from the nearest town before an unsettled labour led to an emergency caesarean and a frightening panic attack on the operatin...

In this episode, I speak with Senator Marielle Smith about the newly established Senate Select Committee on Women’s Health and what it could mean for women and families across Australia. We unpack what a Senate Select Committee actually is, how it differs from a Royal Commission or state-based inquiry, and - importantly - how the stories and experiences shared with the committee can help inf...

In this episode I chat to Mia, a mother of two living in Canberra, about her two vaginal births, close in age but very different in circumstance. Mia's first birth followed an unplanned pregnancy at twenty three, was quick  and left her with a healthy respect for gas and air. Her second birth was carefully planned as a home birth through Canberra's continuity of care programme, but a posterio...

In this episode I chat to Alex, a yoga and bodywork facilitator from Hobart, about the ten year journey she and her husband David went through to become parents. Alex takes us through years of unexplained infertility, a life threatening ectopic pregnancy, multiple rounds of IVF, several miscarriages and the moment she finally made peace with a child-free future, only to fall pregnant naturally soo...

In this episode I chat to Hannah, a mum of three living in Darwin with her husband Joff and their boys Atlas, Abel and Solomon. Hannah takes us through three very different birth stories, starting with an induced hospital birth in Melbourne during lockdown, through to a calmer second labour in Darwin, and finally a fast third birth that unfolded just as Darwin's private maternity hospital closed i...

In this episode I chat with Jess Evans, a mother of two from Melbourne who has spent eight years working with baby brand ErgoPouch. Jess takes us through the misdiagnosis that delayed her first pregnancy, a joyful and completely intervention free vaginal birth with her son Hunter, and then the devastating loss she experienced when trying for a second baby, not long after her husband Craig was diag...

In this episode I chat to Elise, originally from Scotland and now living on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her partner Dan and their three children. Elise has experienced severe hyperemesis gravidarum in all three of her pregnancies, and she takes us through an incredibly quick, vaginal birth with her first daughter Delilah, the heartbreaking termination for medical reasons of her daughter Rain fo...

In this episode I chat to Tully Smyth about her winding road to motherhood and the birth of her daughter, Elke. Tully shares her honest experience of being single well into her thirties, the decision to freeze her eggs twice, and how that choice changed the way she approached dating and eventually met her partner, Ned. She talks candidly about choosing an elective caesarean, the guilt and shame sh...

In this episode I chat with Amy, a birth photographer and former doula living on the Sunshine Coast, about the birth of her fifth baby, her first with her now husband after a divorce from the father of her first four children. Amy takes us through meeting her husband, the decision to grow their blended family, a frightening heterotopic pregnancy scare, weeks of prodromal labour, her waters breakin...

Breastfeeding and sleep concerns are common in early parenthood but unfortunately, many GP’s aren’t qualified to support you through these challenges. So where do you go for professional advice? In this episode, Dr Eliza Hannam discusses her early motherhood experiences alongside her role as a GP, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a Neuroprotective Development Care...

In this episode, I chat with Jessie Stephens, who many of you will remember from her first birth story with her daughter Luna in episode 415. Jessie returns to share her second pregnancy and birth journey, this time with a twist nobody expected, twins. She takes us through the heartbreak of a miscarriage, the shock of discovering twins at her scan, gestational diabetes, a premature caesarean birth...

I chat with Danni, a mother of four living on the Gold Coast, who takes us through eight remarkably eventful years of motherhood. Danni shares her path to becoming a mum of four, including a miscarriage before her first pregnancy, the surprise of conceiving twins through ovulation induction, an emergency caesarean for her daughter Harlow, a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) she fought hard for...

In this episode, high school teacher and mother of two Grace shares her contrasting birth stories from Wollongong, NSW. Her first pregnancy was meticulously researched and planned. Grace approached conception with the same precision she'd bring to organising a holiday, using ovulation tracking and basal temperature monitoring to conceive her daughter Frankie. Though she'd arranged a private homebi...

Join me today for a conversation with my sister, Hilary who shares her second pregnancy and birth with her daughter Rhoda.  I was in the birth centre from the moment her waters broke. It was the first birth I’ve ever attended and such a precious experience (although I think it confirmed that I wouldn’t be the best doula). I had a few roles on the day: support sister, photographer...

In this episode I chat with Freya, a paediatric doctor from Melbourne, about her pregnancy and premature vaginal birth of her daughter Goldie. Freya's journey to motherhood came with more challenges than most; she battled severe hyperemesis gravidarum for her entire pregnancy, was involved in a serious car accident at 34 weeks, and went into spontaneous labour at just 35 weeks. Her professional ba...

Jade is a registered nurse of fourteen years, a newly qualified doula, and a birth photographer living on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her husband Matt, her daughters Milla, four, and Remi, seventeen months, and their beloved Westie, Doug. Diagnosed with stage four endometriosis at twenty-one, Jade spent years wondering whether motherhood would come easily. Thankfully it did, but what followed w...

Lauren is a yoga teacher, women's circle facilitator and prenatal yoga educator living in Sydney's northwest with her husband James and their two children, Joel, who is nearly four, and Grace, who is just three months old. From the moment she came off the contraceptive pill, Lauren embarked on a deeply intentional journey into her own body, her cycle, and ultimately, her path to motherhood. She sh...

Hannah first shared her birth story in a previous episode (episode 402) a home water birth with her 5.1kg son Archie. Now, four years later, she returns to share the story of her second home water birth with baby August, born at 41+2 weeks and weighing 5.2kg. This episode is rich with clinical insight, raw honesty and the kind of grounded wisdom that only comes from someone who has walked both sid...

This episode is part of The Fourth Trimester Village, a four-part series in partnership with Bugaboo exploring what it actually takes to navigate those first twelve weeks after birth. Not just physically, but emotionally, socially and practically. Because we spend so much time preparing for birth, but not nearly enough time talking about what comes after. Francesca Hung joins us to share her pregn...

When Hana went in for her thirteen-week scan on a road trip through Western Australia, she was expecting to confirm a due date. What she got instead was the shock of her life — two babies. Identical, monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twins, sharing a placenta, and completely unplanned. Having already had two beautiful home births — a water birth with her first son Zephyr in Sydney, and a rapid two-h...

This episode is part of The Fourth Trimester Village, a four-part series in partnership with Bugaboo exploring what it actually takes to navigate those first twelve weeks after birth. Not just physically, but emotionally, socially and practically. Because we spend so much time preparing for birth, but not nearly enough time talking about what comes after. In this episode, Sophie speaks with Dr Nic...

Today I'm joined by Heidi, women's health physiotherapist and the woman behind Women's Health with Heidi. With over a million followers, she's become a trusted voice in pelvic floor health and postpartum recovery. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, and honestly, I think every pregnant and postpartum woman needs to hear it. In this episode, we talk about: Why recovery actually takes twelve t...