Birthing at Home: A Podcast

Episode 58 is shared by Sam from WA. She is a midwife of 13 years, who has recently become endorsed and is working privately. She is mum to 3 children, 2 of which were born at home. Today she shares her story of finding homebirth and eventually having 2 of her own homebirths. She shares her birth stories and we chat parenthood along the way.  Resources:  Fiona Hallinan https://www.thepelvicspace.c...

This is birth story 57, and it is shared by Monique from the Northern Beaches in Sydney. She shares her freebirth story with her first baby, Jonathan or Jojo. Monique’s normal boring freebirth story is so interesting given her own birth imprint includes both her and her brother being born via c-section.  It’s a beautiful story and lovely to listen to how Monique learnt about freebirth and the conf...

In episode 56, Emily, an emergency nurse who chose to homebirth with her first baby 'Benson' shares her unexpected, non-emergency transfer to hospital story.  Emily shares her pregnancy journey, her labour at home, and her decision to transfer into hospital, where she had a very positive experience in birthing Benson in an assisted vaginal birth, supported by her private midwife.  She al...

Episode 55 is shared by Emilie who is a Melbourne based doula, and HBAC mama who today shares her two extremely different experiences. She birthed her first baby Reuben under general anesthic during COVID in the UK, an experience which she soon after recieved a PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) diagnosis from. Following moving to Australia, Emilie was determined to have a different experience...

Episode 54 - Today we hear from Brenda in New York. Brenda’s first baby Harper was in a breech position and although she initially planned to have a homebirth, she ended up agreeing to a c-section. Her next baby Hudson was head down and born on the way to the hospital in the car , an incredible VBAC story, and for her third baby Holden, he remained breech, and although she called her midwives, the...

In this episode of Partner's Supporting Homebirth, Tom from South Australia shares his experience supporting his wife Chloe ( Episode 39) during the home birth of their daughter Matilda.  Tom shares his initial fears and biases about home birth, the research he conducted, and the preparations they made leading up to the birth. He recounts the rapid progression of labor, the unexpected challen...

This is episode 53, and today we hear from Joey in Canberra. Joey is a physio and mum to two boys, Bellamy who she very almost had a homebirth with and Avery, who she did birth at home.  Joey shares with us her journey with Bellamy and we reflect on why she chose homebirth, even having had what she describes as a positive hospital birth. We also chat about the impact of COVID on pregnancy, labour...

Epsiode 52 is shared by Sam from NSW who tells her huge vulnerable, honest, and beautiful story of how her homebirth baby boy, Archie came to be.  Sam’s story starts in her 20’s where, alike many women, she chose to have an abortion, partly influenced by her birth imprint. Some years later, when the timing was better, she was excited to become pregnant, then experienced a miscarriage.  These event...

In this month midwife story episode, I chat with the amazing Abbey who is a midwife in Western Australia. The story to how Abbey found homebirth for her own 2 children is amazing, and as she goes on, you can tell, she was destined to be a homebirth midwife. She shares her journey to midwifery and homebirth midwifery. What a special story, I felt so amazed to hear it!!  Connect with me, Elsie, the...

In episode 51, Jess from the Northern Territory shares the births of Matilda (hospital), Edith (freebirth) and Angus (freebirth > hospital transfer).  After years of trying, Jess finally became pregnant through IVF with her 1st baby Matilda, and gave birth in 2020 with little insight into the medicalisation of birth. For her second baby, Edith however, she chose to birth at home, however was un...

This is another episode in the partners supporting birth at home series, and today Dan, husband of Rosie who shared her birth at home stories in episode 43,  shares his experience. As dad to 4 baby’s all born at home, it was great to get some insight into his thoughts about preparing and supporting a birth at home.  As with all the partner episodes, sometimes they can be tricky to find, so please...

Episode 50!!!  In this ep Georgia from Victoria, a nurse, midwife and mum to Amelie & Ellidy shares her two homebirth stories! Georgia shares with us her journey to homebirth before being a midwife, and her journey with Elidy as a midwife.  She shares about her anxieties, her long labours, her post partum experience during COVID 19, and her drama’s when a scan revealed abnormalities with her b...

Episode 49 and the first Northern Territory episode is shared by Asa, a first time mum who shares her beautiful experience with the birth of her daughter Zoe.  What is also special about her story is that with the Defense Force, she was able to claim her entire homebirth back on her private insurance - not without a fight of course! She also shares her preparation for birth and motherhood, how her...

Episode 48 is shared by Australian 'Salina', who shares her 2 homebirth stories from Banff, Canada. She also shares the multiple reasons why she chose midwifery care, how she came to choosing homebirth late in her first pregnancy and the benefits of doula care. And all these whilst being labelled by the system as geriatric! These are 2 beautiful stories showing the power of having truly...

In episode 47, we hear Hannah share her story. Hannah is based in Canberra and shares her hospital birth story and then homebirth story. Honestly, after you hear of everything Hannah endured in both her pregnancies, you’ll be amazed and inspired by her strength to listen to her body and baby, and her mother’s intuition to achieve such an incredible homebirth.  Connect with me, Elsie, the host :) w...

In this months midwife story episode, I chat with Jo Hunter who many of you may know from being one of the creators of Birth Time (& if you haven’t seen it, it’s essentially mandatory for anyone planning to give birth). She is also a homebirth midwife, former doula & former convener for Homebirth Australia.,,just to name a couple of things she has done. I invited Jo to come and chat with m...

Today in episode 46, we hear from Emma in South Australia who is a midwife, nurse, and lactation consultant. She shares her 2 hospital births and homebirth story intertwined with stories of her life as a midwife, including her journey of unlearning and relearning about physiological birth, challenges with breastfeeding, bleeding during pregnancy, falling in love with your newborn, and the impact o...

In episode 45, Tiahn in WA shares her story on finding homebirth. After her first birth experience in hospital left her knowing she did not want it to occur like that again, she found homebirth. Her story also shows the power of knowing others who have birthed at home - in this case, Britt, her cousin who shared her own 4 home births in ep 32. Tiahn then shares how she also got accepted into the C...

Episode 44 is shared by Hannah in South Australia, who is a first time mum that chose to homebirth with her baby Charlotte (Lottie). Amazingly, Hannah already knew of private midwifery prior to becoming pregnant and so already had a head start in finding homebirth. She also shares how educating herself through podcasts and books helped her to avoid an unnecessary c-section which was recommended to...

Episode 43 is shared by Rosie, mum to 4 babies all  born at home, doula and also the co-owner of Earthy Birth who was the June podcast sponsor! Rosie talks us through her 2 home births and 2 free births and the challenges she encountered. We chat about being able to trust yourself, her reasoning for birthing at home and other experiences like gender disappointment, the shock of a quick birth, the...

In this month's midwife story, chat with Beth. Beth shares her story spanning over 20 years now, including her first experience attending a homebirth and then her work as a midwife and eventual transition into private midwifery attending home births. We also chat about  girls and women’s rites of passage and her amazing walking emerging wwoman workshops.  I first met Beth almost 10 years ago...

In episode 42, we hear from Kate who so beautifully walks us through her 3 births at home, including a footling breech homebirth. Kate and her partner James began connecting with the homebirth community before their first baby, and so naturally, when the time came, they chose homebirth and after 2 magical births, Kate decided to birth unassisted but supported by her loved ones. Make sure to check...

This week's episode is shared today by Bek. After researching and choosing private midwifery care in her first pregnancy for a planned hospital birth, Bek shares today about her 2 subsequent home births. It is a beautiful conversation about pregnancy, birth, continuity of care, challenges in pregnancy, and having children present during birth.  I really liked Bek’s reflection of feeling like...

As a part of the partners supporting birth at home series, today we hear Sean’s story of the birth of his baby girl who his partner Bronnie (who was in episode 39) freebirthed! Sean chats with us about his journey as a chiropractor to learning of birth at home.  It was amazing to hear how unconditionally Sean trusted in Bronnie, her body and their baby.  Be sure to share this ep far and wide to he...

Episode 40! Today we hear how after 4 obstetric led hospital births, Kate began exploring her options for birth at home - but with uncertainty around private midwife availability, Kate instead chose to have a freebirth with her 5th baby. Whilst we don't cover her 4 hospital births in detail Kate does not go in to detail about her 4 hospital births however it is helpful to note that she experi...