Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond

Midwifery in Private Practice, Mothers & Babies 2021, March of Midwives and deskilling in Maternity Care In this episode of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, we catch up with privately practicing Australian Midwives Astra Joynt and Sunae Reilly. We chat deskilling in midwifery and the maternity care profession, the latest Mothers and Babies report from the Australian Institute of Health Welfare, March...

This is a special edition interview coming from the SheBirths podcast ! In this conversation, Annalee Atia from Maternity Choices Australia and PBB Media speaks with Nadine Richardson about how adverse times can further inspire us to commit to being responsible in advocating for our choices in Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond. This is not a 'how to' guide, rather a reminder of human rights in healthca...

During this pandemic, there has been a huge increase in the demand for home birth in Australia and private practicing midwives are being flooded with calls from women and birthing people looking to birth outside of the hospital system. However, the regulations and education pathways for private practice midwifery are yet to change, and issues around accessibility and affordability remain. So how d...

In this episode, Oni Blecher interviews Eva Rose. Eva Rose is an internationally renowned Norwegian birth photographer, videographer, documentary filmmaker, doula, and by virtue of all of these things; an activist for many birth issues. Eva is a third generation photographer, and in 1999, when she was 19, Eva Rose started her career in birth photography for a magazine called ‘Pregnancy’. Eva has w...

It’s 21st May, 2021 and some months back I caught up with Tori Heath, mother of four with a background in psychology, who has worked in child protection and executive recruitment. We meet to recount the story of her first birth experience. At the time, Tori was a young, fit and healthy pregnant woman, growing up in outback Australia on a 14,000 acre farm, heading to girl’s boarding school in Sydne...

If you are someone that understands how important maternity care and the perinatal period are for mother, baby, family and community health and wellbeing, tune in today to learn about vital new research into mothers experiences of maternity healthcare and childbirth in Australia and find out how you can support the study reach more people and become an even more powerful force in improving experie...

In March 2021 Totonaca Indigenous birth companions Montse Olmos and Mayte Acolt started a petition titled 'Removing Rebozo Teachings From Doula Trainings'. It was a call to the international birth community and large training organisations, to stop their participation in the cultural appropriation and misuse of the sacred textile, the Rebozo. In this conversation Montse and Mayte generously share...

In this conversation, Oni Blecher speaks with Dylan Smith. Dylan Smith is a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and holistic health educator based in Sydney, Australia, where he runs and operates the Vital Veda clinic for patients and for those who love to nourish themselves with precious herbal elixirs. Aimed at uncovering the root cause of ailments, Dylan shares wisdom through podcasts, teaching pr...

PBB Special Bulletin/Interview with Alecia Staines, Director of Maternity Consumer Network If you are tuning in from Australia, this is an important message to women, people, families and community members accessing maternity healthcare services. A federal election is coming up and your voice is needed in improving maternity care! Welcome to Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, I’m Annalee Atia with a spe...

In this podcast episode, Oni Blecher speaks to Rhea Dempsey about her recent book launch of 'Beyond the Birth Plan, Getting Real About Pain and Power'. Rhea Demspsey is a childbirth educator, counsellor, doula trainer, and birth attendant, having attended more than one thousand births in hospitals and home settings over the past 30 years. Rhea runs birth preparation workshops, pre-natal classes, p...

In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with Etienne Peirsman. Etienne is a biology and physical education teacher who has been involved with emotional training, encounter work, primal healing and meditation since 1974. He began teaching craniosacral in 1991, and founded several craniosacral institutes in Belgium and the Netherlands. He is the founder and director of PCSA (Peirsman CranioSacral Academ...

Nicole Moore, founder of Nappy Free and Birth Into Being Australia, speaks about her passion for nappy free or elimination communication for babies. Recorded by Sally Cusack in March 2019. Presented by Kirilly Dawn at 99.9 BayFM Byron Bay on 24 June 2019. Guest: Nicole Moore https://www.nappyfree.com.au/ Copyright 2021 PBB Media All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org

In this episode, Kirilly speaks with Rärriwuy Hick, Yolngu woman, actress, artist, storyteller and the founder of Our Kids Belong With Family - a campaign which she started on 13th February 2017, after her nephews were forcibly removed by Territory Families without following their own kinship protocols or notifying immediate family. In this episode we speak of themes of child removal, the Stolen G...

In this interview, Oni Blecher speaks with Jin Ong. Jin Ong is an Osteopath, Psychosomatic Therapist, Personal & Practitioner Coach. Jin lives and works with her partner and children in the beautiful lakeside town of Wanaka, New Zealand. In the recent years, Jin has moved from practicing solely as an osteopathic practitioner toward training individuals and practitioners on psychosomatics. Psychoso...

What does birth sovereignty, and decolonising the maternity care system, look and feel like? How does the current patriarchal birth culture impact First Nations women and marginalised communities? How can we re-imagine a birth culture that centres and supports women and birthing people? And how can we all embody the change we wish to see? This episode is a recording of a live panel on 'Birth Sover...

“If your c-section is high that means that you’re not supporting people in labour, that’s just a fact.” - Dr Neel Shah A cesarean section, or c-section is the most performed major surgery on the planet, it is also the most controversial. In the many years since they have been introduced, mortality and morbidity rates - the rates which this intervention has been introduced to lower, have increased...

In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with Hugh Milne. Hugh Milne is a third-generation Scottish osteopath and now craniosacral teacher and educator through his self-founded education body, ‘Milne Institute’. He spends most of professional time teaching visionary craniosacral work internationally. He was born in 1948 and received his professional training at the British College of Naturopathy and Os...

Around the country and indeed around the world hustling and cajoling, therein the complex webs of healthcare and community lie dedicated individuals and organisations working tirelessly to improve services. There always have been and I suspect, there always will be. When it comes to maternity care it’s no different. Primarily comprised of women and also some men, the improvement maternity services...

In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks to Muse Lokajickova. Muse practices revolutionary care for the generative systems also known as evolutionary gynaecology. Muse has 15 years of hands-on practice weaving tools from western herbalism, indigenous medicine, and classical Chinese medicine. Her practice is built on her unique methods of uterine repositioning, internal pelvic floor manual therapy and h...

Fiona Katauskas is a cartoonist, illustrator, and author of “The Amazing True Stories of How Babies Are Made’, a children’s book about conception, and childbirth that is relevant to our current social word. Fiona once studied politics at the Australian National University, and travelled extensively, working in overseas aid and human rights. After that, she became a full time cartoonist, with work...

In this episode of Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond, Annalee Atia speaks with Dr Rachel Reed about the history and her story of midwifery and its evolution to the modern day midwife, UK & Australian differences in practice and care both in Midwifery and maternity care and the call for midwives to reclaim their expertise and rights of protection. “Instead of locating all of the risks in the women and all...

Nidala Barker is Djugan woman from the Kimberley in Western Australia. She is a musician, storyteller, environmental activist, social justice warrior, and all around an insightful and deep feeling and thinking woman. In this episode, Nidala speaks to Indigenous ways of learning, of time and space and ways of connection, and the importance representation. We speak about the importance of truth tell...

In this episode, Oni Blecher plays a recording of Gaby Tudor interviewing Mayan Midwives from Guatemala. We are so happy to respectfully share their Indigenous wisdom with you in this special edition podcast with PBB foreign correspondent Gaby. Here is a note from Gaby about her experience with Doña Dominga and Mariu Gobbato: "My journey to Lake Atitlan began in Australia with my desire to learn m...

During this episode, Oni Blecher speaks to Sarah Blandiargo about her nineteen-year career in childcare and nannying. Sarah runs Move Make classes, where she combines her heart-based kids yoga classes with meditation and creative craft and play. Since COVID, Sarah has also started her Move Make classes over Zoom, Australia wide. Sarah is inspired by and has researched child psychologists and pione...

Obstetricians and Normal Childbirth. Normalising a deviation from normal, in any field, directs the baseline off track, misleads us as to what normal is and sets us on a course that becomes very difficult to correct the further down the track we go. When we normalise trauma, we no longer see it. When we normalise bad behaviour, it becomes less apparent and when we normalise a deviation from normal...