Pregnancy Uncut

Haylee was a young, fit, first time mum, and her pregnancy with her first son Fred was progressing beautifully. Haylee was well educated about her health and pregnancy choices, and elected to birth at home with the support of her partner and a private midwife. When her labour at home began to slow, Haylee transferred her care to the local hospital, a short drive away. Unexpectedly, baby Fred was n...

When radio presenter Jacinta Parsons was in her early twenties, she began to feel unwell. The symptoms were insidious at first, and easy to dismiss. When she was eventually diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a severe and chronic inflammatory bowel condition, Jacinta was so unwell that she required multiple hospital stays, invasive procedures, and ultimately, an ileostomy bag.  Incredibly it was durin...

When Kat was 15 years old, her previously pain-free life changed forever. Crippled with severe pelvic and abdominal pain, Kat was suddenly unable to walk down the corridor, let alone attend school. But when her GP dismissed her debilitating symptoms as a ‘normal part of life’, a cycle of uninterested medical care, inadequate treatment and chronic pain began. It would take another 17 long years bef...

When school teacher Laura began experiencing unusual symptoms during her third trimester, it was initially thought they might be related to pregnancy. But at 34 weeks, Laura’s symptoms dramatically worsened. At a visit to the hospital, Laura suddenly stopped breathing, and required intubation. Unexpectedly, brain scans revealed a large tumour, putting huge pressure on her brain as it grew during p...

Katrina Gorry is a woman accustomed to breaking boundaries. A professional football player and Olympian, she is one of Australia’s most loved sports stars. So when Katrina felt that she wanted to become a mother, she wasn’t prepared to let career timing, professional pressure, or the fact that she was single, stand in her way. Katrina is one of a growing number of women who are choosing to take th...

After the birth of her second child, Anna knew that her family was complete. But just as strongly, she knew that she wanted to be pregnant again. Since she was a teenager, Anna had been drawn to the idea of surrogacy, and the chance to give the ultimate gift to another family. With the support of her family, Anna embarked on a long, complicated, emotional, and ultimately life-changing experience....

Isabelle, a journalist and writer, has a son, a daughter, and seven angel babies. For women wishing to conceive, miscarriage is sadly a common experience. Around 40% of women with children experience a miscarriage at some point along their pregnancy journey. But for Isabelle, the pain of loss occurred not once, but seven times, with five of these miscarriages occuring back-to-back. In this episode...

A nna and her partner were thrilled with the news that they would be expecting not one, but two identical twin girls. Anna was carrying monochorionic or MCDA twins, meaning her two girls were sharing one placenta. When the doctor explained the plan for her pregnancy, a long list of potential complications were briefly mentioned. But everything looked like it was progressing beautifully, and Anna a...

When Jacqueline took her first born son home she appeared to be the embodiment of the idealized new mother. The house was clean, baby Arthur was sleeping and feeding well, and Jac was showered and neatly dressed. However beneath the flawless veneer, Jac’s family began to notice some cracks. Jac’s behaviour began to seem increasingly bizarre, and some of her comments seemed strange. But Jac had no...

When Bec, a first time mum, began feeling tired, short of breath and a little dizzy, her symptoms could easily be put down to the normal physiological changes of late pregnancy and birth. By the end of pregnancy, a healthy woman's blood volume has expanded by 50%, the heart is working harder and faster, and oxygen requirements are significantly higher. But every so often, these seemingly inno...

When Dominique was pregnant with her first child, she had an intuition that something wasn’t quite right. Despite being categorized as low risk, and all her ultrasounds and tests being normal, Dom couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with her baby. Following the birth of Zoey, Dom’s worst fears were realized. Instead of enjoying quiet skin to skin with her newborn daughter, there we...

On paper, the birth of Amy’s first daughter was a traumatic experience. Amy experienced a forceps birth in theatre, a third degree tear, and a postpartum haemorrahge requiring a blood transfusion. Following this, she was in a wheelchair for five days, and couldn’t walk properly for weeks. But as Amy knows better than almost anyone else, it is not possible to identify a traumatic birth on paper. As...

Living on a remote farm in rural NSW, Laura’s options for place of birth were limited by geography. Her local hospital provided care to the entire region, and offered personalized care led by a team of dedicated GP-Obstetricians and skilled local midwives. But with only a small number of births per year, there were no facilities for epidural during birth or specialist obstetrics services in the re...

Amie Rohan is mum to three girls. Bella and Sadie are Earth side, and Amie’s second born daughter Willow, is her angel daughter. Following Willow’s short life in 2018, Amie has chosen to reach out to as many families as she can, to share her experience of carrying, birthing, and loving Willow, who was born with anencephaly, a severe and rare congenital abnormality. Amie’s story is made incredibly...

Young and head over heels in love, Sarah was thrilled to welcome her first baby into the world with her loving husband by her side. To the outside world, they looked like the perfect young family. Inside their home it was a very different story. Challenges arose after difficulties around breastfeeding with inverted nipples. Determined, Sarah persevered. However as the emotional and practical help...

Being young, fit and healthy, Gabrielle naturally thought her first pregnancy would progress smoothly. Having never known anyone who had experienced or spoken about miscarriage, Gabrielle’s world was rocked by the loss of her first pregnancy. Despite being surrounded by people in New York City, she felt completely alone. Where were the people who understood, the women who had been through somethin...

When Holly decided that she wanted to have a baby, her journey to parenthood was anything but straightforward. Holly discovered that she had the ‘Infertility Trifecta’. Unable to conceive naturally due to an ovulation disorder, Holly was also considered ‘socially’ infertile as a Queer person and as a single woman. Undeterred, Holly embarked on the arduous journey of IVF and single parenthood by ch...

Kaillee was only 25 weeks pregnant with her much wanted IVF twin pregnancy when her partner Chris started to feel unwell after a trip to the supermarket. It was 2020, in the very early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Kailee was working from home and taking every precaution possible to avoid exposure to this new virus and keep her babies safe. By the time Chris’ results came back seven...

As a senior paediatric and Special Care Nursery (SCN) nurse for 16 years, Gemma knew all there is to know about looking after premature and unwell babies. But when she discovered she was pregnant with twins, she was suddenly faced with the possibility of having her own complicated pregnancy and preterm babies. Twins pregnancies are at a significantly higher risk of being born early, with around ha...

When Greg's son Riley was born, Greg's life felt complete.  Together with 3yo daughter Olivia,  Greg and his wife Catherine enjoyed a blissful few weeks in their newborn bubble getting to know their beautiful boy. But on Day 27 of Riley' life, something changed. Riley was suddenly less interested in breastfeeding and had developed a slight cough. The next day, in an abundance of cau...

In Episode 4 we welcome Dr Carmen Brown, who shares her personal story of pregnancy complications. As an Obstetrician herself, Carmen has seen it all before. But when complications arose in her own pregnancy, and Carmen found herself on a tiny airplane being repatriated in an emergency air transfer to a larger hospital, and facing the preterm birth of her son, Carmen discovered how different the e...

In Episode 3 of season 2, our guest Katy shares with us the unimaginably difficult journey of her three pregnancies afflicted with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). Like so many conditions affecting women throughout history, nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, has historically been dismissed as a personal weakness. At best it has been undertreated, at worst women have been blamed and ignored. Whilst thes...

Following on from hearing our guest Jess discuss the challenges she faced feeding her baby Noah in Episode 2,  we have included this special bonus episode chatting to an expert in all things breastfeeding, our Lactation Consultant Amber. Amber provides a beautiful and balanced approach to the challenges of feeding our babies. Amber shares with us her expert tips for breastfeeding, and ways to appr...

Before having a baby of our own, we often picture feeding as simple, intuitive and easy. We have all seen photos on social media of models effortlessly breastfeeding their babies between shoots. How hard can it be? For some new parents, the challenges can be overwhelming. Our guest Jess shares her incredible story of breastfeeding her baby Noah. After a difficult and complex birth, Jess was left w...

' In our first episode of Season 2, our guest Jade opens up about the heartbreak of losing her baby Kai to a condition known as cervical insufficiency or cervical incompetence. Jade’s pregnancy was progressingly beautifully, and her bond with her unborn child was already so strong, when Jade was given some unexpected news that no parent can ever imagine hearing. At almost half way through her...