The Positive Births NZ podcast

Gabby shares with us what she learnt in her first two birthsthat made her decide to do some proper prep (i.e the Positive Births hypnobirthing course) in her third pregnancy. She explains her first birth to Lucy was and induction due tohigh blood pressure and ended in a C-Section. Her second birth to Caleb was a successful vbac with epidural. When it came to her third pregnancy with Hazel, Gabby a...

“Back up your ‘she’ll be right’ with some actual tools to dothis” is what Serena would say if she could go back in time to her pre-pregnant self before first baby Maeve arrived. Serena reflects on her two different experiences of birth –both with the same intense sensations; but in her second birth Serena was now armed with tools, techniques and a mindset that helped her work with what was happeni...

 "You just feel like you've discovered this amazing secretabout physiological birth and having an amazing birth experience, you just wanna scream it from the rooftops” Mia would love to tell everyone to have a homebirth to feel as amazing as she did in having a redemptive birth for hersecond baby Oscar. It has had a profound impact on her. In this episode we cover the first birth of James...

“It was the most exciting feeling, so powerful. I washonestly just feeling so privileged that my body could, could experience it. I had like awesome music playing and just that pushing phase was just fun.” Anna shares with us her first birth, a c-section to Kaiden andhow she experienced postpartum pre-eclampsia, with spiking blood pressure and scary panic attacks. This impacted greatly on her earl...

" I'm so proud of what I did. It was amazing. I did everything in the world that I could." Having previously shared her first birth to Arcadia on this podcast Elizabeth was set on preparing for a VBAC for her second baby's arrival. In this episode we cover the brutal obstetrician's manner about a VBAC, then Elizabeth's change to another care provider - who turned about to be an absolute godsend. S...

Midwife Rosa knew 1000% she wanted a homebirth and there seemed to be no reason why she wouldn't be able to have one. She trusted in her body and physiological birth. She didn't pack a hospital bag, but when her membranes released and 48 hours later there wasn't enough progress...her birth plans needed to change. Rosa shares with us her journey into the hospital setting, getting out of...

During the start of her first pregnancy Tessa learnteverything she could about the truth of physiological birth which resulted in it becoming very obvious that home was the best place for her to birth her baby. As the right midwife didn’t appear for Tessa, she proceeded through her pregnancy tuning into her body, trusting her body, using her intuition and her ability to “just know”. Tessa shares h...

Erin bravely opened up about her initial fear of pregnancy and childbirth. Early on, she believed that a C-section under general anesthesia would be the safest and most manageable option for her. However, everything began to shift after she hired a supportive doula and found her midwife. Through their guidance, she discovered the power and beauty of natural, physiological birth—and realized that w...

First time parents looking for a really great birth story –here’s one for you from Emma. Knowing that she needed to be in the right mindset and liked to feel in control it was natural for Emma to seek out hypnobirthing. She shares with us the specific tools and techniques she practised in her pregnancy and successfully used in her birth and postpartum. Other topics you’ll hear about in this chat i...

Sam shares the stories of her 4 daughters’ births – with a focus on Riley’s birth where she found that some hypnobirthing tools and techniques made a huge difference. As busy mum to Olive, Augie, Darcy and now Riley, Sam is also a business owner and prioritised her fitness and strength to help her through life, pregnancy and birth. You’ll hear about her range of experiences of birth - with Olive i...

"I look back on that day and I cannot help but smile. I'm like, I did it. She just slipped on out.” PJ's body and baby knew exactly what to do when it came to time for Frankie to be born. It was a very fast labour and birth - 2 hours from the first physical signs, to holding Frankie in her arms. While it might have been rather quick PJ says " all of the chaos that was going on at the end just comp...

Rose shares her two experiences of homebirth to sons Oscar and Oliver. Plus there’s so much more – topics covered in our chat today include (and are not limited to) : Missed miscarriage and long time to move through this; conception journey before Oliver’s arrival; gender disappointment; music in labour; Mum being the midwife; husband Andre blowing up the birth pool by his breath alone!; My random...

Here we have a perfect story of a normal, natural straightforward, physiological home birth to a first baby. Georgia shares with us her journey of a smooth conception, pregnancy and the idea that she would like a ‘trial of homebirth’ – a term used by her Mum, a former homebirth midwife. Homebirth runs in the family, but there was no pressure that this is what Georgia would have to do – as she expl...

A brilliant episode for parents looking for hope and inspiration for a 2nd birth experience. Pip shares with us an excellent example of the differences between an induction plus subsequent intervention versus an informed, educated physiological homebirth. We chat about her first birth to Arthur in order to understand the context of how she enters into her pregnancy with Wilbur. I mention how Pip d...

3 wonderful positive birth stories, 1 at hospital and 2 at home. Sophie had planned to have her first baby at home, but this wasn’t to be as her membranes started to release at only 36 weeks, so she found herself in hospital for an undetermined length of time to wait for labour to start. As Sophie comments, while it wasn’t her preferred location it certainly “wasn’t the worst place to be” and she...

"It went the way I DIDN'T want it to go, but I feel good about it." There are numerous topics covered in this episode as Shinaed navigated a range of challenges through her pregnancy and birth. These include: chemical pregnancy, Hyperemesis, chronic Braxton hicks from 25 weeks until end of pregnancy, concern of pre-term labour, multiple changes of midwives, changing birth location du...

Childbirth educator, VBAC and homebirth advocate & doula Kristin is a mum to 3 girls - all with different birth stories. In this episode Kristin shares with how she found herself as a first time mum, in labour, being told she was going for a c section. This experience significantly impacted not only her birth, but her journey as a mother to Bella. It wasn’t until after she birthed her 2nd daug...

Excited and free of fear, Rosie waited for her baby to arrive, and waited and waited.... At some stage around 42 weeks she had to make the decision that if this baby did not come on her own terms she would have to undergo an induction. Which is what happened at 43 weeks (or 44 weeks depending on what scan they wanted to go by). Following a day of induction with misoprostal, Rosie shares with us ho...

What happens when you get a Gestational Diabetes (GD) diagnosis in pregnancy? How do you say no to an induction? Navigating a “failed” glucose tolerance test, Eliza was labelled with GD – which meant a lot of extra monitoring, testing, scans, and being constantly threatened with induction. Eliza shares her journey through all of this - how she was told her baby might die if she wasn’t induced at 3...

Eleni speaks about her journey of her 4 positive births (one in hospital and 3 at home) including a discussion around anxiety and depression she experienced around the time of her 3rd baby Felix. We chat about her healing through extreme anxiety, what helped her - with a short mention of looking into gut health and mineral deficiencies – which are very important factors! Eleni shares how she felt...

Another positive VBAC story with Emma sharing her experience of her relatively positive C Section 3 years ago to Harley followed by her very positive VBAC to baby Daisy just a couple of months ago. Emma explains what she did to prepare, which for her was largely around releasing fear of the transfer to hospital and arriving into hospital feeling supported. We did some work together in her pregnanc...

In her midwife’s words “that was a textbook f***ing birth”. This is a powerful story from a courgeous, fearless Kiki who was exceptionally determined to have her HBACx2 (home birth after 2 c sections) and she did! To put her story into perspective we hear about her first traumatic birth, a crash c section in an Australian hospital (skip this part if you don’t feel up to hearing anything traumatic)...

Two difficult births – one traumatic making Alisha feel that she didn’t want to do it again and the other a positive experience – we speak 6 weeks after August’s birth and she says she’d happily give birth again. So what is the difference between a traumatic birth and a positive birth even when they are both difficult? This is what Alisha talks about. She shares about the difference between obstet...

To acknowledge Baby Loss Awareness week, Autumn shares her loss of her baby girl Hope at 21 weeks and 2 days just over a year ago. She takes us through the long process that started around 16 weeks and led to the live birth of her baby weighing just 13 ounces / 368 grams. Autumn explains how she feels about it a year later, her grief process, the emotions, the physicality of what was going on with...

To acknowledge Baby Loss Awareness week this episode is a chat with Arlene about her miscarriage at 10 weeks pregnant which occurred only 10 days prior to us talking. Arlene graciously speaks of how she is feeling mentally, emotionally and physically at this point in time, her choice and conviction to stay away from any medical assistance and how she is already able to look at the miscarriage from...