The Positive Births NZ podcast

A "seismic" mindset shift is what Sophie experienced between one half of her pregnancy and another. It set her off on a course of feeling calm and excited for her first birth. This is a fabulous story for everyone to listen to, Sophie explains what she used and how she used it, her supportive 'A' team, catching Blakely as she arrived in the water. Husband Chris was right on board...

“I had no idea I had that amount of strength” So much strength, acceptance, and absolutely no regrets. Lu has the incredible ability to face challenges with grace and calm and this is why you’ll find this a very inspiring episode. Labouring from Thursday to Monday at home, eventually she made the decision to have a C Section to meet baby Alara.  This story is an account of a pregnancy and birth ex...

“Probably all logic would have said do not have this baby at home” says Aimee about her successful home VBAC. It turns out that it was stepping outside of the norm, trusting her instincts, being informed, educated and choosing a caregiver to support her that enabled Aimee to bring Hugo into the world within the peace and calm of home. If you’re pregnant and/or planning on a VBAC THIS is a MUST lis...

Proud to have overcome her fears and worked on her mindset, Jess shares with us her two birth experiences. Osteopath Jess jumped onto this podcast to share both of her stories because in her line of work she’s heard a lot of difficult stories and she understands the importance of sharing good experiences. We hear about her experiences of  pelvic girdle pain, sacroiliac joint pain and vulva varicos...

Sarah shares her full spectrum of birth experiences from a very rare crash C Section with her first baby, to a induction and a hospital VBAC for her second baby, through to her dream home birth to third baby Lottie. It was in her second pregnancy was when Sarah discovered some hypnobirthing techniques, she shares how her practice went and how she visualised the birth she wanted and the pushback sh...

"If you want a different experience you have to do something different" says Kirsty about preparing for her 2nd birth. In this episode we talk through both of Kirsty's births as there is so much contrast between first baby Ollie's arrival and just a year later Archie's birth. Kirsty is a farmer and in her first pregnancy wasn't worried about birth, she felt she'd be a...

When Matilda Green heard a positive homebirth story in her pregnancy it created a spark within her which lead to her researching, information gathering and learning skills to help her prepare for a homebirth for her first baby Milo. Matty shares with us the details of her first and second births to Milo and Autumn which were fairly similar in the fact they were straightforward and of a similar (lo...

Nicola compares her homebirth with Luca to her previous hospital birth to first baby Skye and all the differences between her first and second births. This is definitely a story for mums in their second pregnancies looking for some inspiration about how different things can be from one birth to another. Nicola was very intentional about her preparation and practice and she knows this paid off. She...

This episode needs to come with a warning of traumatic content as Megan shares with us the details of her first birth in order to provide relevant context for her positive birth story. To be completely honest with you, the details of Megan's first birth to Mia has been playing on my mind, and I'm someone who has heard a lot of difficult stories. And I'm not even pregnant, nor will ever...

Mitra shares with us the details of her two homebirths in 2021 and 2023 speaking with us when baby Marlow is just 5 weeks old. She found hypnobirthing in her first pregnancy just before escaping Auckland's long lockdown and moving to Gisborne to meet a new midwife in her 3rd trimester. But as it turns out this midwife didn't make it to her birth, and Mitra shares with us how a different mi...

Sarah and Johnny share with us their positive birth journey to meet second baby, Sephora as a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). We firstly understand how her first birth journey ended up  as quite a classic cascade of interventions with induction, epidural and eventual c-section. Sarah shares about the work she did in her second pregnancy to feel strong and empowered and ready for a potential H...

Dani was so happy to be pregnant but would cry when she had to think about birthing as she was so afraid of birth. She had a lot of fear about fear about the unknown pain – whether she would be able to handle it or not. Located in Queenstown it’s not always straightforward as to where to decide to birth - Dani wanted to birth at a hospital with doctors but this meant a 3-4 hour trip to Invercargil...

Doula, childbirth educator and single mum by choice, Aiya takes us on her incredible journey of conception, pregnancy, labour and birth to her baby boy Ezra. There are so many topics covered in this episode including: her donor and conception journey; why hypnobirthing was a must for her despite feeling so very confident and calm about birth; the tumultuous end to her pregnancy and moving house in...

Claire shares her very straightforward home birth of her second baby Asher 6 weeks after his arrival. We hear briefly about her first birth and why Claire reached out to release fear and reset her mind during her 2nd pregnancy and how that helped her moving forward. It wasn't long after our work together that I received an email from Claire to say "we had an incredible, empowering home bi...

Erin shares with us a planned homebirth that went 'sideways' and included a long labour, induction, epidural, baby not in a great position and eventually a c-section. We talk about what the positive aspects are, but we also talk about trauma, the interventions, keeping post partum depression at bay. If you're not feeling up to listening to an experience where the plans 'turned to c...

Emma shares her fast and furious, less than 2.5 hour arrival of baby Gordon at home at 42 weeks and 5 days - and technically a freebirth as the midwife arrived to her home after baby was born. Emma also suffered from a 4th degree tear which she matter of factly talks us through – this meant a trip in an ambulance straight after birth and a very positive hospital experience - she speaks to the cari...

A special story where Wai's preparation resulted in her having just the birth that she had visualised. In our chat Wai explains how she focused on nourishing mind, body and soul through her pregnancy as well as speaking into existence and manifesting her perfect birth. She shares with us how her deep knowing and her prep combined with her awareness of energy, her focus on turning inwards, bein...

It wasn’t until she gave birth at home in the water to her 3rd baby that Kasey actually understood how amazing birth can be. Kasey takes us on a journey of learning, growth and mindset change that started with her first hospital birth (an induction because her obstetrician was going on holiday and thought it would be safer for her to birth before her due date) and transformed to her 2 empowered ho...

Tracey shares her two births in the past two years to Xavier and Ryder. As a cross fit competitor, athlete and farmer we hear about how Tracey found the hypnobirthing breathing techniques to be a great skill transfer, how the relaxation tracks helped her cope with pregnancy insomnia and how the cows were some of her best inspiration in her first pregnancy. She shares with us what happened when wit...

At 42 weeks and 1 day pregnant Alycia opted for an induction, largely due to the fact that the sonographer had denied them the opportunity to have a scan......how frustrating. They were able to wait a few days until Monday for their induction which proceeded very smoothly. Alycia shares with us her experience of induction, labour and birth (and a post partum hemorage), and most importantly why she...

"It was more amazing that I imagined.... it felt so good, it was the greatest day of my life, no amount of money can buy that for you." Imagine planning a home birth and then having to see the land you’re building on (and intending to birth on) slide away down a bank on your due date..... In this episode we chat to Faith and her midwife Helena about a wonderful birth outcome and Faith an...

When Tamzin was in the middle of her chiropractic studies her pregnancy came as a total surprise, as despite her using the usually very reliable copper IUD baby Aria decided she’d like to join the family…now….. In this episode we end up touching on topics like epigenetics, as baby Aria had to be tested for a gene she could have received from her father who had cancerous tumours on his eyes when bo...

In our special episodes about miscarriage we chat to Amanda who openly shares with us the grief, loneliness and heartbreak of her two miscarriages. She also shares with us her advice and tips from what she has learnt along the way on her journey to becoming pregnant, at the point in time that we speak she is in her 3rd trimester with a healthy baby girl. If you too have experienced a miscarriage,...

Emma looked into hypnobirthing  in her 2nd pregnancy to learn more ‘tricks’ and tools, to feel calm and take more control and to achieve a successful VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). While her waters released around her due date, labour didn't start naturally, so her and husband Euan made an informed decision to proceed with an induction. We hear how Emma and Euan worked together as an am...

In our different episodes about miscarriage we chat to Alex who shares with us her two different types of miscarriage that she has recently experienced; how she emotionally copes, what’s been helpful and her thoughts on moving forward. If you too have experienced a miscarriage, a loss, a traumatic event, and like to start a healing process, please feel free to reach out to me to find out more abou...