Pregnancy, Birth And Beyond

Midwifery in Private Practice, Mothers & Babies 2021, March of Midwives and deskilling in Maternity CareIn 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 of the Midwives in the UK, vexatious reporting in Midwifery and what it takes to be a Jedi Midwife in today’s healthcare landscape. We also touched on Homebirth, vaginal birth of twins, breech birth and being prepared for childbirth. About our guests:Sunae Reilly is a private midwife living and working in the Northern Rivers of NSW on the land of the Bundjalung people of the Bundjalung Nation. She finds great joy in seeing women and birthing people find their inner strength and power in pregnancy and birth and supporting them in their transition to parenthood. Sunae is available for antenatal, labour and birth, an

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 healthcare settings, specifically in the pregnancy, birth, and parenting realms. These times are confusing for most. Our value systems are swimming hard to keep up with variations of instruction and direction. What does this mean for birth ? Our Birth rights are never in lock down. Thank you for your support. Please feel free to leave reviews, feedback, or to simply get in touch with the team. We love hearing from you. Enjoy this conversation !

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 did we get here? When the research continues to show that home birth is the safest option for birth place, and continuous midwifery care the safest model, how do we need to revolutionise maternity care in this country to truly meet the needs of all birthing people?In this episode Kirilly Dawn is joined by Dr Melanie Jackson as we unravel some of these questions and take a deep look into the history of home birth, where we are today, and where we need to go. Dr Melanie Jackson is a private midwife living in the Blue Mountains in Sydney who has been attending women giving birth at home for 13 years, and has two homebirt

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 wholly dedicated her life to being with birth. She’s been showing the wider public the intimacies of birth for over 20 years, and through the beauty of this exposure, has normalised many parts of the huge moving picture of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. With her decades of experience, Eva has seen all kinds of birthing experiences. Now she has a huge instagram following with her grateful followers vouching that her photographs and stories create accessible education. Eva and her partner’s video ‘The Birth of Purdie’ has had 1.9 million views and counting. In her work, Eva frequently sheds light on birth related thi

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 Sydney for high schooling. She later stays on in Sydney for University, eventually meeting her husband and then becoming pregnant with her first child. Tori is a resilient woman by all accounts. A well educated woman, she was relatively well informed and chose a continuity model of care for her maternity care along with other support. Options that at the time, and even now, are available to few women in Australia. Even with all that, Tori’s experience of childbirth was traumatic. Tori’s family nearly lost her and her baby. Now mother of four, a clear picture emerges from her first birthing experience - unnecessary interv

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 experiences and healthcare.Today on Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, Oni Blecher speaks with Dr Hazel Keedle researcher at Western Sydney University and Annalee Atia, National President of Maternity Choices Australia and co-founder of our very own PBB Media about a critically important new study looking into the birth and perinatal care experiences of mothers in Australia. The Birth Experience Study (BESt) can be completed here, only complete this questionnaire if you are Australian and have given birth in Australia in the past five years: https://surveyswesternsydney.au1.qualtrics.com/CP/File.php?F=F_3FeQerXzd8yoeI6To donate a

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 on the cultural use, meaning and place of the Rebozo in their Indigenous communities and in traditional midwifery practices in Mexico, and how this knowledge is traditionally passed down. They share why they started this petition, and why proper training with Indigenous birthworkers is necessary for the Rebozo to be used safely and with respect, acknowledging it as an intervention. They also speak to being in relationship with the communities we learn from, the importance of accountability, how birth work and anti racism work go hand in hand, and give us points for necessary pause and reflection.Montse Olmos and Mayte

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 programs and travels the world to teach patients to effortlessly integrate foundational techniques into their daily life so they can thrive.Regularly travelling to India to train with an internationally renowned family of Ayurvedic doctors, Dylan is devoted to learning, sharing and radiating this ancient knowledge for everyone to utilise and enjoy, to experience total wellness and bliss. Dylan has a passion for treating, a Passion for Education, and a for Herbs and Nature.Staying and learning from his Guru (teacher) in India for 6 month periods started a beautiful and purposeful learning teaching relationship. revolutio

PBB Special Bulletin/Interview with Alecia Staines, Director of Maternity Consumer NetworkIf 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 special News Bulletin for Australians listeners today, Tuesday 30th March. I’m speaking with Alecia Staines, Director of one of our largest maternity consumer advocacy organisations - Maternity Consumer Network, she is also the host and creator of the podcast ‘Birth - the forgotten Feminist Issue’ (check it out, its excellent), a Hypnobirthing teacher and mother of five. We caught up last night after one of Alecia’s classes to discuss our upcoming Federal elections in Australia and how we can use the opportunities federal elections bring about to improve maternity health care services. Some of you might know that I am a

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, personal birth counselling sessions and speaks in presentations and seminars around Australia and internationallyRhea’s passion is to educate women about the impact of our birth culture on the outcome of our births. Instead of fear, she wants birthing women and birthing people to go into their labour with confidence in their body and their support people, and the knowledge that will give them the best possibility of natural physiological birth.Rhea has written two books ! Her first, the popular ‘Birth With Confidence: Savvy choices for normal birth’ and now her recently released second book ‘Beyond the Birth Plan: gett

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 Academy) in both the Netherlands and New Mexico. He is also the originator of the CranioSacral Professional Organization in Holland which began as a result of his students becoming professionals. As a result, he has a grandfather status in that organisation and is an honorary member of The Dutch CranioSacral Practitioner Association. Additionally, Etienne has taught craniosacral at the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts for nearly a decade.  As a meditator of over 40 years, Etienne Peirsman has developed a unique teaching style that adds an extraordinarily compassionate and meditative depth to the methods used by the Upled

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 Moorehttps://www.nappyfree.com.au/Copyright 2021 PBB MediaAll 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 Generation, the NT Intervention, abuse and violence by the colonial state. Please listen with care, as these topics and parts of the conversation may be distressing.We want to acknowledge and pay our respects to the people of the Stolen Generation, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have themselves, their ancestors, and their Country, been affected by the Stolen Generation, and to those who are being impacted today by forced child removals by the state. We hope this story offers some healing to you, to know that you aren't alone and that the episode may offer some tips from Rärriwuy as you continue to

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. Psychosomatic awareness is based from the theory that your stored emotions may result in adverse physical and psychological outcomes. With an ever broadening awareness around trauma resulting in physical outcomes or the memory of trauma being encoded in the viscera such as elaborated upon in Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book ‘The Body Keeps The Score’. Jin’s work focusses upon the link between the emotional and the physical and in this interview, we look at how that link can effect our way of looking at our body’s functionality, particularly in the pre conception, conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum stages of life. On

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 Sovereignty' by PBB and hosted at the Returning on Bundjalung Country in November 2020. PBB presenter, Barkindji woman Kirilly Dawn, speaks with four incredible birth keepers, mothers and change makers: Bronwyn Bancroft, Angela Coe, Mei Lai Swan and Aimee Aroha, who explore birth sovereignty, the context of modern birth culture through a decolonial lense, and share their stories , experiences and their visions for change. Panel members include: Bronwyn Bancroft, Bundjalung elder, artist, mother and sovereign birth advocate; Angela Coe, Wiradjuri midwife and founder of @birthingourway Mei Lai Swan, co-founder of Birth for H

“If your c-section is high that means that you’re not supporting people in labour, that’s just a fact.” - Dr Neel ShahA 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 and women are more likely to die in childbirth in this generation, than their mothers. Today on the show we bring you the insights and experience of Dr Neel Shah, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. Listed among the “40 smartest people in health care” Dr Shah has written more than 50 peer-reviewed academic papers and contributed to four books, including as senior author of Understanding Value-Based Healthcare (McGraw-Hill). We talk equity and safety in maternity healthcare and reducing the C-section rate. Some alarming stats alongside lots of hope are in

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 Osteopathy in London after which going on to receive a rich and colourful variation of experiences and education in the healing arts. Hugh has written three books; Volume 1 and 2 of The Heart of Listening, and ‘Baghwan, The God That Failed’, about his decade of living and serving in close proximity to Bagwhan, where he continued to learn more about the body and the human capacity for extra sensory abilities and healing. In 1988, Hugh moved to Big Sur in California and now lives in Ashland, Oregon with his partner, and teaches his 7 levels of craniosacral work internationally. This was a special interview for Oni Bleche

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 require For this episode of the Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond show, Annalee caught up with the remarkable Helena Mooney, a Sydney resident and long-time maternity consumer advocate. They discuss what health advocacy looks like and the many challenges volunteers face in advocating for better and more meaningful maternity services.From learning new terminology and jargon across several professional areas (such as research, government, health services, specific to maternity care, policy making, medico-legal, insurance etc etc) to finding your voice and calling out the many agendas that too often trump what the patient

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 holistic gynaecological care that follows the guiding force of the heart and nervous system. Through her work, Muse has helped a lot of women both get pregnant and have healthy pregnancies and births! Not only working in the pregnancy, birth, and beyond realms; muse assists and encourages people have a better connection and relationship with their pelvic anatomy including important physiological and anatomical understanding. Folks can work with Muse via distance consultations and her Sovereign Vagina Masterclass Series, a cannon of tangible tools for pelvic health, understanding gynecology as "gaiacology," and making

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 appearing in a wide range of publications, like Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin, The Chaser, Eureka Street and New Matilda; not to mention other events and anthologies. Fiona has illustrated many books for just about every publisher, designed cards for the Ink Group and t-shirts for Mambo.Fiona loves how cartoonists are able to take all their experiences, beliefs, bile and passion, wrap them up in a metaphor and get inky fingers in the process and while having fun. In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with Fiona about her book ‘The Amazing True Story of H