On this episode, Ashley Winning joins us to share her two cesarean birth stories - the births that preceded her unassisted free birth (which she shares in next week’s episode - #8).

In this episode we talk about: fat phobia, hospital obstetrics birth biases, the Australian birth system and so much more.

Plus, Megan answers a listener question about the internal struggle between being active and resting at full term.

As a first-time mom, Ashley was planning a vaginal birth in the hospital. Early on in her pregnancy, Ashley was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. With that diagnosis came many extra appointments, and the recommendation to be induced at the end of pregnancy. Ashley reluctantly agreed to the induction. After a very painful and unsuccessful attempt to get labor started, the obstetrician’s recommended a cesarean birth and Ashley consented.

For her second birth, Ashley planned to have a VBAC in the hospital. She describes her pregnancy as stressful and very high anxiety. She had many appointments with many different hospital providers throughout her pregnancy and the conversations always went the same - the OB would ask if Ashley was planning a repeat cesarean, Ashley would say no, and then the OB would proceed to go through the risks of VBAC for high BMI women.

In the last month of pregnancy, the OB practice she’d been seeing “fired her,” and told Ashley she’d have to find a new hospital practice for her birth. To her surprise, Ashley found an obstetrician with whom she really connected with and felt listened to. However; at the end of her pregnancy, the new provider booked a vacation over Ashley’s due date, and thus began conversations around baby.

This time around, Ashley went into spontaneous labor. She was very excited that her body was doing what it was supposed to do. By time she was 8cm, the pain of labor was excruciating, and Ashley asked for an epidural. Every time a provider would come into the room during Ashley’s labor, they would recommend a cesarean birth, and every time Ashley pressed them on this and declined. Eventually, after 12 hours of pressure, Ashley succumbed to the coercion and agreed to have a c-section birth.

Ashley had suffered from a terrible postpartum hemorrhage resulting in a trip to the ICU.

Let’s get social!

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Fear-Releasing Journal Prompts: https://bit.ly/fear-releasing-prompts

Today's guest, Ashley, believes that women are born with the strength, wisdom and confidence to birth and become the mothers they want to be.

She works intimately with pregnant women who plan to homebirth/freebirth by working through fear and challenges, while providing emotional support so that they feel heard, seen & validated while taking the steps to intuitively birth their baby their way.

Check out freebirth & homebirth resources on her website www.themotherhoodcircle.com.au or check out her Podcast: The VBAC Homebirth Stories Podcast.

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