Bec and Lyndon employed me as their private midwife, rented an Airbnb and birthed their daughter Elsie there, at their Airbnb home.
Elsie was conceived with the help of IVF when Bec was 40. Bec’s journey embodied informed decision making and asked her to trust in herself and her body. She had an intense and powerful fast labour. She shares how relieved she felt when she held Elsie for the first time, that she could now breathe out, a sigh of relief, and share the responsibility of her baby’s wellbeing with another.
Enjoy x
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
www.soulful-birth.com
Shannon and Luke share their story of birthing their two boys, Will and Cooper.
They had obstetric care and a vaginal birth in hospital, with myself as their doula for their first baby and then chose midwifery care with myself, and had an accidental fast free birth with their second baby.
Shannon talks rawly about the hard and the good stuff; her struggle with mental health in her first pregnancy, the realities of being a new parent, her disappointment with her breastfeeding experiences. She also shares how her fierce mumma voice was birthed and how laying down clear boundaries has been a product of her birthing experiences.
Luke adds his perspective, I always love to hear from dad’s too, and how calm he felt catching his baby at home on their kitchen floor.
Enjoy.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Cath Dalle - pregnancy massage and pregnancy yoga - Mindful Body
Jamie-Lee Freers - PT - jleesmobilefit
Jessica Urlichs - writer - jessicaurlichs.com
Sinead is a deep, sensitive and powerful woman, wife to Wade and mother to Rosa Jane. She shares about her conscious conception, the tasks of pregnancy which included boundary setting, being with herself, and growing deeper trust in her partner. She beautifully shares her homebirth of Rosa, the crisis of confidence she felt and looking for a way out, before surrendering to the ecstatic process. She also talks about her difficult postpartum healing journey and the gifts of this.
Enjoy.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
After her first birth Kassie knew, deep within that it wasn’t meant to be that way. Her inner guide, that inner strength told her there was another way.
After her empowering second birth her passion to educate women and to change the landscape of how women often enter their first pregnancy and birth experiences was ignited.
Sharing her own birth experiences has been instrumental in supporting women around her to educate themselves and to have the courage to ask questions and not simply follow the status quo or the messages of authority - to listen within to their inner authority.
Enjoy x
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Do you have a traumatic birth story that you’d like to feel differently about? Check out my Birth Story Integration & Healing sessions - https://www.soulful-birth.com/complementary-care
Reclaiming the Village - Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/191262132823502/
Dr. Sara Wickham https://www.sarawickham.com/
Dr. Sarah Buckley - Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering https://sarahbuckley.com/
Tash - Arctic Moon Photography https://arcticmoonphotography.com.au/
Loz is a full-of-life creative, lover of the ocean and her garden and her family.
In this episode, she shares about her early miscarriage before her daughter Ochre was born, her planned homebirth and how she decided to not let her homebirth transfer define her birth story, how pregnancy grounded her and helped her slow down, how important it’s been for the integration of her mother-self to have time in the water, and the joy of completing an art project during her postpartum.
Enjoy.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Follow Loz:
IG @sea.yonder @frothing_clam
Loz is also a board member of the Geraldton Longboard Club https://www.facebook.com/geraldtonlongboardclub/
Spirit Babies - How to Communicate with the Child You’re Meant to Have by Walter Makichen
Nukara Farm https://www.nukarafarm.com.au/
Tree Appreciation Art Exhibit 21/10/23 - 5/11/23 https://greenoughmuseum.org.au/past-events/
Welcome to episode 13 with Emily and Guy.
Their first babe was a planned homebirth with their midwife in attendance in Queensland, their second was a planned homebirth here in WA but baby arrived before their midwife. Their third was a planned freebirth back over east with no registered maternity care provider. For their fourth birth, they’ve enlisted my care for another planned homebirth.
Emily shares how her trust in her body and her capacity to birth has developed alongside the trust she has in Guy and in their relationship. It was a side by side evolution. She also talks about the exhaustion and demands of living off gird and travelling with 2 children and her newborn, and her struggle with postpartum depletion and depression.
At the end she also shares her recurring dream, which she realised was a memory of her own birth.
I’m looking forward to having these two back again in the future to share their fourth birth story with us. Enjoy.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Dr Oscar Serrellach - The Postpartum Depletion Cure
https://www.droscarserrallach.com/book
PANDA perinatal health
Centre of Perinatal Excellence
Manon hails from the Netherlands, where midwifery care and homebirth are more common place than in Australia. She and her partner Carter enlisted my care for their first birth together.
I love how Manon describes the journey she took into motherhood, as an opening into herself, and an awakening of the feminine qualities of deep rest, listening in, self care, as well as knowing her strength and power. These qualities were asked of her in her pregnancy, especially towards the end when her blood pressure began rising, and became resourceful tools for her in her healing in postpartum.
If you’re pregnant and would like to work with Manon, her contact details can be found in the show notes.
Enjoy x
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Work with Manon ‘soul meditation and massage for mother and baby’ 0426 844 518
Positive Birth Program https://hypnobirthingaustralia.com.au/wachs-classes/
Orgasmic birth https://www.orgasmicbirth.com/
Madi and Daniel have two beautiful boys, Hugo and Judd.
As you’ll hear, Madi’s story had multiple twists and turns including switching to midwifery care 1/2 way through her pregnancy with her first born, gestational diabetes requiring insulin, an ECV attempt and a breech vaginal labour which resulted in a cesarean birth, and in her second pregnancy low platelets, and an HBAC (home birth after cesarean).
Both of her pregnancies and births required a deep dive into the literature and evidence, and an even deeper trust in her body and baby and intuition.
Enjoy x
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Follow Madi and work with her @thenourishedbump https://thenourishedbump.com.au/
Explore some of the resources Madi used to inform herself and prepare for birth:
Breech Without Borders www.breechwithoutborders.org
Birthing Instincts podcast with Dr. Stu Fischbein & Midwife Bliss Young
Catherine Bell’s Birth Map www.birthmap.life
Hazel Needle - Birth After Cesarean @hazelkeedle
Annette Tuncel - AT Bowen Therapy www.atbowentherapy.com.au
Julie Marchetti Reflexology - www.geraldtonreflexology.com.au
VBAC Birth Stories podcast
Australian VBAC Stories podcast
Welcome back to Soulful Birth Stories. I’m Cath Tan, holistic midwife and your podcast host in Geraldton on Southern Yamatji Country in Western Australia.
I’ve had a few weeks off from recording interviews and so it was wonderful to jump back in and speak to Fern, she shares her powerful story of birthing her two children, Kora and Mack.
Fern is only one month postpartum and we had to pause a few times for her to tend to her new babe. I hope some of his delicious newborn sounds come through in the recording for you.
One of the gifts of sharing birth stories is how they help to educate others, and one of the challenges of sharing birth stories is how they might be perceived by others who are still healing from their own stories. The tragedy is that many stories that may be helpful or that offer alternate narratives can be censored whether they’re stories of ‘easy’ births (I say that in quotation marks) or homebirth transfers, or surgical births.
My hope is to provide a platform that doesn’t label births as positive or negative but rather tries to explore the transformational quality that birth offers us. What was learned, what opened or closed within from the experience, where to now, who am I now?
I hope you Enjoy Fern’s story. And if you have a story you’d like to share, please reach out. I’d love to chat with you.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Rhonda Bradley, Privately Practicing Midwife byyoursidemidwifery.com.au
Kate Cadd LC and midwife IG @motherbloommidwifery
Ina May’s books that Fern found so helpful and inspiring:
Spiritual Midwifery
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth
Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding
SheBirths Antenatal classes online course - shebirths.com
Fern hired her TENS from: https://www.facebook.com/ArcticMoonPlacentas/?paipv=0&eav=AfbudGUQPcajG1TPOceDVoQTRrNl7qBnEPyAZgD9LnfQJGAvSz1c3Tbq08wEd5OWRuU&_rdr
Muka ties (umbilical cord ties)
https://ourtaiao.co.nz/products/muka-pito-ties
This episode the amazing Ash shares her birth story with Billy.
Ash and Ryan had planned a homebirth with me, but as you’ll hear, Billy had other plans. Ash shares about the heavy weight of decision making in the last weeks of pregnancy, the pressure to make the ‘right decision’, and how she cared for herself - tuning into her inner knowing, and deciphering what was most important to her, amidst the noise and confusion.
And Ash is a doula! Her info is in the notes below, so if you want her on your birth team, get in contact!
And I love to hear from you, so please let me know what you’re enjoying on the show, and if you have a story you’d like to share, please reach out. Enjoy!
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Ash Tomlinson - doula @ashtomlinson_ https://www.instagram.com/ashtomlinson_/
Breech Without Borders https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/
I’m Cath, your host and holistic midwife. It’s raining here today in Western Australia in southern Yamatji country. I actually don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve had rain. It’s beautiful. I’m also a little scared- will this rain bring all the babies at once?! Hopefully not, hopefully they space out every few days. But this is out of my control.
I’m excited to bring you today’s interview with the gorgeous Gemma. Gemma is a passionate perinatal mental health advocate, a teacher, a wife, and a mother to two little girls.
Gemma uses the terms consent, and informed, and educated to describe her positive and healing second birth, concepts that she was less familiar with for her first birth, as well as her realisation of the importance of continuity-of-carer for her and husband Jono.
She also shares her journey with postnatal depression and anxiety, having a baby with reflux, her emergency cesarean birth, and her fast hospital VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), following a family bout of gastro.
Enjoy x
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
I’d like to ask you for a favour. If you’re enjoying this show, would you please rate and review it, and share it widely with your contacts? I‘d love for these stories to be heard beyond my immediate circle. A fair bit of effort goes into recording and editing as well as recognising the time and generosity of my guests in their sharing - so please, rate, review and share the love!
PANDA - Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia – supports the mental health of parents and families during pregnancy and in their first year of parenthood.
Today we have Louise joining us, talking about the birth of baby Florence. She shares about the lesson of vulnerability and I have to say, this birth experience was vulnerable for me too, as Louise and Cody’s midwife. At that time, I had placed a lot of pressure on myself to be ‘perfect’ - that is, to have impeccable practice that was impossible to criticise. An impossible task!
So when we discovered that Florence was breech at 40 weeks of pregnancy, it was very difficult for me to accept that I’d missed detecting this earlier - and how might things have been different if I had. And isn’t it the case that we’re always our own harshest critic.
Sometimes babies hide their positions from us, do they have insight that we don’t? If we’d known her position earlier, would there have been more stress and anxiety during that time?
But I’ll let Louise tell her powerful story.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know? Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys. 'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath www.soulful-birth.com I’d like to ask you for a favour. If you’re enjoying this show, would you please rate and review it, and share it widely with your contacts? I‘d love for these stories to be heard beyond my immediate circle. A fair bit of effort goes into recording and editing as well as recognising the time and generosity of my guests in their sharing - so please, rate, review and share the love!
Today’s guest Hannah wants you to know how healing, beautiful and sacred cesarean births can be. I know that many of you may also feel this way, or know this on some level.
There is a general understanding that our cesarean birth rate in Western Australia is too high for optimal health and wellbeing, and also that women can be left traumatised afterwards, and for this reason there can be a lot of stigma and unhealed stories surrounding surgical birth. And as Hannah shares, going into her first birth, she hadn’t heard any positive cesarean experiences, perhaps reflecting a reluctance to share the positive sensitively.
Those stories are out there, absolutely, but as first time birthers, there is a tendency to only focus on the type of birth that’s wanted, and less so, on the depths and variations and inner growth that comes from all birth experiences.
For Hannah, it was her second cesarean birth, following a VBAC attempt, that transformed and healed her first cesarean birth. These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know? Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys. 'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath www.soulful-birth.com
Ben describes the moments directly after their son Jacob was born at home, after their unplanned home VBAC (or vaginal birth after cesarean). This is part 2 of Jemimah and Ben’s story.
In this episode they finish the story of Jacob’s homebirth and share Livvy’s waterbirth story (baby number 3), and how they prepared their other two children for the homebirth.
For me, Jemimah and Ben were the perfect clients or ‘test case’ as a midwife, providing care for my first planned home VBAC. They were well educated and informed of the pros and cons, they’d already experienced two very unexpected births and were prepared (as best as one can) for the unexpected twists and turns that labour and birth may present. I also felt reassured that Jemimah had already had a vaginal birth and that this was to be her second one.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
www.soulful-birth.com
Jemimah's favourite birth video for helping to prepare her children for her homebirth: https://youtu.be/4yrrg-rwybc?si=3GHo62enOCsO_OT3
I could listen to Jemimah and Ben talk about their births for days. They are both so knowledgable and have so much to share about their three very different births, their own personal journeys and paradigm shifts, and how they prepared for each birth, each experience building upon the lessons and skills acquired from the last. Each birth can only be shared within the context of the others.
And we did talk for so long that I have split their story into two episodes. This is Part 1.
Their first baby, Marney was born by cesarean following a placental abruption during labour, where the placenta prematurely separates from the uterus, occurring in about 0.4 - 1% of pregnancies, and even rarer in Jemimah’s case with no risk factors.
Jacob, their second, was a planned VBAC in hospital, but as they share, Jacob had his own plans and with the support of their midwives Sophie and Rhonda, he arrived swiftly at home.
Livvy, number 3 was a planned home water birth with me as their midwife.
In this episode Jemimah and Ben share their first two birth experiences and the journey to choosing a VBAC.
These stories are intimate, raw, inspiring - parents sharing their birth experiences - the highs, the challenges, the growth. How did they prepare, what was unexpected, what do they now know?
Join Cath Tan, holistic homebirth midwife in Geraldton, Western Australia as she speaks with local families about their transformational birth journeys.
'Stories have always been powerful ways of sharing information and wisdom; soul maps for significant life events we humans traverse. I hope you'll find these stories educational, uplifting and comforting.' xx Cath
Resources:
Ina May Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin
The VBAC link www.thevbaclink.com
VBAC Birth Stories podcast
Sophie @yourmidwifesophie
Rhonda Bradley www.byyoursidemidwifery.com
A taster of Jemimah & Ben's two-part (two episode) story coming soon.
This preview recaps their quick decision to stay at home to birth their second baby with the support of their midwives Sophie and Rhonda - an unplanned, but welcomed, home VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).