Healing Birth with Carla

Abi is Mum to 4 year old Bill, 2 year old Freya, and 8 week old Ida, living on their rural property 2.5 hours drive from the nearest hospital. Her first two births were medical affairs, involving epidurals, induction and a large postpartum haemorrhage. Her most recent birth, however, was a gentle water birth experience at home, an utterly ordinary, yet simultaneously extraordinary occasion. 

Abi shares with us the journey she went on to confidently prepare for a rural home birth, and the buzz of ordinary delights like climbing into bed together as a family after a wondrous birth at day break. 

Also discussed in this episode:

• Meconium stained liquor
• Lack of initial mother-baby bond
• Tongue tie
• Milk oversupply
• Hypnobirthing
• The Freya app
• Breech at 36 - 38wks
• TENS
• Sibling involvement with birth
• Retained membranes

Pregnant with her first baby in Australia, Grace did her doula training and was planning a gentle home birth. She had an epic support team who she fully trusted, but then at 36 weeks of pregnancy Grace had to make the excruciating call to move to NZ for her partner’s work. 

Aside from the struggles with leaving behind her wonderful home birth midwife and having to find a new match, Grace was also met with a few other challenges during her labour, the key one being a swollen lip of cervix and having the near impossible instruction to stop pushing. Not long thereafter, Grace succumbed to a hospital transfer, followed by an epidural and then a c section.

The biggest struggle was yet to be faced though. It makes heartbreaking listening, hearing Grace describe the trauma she was met with as a new mum dealing with a low milk supply, a lack of bond with her baby, and isolation during Covid lockdowns in a town where she knew no one. Being advised that her baby required a formula top-up at 3 days of age, culminated in massive breastfeeding hurdles for the next five months.

Her next birth was an entirely different experience, as was her breastfeeding journey. Hear how Grace navigated her healing and prepared for an empowering home birth.

Also included in this episode:

* stretch & sweep

* 42+ week pregnancy

* deflexed head

* triple feeding (pumping)

* nipple shields

* doula care

* PPH

* birth debrief

Donna takes us on quite the journey, vulnerably sharing the stories of her two very different birth experiences. Her first birth was a harrowing time, fraught with abandonment, labouring in a motel room, meconium stained waters, a terrifying hospital transfer, exhaustion, a delayed epidural, and then finally culminating in a cesarean section. In stark contrast, Donna’s second was an incredibly empowering, healing and triumphant water birth at home.

It’s quite something to imagine Donna having gone from the devastating fall-out of her first birth, including a deep sense of failure and confusion surrounding it all, PTSD and relationship struggles, to feeling strong in her conviction that she could, and would, birth her next baby at home. She shares with us the various supports and tools she utilised to begin healing and to ready herself to fully embrace her power and wisdom as a Mother and as a birthing woman.

Also included in this episode:

* Unsupportive vs supportive and respectful midwifery care

* TENS

* Doula support

* Hypnobirthing

* Posterior baby

* Complications with living rurally

* Inability to communicate or think during labour

* Counselling support

* NZ College of Midwives Resolutions process

* Miscarriage

* VBAC course

Donna forgot to mention in her story that she found Havening a really helpful therapeutic tool for managing her PTSD symptoms.

My (Carla's) Healing Birth work...

In this episode I speak with Aroha and her partner, Tihikura, about the home births of their two children, 5 year old Te Rangimoeke and 4 month old Rangiāniwaniwa. We hear about the challenges of having a long labour, including the influence of other people and their energies within the birth space, as well as a sense of abandonment when labour dragged on.

Within the conversation, a lot of Māori words and practices are shared. I have included many of the words and their definitions in the shownotes, so hopefully you don’t feel too lost with the various elements of the experiences that Aroha and Tihikura describe. It brings such a unique and spiritual approach to the telling of their story and to honouring birth as the rite of passage that it is. 

We cover many moving and important themes, such as the impacts of midwifery interference in birth and the healing that can come through the debriefing process, super supportive postpartum preparations, the influence of children and siblings at births, Māori-based antenatal education, unhelpful expectations and predictions when it comes to birth, and so much more. 

Tikanga - customs, practices

Whare - house

Whenua - placenta and land

Kainga - home

Tamariki - children

Whanaunga - relatives

Tangi - cry and funeral

Hapū - pregnancy

Kōtiro - girl

Harakeke - flax

Mahitahi - working together

Atua - gods and goddesses

Wairua - spirit

Tipuna - ancestors 

Wharepaku - toilet

Tangaroa - god of the sea and fish

Rangatiratanga - chieftainship, self-determination, sovereignty

Today’s guest, Sarah, vulnerably shares about the various struggles and traumas associated with her Mothering journey, including horrific Hyperemesis in her first pregnancy, numerous ultrasound scans which involved a lot of professional misconduct and needless fear mongering, being medicated for perinatal depression, feeling completely disconnected from her baby girl, amongst other medically managed challenges. 

She talks us through the grief and rage that resulted from her first birth and how she chose to navigate her next pregnancy. Sarah was faced with further systemic challenges nearing the end of that pregnancy, but ultimately decided that birthing at home with a trusted midwife was the best path for her. 

Be prepared to be taken on an emotional ride as Sarah tells her story with much passion and heart.

Also discussed in this episode:

* Group B Strep - antibiotics

* Induction & epidural

* Breastfeeding challenges - torticollis & tongue tie

* Growth scans - SGA/IUGR babies

* Different types of midwifery care

* Postpartum rage

* Postnatal depression in fathers

* Psychotherapy

* Marginal cord insertion & velamentous cord insertion

* Waterbirth

Chelsea is a young mum of two littlies, Bindi and Wolf, and has another bub blossoming in her womb. Although she had hopes for a birthing centre water birth with her first, like so many, Chelsea found herself pushed down an interventionist path that culminated in a ceserean.

In this episode of the podcast, Chelsea vulnerably shares the impacts that this experience had on her and how determined she was to ensure her next birth was a more gentle and respectful experience. Her birth with Wolf took place at home with midwives present. Although Wolf’s birth was really empowering for Chelsea, she reflects on the many ways her experience was disturbed unnecessarily and the effort required of her to ensure that her birth wasn’t derailed by the impacts of the birth system that were playing out in her home.

Now, pregnant with her third, and with the insights and wisdom gained from her previous births, Chelsea is planning a wild pregnancy and free birth. Get ready to be taken on an inspirational, perhaps triggering, hopefully enlightening, and surely validating journey. So much of what Chelsea shares are experiences and feelings that many traumatised mums share with me in my work.

Also discussed in this episode:

* Induction

* Cervical lip

* C section for ‘failure to progress’

* VBAC/HBAC

* Home birth

* Impacts of choice of birth attendants

* Perineal tear

* Co-sleeping

Elsie is the host of the Birthing at Home podcast, a mission that was inspired after the empowering home birth of her second baby. Both of Elsie’s children were born at home, but not all home births are created equal, and in this podcast episode she shares with us the various ways she was negatively impacted during her first birth, comparing them to the ways she stood in her power in her second. We also discuss medicalised midwifery training, as Elsie was once a student midwife herself, and how restrictions of their licence limit the ability of midwives to honour physiological birth and a mothers’ right to choose her birth path.

Also discussed in this episode:

• Shoulder dystocia
• Manoeuvres by the midwife to get the baby ‘unstuck’ after the birth of the head
• Hypnobirthing
• Impacts of Covid
• Pressures when ‘overdue’
• Managed third stage (without consent)
• Unnecessary early cord clamping
• Low lying placenta (20 week scan)
• Pre-labour rupture of membranes

Kate’s story is a bit of a different one to those that are typically shared on here, not because she didn’t have a traumatic first birth, she did, and not because she didn’t have a healing next birth experience, she did. But, Kate’s second birth went nothing like the peaceful home birth she had hoped for and dreamed about. 

Thankfully, the self work and birth preparation that she did during her second pregnancy, part of which involved us working together, meant that Kate continued to experience her birth as empowering even when it appeared to be heading down the same harrowing path as her first.

This is such an important story to be sharing. Kate was empowered to fully own her birth experience, and she shares about the multitude of things she did to ensure that her medicalised birth was a positive and healing one.

She also opens up about how her births led her down the path of training with me to become a certified Healing Birth practitioner, something that has been a life altering experience for her. So, it’s a bit of a longer episode but definitely a worthwhile listen. Enjoy!

Also discussed in this episode:

• Home birth
• Big baby, small mama
• Stretch & sweep
• Failure to progress
• Artificial rupture of membranes
• Epidural
• Syntocinon (also known as Pitocin)
• Emergency c section for fetal distress (wrongly diagnosed)
• Traumatic start to breastfeeding
• Separation from newborn
• 1:1 birth trauma healing with me
• Supportive midwifery care
• HBAC planning & repeat c section planning
• Microbiome seeding
• Gentle c section options
• Healing Birth Practitioner Training course
• Becoming a Healing Birth practitioner

To connect with Kate email her on kate.jagdale@gmail.com

Nicola is Mum to 3 year old Skye and 6 week old Luca. Her first birth was a traumatic 5 day long ordeal that involved a posterior baby, an excruciating induction of labour, and an epidural that took far too long to be administered. During her next pregnancy, Nicola sought my support to unravel her trauma and to make plans for a healing birth experience. She talks us through how that 1:1 guidance encouraged her to have an empowering home birth, despite it being another long, posterior labour. In listening to others’ stories on this podcast, Nicola hadn’t been convinced that the descriptions of women going from traumatic to healing birth experiences had been completely honest… until she walked that journey for herself. Now that she knows what is possible, she wants to share her own inspirational story.

Also included in this episode:

• pre-labour and prolonged rupture of membranes
• accidental first pregnancy and a partner who didn't want children
• Covid challenges
• bad morning sickness
• random bleeding in first pregnancy
• breastfeeding struggles
• doula support

This episode is a deeply vulnerable share which delves into all the taboo topics surrounding birth and new motherhood. Poppy, a home birthing mother of two, one of which was a free birth, speaks frankly about herpes, about miscarriage, about radical responsibility, about being confronted with the potential for death in birth, about vaginal wall prolapse, about healing ourselves, and about postpartum sex. We leave no stone unturned with this wildly honest conversation that gets right to the heart of things most are too confronted by to ever really face.

Covered in this episode:

• home birth
• free birth
• wild pregnancy
• ‘small’ baby and growth charts in pregnancy
• genital herpes infection near birth
• vaginal exam experienced as a violation
• birthing during a Covid level 3 lockdown
• an interfered with placental birth
• early pregnancy loss managed at home
• confronting the fear of death in birth
• vaginal wall prolapse during labour/postpartum
• a long pushing phase of labour
• posterior & brow presentation 
• perineal tear - natural healing
• great sex less than a month after birth
• naturally healing a prolapse

Pippa is Mum to 5 year old Greta, whose planned home birth ended in cesarean, and 8 month old Flora, whose empowering home birth involved an unexpectedly healing postpartum transfer to hospital due to a third degree tear. 

In this episode, Pippa shares various dimensions of the healing that becoming a mum has encouraged her to delve into. She talks about how peeling away the layers of the mother wound has supported her to find her voice and be her authentic self, and she shares the journey she has been on to offer her own daughter the opportunity to heal her birth wounds. Threaded throughout this conversation is the notion of generational healing that can take place when we do the work to access our inner healer.

I am particularly grateful to Pippa for sharing about the ways she has supported her daughter to heal. In my work, I hear a lot of grief and guilt from new mums about what their baby must have experienced during, and in the wake of, their traumatic birth, and a sense of helplessness around how to heal the damage done. Pippa and I discuss some great tools to guide this process, so hopefully some of you listeners who can relate to this, feel encouraged with helpful suggestions.

Also discussed in this episode:

* Artificial rupture of membranes

* Epidural

* Breastfeeding challenges

* Laid back nursing 

* Mother Blessing

* Physical support during pushing phase

* Setting loving boundaries with children

* Laughter & play as tools to help our children heal

* The Aware Parenting podcast

As humans we are also mammals, and like all other mammals, evolution has ensured that we are well equipped to birth in safe and rewarding ways with a very rare need for outside interference. In fact, disturbing our innate birth design in the countless ways us humans do, often creates a lot more difficulties and harm than safety. 

Today’s podcast guest, Lindsay Askins, knows a lot about mammalian birth. She shares with us how her decade long experience as a vet tech, witnessing untold births of horses and other mammals, led her to understand that birthing at home without a midwife in attendance was going to be the safest way to birth her first baby, a profoundly life-changing and positive experience for her.

We dive into some great conversations about mammalian biology, about the mind-body connection, about how disturbing a woman’s birth and creating fear in the birth space can lead to all sorts of complications, including damage to the mother-baby bond, and about the needless trauma that is created due to over medicalisation and obstetric violence.

Hear about the Exposing the Silence project that Lindsay co-founded with Cristin Pascucci, from Birth Monopoly, and about the Birth Like a Mammal business that Lindsay now runs. She’s a juicy and informative podcast episode, folks!

Today’s guest, Carla, is an Australian traditional birth keeper and healer. She shares with us the deeply moving story of birthing her first baby just days after the passing of her own mother. This planned home birth ended in hospital transfer and provided the lessons for Carla to have a redemptive home birth with her second child. She now works with others supporting them on their own journey traversing the motherhood initiation.

Carla describes herself beautifully on her website bio which reads:

Birthing my two children has changed me, and I have grown to deeply revere this phase in a woman’s life. My experience of birth is that it is a life-changing event, ecstatic, sacred and challenging, a liminal space between worlds. It also has the potential to be a healing experience. To discover a strength and power you’ve never known. To expand into a deeper sense of self and connection. To love deeply. Yet without appropriate support, the golden wisdom available in this transition is often lost. 

Included in this episode:

• Epidural use
• Early pregnancy loss
• Mother Blessing
• Sibling witnessing birth
• Big bleed after home birth

After the birth of her first baby, Bekki experienced intense fear and anxiety surrounding whether her baby was getting enough milk from her, or not. She hadn’t addressed the fears she held onto with regards to the breast reduction surgery she had had years earlier and what this might mean in terms of her ability to produce sufficient milk.

Through good support, expert advice, generous offers of donor milk, many tears and sheer determination, Bekki’s breastfeeding journey became a very successful one. In fact she is still breastfeeding her daughter even after having birthed her son a few months ago. What is more, Bekki has developed a website and various services that aim to support other mothers on their parenting and breastfeeding journeys. What a legend! Soak up the juicy lessons and heart that Bekki’s story have to offer.

Check out The Perinatal Directory NZ that Bekki started...

In celebration of ONE YEAR of the Healing Birth with Carla podcast, including 45 episodes and 4.6k of downloads in 30 countries, I invited Sophia Paskell to join me on this episode.

Sophia was one of my first podcast guests and her episode #3, titled Sophia Paskell - on Grief, Loss, Birth & Death, has been the most listened to episode of them all.

This special celebratory episode has Sophia sharing the intimate story of the birth of her niece, a particularly touching birth for her to have attended. She was given the honour of receiving her sister's baby as she was powerfully birthed into the world. 

Sit back and soak up the oxytocin xox 

Included in this episode... 

• Falsely predicted small first baby which foiled home birth plans 
• Trusting the birth process of a big baby at home 
• Healing after birth trauma 
• Exploring loss as a part of birth 
• The transformative powers of trauma 
• Writing as a cathartic tool - Soph's writing circles 
• Labour of Love - birth doula mentorship by Soph 
• Sacred Birth Retreat by Soph

If you would like to follow Sophia's work or get in touch with her, here are some links:

Like me, Emma is an ex midwife who now works primarily in supporting new mothers to find healing after a traumatic birth or who have struggled with the transition into motherhood. She shares with us about her midwifery experience and why she quit not long after starting; about her own two birth experiences and the crucial impact that her positive first birth had on navigating major breastfeeding challenges; and about the path she has travelled in her birth work.

I love that Emma shares about her experience of doing my Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme and the impacts she sees this work having on the clients she serves. She also talks about her studies in Matrescence and Timeline Reset work. 

If you’re potentially interested in developing your own understanding of birth trauma and how to guide people on their healing journey, you’re going to want to tune in for the entirety of this episode. And of course it’s a great listen for anyone who is navigating their own pathway to healing after a traumatic birth.

Also discussed in this episode:

• Induction with ARM and Syntocinon/Pitocin
• Tongue tie
• What Matrescence is
• What a Timeline Reset involves
• Different categories of birth trauma
• What Healing Birth Practitioner Training entails

Books mentioned:

The Postnatal Depletion Cure by Dr Oscar Serrelach

Mama Rising by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz (her course to support mothers through matrescence is also called Mama Rising)

Check out Emma's work...

In this episode I interview free birth mentor and podcast co-host, Victoria whose instagram page is titled @freetobirth. Victoria shares with us the stories of her own two births, 4 and 2 years ago. Her first birth was planned to be a home birth but ended up being a hospital transfer for meconium stained waters. During her second pregnancy, Victoria went on a bit of a journey of self discovery that ultimately saw her declining midwifery care partway through and opting to have a free birth.

In this interview Victoria also shares her thoughts on who free birth is for; how we learn to tune into our intuition; the questions we need to be exploring to get the birth we’re seeking; the partner’s involvement in free birth planning; being mindful of people pleaser tendencies, and so much more. Enjoy!

In this episode I interview Mieke, a Canadian mother of two, whose Instagram page, @takeyourbirthbystorm, captured my attention and sparked a desire to dive a little deeper with her. After training as a birth doula Mieke went on to birth her first baby at home with a midwife in attendance. Her second birth ended up being a free birth. She shares with us why this was the path she chose and how this ultimately led to her becoming a free and autonomous birth advocate.

Mieke shares her love for birth story podcasts and how they were her greatest source of information and inspiration; she offers ways to prepare for a free birth, including how to get in tune with your body and intuition; she speaks on the topics of radical self responsibility and shadow work; and we discuss questions to ask when interviewing potential maternity care providers.

Check out Mieke’s instagram profile page to find links to some great free resources:

In this episode I speak with Kate about her three birth experiences. The first was a traumatic induction with the, all too familiar, cascade of interventions that ensued and a birth that ended in an emergency cesarean. With her son being whisked away to NICU for breathing troubles, Kate didn’t get to meet her baby for 24 hours. And if that wasn’t devastating enough, she was essentially told that her anxiety was the cause of her baby needing to be born via cesarean. 

Following that experience Kate sought support to find healing and to prepare for the birth of her next baby. She planned a VBAC and despite having wonderful support, a number of factors meant that she agreed a cesarean was needed in the end. However, unlike Roman’s birth, Indie’s birth wasn’t felt to be traumatic. Kate had ensured that she made the calls every step along the way.

When pregnant with her third baby, Kate was determined to do all she could to get that vaginal birth that she desperately felt she needed. And she did it! 13 weeks ago Kate gave birth to her little girl via an empowering hospital VBA2C. She describes that experience as totally life changing.

Also raised in this episode:

• Scan - reduced liquor
• Epidural
• Extreme anxiety and panic attack during labour
• Posterior labour
• Fetal distress
• S&S and homeopathics (to avoid medical induction)

Today I’m joined by Sharna Southan, a Melbourne mama to one angel baby and one rainbow child. After Sharna’s traumatic miscarriage experience, she struggled to find the support she needed to work through overwhelming feelings of confusion, guilt and grief. In this podcast episode Sharna vulnerably shares with us how she navigated this, and the strategies she utilised to make it out the other side of that dark time.

Since then, Sharna made it her mission to ensure that others weren’t so alone in journeying through their baby loss experiences. To that end, she founded the Institute of Healing through Pregnancy Loss, providing guidance both for people seeking to heal and for those who want to help others to heal.

In this episode, Sarah who, like me, is an ex midwife, and I discuss all sorts of birthy goodness. Sarah shares about how she came to the realisation that the maternity system is seriously flawed and why being a hospital midwife was no longer her calling. She talks about her own birth experiences, from a medicated hospital birth to a jumping-through-hoops midwife-supported home birth, and then to a magical yet simultaneously oh-so-normal free birth. We discuss the vital self work that is required in preparation for an empowering birth experience, and so much more. Sarah is now working as a birth doula and runs hypnobirthing classes. Enjoy this candid chat between two passionate birth workers!

Discussed in this episode:

• 'Unicorn births'
• Hospital vs home birth
• Home birth with a midwife vs free birth
• 'The work' required in pregnancy (or pre-conception)
• Velamentous cord insertion
• Birthing physiology and birth as a rite of passage

Today’s guest is Stacey, an Australian mama of two. She shares about her traumatic first birth where there were unnecessary time constraints, threats of cesarean, pressure to agree to have Syntocinon to speed things up, episiotomy, ventouse, and unnecessary separation from her newborn. Stacey’s next pregnancy involved a lot of soul searching, self discovery, trauma healing and communication with her baby. She describes the potent work she did with an amazing doula and ultimately decided that a free birth was the right path for her and her baby. Get ready for the powerful and emotional journey that Stacey takes us on in generously sharing her story.

This deeply moving podcast episode takes us on an emotional rollercoaster. I’m not in the habit of providing trigger warnings, but Jo’s raw sharing about the many significant traumas she endured, especially during the early years of her mothering life, are quite frankly, extremely difficult to hear. She shares about the postnatal psychosis she developed after 5 months of sleeplessness when her twins, babies number 6 and 7, were in and out of hospital after their births at 32 weeks. The voices in Jo’s head were convincing her to take her children’s lives, and it was only thanks to the insistent support from her whangai mum that Jo and her children are here today.

Jo’s Māori heritage is discussed, as she takes us on a journey from a childhood bereft of reo and all things mātauranga Māori, to the healing she experienced when her midwifery training and accessing rongoā Māori led her down a path of enriching self discovery. She shares about traditional Māori birth practices, and about the work she does in educating whānau Māori about tikanga in the Wānanga Hapūtanga that she runs. Jo also works for PADA (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Aotearoa), delivering Hine Tu Hine Ora education to those who work in the perinatal sphere.

A lot is covered over this next 90 minute kōrero with Jo. She touches on abortion, ovarian cancer, a diagnosis of infertility, domestic violence, baby loss, depression, suicidal ideation and suicide, impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), racism in the birth space, Havening, home birth, sexual trauma, and the power of tikanga. Do what you need to do to help prepare yourself for whatever may come up for you in listening to this talk, and ensure you have support around you, or someone you can call on if you need to unpack your feelings. 

Finally, before Jo starts our talk with a karakia, I want to acknowledge just what an incredibly courageous and generous wahine toa she is, sharing this deeply personal journey with us. It is with the utmost of respect and gratitude for Jo and her story that I share this episode with you all.

reo - Māori language

mātauranga Māori - cultural values, concepts and world views

rongoā Māori - traditional Māori healing

whānau Māori - Māori families

tikanga - Māori customs, practices and traditional values

Wānanga Hapūtanga - pregnancy workshops/classes for Māori

kōrero - conversation

wahine toa - warrior woman

karakia - prayer

In today’s podcast episode Wikitoria, or Wiki for short, shares about the traumatic birth of her first-born, an experience that culminated in an emergency cesarean and time separated from her baby during his SCBU stay, and one which left Wiki with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Wiki accessed a number of avenues for support during her incredibly trying postpartum journey, but it wasn’t until she had a therapeutic Havening session six months down the line that her PTSD was healed. Wiki also shares about the beautiful support she received from one of my Healing Birth practitioner trainees, and an analogy that was shared with her which was an absolute game changer in terms of Wiki shifting from feelings of shame and guilt, to self compassion and empowerment.

When Wiki became pregnant again she was determined to do all she could to avoid another induction and to have a successful VBAC. Her determination and self work paid off, with Wiki birthing her little girl at home 8 weeks ago. Tune in for an inspirational, informative and moving story.

Also discussed in this episode:

• Reduced baby movements in late pregnancy
• High blood pressure
• Induction of labour
• ARM - Artificial Rupture of Membranes
• Epidural
• Emergency cesarean for fetal distress
• Newborn breathing support and SCBU
• PTSD
• Perfectionism
• Healing Birth practitioner trainee session
• Havening
• HBAC - Home birth after cesarean
• Affirmations
• Covid infection at 37 weeks
• MamaRise VBAC education
• 42 week pregnancy
• TENS

In previous episodes with Bella, she shared about her foiled plans for a gentle home birth with her firstborn - a traumatic way to learn some tough lessons about birth space support and energies; about early loss experiences she had been through; about the wild pregnancy she was embarking on; and about her plans for a free birth.

In this interview, the final in the three part series, Bella opens up about her free birth experience - its teachings and its healings. She talks through the unexpected grief she was confronted with in early postpartum, and she shares about the ways she set herself up for a gentle and nourishing beginning for her and her newborn.

Also included in this episode:

• allowing vaginal tears to heal naturally
• sibling involvement at Joey's birth
• tandem breastfeeding
• mother blessing
• water birth
• honouring the placenta

Bella has generously invited listeners to reach out with any questions about free birth. You can get in touch with Bella via her Instagram page:

Today I speak with Sarah while she holds her little 3 week old daughter, Chloe. Chloe’s was a positive and healing home birth, a far cry from the traumatic experience Sarah had had with her first born, Ollie. He had been posterior, something that Sarah’s midwife had instilled fear in her around, and that fear ultimately led to a very painful and long labour which ended with an epidural and then a ventouse delivery. 

Through working with me, listening to inspiring stories on this podcast, and doing the self-work required to prepare for her daughter’s birth, Sarah was able to keep fear at bay and tap into her power. She shares her stories with us today.

After her 40 days old first born had a stroke, Alina developed a growing understanding of brain growth and function, and the part that movement plays in this. She now helps people to move without pain and discomfort, including in pregnancy or after giving birth, using her Feldenkrais® training, and the additional skills she developed from the Explain Pain course she did with the Neuro-Orthopaedic Institute Australasia.

For the last two years, Alina has been collaborating with a local Waikato OBGYN and a pelvic health physio, Bev Hampton, so that her clients can be sure that nothing important is missed. Alina believes that chronic pain can be significantly reduced, pregnancy can be more comfortable, and a lot can be done to solve our health issues before resorting to surgery.

In this episode of the podcast, we hear about Alina’s home birth history, where she gave birth in three different countries; about the horrors of her newborn’s stroke and the surgery and recovery that followed; and about the journey this has taken Alina on with regards to the work that she now does.

Want to know more about Alina and her work?

In this episode of the Healing Birth with Carla podcast, Imke shares with us about her harrowing start to motherhood. Her traumatic birth experience was followed by an incredibly trying time postpartum, including severe mastitis, a breast abscess that required surgical drainage, an overwhelmed comment to her midwife that resulted in the police turning up at her door, and finally, some recognition that what she was experiencing was not normal and deserved some support and healing.

Imke’s next birth was a healing experience at home, with a Labrador and a trusting midwife at her side. We also hear about Imke’s work, including her women’s empowerment photography and a book that’s in the making that’s all about transmuting mum guilt into love. 

Included in this episode:

• coached pushing leading to a tear
• husband back working 2 days postpartum, family overseas
• severe mastitis
• breast abscess - surgical drainage
• severe postnatal depresssion
• home birth

Imke is a Mama of two, Portrait Photographer, Space holder, Retreat Host, Podcast Host, Author to be and overall passionate to share encouragement and love with other women and mothers. She holds sacred spaces like cacao ceremonies, breathwork, sound baths and is attuned in Reiki as well. If you would like to explore working with Imke, or following her work, you can do so via...

Hannah is a spiritually minded, home birthing mother of four littlies under the age of five. When her newest baby, Awena, was just 10 days old, Hannah received a horrifying diagnosis. In this episode of the Healing Birth podcast, I sit down with Hannah to discuss how she navigated this incredibly overwhelming time, and how she is managing to recover with such remarkable ease. We also talk about severe morning sickness, prenatal depression, free birth, breathwork, spirit guides, you name it… it’s probably on this episode! So sit back with a cuppa and soak it all in.

Topics covered in this episode include...

• home birth
• hypnobirthing
• breathwork
• spiritual guides
• miscarriage
• severe morning sickness
• prenatal depression
• brain tumour & brain surgery
• milk sharing

If you'd like to connect with Hannah you can find her on Instagram:

In today’s episode Kayla (the Womb Doula) vulnerably shares her personal story of trauma and her path to healing. Her journey involves baby loss, meth addiction, home detention, surgery and the questionable fertility that ensued, menstrual cycle awareness, an unexpected pregnancy, becoming a womb doula, a healing home birth, and the challenges of solo motherhood. It’s a lot to encompass in a 90 minute interview and pieces sit heavy on the heart, but Kayla’s is ultimately a story of hope and courage, and the power we have to heal ourselves. 

Included in this episode:

• Turners Syndrome - induced still birth mid pregnancy
• Meth addiction
• Abusive relationships
• Home detention during pregnancy
• Ovarian cyst (surgical removal of ovary)
• Fertility concerns
• Early pregnancy loss
• Menstrual cycle awareness
• Home birth
• Solo motherhood
• Womb doula
• Self healing

You can follow Kayla's journey and work on her Instagram page:

Today I’m joined by Hannah, who shares with us about the traumatic experience she encountered when she was nearing the end of her pregnancy with her second baby. Having had a very straightforward first birth in a birth centre, Hannah had opted for a home birth with her second. But when she began haemorrhaging at 36 weeks, her plans for a peaceful, gentle home birth were foiled. She was experiencing a placental abruption which ultimately resulted in a very rushed emergency cesarean.

The final moments before Bradley was born were the source of Hannah’s PTSD symptoms that haunted her in her postpartum journey. Despite asking for help from the professionals she was repeatedly declined support and reminded that actually she was one of the lucky ones, that under the circumstances she was lucky to have a healthy baby. This did nothing to relieve Hannah of her depression and anxiety, and only served to fuel the guilt and shame that she held surrounding her experience.

At 6 months postpartum she finally received the care she needed to begin her healing process. A brilliant psychologist used EMDR therapy with Hannah and the PTSD symptoms immediately started abating. Two years on, Hannah is now a birth doula. Primarily she hopes to change the story for others who experience a traumatic birth and are pregnant again.

Topics covered in this episode include:

• placental abruption at 36 weeks
• emergency cesarean with inadequate anaesthesia (then GA)
• PTSD - description of symptoms
• lack of access to trauma support
• anti-depressant medication
• EMDR therapy for PTSD
• managing the resurfacing of birth trauma on child's 1st birthday

Tania is Mum to Dylan who’s 16, Ava who’s 12, and her little freshy, Osian, who’s just two months. In this episode, she shares about the challenges she was met with when she found out she was unexpectedly pregnant last year, and how she navigated them with a healthy dose of determination and self work, and the help of friends, family and an awesome midwife.

Given that Tania had had caesareans with both of her older children and was wanting to plan a home birth with her next one, alongside being a solo mum, and unanticipated time spent in the Special Care Baby Unit with her newborn, there were plenty of hurdles along her journey. She speaks candidly about the highs and lows and offers a good couple laughs along the way.

As a long time friend of Tania’s, I was given the honour of attending Osian’s birth, so sit back and enjoy this convo between two friends, reflecting on a very special birth experience.

This episode includes the following topics:

• Induction at 42 weeks with a (supposedly) large baby
• Emergency cesarean for fetal distress
• Postnatal depression and anxiety
• Repeat cesarean for low liquor volume
• Solo parenthood at 40 years old
• Early pregnancy bleed
• Home birth after 2 cesareans
• My Soulful Birth pregnancy circle
• Navigating fearful birth support people
• Nuchal hand
• Breathing issues at birth
• SCBU - CPAP, IV antibiotics, jaundice
• Milk sharing

Nemah is a travelling traditional full spectrum Midwife, from fertility and conception to passing, and everything in between, specialising in traditional home births. She has travelled the world with her children, and has assisted in over 2,000 births worldwide over the last 15 years. Currently Nemah is working on an aboriginal birthing documentary in over five countries which has given her a wealth of experience. 

Her background includes growing up with the guidance and teachings from her grandmother who was a traditional healer born in Mexico. Nemah takes pride in being a mixed ethnic woman, which has given her the ability to relate and provide services to a diverse number of indigenous women. Her practice includes traditional healing womb massages and 40 day postpartum bone closing ceremonies (an ancient practice for postpartum mothers, those with reproductive health issues, and for the overall health of women), as well as an ancient practice of purification and clearing for one's self or home.

Nemah also makes 100% all natural products from her personal garden to assist with the healing journey, including postpartum & prenatal products. As well, she creates custom protection jewellery using different shells, stones and feathers. Everything is done sustainably and with good energy, and raises money for postpartum care packages for indigenous mothers in need of support. Check out Nemah’s website and Instagram page (below) to find out more or to connect with her.

In this episode of the podcast, I dive into a conversation with this remarkable woman, where she shares about indigenous practices and ceremonies, about childhood trauma, including rape, about birth trauma and the road to healing, about the challenges faced when working within indigenous communities, and a whole raft of other soulful ventures. 

Included in this episode:

• aboriginal (meaning, 'the original people of the land') ceremonies surrounding birth
• indigenous wounding, abuse and healing
• childhood rape
• induction of labour at 35 wks for preeclampsia
• PPH
• NICU
• spirituality
• 43 week pregnancy & big baby
• the important role of men in birth

Nemah's website:

If you haven't already listened to episode 24 - part 1 of Lala's story, I suggest you do so before cracking into this one.

In part 2 of my interview with Lala, we learn about the surprising circumstances surrounding the home birth of her 4th baby, about her traumatic ectopic pregnancy loss and about her last birth experience - a healing home birth-esque cesarean with her fifth child. After two previous traumatic cesareans, Lala’s third was described by her, as being ‘home birth like’ and an important source of healing for her. Lala also talks in this episode about what she discovered about birth trauma when she sat in a sharing circle, and about her foray into becoming a home birth advocate in her current role as co-chair on the Home Birth Aotearoa Trust.

Discussed in this episode...

• Brow presentation, posterior birth, big baby
• Home birth
• Pregnancy & post-birth bleeding, & retained membranes
• Power of woman-midwife trust
• Ectopic pregnancy loss & surgery
• Contemplating abortion
• Premature rupture of membranes (33 weeks)
• Healing cesarean birth at 34 weeks
• SCBU
• Milk sharing

Here is the link to the Home Birth Aotearoa website:

Hannah’s beginning to motherhood was not only tainted with the recent passing of her sister, her birth experience was in a different city, took place in a different birthing facility (hospital instead of a birth centre), and with different midwives, than she had spent the previous nine months planning for and excitedly anticipating. She was also subjected to unconsented procedures that were unnecessary, abusive, painful and frightening. Needless to say, it was an extremely traumatic time.

In this podcast episode, Hannah shares with us the path she walked on her healing journey, and how she set herself up for an incredibly empowering next birth at home. Among the tools she utilised to ready herself and her man to lovingly welcome their boy into the world, was watching the Birth Time documentary together. I have linked this documentary below in case you wish to access it. As well, I have provided a link to my book, Where the Heart Is: Stories of home birth in New Zealand, that Hannah talks about, and a link to my birth trauma support services page of my website. I work with people from all over the world who have experienced birth trauma, so don't let physical distance stop you if you want to reach out to work with me.

But for now it’s time to sit back with your hot cuppa and share in the beauty of Hannah’s story. May you be as inspired as she was during her second pregnancy, reading stories of others’ wonderful births. This one’s going to get you in the good feels, for sure.

Birth Time documentary:

Today I am privileged to be speaking with renowned Australian birth worker, Rhea Dempsey. Rhea is an Independent Birth Educator, Doula, Trainer, Counsellor and Author. Her understanding of birth has been gained over four decades. She has presented nationally and internationally. She is recognised as an insightful commentator on the difficulties women, who have a yearning for normal physiological birth, face in navigating present birth culture.

Her book Birth with Confidence: savvy choices for normal birth, explores the issue of physiological pain and the importance of experienced support. While Beyond the Birth Plan: getting real about pain and power explores the deeper emotional and psychological dynamics impacting birthing potential.

In this episode of the podcast we explore the difficulties in navigating the Western maternity care system, why we need to interrogate the ‘thank goodness’ birth stories we keep hearing about, and ways to support physiological birthing amidst this all.

To connect with Rhea or to find out more about her work and books:

Two women on a similar mission, both with a business named Healing Birth, and both sharing aligned messages about finding healing after a traumatic birth on their similarly named podcasts… Diana Forsell interviews me, Carla Sargent, on this episode of her Healing Birth podcast, which I’m now sharing here, on my own Healing Birth with Carla podcast. 

Find out how Diana (from Hawaii) and I (from New Zealand) met, and hear about my journey into midwifery, then later into birth trauma healing. I share about the abuse I witnessed as a student midwife, my take on what is causing so much needless birth trauma, and how I work with people to support their pathway to healing.

Diana's Healing Birth podcast:

You’re in for a treat today! In this episode I speak with renowned birth trauma specialist, Jennifer Summerfeldt. Jennifer holds an MA in Counseling Psychology (MACP) and is a Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC). She is the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) and Founder of ASK Therapy for Moms. With over 20 years of experience within the fields of maternal health, childbirth and psychology studies, she uses her expertise and voice to help advance the dialogue on trauma-informed care, maternal mental health, and healing in general.

Today we discuss how Jennifer came into the birth healing role, and what she perceives to be the complex underpinnings of the pervasive birth trauma that exists within our current culture of birth. She shares a little of her own experiences, and the paradigm within which she works in helping others to find healing after a traumatic birth.

Here is how you can connect with Jennifer and her work:

This is the second episode in a pregnancy and birth podcast series with Mother, Doula and Healing Birth Practitioner, Bella. We first met Bella in Episode 7 of the Healing Birth Podcast when she shared her journey through loss and trauma, and into the early months of her current wild pregnancy.

In this episode, as she enters the third trimester of her pregnancy, Bella describes what lies at the heart of her preparation for a free birth, the lifestyle changes this has led to and the tools she is utilising to support this season of family life.

Dr. Naomi Simmonds (Raukawa, Ngāti Huri) works as an independent researcher with a focus on land-based learning, women’s land-based knowledges, Māori maternities and whānau (or family) wellbeing. Her most recent research involved walking 378km, re-tracing the journey of her pregnant ancestress, Māhinaarangi, to understand the transformations, knowledges and rituals for women that are embedded in the footprints of her ancestors. Naomi’s PhD research, awarded best Doctoral Thesis 2015 by the New Zealand Geographic Society, looked at Māori understandings and experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Naomi also has a part time role working with Māori communities on climate change for the Deep South National Science challenge. She is a mother to two girls and spends most of her spare time at her ancestral home, Pikitū, working on environmental protection and restoration projects.

In this episode of the podcast, Naomi shares snippets of her own journey of birth and of the undeniable links for her people between language, land and birth. Through exploring this, and the impacts of colonisation and ongoing systemic racism, she acknowledges the challenges faced by Māori birth givers and pathways to their healing.

To read Naomi's PhD thesis you can download the pdf from this link:

Sarah is a Mindset Coach, Energy Healer and Healing Birth Practitioner who supports Mums to manage their mind and, in Sarah’s no-beating-around-the-bush words, own their shit. She helps others to work through past traumas, limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging behaviours, and people pleasing ways so that they can live an aligned and AUTHENTIC AF (Sarah’s business tagline) life as thriving individuals AND Mamas.

Sarah is passionate about normalising the conversations around everyday motherhood, and mental, emotional and physical health. She is a real-talking embodiment of that which she teaches… Sarah’s also prone to a little swearing, so if you find it offensive, this isn’t going to be the episode for you.

Today Sarah shares about her personal journey with birth trauma and healing, and how this has translated into her current work. She also vulnerably opens up about a devastating recent discovery and how she is needing to walk her talk more than ever before.

Topics covered in this episode include:

• Long labour
• Home birth to hospital transfer
• Postpartum Haemorrhage
• Manual removal of blood clots (no consent)
• Epidural and Syntocinon augmentation
• Miscarriage
• Cancer

You can check out Sarah's website here:

In today’s episode, I share with you about my own journey into birth trauma support work and becoming a birth healer. I’m Carla Sargent, founder of Healing Birth and the Healing Birth Podcast, home birthing mother to three, ex midwife and Biology teacher, and all ‘round passionate birth keeper whose primary focus is on supporting others to heal after birth trauma, and educating other birth-passionate people about how to competently and confidently offer holistic birth trauma support to others.

If you’re intrigued about my journey into birth work and my unique style of offering birth trauma support, or if birth trauma support work sparks a fire in your belly, then this episode of the Healing Birth Podcast is for you, my friend. Find out what becoming a Healing Birth practitioner is all about.

To listen to the podcast episode about my own birth, click the following link:

Today’s guest is Jojo Hogan, a maternal postpartum care specialist, doula coach and founder of the Slow Postpartum Movement; an international movement that educates and inspires as to the importance of the weeks following birth. She believes that the postpartum period is a time when new mothers, parents and families need and deserve to be nurtured, supported and celebrated so that they are able to offer the same to their new babies.

In today’s talk we discuss what a positive postpartum experience requires and the importance of preparing for this during pregnancy. Jojo shares the five pillars of postpartum care that are an embedded part of how all new mamas are cared for by many indigenous populations from around the world, and she offers tools and insights into how we can incorporate these valuable teachings into our Western postpartum care.

This is such an important listen for any parents-to-be and anyone who works with postpartum families. Here’s Jojo, sharing with us how to put the love drug, oxytocin, back into the postpartum experience.

Find out more about Jojo and her work here:

In this moving episode I spend a heartfelt couple of hours on the couch with my dear friend, Maria. She shares her undulating journey of motherhood, one that involves early pregnancy loss, as well as two stillbirths. Maria speaks to the challenges of birth and death, grief and shame, and how she found hope, love and strength streaming through the murkiness of it all.

Maria lost her daughter, Brooke, at 38 weeks of pregnancy back when she was a solo Mum. She later birthed her boy, now 16, via an induced, hospital birth. When he was eight she met her husband, and became a step mum to his three children. Together they decided on bringing another baby into the world. In January this year, River Hawk was born still. He died during his birth.

Maria vulnerably and lovingly shares her story with us all, providing a guiding light for those who may navigate the death of their own precious baby, or who meet the challenges of supporting a loved one through baby loss.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• early pregnancy loss
• stillbirth
• solo parenthood
• step parenthood
• induction & epidural
• home birth
• psychedelics & plant medicines
• PTSD & therapy

Looking for resources for further support? Maria recommends the following instagram page: