S6 EP179: Isabel Pillings: Hospital Birth + Freebirth + Surprise Breech / After-pains, Trust + Healing

On today’s show, I’m joined by Laura, a German-born mother who shares two very different birth experiences that resulted in three babies. Laura entered her first pregnancy with the goal of having an unmedicated, natural birth. But after her waters released before labour had properly established, a long and difficult hospital experience ultimately ended in a caesarean

These affirmations were created to support you in building a grounded, confident mindset as you prepare to meet your baby. Pop your headphones in, take a deep breath, and take these next five minutes for yourself. Purchase the full Sacred Birth Affirmation Track here. Once purchased, you’ll receive the track straight to your inbox so you can come back to it throughout your pregnancy whenever you need it. Be sure to check your junk folder if you don’t see your download email come through.

In today’s episode, Aurora shares the extraordinary birth of her daughter, who arrived beyond 43 weeks after an almost three-day labour that brought her to the very edge of her physical and spiritual strength. With meconium surrounding her, those first moments became a raw and instinctive exchange between mother and baby, as Aurora called her daughter into the world. Her son’s birth unfolded entirely differently: a healing five-hour waterbirth where he was born en caul. With this birth, Aurora softened into the intensity and allowed her body to lead. Woven through both stories is a powerful exploration of conscious conception, intuition, fear, surrender and birth as a profound rite of passage. Show Notes: Instagram: @auroramotherhood Referenced Research: Further reading supporting the discussion in this episode around meconium-stained waters and intervention. Read here.

On today’s episode, I sit down with Rochelle, as she takes us through the stories of her three homebirths and the journey of growth, self-trust and transformation that unfolded alongside them.

Today’s episode is a really important conversation with filmmaker Jacinta Lagos and globally respected midwife Kristine Lauria, the women behind the new documentary Allowed to Birth: The Journey of a Global Midwife. Jacinta’s journey into birth began behind the camera. She began documenting births and later trained as a doula. But the more births she witnessed, the more she began noticing the stark contrast between what she was seeing in some hospital environments - including trauma, coercion and obstetric violence - and the physiological births she was witnessing at home. Eventually, she reached a point where simply witnessing it wasn’t enough. She wanted to create something that could challenge the way we think about birth. That eventually connected her with Kristine, whose experience in the birth space spans more than three decades - from an apprenticeship supporting families within Amish communities, where breech and twin birth were treated as variations of normal, to humanitarian work around the world and her work today teaching and supporting practitioners in breech and multiple birth. Together, they created Allowed to Birth - a documentary that follows Kristine’s extraordinary life and work as a global midwife, using her experiences and perspective as a lens to explore the medicalisation of birth, women’s autonomy, and what becomes possible when birth is understood and supported as a physiological process.