Long Labours, Sovereign Birth & Māori Tikanga - Aroha & Tihikura’s Stories

Buckle in, this podcast episode with doula, Jenna Shaw, is going to take you on a ride! We fearlessly talk about all the gnarly, taboo topics surrounding birth, delving into the conversations that raise heckles and stir curiosity. Jenna has been birth passionate since childhood. Despite not having given birth herself, she pours her heart, soul and a sh*t tonne of trust into the women she serves. It’s hard to convey in a short introduction the depths we explore in this interview, but to give you a taster, a couple of concepts we explore are that the clinical eye is an intervention with risks, and that birth is the ultimate medicine journey. Other discussion topics include: The mystery of birth as part of the medicine

Have you ever assumed that someone who’s been working in birth for decades has probably learnt everything there is to know? It’s an easy assumption to make. But today’s guest is a beautiful reminder that no matter how much experience we have, there’s always room to deepen our understanding and expand the ways we support women. Amber Sawyer has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and has spent many years working in holistic pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. She runs yoga teacher trainings and pregnancy retreats in Spain, and yet she found herself meeting many women - often pregnant with their second or third babies - whose traumatic birth stories were still sitting there, unprocessed. Stories that had never really been spoken about. Stories that unsurprisingly resurfaced with the next pregnancy. Stories that could lead to further trauma, if left unheard and unhealed before giving birth again. Amber joined my Healing Birth Practitioner Training because she wanted to feel more confident holding those stories safely and helping women to find healing before their next birth. In this conversation, she shares what surprised her most about the training, how it brought together everything she already knew into one cohesive approach, and how she’s already using it with the women she supports. I loved this conversation, and I think you will too.

Allura Halliwell is not my typical podcast guest. Yes, she experienced a traumatic birth, and yes, she went on to have healing births with her next two children. But what is remarkably unique about Allura’s story is the profound spiritual awakening she experienced a number of years after becoming a mother… something that completely altered everything. In this podcast episode Allura speaks about her difficult journey into motherhood. Her baby boy was whisked away to intensive care, and for the couple of hours that followed, she was unsure whether her boy had survived. After 10 days in NICU she was finally able to take her baby home, but isolation and depression ensued for Allura, and her son’s unsettledness signalled his own trauma. Fast forward to when her children were 8, 6 and 4 years old, Allura went on a life changing meditation retreat. It was here that she experienced her transformational awakening - one where she left her body for over an hour, and re-entered this physical plane as an unrecognisable version of herself. Through this, Allura shifted from a stay-at-home mother of three, to a consciousness guide, supporting others to heal core wounds and free themselves from Self-limiting patterns. Tune in to learn more about Allura’s remarkable story and how her work enables liberating transformation. She is touring the North Island of New Zealand in July and August, so if you’re one of my Kiwi listeners and feel drawn to learn more from Allura, check the show notes for links and offerings.

This podcast episode delves deep into the art of tuning into our bodies and trusting the messages we hear in response. Zarna’s story is a profound example of this. Her first birth was planned to be at home, but at 42 weeks of pregnancy her midwife was no longer willing to support her in a home birth. Zarna reluctantly agreed to a Misoprostol induction at the hospital. On entering her room, the obstetrician proclaimed, “What are you doing, your baby is not coming out this way!”, believing that Zarna’s uterine fibroids would be in the way of birthing her baby vaginally. A c section under GA ensued, along with the added threat of a potential hysterectomy should the fibroids cause extensive bleeding. The OB advised Zarna against attempting a VBAC for any future pregnancies. But when pregnant with her next baby, her body told her otherwise. Zarna chose not to have any medical or midwifery care throughout her pregnancy, and despite her fibroids clearly taking up a good portion of space in her lower womb, she planned a home birth with just her man present, and a birth keeper in the wings. Zarna’s is a remarkable story of tuning in, trust, and healing. She is eager to share her story of birthing with fibroids because she found there was such a lack of such stories for her to lean on in her own pregnancies. Just after our interview she sent me a message to say: “... part of why I had wanted to share my story about having fibroids is because drs had told me that so many women have them but just don’t know they do, but many women have all of the symptoms of having them and will often be told that’s ’normal.’ I think the stats are even 1/4, and with me having them I haven't yet found a lot of support for holistically supporting the female body, and the options from the medical world I have been offered are for chemical menopause, surgery or womb removal! A huuuge part of my journey leading up to Taeo’s accidental conception was supporting my body to get ‘rid’ of the fibroids as I thought that if I did, that would be one less ‘obstacle’ for me to overcome in birth, and when we conceived him I had come to this point where I had no more symptoms of having the fibroids aside from being able to feel them with my hands. So I had wanted it to be known for any women who were listening and had fibroids and who wanted to speak or connect as well, I would love that, also because I’d love to hear what other women are doing and their wisdom and learning around them. It is cool that now after this birth the fibroids no longer feel like obstacles - I have such acceptance and love for them and all they have brought me for calling me deeper into trust in my body.”

Today I speak with blossoming birth worker, and mother of two, Libby, from Birth Liberation. Her story reveals the lessons and growth her mothering journey has brought about, especially in trying to plan a reverent and undisturbed second birth. Libby birthed both of her babies at home, with the second being a free birth. Tune in to hear about the challenges Libby faced in trying to achieve her desired birth, the reasons why her free birth was not the experience she had hoped for, but was the one she’d needed, and how the work that we did together helped Libby to unravel her trauma. Part of that work was training with me to become a certified Healing Birth practitioner so that she is now equipped with the skills and tools to help others to find healing after a traumatic birth experience. If this podcast episode piques your own interest around my Healing Birth Practitioner Training course, you might want to explore joining my next training round, beginning on February 23rd, 2026. It’s an online course with both self-paced lesson content, and a weekly interactive Zoom session. This course is open to anyone with an interest in holistic birth trauma support, no matter where in the world you are based. A link to further details is posted below. But for now, enjoy this enlightening journey that Libby takes us on, in sharing her story. Follow Libby’s work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birthliberation/ Learn more about the Healing Birth Practitioner Training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training And more on an ‘Unravelling Your Trauma’ session: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/unravelling-your-trauma Follow Ella’s work on Instagram to find out when upcoming Freebirth Circles are happening: https://www.instagram.com/earth.mama.wellbeing/ Take a look at Sophia’s offerings on her website: https://www.motherscircle.co.nz/ Libby’s postpartum doula, Leeya’s, Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/leeya_essence/