Why Women Are Walking Away From the Hospital with Nikko Kennedy Video

In episode 12 of The Birth Series, Keshia Tognazzini sits down with birth photographer, doula and filmmaker Jacinta Lagos to talk about her debut feature documentary, Allowed to Birth: The Journey of a Global Midwife. Jacinta shares what pushed her to pick up a camera: years of witnessing obstetric violence, unnecessary interventions and small, everyday disrespect in hospital birth rooms, set against the deeply respected home births she was also documenting. She talks about why she built the film around global midwife Kristine Lauria, a Doctors Without Borders midwife and breech and twins educator, and why the loss of traditional midwifery skills and trust in birth matters. Keshia and Jacinta also get into free birth: why Jacinta prefers the term unassisted birth, how the film portrays Kristine's own unassisted birth, and her concerns about the Free Birth Society's business model and its demonising of midwives. They finish with how unassisted births are reported in the Australian media, and an invitation to the upcoming Byron Bay screening on Tuesday 17 November. Jacinta Lagos is an Argentinian-born birth photographer, doula and filmmaker based in Wisconsin, USA, and a mother of three. She grew up believing caesarean birth was simply how babies were born, until birth photography showed her both the beauty of physiological birth and the reality of obstetric violence. She began Allowed to Birth in 2024, shooting it largely with a single camera. Allowed to Birth: The Journey of a Global Midwife follows the life and work of midwife and educator Kristine Lauria, and features voices including Dr Melanie Jackson, Dr Stu Fischbein and Kemi Johnson. Watch Allowed to Birth in Byron Bay Allowed to Birth screens at Byron Theatre on Tuesday 17 November 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, followed by a live Q&A panel.

After The Guardian’s investigation into the Free Birth Society, much of the freebirth world went quiet. Keshia didn’t. In this episode she sits down with Tahnee Taylor, mother of three, herbalist, birth educator, co-founder of SuperFeast, and a woman who has had two freebirths, to talk about what the investigation revealed and what it means for women considering birth outside the system. Tahnee doesn’t hold back. She bought the Complete Guide to Freebirth, watched one module, and turned it off. She explains why, and why she tells the women in her own birth course not to freebirth unless they know in their bones it’s right for them. Together they cover censorship inside online birth communities, the danger of one-sided storytelling, the rise of paid “birthkeepers” with little or no experience, the Stacey Warnecke case, postpartum haemorrhage, twins, scans, and the personal reckoning that comes with taking full responsibility for your own birth. They also explore how hard medical encounters can become the very experiences that teach women to trust themselves. This is a nuanced, honest, sometimes fiery conversation between two women who support freebirth and are not afraid to criticise how it is being sold. Find Tahnee

Who should be allowed to support a woman in labour? In late 2025, RANZCOG and the Australian College of Midwives called for South Australia's "restricted birth practices" legislation to be adopted nationally. The laws aim to prohibit anyone without the appropriate clinical qualifications from attending or "managing" birth. In this episode, Keshia Tognazzini talks with maternity rights advocate Sally Kusack of Maternity Choices Australia about what this push could mean for doulas, birthkeepers, families, and women who choose to birth outside the system. They discuss how vague legal wording can catch a doula offering emotional support, or even a woman's own mother and aunties. They also cover the recent wave of media coverage on freebirth, the impact of the Birth Trauma Inquiry, and the climate of fear among birth workers. Sally also shares the three things she believes every pregnant woman should understand: her rights, the physiology of birth, and the system she's birthing within. In this episode

In this episode, host Keshia Tognazzini sits down with Molly Isabel, a mother of eight, to walk through every one of her birth stories — from her first birth at nineteen in a small country hospital, through smooth hospital births, an unexpected caesarean, and two free births at home. It's a rare chance to hear one woman's full arc across nearly two decades of birthing: what worked, what didn't, how fear crept in even after years of confident births, and what it actually took to choose free birth with eyes open. Along the way, they talk about the weight of two words spoken at the wrong moment, being labelled "high risk" for having a large family, the emotional aftermath of an unplanned caesarean, and how media coverage of free birth outcomes so often leaves out the context that matters most.

In this episode, host Keshia Tognazzini sits down with Dr Sarah Buckley — GP, researcher, and one of the world's leading voices on the hormonal physiology of birth — to unpack what actually happens in the body during physiological labour, and what gets lost when birth is interrupted, induced, or moved into an operating theatre. They cover the "private, safe and unobserved" foundation every labouring mammal needs, the oxytocin feedback loop that turns early labour into an unstoppable "snowball," the fetus ejection reflex, why pre-labour caesareans leave a measurable hormonal gap for both mother and baby, and practical ways to protect your hormones if a hospital transfer is part of your plan.