Healing Birth with Carla – Details, episodes & analysis

This podcast episode is such a potent mix of deep trauma, powerlessness, hope, faith, determination and sisterhood. Chaya carries us through the births of her seven children, starting with the cesarean birth of her twins and ending with the free birth of her newest baby, just a few weeks ago. 

Among her sharing are stories of placental abruption and stillbirth, breech presentation, postpartum haemorrhage, unconsented to sedation, threats of labelling Chaya as psychotic as a means of forcing her to go to hospital, which I’ll just add at this point, she is not just perfectly sane in an insane world of traumatising birth ‘care’ (read control), she herself is a practising psychologist… and it gets worse, at the end of her most recent pregnancy she was forced into hiding from the police since there was a hearing underway where the authorities were attempting to make her give birth via cesarean. Of course there was no legal basis for the court hearing since it is a basic human right to choose what medical interventions we do or don’t have in birth, and ultimately Chaya’s case was won in the supreme court.

Needless to say, it was a remarkable feat for Chaya to welcome her baby gently and peacefully with a couple of women friends at her side and without an ounce of medical interference during the birth process… a free birth, the most liberating of experiences, after four previous cesareans.

 Also discussed in this episode:

* ECV for breech twin pregnancy

* 42 - 43 week long pregnancies

* Pregnancy with an IUD in place

* Faith as an orthodox Jew

* Birthing in the US and Israel

* Meconium

* PPH at free birth

* Dismissed signs of PET by doctors

* Blood loss following SROM at home

* Loss of sense of safety in the world

* Rising maternal mortality rates, particularly for women of colour

* Separation from children at end of pregnancy

Alexa’s six year old daughter was born in the water under the big Oak tree, just as she’d seen in her dream. This loving, gentle and oh so powerful free birth experience added further fuel to the fiery passion that Alexa held for working with the divine wisdom of birth. 

In this heart-fuelled podcast episode, Alexa shares with us her path to becoming a birth doula and much of the philosophy surrounding the ways she navigates this role. She also talks about the birth trauma support she offers and the part that birth photography (another of Alexa’s skill sets) can play in honouring the transition into Motherhood.

Also discussed in this episode:

* midwifery practice

* mastitis

* breast abscess

* birth photography

* free birth

* waterbirth

* Healing Birth Practitioner Training

* birth trauma

Follow Alexa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexa.doula/

Check out her website: https://www.alexadoulaphotography.co.nz/

Find out more about my (Carla’s) Healing Birth Practitioner Training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training

Follow my work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

Check out the Healing Birth YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth

Today’s episode is a bit of a different one and quite possibly my favourite interview to date. Tessa gave birth to her first baby just 4 months ago. I met her during her pregnancy when she did my Soulful Birth course and then she also went on to do my Healing Birth Practitioner Training in the final months before she gave birth. Tessa shares with us the path she walked to prepare herself for a truly wonderful home birth experience, with just her man, her doula and her friend present for support.

If, as you listen to Tessa’s story, you feel inspired to either join my Soulful Birth course or train with me to become a certified Healing Birth practitioner, be sure to click on the relevant link at the bottom of the show notes. Both courses are run multiple times throughout the year so it doesn’t matter when you are tuning into this episode there’s bound to be a course offered in the not-too-distant future.

But for now, let me grace your ears with this beautifully inspiring story of courage, trust, wisdom and growth, and oodles of delicious love.

Also discussed:

* medical trauma related to pandemic

* tuning into and trusting her intuition

* contemplating the potential for death in birth

* taking responsibility for the things that are within our control regarding birth

* partner’s role in free birth

* unpacking of conditioned fears surrounding birth

* guided meditations, journaling, somatic tools

* vulnerability of first latching baby at breast

* managing visitors in early postpartum

* vaginal tear - supporting the natural healing process

You can follow Tessa on her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tessaleighpitt/

Information on my (Carla's) group Soulful Birth course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulfulbirthgroup And on my 1:1 Soulful Birth For You offerings: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulfulbirthforyou

More information on my Healing Birth Practitioner Training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training

Check out other content I have created on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

Tessa's doula, Alexa (who has also done my Healing Birth Practitioner Training), is based in Hastings NZ. Here's her website: https://www.alexadoulaphotography.co.nz/

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

Learn about Carla's Soulful Birth course here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep

Listen to Carla talk about birth and birth trauma related topics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth

Follow Carla on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

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

Visit Grace's website to learn more about her work: https://www.modernvillage.co.nz/

Follow her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modern.village/

Find out about my (Carla's) Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training

Did you know I now have a Healing Birth YouTube channel. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth

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...

Donna had a 1:1 Unravelling Your Trauma session with me. For more information on these and other healing services I offer, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing

And the Soulful Birth course that Donna participated in is an 8 weeks long holistic birth and postpartum preparation course that is held online. I also now offer personalised 1:1 Soulful Birth For You options (which include a gorgeous journal that I have created). To find out more about both of these services, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep

You can also access a lot of free information and guidance from me via my new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth

Donna's doula was Lily. You can connect with Lily via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilythedoula/

The Havening therapy that Donna found really helpful was with Robin Youngson: https://neuroscienceofhealing.com/

Donna also had wonderful acupuncture support from Anna-Lena Tews in Hamilton, NZ: https://altews-midwifery.com/

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

and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hapuwananga

Contact Aroha via email: aroha@haputaranaki.co.nz

If you're interested in my (Carla's) Soulful Birth online antenatal series, click here for more details: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep

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

To check out my (Carla's) 1:1 birth trauma support offerings visit this link: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing

To follow my work on Instagram, head here: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

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

Follow Chelsea on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseaearley_/

Follow me (Carla) and my work on Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ or check out my website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/

Find out more about VBAC and Kristin's work via her MamaRise Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/mamarisedoulanz/

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

Follow Elsie and her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birthingathome_apodcast/

Find her podcast via her LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/birthingathome_apodcast 

And find out more about me (Carla) and my work on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ or website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/