Positive Birth Australia

This week on the show I’m joined by Jaylene, a Canadian-born mother now living in New Zealand, whose journey into motherhood carries deep threads of grief, healing, intuition and trust.
Long before conception, Jaylene was navigating the devastating loss of her younger brother… a grief that reshaped her sense of timing, readiness.. It wasn’t until years later, after consciously creating space to reconnect with herself, that she stepped into pregnancy with intention and openness.
Throughout her pregnancy, Jaylene followed what felt aligned for her… immersing herself in positive birth stories, and trusting her body, which ultimately led her to choose to birth at home. However, when she discovered her baby was breech, she was met with resistance and had to deeply advocate for her choices, educating herself and standing firmly in what she knew to be right for her and her baby.
What unfolds is an extraordinary birth story… a fast, instinctive, under four-hour labour at home, where her son was born breech, in his own time and in his own way… on a date that carries profound meaning for her family.

Jaylene’s story is a powerful reflection of surrender, sovereignty, and trusting both the seen and unseen elements of birth.

In This Episode We Cover
Navigating deep grief before stepping into motherhood
Creating intentional space before conception
Pregnancy as a time of healing, reflection, and transition
Choosing a planned home birth in New Zealand
Discovering baby was breech and exploring options
Advocating for a breech vaginal birth outside standard recommendations
Preparing mentally, emotionally, and physically for birth
A fast and instinctive 3 hour 45 minute labour
Physiological breech birth at home with midwife support
Baby born on her late brother’s birthday

Resources + Mentions
Books
Hypnobirthing – Siobhan Miller
Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage – Rachel Reed
Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth – Ina May Gaskin

Education
Breech Without Borders
Spinning Babies

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Mentioned in this episode:
Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball
Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.
Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Bianca, a Brisbane mum of two whose journey into motherhood is a powerful reflection of intuition, advocacy, and deep self-trust.
After experiencing a missed miscarriage, Bianca consciously prepared her body and mind before conceiving her first daughter, Bliss. Throughout her pregnancy, she immersed herself in birth education and began to question the mainstream narrative around birth, feeling strongly drawn toward a physiological home birth.
However, after being classified as “high risk” due to her epilepsy, Bianca found her options limited and ultimately entered the hospital system, where her plans began to unravel.
Bianca’s second pregnancy became a turning point… because this time she chose to follow the inner knowing she had felt all along. What unfolds is a deeply personal and transformative birth at home, where she sinks into the inner work, meets her fears head-on, and anchors into a level of trust she had always carried within.
In This Episode We Cover
Missed miscarriage and conscious conception
Preconception detox and preparing the body for pregnancy
Navigating pregnancy with epilepsy and being labelled “high risk”
Discovering physiological birth and the desire for home birth
Feeling limited by the system and shifting birth plans
Hospital birth experience and cascade of interventions
The emotional impact of feeling overridden during birth
Reflecting on giving away power vs reclaiming it
Choosing a sovereign/home birth for her second pregnancy
Inner work, fear release, and fully trusting her body during birth

Resources + Mentions
Instagram
@theblissfulwaters
Books
Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Dr Sarah Buckley
Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Dr Rachel Reed
Birth Course:
Free Birth Society
Birth Affirmations:
Yolande Norris-Clark

Share The Episode
If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.
Mentioned in this episode:
Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball
Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.
Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Kaitlyn, a mother of three from Toowoomba whose journey into motherhood began in the most unexpected way… falling pregnant to a man she’d only known for six weeks after a failed morning after pill. What followed was a whirlwind into love, partnership, and parenthood… but also a deeply medicalised first birth that shaped everything that came after.
Kaitlyn shares three completely different birth experiences… from a private hospital birth with a cascade of interventions, to a deeply empowering homebirth, and finally, a freebirth guided by her intuition, her faith in God, and a deep trust in her body.
Her second birth brings an incredibly rare and powerful moment… birthing her baby face presentation in the water. And with her third, Kaitlyn steps even further into surrender, navigating a surprise pregnancy and a profound inner knowing she was guided by God... and that this was her baby girl.

Kaitlyn’s story is a powerful reflection of how birth can become a turning point… an unraveling of what we’ve been taught, and a return to trust, intuition, and something greater guiding the way.

In This Episode We Cover
• Falling pregnant after six weeks + navigating a relationship and motherhood at the same time
• A highly medicalised first birth + the cascade of interventions
• Epidural, episiotomy + vacuum-assisted delivery
• Postpartum trauma + an undiagnosed hematoma + difficult recovery
• Miscarriage + the emotional impact of a D&C
• Letting go of control + unexpectedly falling pregnant again
• Choosing a home birth + finding aligned midwifery care
• A rare face presentation water birth + trusting the body through the unexpected
• The shift from fear to trust + healing through birth
• A surprise third pregnancy + a moment she believes God revealed she was carrying a little girl

Share The Episode
If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.

Mentioned in this episode:
Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball
Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.
Esfera Designs

Emma first joined me on the podcast five years ago to share the story of her first daughte’s beautiful and unexpected bathroom floor birth.
In this episode she returns to share everything that has happened since then… from moving to the Sunshine Coast and trying for another baby, to the devastating loss of her son Leo, the physical complications that followed, and the healing journey that ultimately led to the birth of her rainbow baby.

Emma shares openly about grief, pregnancy after loss, navigating anxiety around scans and testing, and her experience birthing at home through the publicly funded home birth program. With a labour that unfolded very differently to her first birth, Emma reflects on the profound journey of leaning into intuition and surrendering to the path birth ultimately takes.

In This Episode We Cover
• Pregnancy after loss
• Monitoring a shortened cervix
• Publicly funded homebirth program
• Weeks of prodromal labour
• A 41 week home birth

Resources + Mentions
Emma’s previous episode sharing Sophia’s birth story HERE.
Sunshine Coast University Hospital publicly funded homebirth program
Midwifery Group Practice (MGP)
Dr Anne-Marie Corral – Fertility Naturopath
Denise Ludwick – Women’s Health Practitioner
iMedical pathology testing
Positive Birth Australia Sacred Birth Affirmation Track

Share The Episode
If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.
Mentioned in this episode:
Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball
Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.
Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Laura as she shares her journey into motherhood. Laura discovering she was pregnant while travelling around Australia on a honeymoon road trip, navigating early scans across multiple states during COVID, before returning home to prepare for birth.
During her first pregnancy Laura sought a physiological birth and continuity of care, but after a fibroid was discovered overlapping the placenta she was risked out of the midwife-led birth cottage she had planned and transferred into hospital care. After navigating conflicting medical opinions and fragmented care, Laura ultimately found support with a private obstetrician and went on to birth her daughter in a powerful spontaneous labour in the hospital shower.

Laura shares how the intensity of her postpartum experience, including significant mental health challenges, shaped the way she approached her next pregnancy and birth. When she fell pregnant again, Laura felt strongly that she wanted something more supported, more personal, and more aligned with the kind of care she had longed for the first time around. In this episode Laura shares how she discovered private midwifery care halfway through her pregnancy, hired a “home away from home” birth space, and went on to experience a beautiful water birth surrounded by trusted support… catching her baby boy at home in the water.

This conversation explores continuity of care, trusting your instincts, navigating rural birth options, postpartum mental health, and the powerful difference the right support can make in both birth and motherhood.

In this episode we discuss:
• Discovering pregnancy while travelling around Australia
• Navigating scans across multiple states during COVID
• Fibroids and being risked out of a midwife-led birth cottage
• Navigating conflicting medical advice
• Spontaneous labour and hospital shower birth
• The realities of postpartum mental health
• Pregnancy after miscarriage
• Discovering private midwifery care
• Hiring a “home away from home” birth space
• A beautiful water birth experience
• The power of continuity of care

Resources + Mentions:
Instagram:
@Laura_gaschk @marbehvale @marbehvale_homestead
Birth Photographer:
@amyphilpphotography
Midwife:
@nurtureyourbirth
Pelvic Floor Physio:
@somatic_womankind
PANDA – Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia
https://www.panda.org.au
Beyond Blue
https://www.beyondblue.org.au
Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE)
https://www.cope.org.au
Homebirth Australia
https://homebirthaustralia.org
Australian College of Midwives – Find a Midwife
https://www.midwives.org.au

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Mentioned in this episode:
Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball
Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.
Esfera Designs