The Positive Births NZ podcast

Despite all of the challenges in her pregnancy and birth,Laura looks back and feels positive about her experience.
As she says "for so many they would call the birth I had traumatic or scary. For me, it was everything but that. It was beautiful because my mindset was different.”
In this episode we cover:
Laura’s birth 9 yrs ago to Oliver, who was breech so she hada planned c-section
-Indecision around type of birth during pregnancy
-Traditional Maori healing
-Time distortion in labour
-Baby Selby discovered to be breech during labour
-Ambulance transfer, placenta abruption
-Feeling safe in an emergency c-section
-Bicornate uterus, inter uterine growth restriction
-Dealing with a small baby in SCBU
If you would like to learn mindset, breathwork and relaxation tools to use in any type of birth, check out the range of options of live or recorded courses at www.positivebirths.co.nz
Know that the tools and techniques are useful for your postpartum and parenting journey too.

A positive induction story after Holly intentionally did thework to make sure she was calm as opposed to being anxious or worried in her pregnancy.
In this episode we chat about:
Holly’s mum doing Hypnobirthing in 1989
Holly and Aarons hypnobirthing preparation
How Holly didn’t want induction or c section
Induction at 42 weeks with Misoprostal
Quick birth with no interventions or pain releif
Baby born en caul
Surgery for retained placenta
 
If you too would like to feel calm, confident and preparedfor your birth head to www.positivebirths.co.nz
There are a range of live and recorded courses for you tochoose from to get the tools and techniques on board to use in pregnancy, birth and life beyond.

Sara’s connection with her spirit baby before conception lead her on an intense healing journey after her first traumatic birth a couple of years prior.
In this episode we cover a broad (and very juicy) range of topics, which include:
-Connection to baby after a difficult birth
-Men with birth trauma and Postnatal depression
-Connection with Spirit Babies
-A variety of mental, emotional and physical healing modalities
-9D breathwork
-Healing Generational trauma
-Energy of birth space how people can affect the environment
* Trigger warning, we do cover details of Braxton’s traumatic birth, if you’d like to skip this, jump to around 17-18 minutes.
I’d love to have more of these types of chats on this podcast, if you have had a spiritual experience relating to spirit babies, conception, pregnancy, birth, please reach out to discuss sharing your story. As I also journey into more skills to help parents connect with their spirit babies please get in touch if you have anything to offer or share with me. [email protected]
Plus if you’d like to investigate more about how trauma informed hypnotherapy can support your healing from a traumatic birth I offer a free, no obligation 15 min chat.To make a booking head here :https://calendly.com/hypnotherapywithhelen/hypnotherapy-appointment(please make a note you’d like a 15 min chat)
Sara is the creator of the Conscious Mothers group NZ on Facebook, & you can find her on instagram at @consciousmothersnz
Healing modalities she used:
- Somatic & Holistic Therapy with Alchemy with Kelly
- Herbs, Supplements and Naturopathic Care from Sage Intuition 
- Bowen, Contact Care & Homeopathy with Amber MacPhail Naturopathic 
- Birth Tiger Safari & Birth Story Medicine with Lynley Erin - Mama Cocoon 
- 9D Breathwork with Olivia Jane 
- Birth Photography by Adele of White Locket Photography

"It's never  it's never really smooth sailing" was how Claudia felt during her second pregnancy and she had every right to feel that way.
Claudia's birth journeys involved a huge amount of resilience, determination, time and effort and in our chat together I’m so grateful she shares all the details.
Topics discussed in this episode are:
PCOS, and fertility journey; including finding out she was pregnant and had miscarried on the same day
Difference between pathological and physiological pain
Elodie - Asynclitism presentation, 5 hours pushing. Homebirth, Virus, hospital for a few days, challenges breastfeeding, cerebal palsy diagnosis
Fear of 2nd pregnancy, miscarriage of twins, theimportance of acknowledging them
Baby in unstable lie at 30 weeks – moving a transverse baby
The resilience of dealing with constant challenges
Wave visualisations
Homebirth of Harvie
Placenta encapsulation
All of this (and more) makes for a truly inspiring episode.
To help encourage Harvie to move into an optimal position Claudia used https://balancedbirth.nz
To support a positive mindset and use practical tools for labour Claudia purchased the Birth with Calm and Confidence online hypnobirthing course from www.positivebirths.co.nz

Two positive birth stories are possible! This episode is dedicated to all the mums navigating a second pregnancy, having already had one positive birth and wondering if they can have another. It’s a very normal doubt.
Kaitlin shares with us her two births to Reuben and Rone. Her first birth was in a hospital in Melbourne, the second a homebirth in Christchurch.
Within this episode we hear about :
·      Mindset preparation being very important,
·      Use of hypnobirthing techniques, affirmations, and mental rehearsal
·      Comparison of care in Australia vs NZ system, during pregnancy and postnatally
·      Jamie’s continuous emotional and physical support throughout labour and his advocacy in hospital. Plus the best ever oxytocin boost for Kaitlin in Rone’s labour – you have to listen to around 1 hour 3 mins for this one!
·      Unique baby reveal picture, involvement of 4year old in pregnancy and birth
·      Kaitlin catching both her babies
·      Decision making process for a home birth, the benefits of homebirth (& not having to leave the house in 2 weeks postpartum)
There’s so many nuggets to take away from this episode.
If you too would like to learn practical tools, techniques to feel calm, confident and prepared for your birth, head to www.positivebirths.co.nz for a range of options.
If you’re in the same place as Kaitlin was in her 2nd pregnancy and you’d like a refresher on hypnobirthing techniques – either reach out to [email protected] to book a private one-on-one session or check out the Short and Sweet Online recorded course https://www.positivebirths.co.nz/online-recorded-classes/
 
The Yoga classes Kaitlin attended:
Opti-mum - Kei Shana
https://www.opti-mum.co.nz/