The Renegade Mama

Today on the show I speak to mother of eight Elise. After losing her first (and only girl) in a hospital birth, Elise was devastated. She talks us through the process of being told her baby had died during labour and how having nearly every intervention possible didn’t save her baby. She doesn’t vilify the hospital or staff but rather reflects that sometimes as sad and as grief struck as we are - death happens. She then describes how her subsequent 3 pregnancies were test heavy and scheduled inductions. For number five she was with a new partner and decided on a homebirth with midwife which was a big change for her. Number 6 was an unnecessary home birth transfer and number 7 another home birth. For her last Elsie finally decided on a wild pregnancy and freebirth. Having experienced death of a baby first hand - Elise knew this was the safest option for her and her baby. She describes this birth as redeeming of her past traumas and cemented her trust in herself and her husband.

More about Elise -

Hi, I'm Elise, a mum to a boisterous boy tribe!

Having started my family journey young and green, I've moved through many levels of utilising the system, from blindly trusting.. to wholly trusting myself.

After my first birth ended in tragedy, I learnt many lessons with each subsequent birth.. and an now a fierce advocate for women embracing bodily and birth autonomy.. and birthing in their own power.

My family happily live outside the norm on a daily basis, as Unschoolers, life-learners, free birthers and (semi!) homesteaders.. generally finding our path off the beaten track.

Today on the show I speak to freebirth doula and Mama of 2 Olivia. After a traumatic hospital birth with her first, Olivia decided to have a homebirth with midwife for her second. Living in Spain at the time, Olivia had planned to have her Mum attend and was waiting for her to arrive from Germany. The week leading up she had all sorts of sensations and she feels like she was holding off, until her Mum arrived. Literally the moment her Mum walked in the door, the final moments of the birth process started. Thinking she had done a poo - Olivia asked her Mum to check - but alas it was her daughter’s head crowning. Her baby was born moments later into her Mums arms and her midwife arrived after the placenta was born. After moving back to Australia - Olivia undertook doula training and this is where the alignment with her freebirth and where she wanted to go in life started clicking in. After working in the birth space in both hospital and home - Olivia has now decided to mainly work with freebirth clients. We also talk about men’s role in birth, doulas who are too scared to attend free births, postpartum depression and Olivia’s experience attending her Mum giving birth to her younger sibling when she was 19. Olivia is grounded, caring and someone who trusts birth. She sees how simple birth can be and I hope this episode reiterates this to you too. More about Olivia: Full spectrum doula / birth keeper. I am a mother, a daughter, a sister, a partner, an environment lover, and a free birth doula. I am the woman behind Conscious Bodies Co. I have two beautiful children that were both born in Mallorca, Spain. There I experienced 2 completely different births, a long hospital birth with interventions and trauma, and an unintended free birth at home. This has cemented to me that I have the ability to support women no matter what kind of birth she wants. I first became in awe of the power of women’s bodies when I watched my sister being born at home in the water when I was 19 years old. Those images are still imprinted in my mind. I offer conscious birthing through supporting women to feel empowered, respected, held and heard before, during and after birth. Business Name: Conscious Bodies Co. Instagram: @consciousbodiesco Website: https://www.consciousbodiesco.com Podcast: Men at Birth @menatbirth Email: [email protected] Phone Number: 0478 640 321

Today on the show I speak with radical registered midwife Sharon Robinson. Hailing from the US, Sharon tells us of her training in Brooklyn, New York and how she promptly left, and continued learning on the job, helping serve birthing women in Cambodia. Sharon now lives in New Zealand and is a local community midwife there, but it has not all has always been smooth sailing. She tells us how her registration was threatened and put on hold (unsurprisingly because she is a radical midwife) after some other midwifes reported her to the government bodies. This process for her was HUGE and she ended up leaving the small town where she was living due to the dramas and traumas it all caused. Sharon has recently returned to that district and is now happily continuing to serve the women in that community. Sharon is also known as a travelling midwife and has attended births as far afield as the Amazon Jungle in Peru! I really like Sharon. She is so real and raw and just generally a really good person with a big heart. I hope you see her big heart and her passion for serving women in this interview.

Sharron's Bio :

Sharon Robinson, originally from the US, trained as a midwife in Brooklyn, New York. She was a physical therapist when she had her own two birth children. It was after their births that she describes what felt like a spiritual awakening to what she believes is her authentic purpose, midwifery. Her clinical training was all done in 2 big city hospitals in the Bronx. While she was grateful for the education and experiences, she felt she was being groomed to be more of a physician's assistant than the midwife she had been called to be.

Since graduating in 2000, she has traveled extensively and supported women to birth in various countries around the world. Those countries include Cambodia, Tonga, New Zealand, Benin, Mexico and even the Amazon Jungle in Peru!

She is passionate about women holding the reigns for their own birthing journeys. She knows that “positive” birth outcomes most often occur when space is held for birth to unfold in the ways that Mother Nature has designed. She also knows that “good births” are important and can help women heal from previous traumatic births. She has often gone above and beyond routine guidelines and protocols to support those positive healing births to occur.

She is a strong advocate for homebirth realizing that most women have been culturally conditioned to believe that birthing in hospitals, even for “low-risk” women, is the “safest option.” She also realizes that the unfortunate truth is that routine hospital interventions, designed to avoid adverse outcomes caused by "risk factors," all too often end up sabotaging women’s own innate birthing wisdom, power and positive outcomes.

She says that when care providers and birthing women are saturated in the hormones of fear it leads to mostly “well-meaning” interventions that unfortunately, all too often, derail the process of normal physiological birth. Sharon is doing what she can, one sacred birth at a time, to welcome our new citizens of the world with the love and respect that, she believes, they all deserve.

Today on the show I speak with Cat Price. Cat is a Mama of 2, an ex-midwifery student and more recently a birthkeeper. Cat had a wonderful first homebirth with a midwife which opened up a whole new world to her. For her second pregnancy she went on to decide that she’d like a freebirth but says that she was only 90% there. I find Cat’s story really interesting, as it’s an example of when we are not 100% aligned - how things can have the potential to go haywire. Although the birth was relatively straight forward - a comment from her doula really affected her. When her daughter was born - she decided to call an ambulance at the suggestion of the doula. These kind of power leaks where we listen to others over ourselves can have detrimental effects. The ambulance came - Cat knew everything was well and they left. But - consequently in the coming days - social services rocked up on her door unannounced. They berated her and harassed her in her vulnerable postpartum state. Cat understandably felt overwhelmed and shut done - she even started to question herself. She endured some very dark days postpartum but has recently come out the other side and has graciously been brave enough to share her story, which I know will be able to help others. I thank Cat for her open vulnerability - I am honoured to share her story.

More about Cat -

My name is Cat. I was born in South Africa but have lived in the UK since I was a baby. I am a wife and a mother-of-two. I'm a birthkeeper, a holder of sacred spaces and a weaver of words.

In 2017 I was training as a midwife in the system when I became unexpectedly pregnant with my first child. I gave birth to him in a simple and powerful birth at home (midwife-attended) that undid everything. As a result I swore off attending births myself and left my training, instead immersing myself in full-time mothering.

I later returned to assisting a local doula in running groups for new mothers and trained as a postpartum doula myself. I became unexpectedly pregnant again just before the Covid madness descended. After a wild pregnancy and freebirth (which was ultimately disturbed) with my daughter, I was subject to a Social Services investigation which desecrated my sacred postpartum time. These events inspired the darkest night of the soul that I've ever experienced.

Subsequently in early 2021, I witnessed the death of my beloved father-in-law at home. It opened my heart to the magic inherent in the rites of passage of both birth AND death.

With all that I have learned and embodied in the past few years, I have been moved recently to claim the title of "birthkeeper" and to begin to hold sacred space once again. It feels like coming home after the most arduous journey.

Today on the show I speak to Fiona about about her two vastly different births. For her first Fiona found out via ultrasound that her babies organs were forming on the outside of his body. An elective c-section was strongly advice and she consented under duress. She ponders if these early ultrasound may have contributed to this condition and talks about how the over medicalisation of this pregnancy made it very hard to connect in with her baby. After her baby was born - shockingly they overdosed her baby with drugs when a nurse missed a decimal point while administering. This delayed the surgery because her babe needed to recover from this first. After this experience Fiona knew next time would be different and decided on a freebirth and wild pregnancy. She had no scans and rather tapped into her intuition as her guiding beacon and light. Fiona’s freebirth was a long 48 hour labour with a trip to the hospital in between but the end stage was fast with her baby being born 20 minutes after waking up from a nap. Her placenta took 36 hours to emerge - although she suspects it detached much earlier. Breastfeeding was a dream - again a vast difference from her first where she only got to hold her son 3 days after he was born. Fiona’s story is a remarkable journey from polar opposites end of the spectrum. I just love this stories of where women return to their power despite their previous experiences. Thank you Fiona for sharing your story from such a warm and heart centred place.

More About Fiona.

Standing as a beacon for heart-centered mamas, I’m cultivating a community of soul-aligned women living abundant lives of ease, standing in absolute power, and advocating for freedom in all aspects of life. Together, we're redefining motherhood, one sovereign choice at a time.