Positive Birth Australia

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

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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

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

In today’s episode, Jasmine shares her extraordinary journey from an intense hospital birth with her first child to a pain-free home birth with her second.
After a long, medicalised first labour that left her fearful and unsure she ever wanted to give birth again, Jasmine entered her next pregnancy still carrying deep uncertainty about birth.
During that pregnancy, her outlook shifted dramatically as she began preparing in a completely different way - grounding her journey in her faith in God through prayer and speaking scripture over her pregnancy. She recounts how this guided her through fear and doubt, ultimately leading to a birth experience she could only describe as miraculous.
Show Notes & Mentions:
Instagram: @jasminedinis
Business: Folke Estate
Book: Supernatural Childbirth – Jackie Mize
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

Vanessa joins me from Coffs Harbour to share the story of birthing both of her daughters at home… her first during lockdown in a tiny studio apartment after a 26-hour posterior labour at 41+4 weeks, and her second in the quiet stillness of dawn - a sunrise water birth that unfolded almost exactly as she had envisioned.
After reflecting deeply on her first birth experience, Vanessa immersed herself in emotional womb healing, mantra, and the teachings of freebirth philosophy. Her second labour became an exploration of mindset, responsibility, and self-trust… labouring alone through much of the night and anchoring into a simple phrase that transformed her experience.
In this episode we discuss:
Posterior labour and going 41+4
Labouring at home without scans or medical testing
The role of mindset in physiological birth
Emotional womb work and releasing stored tension
Labouring solo and conscious birth preparation
Having an older child witness birth
Placenta encapsulation and postpartum recovery
Taking responsibility for your birth choices
The power of “knowing”

This is a conversation about transformation… about shifting from endurance to intention, and from hoping for a positive birth to consciously choosing one.
Resources & Mentions:
Personal Instagram:
@coramba_cottage
Books:
📖 Portal by Yolande Norris-Clark
Instagram: @bauhauswife
Birth Sling:
@the.birth.sling
Pregnancy Yoga (Coffs Harbour):
@wildernessyoga.coffs
Womb & Pelvic Healing Work with Chaitanya:
@wombtemple.healing
Sydney Midwife (First Birth):
@janineatibirth
If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review on your podcast platform to help us reach more women around the world.
To stay connected between episodes, follow along on Instagram @positivebirthaustralia.
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