In this episode of Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond, Annalee Atia speaks with Dr Rachel Reed about the history and her story of midwifery and its evolution to the modern day midwife, UK & Australian differences in practice and care both in Midwifery and maternity care and the call for midwives to reclaim their expertise and rights of protection. “Instead of locating all of the risks in the women and all our job is to identify how wrong her body is and to fix it, how about looking at what we’re ...
Nov 16, 2020•51 min
Nidala Barker is Djugan woman from the Kimberley in Western Australia. She is a musician, storyteller, environmental activist, social justice warrior, and all around an insightful and deep feeling and thinking woman. In this episode, Nidala speaks to Indigenous ways of learning, of time and space and ways of connection, and the importance representation. We speak about the importance of truth telling in Australia’s history and education, and the responsibility we all have on these lands to conne...
Nov 10, 2020•41 min
In this episode, Oni Blecher plays a recording of Gaby Tudor interviewing Mayan Midwives from Guatemala. We are so happy to respectfully share their Indigenous wisdom with you in this special edition podcast with PBB foreign correspondent Gaby. Here is a note from Gaby about her experience with Doña Dominga and Mariu Gobbato: "My journey to Lake Atitlan began in Australia with my desire to learn more about practices that heal your womb. I had heard about womb massage in post-partum while working...
Nov 01, 2020•53 min
During this episode, Oni Blecher speaks to Sarah Blandiargo about her nineteen-year career in childcare and nannying. Sarah runs Move Make classes, where she combines her heart-based kids yoga classes with meditation and creative craft and play. Since COVID, Sarah has also started her Move Make classes over Zoom, Australia wide. Sarah is inspired by and has researched child psychologists and pioneers in aspects of how we see minding, communicating, and interacting with children; including Magda ...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Obstetricians and Normal Childbirth. Normalising a deviation from normal, in any field, directs the baseline off track, misleads us as to what normal is and sets us on a course that becomes very difficult to correct the further down the track we go. When we normalise trauma, we no longer see it. When we normalise bad behaviour, it becomes less apparent and when we normalise a deviation from normal physiology it confuses everyone involved. So what happens when we normalise deviating from normal p...
Oct 11, 2020•1 hr 17 min
In this episode, Oni speaks to Laura Latina. Laura is a midwife originally from Italy. She graduated as a Midwife in 2008. Her curiosity and inspiration for the world took her to travel around the world to meet many women and know different cultures. Laura spent a few years in Africa working as a midwife in birth centres or villages and then went on to graduate with a Master Degree in London in Reproductive Health in 2014 while she was working as a caseloading midwife for 4 years. In 2015 she we...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 31 min
In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks to Madi Luschwitz about her triplet pregnancy, birth, and postnatal period. Madi, an artist, and her partner Nic, a movement and life coach based in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, got quite the surprise when finding out that their first pregnancy was triplets ! Young and healthy, Madi and Nic expected to conceive their first baby. They conceived more than they expected and now have three 1-year-old boys; Woody, River, and Tiger. Madi explores her journey as a moth...
Sep 14, 2020•1 hr 7 min
Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system. In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with founder of Birthing Dads founder Steven Kennedy. After a traumatic birth experience and subsequent postpartum depression, Steven explored and investig...
Sep 11, 2020•43 min
Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with mother of two Kristyn Begnall. DEAR LISTENER, PROCEED WITH CAUTION (TRAUMA TRIGGER WARNING): in this episode we speak with Australian mother of two Kristyn about her traumatic birthing experience. The content may be upsetting for some - please proceed with caution. Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people...
Sep 10, 2020•38 min
Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with Dr Sarah Buckley. Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system. Sally speaks with Dr Sarah Buckley about the hormones of birth and how we can maximise them for the most efficient (an...
Sep 10, 2020•30 min
This week is Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020, where we are working with other maternity health advocacy groups to raise awareness around traumatic birth and the wider implications for inadequate care throughout the pregnancy, birth and postnatal periods of life. Here, Oni Blecher speaks to Rhea Dempsey; esteemed and highly sought after childbirth educator, counsellor, speaker, author and birth attendant with experience at over one thousand births. She is respected, both in Australia and interna...
Sep 09, 2020•56 min
Maternal Mental Health Matters talks Birth Trauma with Professor Jenny Gamble. Birth Trauma Awareness Week 2020 runs from 7-13th September. Throughout the week, tune in to insightful, thought-provoking and deeply honouring stories and discussions with people who have experienced birth trauma, clinicians and researchers in this area and maternity advocates working to change the system. Professor Jenny Gamble is Head of Midwifery at Griffith University (Australia) and Director of the Transforming ...
Sep 07, 2020•18 min
We're discussing working through big feelings surrounding racism and discrimination, being a woman and the power we have in our hands in this moment, being with what is, not what should be. Vanessa Alexandra Wood a local to the Northern Rivers, born to a Peruvian Mother and Argentine Father on the border of NSW & VIC in Albury/Wodonga. As a child and young woman growing up in a predominantly white Australian culture Vanessa experiences various forms of discrimination and racism and holds the...
Sep 01, 2020•49 min
Dr Bronwyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung woman and elder, an acclaimed artist and mother to three children, Jack, Ella and Rubyrose. In this episode, Bronwyn shares her experiences giving birth at home in the 1980’s with her oldest two children, and her third vaginal birth at a birth centre at 42 years. Bronwyn’s story dives into the way that she found and embodied the strength and courage to birth in the way that was right for her, and speaks to the importance of women reclaiming our sovereignty ove...
Aug 27, 2020•33 min
Hazel Keedle is a midwifery researcher and lecturer at Western Sydney University and a PhD candidate. Hazel has worked in midwifery group practices, an aboriginal medical service, a variety of hospital settings and as a privately practising midwife in both city and regional locations. Hazels passion for VBAC followed her own experience of having a VBAC with her daughter in 2008 and since then has published research on women's experience of having a homebirth after caesarean and on her PhD work e...
Aug 18, 2020•53 min
In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with 'Get Promoted Life'; a high level performance and life coach, specialising in optimising the relationship with self and others. This includes effective communication and how to connect more thoroughly and respectfully with self and others. She works with people of all ages but has a special ability and affinity with working with children, allowing and encouraging various ways of communication. During this conversation, we cover many topics, but most impor...
Aug 11, 2020•43 min
What does it mean to have an embodied pregnancy and birth experience? How can we tap into, and move forward, from our inner knowing? And how can we reclaim the sacredness of birth? In this episode of Pregnancy Birth and Beyond, Kirilly Dawn speaks with Maha Al Musa - internationally acclaimed independant childbirth educator and fierce advocate for centering the sacredness of birth in maternity care. Maha is a mother of three children, and is the founder of EmbodyBirth, and author of 'Dance of th...
Aug 08, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Sally speaks with Paulette Bray-Narai, a certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) instructor about how we can reframe the challenges we find in life through the practice of NVC. NVC was developed by Dr Marshall Rosenberg in the US in the 1960's and has been used since that time to bring groups with vastly opposing views together to form peaceful agreements. The NVC process has 4 main steps: 1. When faced with a situation, observe what is happening objectively. 2. Sense your feelings in response ...
Jul 30, 2020•59 min
In this episode, Oni Blecher interviews Sali McIntyre. Sali is an Australian midwife, antenatal educator at Tweed hospital, Arvigo practitioner and teacher, and mother of four adult children, all born at home. Sali founded and runs 'Heart and Soul of Wellness', a wellness centre in Murwillumbah and has just released her first book; a comprehensive guide and to and history of Yoni or vaginal steaming. Oni and Sali had this conversation during the first COVID lockdown in NSW. Since then, her book,...
Jul 28, 2020•51 min
Today on the show we are speaking with Dr Belinda Barnett. Dr Barnett is a maternal health researcher, psychologist and community advocate for the protection of mothers’ human rights. Belinda recently completed a PhD at the University of Queensland, her thesis titled “Becoming a mother and mattering in early 21st century Australia”. Confired on March 27th, 'Becoming a mother and mattering in early 21st century Australia: An exploration of women's perinatal transitions and equity in wellbeing' lo...
Jul 20, 2020•39 min
Oni Blecher speaks to Naturopath and soon-to-be mother, Layla Metcafle about her observations of often mysterious and misunderstood condition Endometriosis. Layla shares from her well experienced professional vantage point and from her own personal seven year journey with Endometriosis. In March, the Australian government invested approximately nine million dollars in funding toward research of Endometriosis. As more women speak out about their pain, the less we will collectively normalise painf...
Jul 13, 2020•51 min
In 2018 the Australian Human Rights Commission stated that the trend towards incarceration saw a 77% increase of women in prison, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women making up the majority of this increase. Indigenous women and girls are the fastest growing group of people being incarcerated in 'Australia'. Approximately 90% of women in prison are mothers, and the majority of these mothers are single parents. Statistics also stated that almost 1 in 50 women reported being pregnant w...
Jul 08, 2020•41 min
This is a special edition of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond that commemorates our last broadcast after 9 years and 9 months of continuous weekly shows from 99.9 BayFM in Byron Bay. HOWEVER! Our weekly podcasts will continue each and every week. Catch some of the history from our current and previous team in this episode. This is a cut down version from our Facebook Live event recorded on 27 June 2020, which you can view here: https://www.facebook.com/PregnancyBirthAndBeyondRadio/videos/244041012291...
Jul 02, 2020•34 min
Hello dears! Annalee here.. Today's episode of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond is all about optimising natural vaginal childbirth, I am so happy to be having Anna the Spiritual Midwife on the show today. Anna is a midwife and childbirth educator who is passionate about helping women optimise their chances of having natural vaginal childbirth. She runs online courses and in person support groups and one on one sessions in the northern rivers of NSW and hosts the wonderful podcast The Natural Birth Po...
Jun 07, 2020•32 min
In this show Sally speaks with mother, doula, author and maternity services advocate, Catherine Bell, about the importance of thoroughly exploring your options for life after birth, the postnatal period and having a clear plan in place. As Catherine says "birth is just the beginning" - the beginning of a marathon in the first weeks, months and years of your baby's life, and like all marathons, preparation is necessary to get the most out of this time. References: Catherine is the author of The B...
Jun 01, 2020•39 min
Oni Blecher interviews Dani Wolff about her experience in learning and teaching food growing, earth building, and creating intentional community through earth nurturing principles. Having recently become a mother herself, Dani talks about how to apply community to Motherhood and Motherhood to the community. She also gives some practical advice for food growing through these shifting times.
May 29, 2020•43 min
Oni Blecher interviews Steven Kennedy about his work with Birthing Dads and inquires into Steven's birth story. Steven speaks to preparing fathers for birth and the postnatal period. He speaks about how fathers and male birth support are the 'sleeping giants' of the birth world and if fathers are more prepared, they could assist and take extra weight and responsibility off midwives. When Steven suffered depression and trauma after the birth of his son in 2017 he turned to academic literature to ...
May 20, 2020•55 min
This episode is in two parts: Firstly Sally speaks with Moran Liviani, mother of 3 girls and doula based in Brisbane. Moran talks about the trends she's noticing with her clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says all of her clients would choose homebirth, if they could afford it. And that these are families who would have never considered homebirth before but they have now come to see birthing in hospital as dangerous and birthing at home safer. She also discusses the significant drop in in...
May 05, 2020•33 min
Hello there wonderful people, its Annalee from PBB, in this episode of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond I am chatting with Dr Igor Tabrizian from the Byron Bay Health Lodge (in Australia). The Health Lodge takes a modern and advanced approach to medicine and healthcare and provides meaningful continuity of care to its patients. Practitioners come with a holistic whole-person attitude to healthcare and work together as a team. Clients can access the care, experience and support of Integrative General ...
Apr 27, 2020•36 min
Oni Blecher interviews dynamic couple Laura and Russell Brand on the importance of play, creativity and making a fun mess while also discussing the deeper topics of birth politics, making conscious informed decisions for birth, parenting philosophy and teamwork within the pregnancy, birth and postnatal periods.
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 4 min
