In Your Words: positive hospital births
Welcome to our next incredible ‘In Your Words’ episode, which is on the topic of positive hospital birth experiences. In Australia, over 97% of births take place in a hospital, which for some of us can be an unfamiliar or even scary place. We really wanted to put this episode together to hear our listeners’ perspectives on what a positive birth means to them, and hear the meaning and beauty behind their experience birthing in a hospital supported by incredible midwives and care staff. Our hope is that this episode equips others with knowledge on what can and does happen within a hospital setting, to be able to consider what options they have and the agency they hold. We are joined by seven incredible guests in this episode and we are so honoured that they shared their stories with us. You will hear from: ✨️Steph, a wife and mother in her early 30's raising two boys and a dog. She shares how her positive hospital experience healed a traumatic first experience. (13.34 -17.40mis) ✨️Marley, a birth and postpartum doula who lives in the beautiful Adelaide hills with her husband, 3.5 year old son, Jamie and little Sophie who is 6 months old. She shares her c-section birth following a planned homebirth, after finding out her baby was breech at 38 weeks. (17.52 - 24.39 mins) ✨️Katelyn, a physiotherapist born and raised in Geelong. Katelyn is married to Luke and they have two earth-side babies: Isabella (3 years) and Rupert (1 year). She shares that she is also in the not-so-desirable angel baby club. Today, Katelyn shares her two positive caesarean births in a private hospital: an emergency and then planned caesarean. (24.46 - 30.21 mins) ✨️Emma, co-host of this podcast, a social researcher, wife and mother to one beautiful boy. She shares her long, posterior labour and assisted vaginal birth in a public hospital, but with the support of a private midwife. (30.29 - 35.52 mins) ✨️Kendra, mama to two little ones - a boy (21 months) and little girl (7 weeks). Kendra has a deep reverence for the journey of becoming a mother and works as a perinatal occupational therapist and matrescence coach. She shares her unmedicated vaginal waterbirth in a birth centre off her local public hospital. (36.01 - 41.49 mins) ✨️Molly, mum to a beautiful 4 month old baby boy named Noah. Molly is also a wife, foster mum, psych nurse, and dog mum. She shares her emergency caesarean under a private OB, as well as the incredible experience of having a student midwife. (41.59 - 47.15 mins) ✨️Shannon, who is 28 years old and lives with her fiance, Brad, and two girls, Winter who is 3 years and little Aster, who is 4 months old. Shannon shares her first traumatic experience, followed by her second birth - a positive induction and a swift unmedicated vaginal birth (47.24 - 51.32 mins) Finally, we want to acknowledge that for many parents, their hospital birth or experience was far from positive and didn’t leave them with many choices or a feeling of agency. We are so sorry if this was your experience. Join our growing community on instagram @growingupraisinguspodcast to see photos of our weekly guests, behind the scenes moments, and keep up to date with episode releases. We acknowledge that sovereignty of the lands on which this podcast was recorded was never ceded and pay our respects to the original storytellers of this land.
