Her Herd Jeanna Laurie

Sarah is someone who I am incredibly proud to call a friend. Our friendship has emerged out of a surprising place, online through share experience, and mission to support, help, and advocate for rural communities and people. 
 
See Sarah and her husband Steve run the Wish Collective, a small grass roots rural creative solution supporting families going through fertility treatment. The Wish collective provides a safe community for people to share and seek support. They also provide financial support to families for supplementary treatments. Sarah speaks with such passion about how often these are the things women in particular go without due to the high financial cost associated with treatment. Sarah and Steve just launched their Wren collection which are a small collection of bereavement cards that can be gifted to a friend or family member during loss (a beautiful and much needed nod to special friends who lost their child), and their fertility affirmation cards. As soon as I saw the Wish Collective affirmation cards, I fell deeply in love with them and demanded (YES DEMANDED that sarah make me her first customer. From this Sarah and I started to talk about her and Steve’s journey to their beautiful daughter Rosie, and my gosh have these two been on a journey.
 
Sarah and Steve knew they wanted children and started trying straight away, when things didn’t seem to materialize, Sarah being the person she is, took matters into her own hands, and started their journey – which was rough.
 
Round after round of IVF Steve and Sarah were left with little more than a bill and more questions as to why. Sarah openly shares how physically, emotionally, and financially taxing IVF can be, and how their journey has really changed and shape them to the people they are today. What is clear to me is that they are a team, I feel through Sarah’s words and the way she speaks about her beautiful partner Steve that they are deeply connected, and this has been one of the major reasons they have made it through to the other side. 
 
 Overall, Sarah is brutally honest, she talks about how she knows grief having lost her mum at such a young age, and even fertility rocked her to the core. Sarah touches on how to find happiness in the small things during IVF treatment, how she and Steve examined their life and planned for a future if they didn’t have children, how she navigated a tricky high-risk pregnancy without her mum, and how she managed, life, and hope, through recurrent miscarriage. Sarah is a strong woman, I say that without a shadow of doubt in my mind to how determined this woman is, she is strong in the manner, of being unwilling to accept something it if it is below standard, but also kind, gentle, and considerate. I am in awe of Sarah’s determination and creativity, she along with Steve just want to just give back to a community she believes gave them so much. 
 
This is an incredibly insightful chat for anyone who is in the fertility trenches or has a loved one there. 
 
Sarah thank you so much for sharing your journey, but also thank you so much for your friendship and support, you are truly an incredible woman, and I consider myself lucky to be now considered a friend. 
 
You can find Sarah and Steve here:
 
https://www.wishcollective.com.au


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Megan is an incredible woman. FULL STOP. 
 
The work she does supporting rural families, the life she has lived, the wisdom she has is INCREDIBLE.
Megan is the mother of 5 beautiful boys, she is a wife, a loving grandmother, and an incredible writer. 
 
Megan works in the Hospital to Home program doing the incredibly important work of supporting families who been bereaved after the loss of their babies. I can only imagine the way in which Megan works with her families, she has that grandmotherly warmth about her, that just makes you feel held.
 
Megan talks us through her incredible journey which includes, one birth, three still births, a neonatal death, miscarriage, and an ectopic pregnancy. Megan talks about the complexities of grief having recently lost her husband to cancer. We talked about how Ken was such an important part of this journey and a true stay during their losses. That he was the only other person that intimately knew this journey alongside her and in the process of losing him, she has re-experienced the grief of her boys. We had this engaging chat about how as a society we do death and dying TERRIBLY!
 
You would think that this episode would be heavy, and at times it is, but Megan has this ability of “holding court”.  Just like me she will make you laugh and cry, she is able to still find the light and humour which is a testament to her character. 
 
I want to thank Megan; she was so incredibly patient and kind with me. We discussed that I wanted to ask her a lot of questions that people often have, and often polite society doesn’t allow them to be asked. If you have ever had a friend, or family member that has had a baby pass away and wondered what they need this is the episode for you! Megan thank you for the incredible work you do with Red Nose supporting rural people. 
 
If you would like to read some of Megan’s work further or engage with her on her social media platform you can find her at @writting_grief. Megan thank you I have so much gratitude for you sharing this journey, I’m a better person for having sat with you.
 
Remember to #saytheirname
 
Resources for this episode -
 
Hospital to home referral:
https://rednosegriefandloss.org.au/support/article/hospital-to-home
 
Megan’s written work:
https://grievingparents.net/surviving-my-first-year-of-child-loss/
 
Podcast episode where Megan speaks about her experience:
https://www.memoriapodcast.com/icarriedhim/

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Brittany has one hell of a story to tell. If I had to summaries her journey to three beautiful boys in a sentence it would be:
“This is the journey of a women who lived and learnt, and from that did it different.”
That’s right, from three births Brittany has had three incredibly different experiences.
When we initially spoke, we noted that due to the nature of the podcast we didn’t really have time to capture all three births (producer Damian likes to keep us to a neat platform of under an 1hr). We agreed that speaking about her most recent birth was the most logically place to start, but it became clear quickly to me that you couldn’t understand the rational of Brittany’s thinking and her why unless we unpacked what happened before, and so we did…
Brittany’s story touches on private obstetric care in the bush – and what this even means, what it means to be the good girl and to challenge this,  MGP practice in a rural setting, fast quick and strong labour and free birth. This is the most empowering birth story of becoming your own creative solution and trusting in yourself, in your mind, your body, your team, your partner in birth.
Brittany thank you so much for speaking about your births, for being open and honest with our community for presenting an alternative and challenging others time and time again.

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Kate-Lyn and her partner Jack have been working towards building their family together for the last three years. Kate-Lyn a health twenty-three-year-old reach out to me late last year with her story that she felt she needed to share. As I opened her email, while sipping my tea, and sat with my mouth open (catching flies as farmer Chris would say) for what must have been an eternity, until he finally inquired; “what now?” I read out loud Kate-Lyn and Jack’s account of their medical journey towards a baby.
Their struggle.
Their trauma. 
He two now was catching flies, gobsmacked by what two people could go through in such a short period of time and remarked “good luck fitting that into one episode” – thanks Hun….
 
Kate-Lyn and I could have talked for days about education of sex, pregnancy, endometriosis, pain, and trauma, and how your age really is just a number when it comes to fertility health. How endometriosis has played such a huge role in her journey and fertility, how to speak up, and how to process trauma. Katelyn’s journey touches on 
Endometriosis
Ectopic pregnancy
Hyper stimulation
Ovarian cysts 
Miscarriage
Medical trauma – just to name a few…
 
But there is joy, and there is hope. Kate-Lyn speaks beyond her years about hindsight, what she has learnt and silver linings (and trust me she is able to find many). This is a testament to the person she is. 
 
What I loved most about this chat was probably the last ten minutes when Kate-Lyn pondered what life would be like if they don’t have children, her insight, her reflection, her wisdom is incredible. Thank you Kate-Lynn so much for sharing your story – it wasn’t easy.
 
** Kate-Lynn coughed throughout this interview when speaking about her trauma and what she had been through. She remarked being frustrated because “she wasn’t even sick”. This is a special little sound grab we have held back and will be releasing later to talk about how trauma can manifest. Keep a look out. x

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Words like “warrior” and “survivor” get thrown around a lot these days. I often really struggle using these words in either my personal or professional life because I never want to offend, or upset someone with the words I have chosen to describe them or their journey or story.
 
However, in this case, I have searched and searched the English language to try and find another word for the incredible Em and I just cannot find one!
 
Em is a survivor...
Em is a warrior...
Em is a true testament of dust yourself off and pick yourself up. 
 
I have sat and pondered how I can do this incredible woman, her family, her loved ones, her story, and journey justice in words, in 2000 characters for that matter (thanks instagram). I can’t. It’s actually impossible!
YOU JUST HAVE TO LISTEN!
 
Em has been through it all, and I mean literally ALL. She is the type of women you could throw the kitchen sink at, and she would be absolutely knee deep in the trenches fighting with you, and for you long after you have given up. I don’t know how to summaries her story apart from there is LOVE, LOSS, AND HOPE! 
My god there is so much hope! 
 
So, to honour Em, the only way I know how, I am going to borrow from this beautiful, and intelligent women. I am going to borrow how she summarised her why (from the words of one of her favourite country music singers).
“Don't take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you're goin'
Don't forget turn back around
Help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind”.
 
Em thank you so much for sharing your story. You are an incredible women, mother, and friend. We wish you only good things!

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They say dogs are the best judge of characters. 
 
If this is true than there could be no better character than Elle. See Elle is what we have all come to expect of the women in our rural communities, practical, creative, kind, and determined.
 
Elle generously shares her experience of birthing rurally with her beautiful little boy Henry. Elle a nurse herself, wasn’t quite sure what she was in for, and approach pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with the same strength, determination, and tenacity I think she approaches all things she does. Deeply supported by her partner, her mum and her (as she describes them) her sent from above angel Jill (a private midwife from peasinapod) Elle tackled motherhood with everything she had. She shares the best nuggets of advice like; “pick a team and trust in their advice, and approach, don’t take any advice outside of this otherwise you will be just overwhelmed”.  
 
I loved this chat with Elle. This chat is one of those retrospective chats you have with a girlfriend, filled with all the insight and wisdom of reflecting back on such a huge transitional time. Discussing all the overwhelm that is becoming a mother and bring a baby home. Elle is honest, she is candid, but most of all she is warm. 
 
Elle owns and runs her own small business Rouge Paws Photography, and it is one of those happy places on the internet. I highly encourage anyone to go and find a little happy over at her incredible photography page. 

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