Episode 39: Empowered Birthing With Sophie Walker.

In today’s episode I am joined by Sophie Walker, host of the podcast Australian Birth Stories. Sophie is a mum of 3 with a Masters in Public Health. In 2017 Sophie launched her business from the back of her Nissan X Trail. In 5 years it’s grown to a million-dollar empire including program, podcast and now a book. Sophie’s motivation comes from personal experience – her first birth was traumatic; a long labour and forceps-assisted birth resulted in a postpartum hemorrhage and pelvic floor trauma. When she fell pregnant for the second time, she was fiercely determined to do things differently. She listened to every birth podcast, watched every birth documentary, read every book and armed herself with birth skills. Her second birth was positive, empowering and redemptive and it became the first ever episode on the podcast. In this episode Sophie shares on what she believed led to the traumatic first birth - she believes it’s because she only had a ‘plan a’ and no thought for a plan ‘b’ or ‘c’. I was staggered to learn that 1 in 3 women experience trauma from birth and so I wanted to hear from Sophie about what she thinks could help to make a difference to this figure. You will also hear plenty from me about my pregnancy journey and birth preparation. If you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant then I encourage you to not only listen to this episode, but explore the incredible resources that Sophie has made available including her new book - The Complete Australian Guide to Pregnancy and Birth. It’s a beautiful and practical book available now and I’ve placed links to the shop below. Follow: @australianbirthstories 
 Australian Birth Stories Podcast: https://australianbirthstories.com/podcasts/ The Complete Australian Guide to Pregnancy and Birth Book: www.australianbirthstories.com/shop