Cuppa with a doula Alicia Cloarec-Riouat

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am chatting with the lovely Hannah, who shares with us 2 pregnancies and births.

TRIGGER WARNING, in this episode, Hannah talks about the pregnancy and birth of her baby girl Olive who unfortunately passed away hours after being born. 



✔️getting pregnant with her first daughter Billie and experiencing anxiety (both due to her knowledge as a midwife and having a pre-existing anxiety condition) 

✔️how Hannah prepared herself and her partner for her labour and birth 

✔️finding out in labour that Billie was in a brow presentation and being at peace with having a c-section but finally birthing her vaginally 

✔️having shingles in the early weeks postpartum 

✔️finding out at 20 weeks that Hannah’s cervix had shortened, which meant getting weekly monitoring at the hospital and potentially getting a cervical stitch 

✔️Hannah’s waters breaking at 22 weeks and 3 days 

✔️seeing a neonatologist to discuss potential outcomes of a premature birth and what could be expected 

✔️Hannah and her husband Ben facing an impossible decision to continue with the pregnancy or induce labour at 22 weeks 

✔️Hannah’s labour and birth of Olive who lived for a few hours after being born 

✔️how Hannah has been working through her grief and is creating projects to carry on Olive’s legacy

✔️going through a postpartum journey and ongoing health issues while grieving the loss of her baby girl 

✔️telling her 2.5 year old daughter about the loss of her sister 



The beginning of Olive’s pregnancy and birth story is at 00.36.45 



To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am chatting with the lovely Michelle, who shares with us her unique births and pregnancy stories. From being pregnant at a time where very limited information was available for mums-to-be, to birthing overseas and expanding her family when she thought she was done having children, we cover it all with Michelle! Here is what we chat about in this episode 



✔️becoming a step-mum when entering new relationship with then husband and soon after falling pregnant unexpectedly 

✔️what her experience of pregnancy was like 20 years ago with limited resources available 

✔️having a very long labour, where looking back, things could have been different if Michelle had been able to labour in her own space 

✔️giving first to her first daughter, who was born unresponsive, had to be resuscitated, tested positive for group B strep infection and was sent to the neonatal unit 

✔️being pregnant and giving birth in Malaysia where the culture is so different to our Australian one 

✔️entrusting the system and the medical professionals for her first 3 births 

✔️reflecting on her first 3 births, including one spontaneous labour and 2 inductions and wanting to do things differently for her 4th birth 

✔️being scared into having an induction for her 4th baby only die to her age, despite having a healthy pregnancy without any complications 

✔️getting access to more information compared to her first birth, learning more about the physiology of birth, being drawn to a homebirth and trusting her body could birth her baby 

✔️how Michelle is preparing her body and mind for a homebirth without any drugs or interventions 

✔️changing the narrative around the language we use to talk about pregnancy and birth 



To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I am the one stepping behind the mic to finally deliver to you the birth story of my first born, while pregnant with our second. In this talk, I tell you all about my journey from deciding to become a mum, to conception, pregnancy and beyond. I chat all about 



✔️navigating trying to conceive, not knowing my cycles and my body well yet and learning all about ovulation 

✔️experiencing a miscarriage after 9 months of trying to conceive and the perspective that it gave me  

✔️using the BRAIN acronym during pregnancy to help determine my options for birth 

✔️how I managed my pregnancy as an Exercise Physiologist

✔️how I prepared for my birth, decided what I preferred and navigated the system 

✔️finding the wait from 37 weeks (full-term) very challenging and being of two minds of wanting to have the baby soon but also wanting baby to stay in to mature for longer 

✔️my prelabour, how I managed it, finding my zone, doing what felt right for me and how things changed once I arrived to hospital 

✔️finding the transition into parenthood very challenging and experiencing the baby blues 

✔️feeling sadness and other negative emotions in the first 6-8 weeks of baby’s life 

✔️feeling anxious about partner returning back to work and looking after our daughter on my own 

✔️the process of deciding to have another child and what that was like 



I am currently 33 weeks pregnant, if you are interested in my current pregnancy journey here are the summary of my first and second trimester 


First trimester - https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/pregnancy-series-01-miscarriage-1st-trimester-recap/id1663704129?i=1000609190548&l=en-GB 
Second trimester - https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/pregnancy-series-02-alicia-full-time-caravan-traveling/id1663704129?i=1000621320865&l=en-GB 





To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I chat with Maddy, mum to baby boy Sully. In this conversation we chat all about 



✔️being so in-tune with her body that she knew she was pregnant within days of conception 

✔️beginning her pregnancy thinking she was quite informed due to her background as a nurse but realising she didn’t know as much as she could have 

✔️having extra growth scans to check for potential growth restriction due to bicornate uterus 

✔️having the mindset of “I just want a happy and healthy baby, I’ll be fine with whatever” 

✔️having a relative close to her lose her baby at term and how this shaped Maddy’s view of “just wanting a healthy and live baby” 

✔️experiencing postpartum rage, not being heard by her GP or antenatal psychiatrist and trying to find strategies on her own to navigate it 

✔️choosing to be induced due to reduced foetal movement late in pregnancy and past trauma and what the induction was like for Maddy 

✔️having an unwell 3 day old newborn, taking him to the emergency department where he was diagnosed with febrile seizures 

✔️having her newborn baby in NICU for 2 weeks 

✔️mix-feeding due to hospital stay but trying to keep a good breastmilk supply by pumping regularly 

✔️managing to reverse mix-feeding by 2 months and exclusively breastfeed her son 

✔️what Maddy plans to do for her next pregnancy and breastfeeding journey 



To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I chat with Amber, musculoskeletal physiotherapist with an interest in women’s health and soon to be a mum of 2. In this episode, Amber takes us through her first pregnancy and first for her son and how she decided to do things differently for her second pregnancy, we also chat about 



✔️waiting to have an established career before having children despite having a strong desire to start a family 

✔️societal expectations on pregnant women and mothers when it comes to work load, maternity leave and return to work 

✔️how Amber prepared for both pregnancy,  postpartum and breastfeeding during her first pregnancy 

✔️setting herself for a successful breastfeeding journey by beginning her learning before baby arrived

✔️spontaneously going into labour at 37+4 without expecting it as a first time mum 

✔️how Amber managed to stay in her zone at the hospital despite being made to feel that there was a real sense of emergency 

✔️having to bargain with the hospital to have her wishes respected and even then being bullied into doing things she didn’t want to 

✔️the power of breastfeeding education and how it helped Amber to get a good start to her breastfeeding journey and be confident to troubleshoot potential issues 

✔️challenges that come with having an oversupply of milk and how long it took to regulate her supply 

✔️donating unwanted milk to her local community 



If you are looking for or wanting to donate breast milk to help families, there are Facebook groups that might help such as 


Human milk 4 human babies (there is a group for each state in Australia) 



To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)

Hey hey, 



Thanks for tuning into today’s conversation. Today I back behind the mic to give you an update on how my pregnancy has been going as well as all the things that have changed since my first recording including 



✔️living full-time in our caravan with a 19 months-old and we see our travels moving forward with a newborn 

✔️listening to your intuition and changing my care over as it didn’t feel right for me 

✔️transferring my pregnancy care interstate from QLD to NSW and how I did it 

✔️taking an active part in your pregnancy, preparing for birth, following up on referrals 

✔️current pregnancy symptoms in my second trimester 

✔️birth education I did for my first birth and for this upcoming one 

✔️birthing tools I used for my first birth and ones I am hoping to practice more and use this time around 

✔️postpartum preparation, considering sleeping arrangements, naps, meal prepping 



To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast. 



If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA 



This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube 



Follow me on social media for more content 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula 



If you would like to see my offerings including doula work, birth and parenting education classes head over to www.triskwell.com 



Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode! 

Alicia :)