This week on the show I’m joined by Shari from Belly2Birth, a birth educator of over 13 years and now trauma-informed coach whose work has evolved into supporting women through the deeper emotional layers of birth and beyond.

In this conversation, we move into something that isn’t spoken about enough… the reality that more than 1 in 3 women walk away from birth carrying trauma. Today we explore how these experiences can stay with us long after birth… shaping the way we feel, respond, and move through motherhood.

This is a powerful conversation that brings birth trauma into the light… highlighting the depth of impact these experiences can have on a woman’s body, mind, and sense of self… and how important it is to have the space, support, and tools to process and release them as part of this rite of passage.

1. The reality of birth trauma… and why it’s more common than we think
2. How trauma can form through how a woman feels in her birth
3. Shari’s personal experience and what shaped her work
4. Why women can feel unheard or disconnected within the system
5. The fawning response… and why many don’t speak up in the moment
6. How trauma can show up later… often when something triggers it
7. Why these experiences are held in the body
8. The difference between reflecting on birth and actually processing it
9. How past patterns and the subconscious can influence birth
10. What it looks like to process, release, and move forward

Show Notes:

Instagram: @belly2birth

Website: www.belly2birth.com

Listen to Shari's birth stories HERE.

Free Birth Debrief:

Shari offers free 1:1 birth debrief sessions - you can reach out to her via Instagram to book and check availability.

Use code POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all Shari's programs.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Jaylene, a Canadian-born mother now living in New Zealand, whose journey into motherhood carries deep threads of grief, healing, intuition and trust.

Long before conception, Jaylene was navigating the devastating loss of her younger brother… a grief that reshaped her sense of timing, readiness.. It wasn’t until years later, after consciously creating space to reconnect with herself, that she stepped into pregnancy with intention and openness.

Throughout her pregnancy, Jaylene followed what felt aligned for her… immersing herself in positive birth stories, and trusting her body, which ultimately led her to choose to birth at home. However, when she discovered her baby was breech, she was met with resistance and had to deeply advocate for her choices, educating herself and standing firmly in what she knew to be right for her and her baby.

What unfolds is an extraordinary birth story… a fast, instinctive, under four-hour labour at home, where her son was born breech, in his own time and in his own way… on a date that carries profound meaning for her family.

Jaylene’s story is a powerful reflection of surrender, sovereignty, and trusting both the seen and unseen elements of birth.

In This Episode We Cover

1. Navigating deep grief before stepping into motherhood
2. Creating intentional space before conception
3. Pregnancy as a time of healing, reflection, and transition
4. Choosing a planned home birth in New Zealand
5. Discovering baby was breech and exploring options
6. Advocating for a breech vaginal birth outside standard recommendations
7. Preparing mentally, emotionally, and physically for birth
8. A fast and instinctive 3 hour 45 minute labour
9. Physiological breech birth at home with midwife support
10. Baby born on her late brother’s birthday

Resources + Mentions

Books

Hypnobirthing – Siobhan Miller

Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage – Rachel Reed

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth – Ina May Gaskin

Education

Breech Without Borders

Spinning Babies

Share The Episode

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram @positivebirthaustralia so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.

Mentioned in this episode:

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

This week on the show I’m joined by Bianca, a Brisbane mum of two whose journey into motherhood is a powerful reflection of intuition, advocacy, and deep self-trust.

After experiencing a missed miscarriage, Bianca consciously prepared her body and mind before conceiving her first daughter, Bliss. Throughout her pregnancy, she immersed herself in birth education and began to question the mainstream narrative around birth, feeling strongly drawn toward a physiological home birth.

However, after being classified as “high risk” due to her epilepsy, Bianca found her options limited and ultimately entered the hospital system, where her plans began to unravel.

Bianca’s second pregnancy became a turning point… because this time she chose to follow the inner knowing she had felt all along. What unfolds is a deeply personal and transformative birth at home, where she sinks into the inner work, meets her fears head-on, and anchors into a level of trust she had always carried within.

In This Episode We Cover

1. Missed miscarriage and conscious conception
2. Preconception detox and preparing the body for pregnancy
3. Navigating pregnancy with epilepsy and being labelled “high risk”
4. Discovering physiological birth and the desire for home birth
5. Feeling limited by the system and shifting birth plans
6. Hospital birth experience and cascade of interventions
7. The emotional impact of feeling overridden during birth
8. Reflecting on giving away power vs reclaiming it
9. Choosing a sovereign/home birth for her second pregnancy
10. Inner work, fear release, and fully trusting her body during birth

Resources + Mentions

Instagram

@theblissfulwaters

Books

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Dr Sarah Buckley

Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Dr Rachel Reed

Birth Course:

Free Birth Society

Birth Affirmations:

Yolande Norris-Clark

Share The Episode

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Kaitlyn, a mother of three from Toowoomba whose journey into motherhood began in the most unexpected way… falling pregnant to a man she’d only known for six weeks after a failed morning after pill. What followed was a whirlwind into love, partnership, and parenthood… but also a deeply medicalised first birth that shaped everything that came after.

Kaitlyn shares three completely different birth experiences… from a private hospital birth with a cascade of interventions, to a deeply empowering homebirth, and finally, a freebirth guided by her intuition, her faith in God, and a deep trust in her body.

Her second birth brings an incredibly rare and powerful moment… birthing her baby face presentation in the water. And with her third, Kaitlyn steps even further into surrender, navigating a surprise pregnancy and a profound inner knowing she was guided by God... and that this was her baby girl.

Kaitlyn’s story is a powerful reflection of how birth can become a turning point… an unraveling of what we’ve been taught, and a return to trust, intuition, and something greater guiding the way.

In This Episode We Cover

• Falling pregnant after six weeks + navigating a relationship and motherhood at the same time

• A highly medicalised first birth + the cascade of interventions

• Epidural, episiotomy + vacuum-assisted delivery

• Postpartum trauma + an undiagnosed hematoma + difficult recovery

• Miscarriage + the emotional impact of a D&C

• Letting go of control + unexpectedly falling pregnant again

• Choosing a home birth + finding aligned midwifery care

• A rare face presentation water birth + trusting the body through the unexpected

• The shift from fear to trust + healing through birth

• A surprise third pregnancy + a moment she believes God revealed she was carrying a little girl

Share The Episode

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.

Mentioned in this episode:

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Emma first joined me on the podcast five years ago to share the story of her first daughte’s beautiful and unexpected bathroom floor birth.

In this episode she returns to share everything that has happened since then… from moving to the Sunshine Coast and trying for another baby, to the devastating loss of her son Leo, the physical complications that followed, and the healing journey that ultimately led to the birth of her rainbow baby.

Emma shares openly about grief, pregnancy after loss, navigating anxiety around scans and testing, and her experience birthing at home through the publicly funded home birth program. With a labour that unfolded very differently to her first birth, Emma reflects on the profound journey of leaning into intuition and surrendering to the path birth ultimately takes.

In This Episode We Cover

• Pregnancy after loss

• Monitoring a shortened cervix

• Publicly funded homebirth program

• Weeks of prodromal labour

• A 41 week home birth

Resources + Mentions

Emma’s previous episode sharing Sophia’s birth story HERE.

Sunshine Coast University Hospital publicly funded homebirth program

Midwifery Group Practice (MGP)

Dr Anne-Marie Corral – Fertility Naturopath

Denise Ludwick – Women’s Health Practitioner

iMedical pathology testing

Positive Birth Australia Sacred Birth Affirmation Track

Share The Episode

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram so more women can discover these stories and feel supported in their own journey.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

This week on the show I’m joined by Laura as she shares her journey into motherhood. Laura discovering she was pregnant while travelling around Australia on a honeymoon road trip, navigating early scans across multiple states during COVID, before returning home to prepare for birth.

During her first pregnancy Laura sought a physiological birth and continuity of care, but after a fibroid was discovered overlapping the placenta she was risked out of the midwife-led birth cottage she had planned and transferred into hospital care. After navigating conflicting medical opinions and fragmented care, Laura ultimately found support with a private obstetrician and went on to birth her daughter in a powerful spontaneous labour in the hospital shower.

Laura shares how the intensity of her postpartum experience, including significant mental health challenges, shaped the way she approached her next pregnancy and birth. When she fell pregnant again, Laura felt strongly that she wanted something more supported, more personal, and more aligned with the kind of care she had longed for the first time around. In this episode Laura shares how she discovered private midwifery care halfway through her pregnancy, hired a “home away from home” birth space, and went on to experience a beautiful water birth surrounded by trusted support… catching her baby boy at home in the water.

This conversation explores continuity of care, trusting your instincts, navigating rural birth options, postpartum mental health, and the powerful difference the right support can make in both birth and motherhood.

In this episode we discuss:

• Discovering pregnancy while travelling around Australia

• Navigating scans across multiple states during COVID

• Fibroids and being risked out of a midwife-led birth cottage

• Navigating conflicting medical advice

• Spontaneous labour and hospital shower birth

• The realities of postpartum mental health

• Pregnancy after miscarriage

• Discovering private midwifery care

• Hiring a “home away from home” birth space

• A beautiful water birth experience

• The power of continuity of care

Resources + Mentions:

Instagram:

@Laura_gaschk @marbehvale @marbehvale_homestead

Birth Photographer:

@amyphilpphotography

Midwife:

@nurtureyourbirth

Pelvic Floor Physio:

@somatic_womankind

PANDA – Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia

https://www.panda.org.au

Beyond Blue

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE)

https://www.cope.org.au

Homebirth Australia

https://homebirthaustralia.org

Australian College of Midwives – Find a Midwife

https://www.midwives.org.au

Share the episode...

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need to hear it. And if you enjoy the show, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps more women discover these stories.

Mentioned in this episode:

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

In today’s episode, Jasmine shares her extraordinary journey from an intense hospital birth with her first child to a pain-free home birth with her second.

After a long, medicalised first labour that left her fearful and unsure she ever wanted to give birth again, Jasmine entered her next pregnancy still carrying deep uncertainty about birth.

During that pregnancy, her outlook shifted dramatically as she began preparing in a completely different way - grounding her journey in her faith in God through prayer and speaking scripture over her pregnancy. She recounts how this guided her through fear and doubt, ultimately leading to a birth experience she could only describe as miraculous.

Show Notes & Mentions:

Instagram: @jasminedinis

Business: Folke Estate

Book: Supernatural Childbirth – Jackie Mize

Mentioned in this episode:

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Vanessa joins me from Coffs Harbour to share the story of birthing both of her daughters at home… her first during lockdown in a tiny studio apartment after a 26-hour posterior labour at 41+4 weeks, and her second in the quiet stillness of dawn - a sunrise water birth that unfolded almost exactly as she had envisioned.

After reflecting deeply on her first birth experience, Vanessa immersed herself in emotional womb healing, mantra, and the teachings of freebirth philosophy. Her second labour became an exploration of mindset, responsibility, and self-trust… labouring alone through much of the night and anchoring into a simple phrase that transformed her experience.

In this episode we discuss:

1. Posterior labour and going 41+4
2. Labouring at home without scans or medical testing
3. The role of mindset in physiological birth
4. Emotional womb work and releasing stored tension
5. Labouring solo and conscious birth preparation
6. Having an older child witness birth
7. Placenta encapsulation and postpartum recovery
8. Taking responsibility for your birth choices
9. The power of “knowing”

This is a conversation about transformation… about shifting from endurance to intention, and from hoping for a positive birth to consciously choosing one.

Resources & Mentions:

Personal Instagram:

@coramba_cottage

Books:

📖 Portal by Yolande Norris-Clark

Instagram: @bauhauswife

Birth Sling:

@the.birth.sling

Pregnancy Yoga (Coffs Harbour):

@wildernessyoga.coffs

Womb & Pelvic Healing Work with Chaitanya:

@wombtemple.healing

Sydney Midwife (First Birth):

@janineatibirth

If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review on your podcast platform to help us reach more women around the world.

To stay connected between episodes, follow along on Instagram @positivebirthaustralia.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Birth Debrief with Shari from Belly2Birth + 10% Off All Programs

Use code: POSITIVEBIRTH10 for 10% off all programs including Journey to Birth + a free birth debrief.

Esfera Designs Wellness (Birth) Ball

Create a calm, supportive space during pregnancy and postpartum with Esfera Designs. Use code: PBA20 for $20 off your order.

Esfera Designs