Healing Birth with Carla

Today’s episode is a bit of a different one and quite possibly my favourite interview to date. Tessa gave birth to her first baby just 4 months ago. I met her during her pregnancy when she did my Soulful Birth course and then she also went on to do my Healing Birth Practitioner Training in the final months before she gave birth. Tessa shares with us the path she walked to prepare herself for a truly wonderful home birth experience, with just her man, her doula and her friend present for support. If, as you listen to Tessa’s story, you feel inspired to either join my Soulful Birth course or train with me to become a certified Healing Birth practitioner, be sure to click on the relevant link at the bottom of the show notes. Both courses are run multiple times throughout the year so it doesn’t matter when you are tuning into this episode there’s bound to be a course offered in the not-too-distant future. But for now, let me grace your ears with this beautifully inspiring story of courage, trust, wisdom and growth, and oodles of delicious love. Also discussed: * medical trauma related to pandemic * tuning into and trusting her intuition * contemplating the potential for death in birth * taking responsibility for the things that are within our control regarding birth * partner’s role in free birth * unpacking of conditioned fears surrounding birth * guided meditations, journaling, somatic tools * vulnerability of first latching baby at breast * managing visitors in early postpartum * vaginal tear - supporting the natural healing process You can follow Tessa on her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tessaleighpitt/ Information on my (Carla's) group Soulful Birth course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulfulbirthgroup And on my 1:1 Soulful Birth For You offerings: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulfulbirthforyou More information on my Healing Birth Practitioner Training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training Check out other content I have created on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ Tessa's doula, Alexa (who has also done my Healing Birth Practitioner Training), is based in Hastings NZ. Here's her website: https://www.alexadoulaphotography.co.nz/

Abi is Mum to 4 year old Bill, 2 year old Freya, and 8 week old Ida, living on their rural property 2.5 hours drive from the nearest hospital. Her first two births were medical affairs, involving epidurals, induction and a large postpartum haemorrhage. Her most recent birth, however, was a gentle water birth experience at home, an utterly ordinary, yet simultaneously extraordinary occasion. Abi shares with us the journey she went on to confidently prepare for a rural home birth, and the buzz of ordinary delights like climbing into bed together as a family after a wondrous birth at day break. Also discussed in this episode: Learn about Carla's Soulful Birth course here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep Listen to Carla talk about birth and birth trauma related topics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth Follow Carla on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

Pregnant with her first baby in Australia, Grace did her doula training and was planning a gentle home birth. She had an epic support team who she fully trusted, but then at 36 weeks of pregnancy Grace had to make the excruciating call to move to NZ for her partner’s work. Aside from the struggles with leaving behind her wonderful home birth midwife and having to find a new match, Grace was also met with a few other challenges during her labour, the key one being a swollen lip of cervix and having the near impossible instruction to stop pushing. Not long thereafter, Grace succumbed to a hospital transfer, followed by an epidural and then a c section. The biggest struggle was yet to be faced though. It makes heartbreaking listening, hearing Grace describe the trauma she was met with as a new mum dealing with a low milk supply, a lack of bond with her baby, and isolation during Covid lockdowns in a town where she knew no one. Being advised that her baby required a formula top-up at 3 days of age, culminated in massive breastfeeding hurdles for the next five months. Her next birth was an entirely different experience, as was her breastfeeding journey. Hear how Grace navigated her healing and prepared for an empowering home birth. Also included in this episode: * stretch & sweep * 42+ week pregnancy * deflexed head * triple feeding (pumping) * nipple shields * doula care * PPH * birth debrief Visit Grace's website to learn more about her work: https://www.modernvillage.co.nz/ Follow her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modern.village/ Find out about my (Carla's) Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training Did you know I now have a Healing Birth YouTube channel. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth

Donna takes us on quite the journey, vulnerably sharing the stories of her two very different birth experiences. Her first birth was a harrowing time, fraught with abandonment, labouring in a motel room, meconium stained waters, a terrifying hospital transfer, exhaustion, a delayed epidural, and then finally culminating in a cesarean section. In stark contrast, Donna’s second was an incredibly empowering, healing and triumphant water birth at home. It’s quite something to imagine Donna having gone from the devastating fall-out of her first birth, including a deep sense of failure and confusion surrounding it all, PTSD and relationship struggles, to feeling strong in her conviction that she could, and would, birth her next baby at home. She shares with us the various supports and tools she utilised to begin healing and to ready herself to fully embrace her power and wisdom as a Mother and as a birthing woman. Also included in this episode: * Unsupportive vs supportive and respectful midwifery care * TENS * Doula support * Hypnobirthing * Posterior baby * Complications with living rurally * Inability to communicate or think during labour * Counselling support * NZ College of Midwives Resolutions process * Miscarriage * VBAC course Donna forgot to mention in her story that she found Havening a really helpful therapeutic tool for managing her PTSD symptoms. My (Carla's) Healing Birth work... Donna had a 1:1 Unravelling Your Trauma session with me. For more information on these and other healing services I offer, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing And the Soulful Birth course that Donna participated in is an 8 weeks long holistic birth and postpartum preparation course that is held online. I also now offer personalised 1:1 Soulful Birth For You options (which include a gorgeous journal that I have created). To find out more about both of these services, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep You can also access a lot of free information and guidance from me via my new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@healingbirth Donna's doula was Lily. You can connect with Lily via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilythedoula/ The Havening therapy that Donna found really helpful was with Robin Youngson: https://neuroscienceofhealing.com/ Donna also had wonderful acupuncture support from Anna-Lena Tews in Hamilton, NZ: https://altews-midwifery.com/

In this episode I speak with Aroha and her partner, Tihikura, about the home births of their two children, 5 year old Te Rangimoeke and 4 month old Rangiāniwaniwa. We hear about the challenges of having a long labour, including the influence of other people and their energies within the birth space, as well as a sense of abandonment when labour dragged on. Within the conversation, a lot of Māori words and practices are shared. I have included many of the words and their definitions in the shownotes, so hopefully you don’t feel too lost with the various elements of the experiences that Aroha and Tihikura describe. It brings such a unique and spiritual approach to the telling of their story and to honouring birth as the rite of passage that it is. We cover many moving and important themes, such as the impacts of midwifery interference in birth and the healing that can come through the debriefing process, super supportive postpartum preparations, the influence of children and siblings at births, Māori-based antenatal education, unhelpful expectations and predictions when it comes to birth, and so much more. Tikanga - customs, practices Whare - house Whenua - placenta and land Kainga - home Tamariki - children Whanaunga - relatives Tangi - cry and funeral Hapū - pregnancy Kōtiro - girl Harakeke - flax Mahitahi - working together Atua - gods and goddesses Wairua - spirit Tipuna - ancestors Wharepaku - toilet Tangaroa - god of the sea and fish Rangatiratanga - chieftainship, self-determination, sovereignty and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hapuwananga Contact Aroha via email: aroha@haputaranaki.co.nz If you're interested in my (Carla's) Soulful Birth online antenatal series, click here for more details: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/birthprep

Today’s guest, Sarah, vulnerably shares about the various struggles and traumas associated with her Mothering journey, including horrific Hyperemesis in her first pregnancy, numerous ultrasound scans which involved a lot of professional misconduct and needless fear mongering, being medicated for perinatal depression, feeling completely disconnected from her baby girl, amongst other medically managed challenges. She talks us through the grief and rage that resulted from her first birth and how she chose to navigate her next pregnancy. Sarah was faced with further systemic challenges nearing the end of that pregnancy, but ultimately decided that birthing at home with a trusted midwife was the best path for her. Be prepared to be taken on an emotional ride as Sarah tells her story with much passion and heart. Also discussed in this episode: * Group B Strep - antibiotics * Induction & epidural * Breastfeeding challenges - torticollis & tongue tie * Growth scans - SGA/IUGR babies * Different types of midwifery care * Postpartum rage * Postnatal depression in fathers * Psychotherapy * Marginal cord insertion & velamentous cord insertion * Waterbirth To check out my (Carla's) 1:1 birth trauma support offerings visit this link: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing To follow my work on Instagram, head here: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

Chelsea is a young mum of two littlies, Bindi and Wolf, and has another bub blossoming in her womb. Although she had hopes for a birthing centre water birth with her first, like so many, Chelsea found herself pushed down an interventionist path that culminated in a ceserean. In this episode of the podcast, Chelsea vulnerably shares the impacts that this experience had on her and how determined she was to ensure her next birth was a more gentle and respectful experience. Her birth with Wolf took place at home with midwives present. Although Wolf’s birth was really empowering for Chelsea, she reflects on the many ways her experience was disturbed unnecessarily and the effort required of her to ensure that her birth wasn’t derailed by the impacts of the birth system that were playing out in her home. Now, pregnant with her third, and with the insights and wisdom gained from her previous births, Chelsea is planning a wild pregnancy and free birth. Get ready to be taken on an inspirational, perhaps triggering, hopefully enlightening, and surely validating journey. So much of what Chelsea shares are experiences and feelings that many traumatised mums share with me in my work. Also discussed in this episode: * Induction * Cervical lip * C section for ‘failure to progress’ * VBAC/HBAC * Home birth * Impacts of choice of birth attendants * Perineal tear * Co-sleeping Follow Chelsea on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseaearley_/ Follow me (Carla) and my work on Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ or check out my website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/ Find out more about VBAC and Kristin's work via her MamaRise Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/mamarisedoulanz/

Elsie is the host of the Birthing at Home podcast, a mission that was inspired after the empowering home birth of her second baby. Both of Elsie’s children were born at home, but not all home births are created equal, and in this podcast episode she shares with us the various ways she was negatively impacted during her first birth, comparing them to the ways she stood in her power in her second. We also discuss medicalised midwifery training, as Elsie was once a student midwife herself, and how restrictions of their licence limit the ability of midwives to honour physiological birth and a mothers’ right to choose her birth path. Also discussed in this episode: Follow Elsie and her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birthingathome_apodcast/ Find her podcast via her LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/birthingathome_apodcast And find out more about me (Carla) and my work on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ or website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/

Kate’s story is a bit of a different one to those that are typically shared on here, not because she didn’t have a traumatic first birth, she did, and not because she didn’t have a healing next birth experience, she did. But, Kate’s second birth went nothing like the peaceful home birth she had hoped for and dreamed about. Thankfully, the self work and birth preparation that she did during her second pregnancy, part of which involved us working together, meant that Kate continued to experience her birth as empowering even when it appeared to be heading down the same harrowing path as her first. This is such an important story to be sharing. Kate was empowered to fully own her birth experience, and she shares about the multitude of things she did to ensure that her medicalised birth was a positive and healing one. She also opens up about how her births led her down the path of training with me to become a certified Healing Birth practitioner, something that has been a life altering experience for her. So, it’s a bit of a longer episode but definitely a worthwhile listen. Enjoy! Also discussed in this episode: To connect with Kate email her on kate.jagdale@gmail.com Follow my (Carla's) work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ Or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healingbirthwithcarla My website contact page: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/contact Details on my Healing Birth Practitioner Training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training

Nicola is Mum to 3 year old Skye and 6 week old Luca. Her first birth was a traumatic 5 day long ordeal that involved a posterior baby, an excruciating induction of labour, and an epidural that took far too long to be administered. During her next pregnancy, Nicola sought my support to unravel her trauma and to make plans for a healing birth experience. She talks us through how that 1:1 guidance encouraged her to have an empowering home birth, despite it being another long, posterior labour. In listening to others’ stories on this podcast, Nicola hadn’t been convinced that the descriptions of women going from traumatic to healing birth experiences had been completely honest… until she walked that journey for herself. Now that she knows what is possible, she wants to share her own inspirational story. Also included in this episode: For information on how you can receive 1:1 birth trauma support from me (Carla), head here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing To find out more about my Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training And to access my free Understanding Birth Trauma Basics course, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course

This episode is a deeply vulnerable share which delves into all the taboo topics surrounding birth and new motherhood. Poppy, a home birthing mother of two, one of which was a free birth, speaks frankly about herpes, about miscarriage, about radical responsibility, about being confronted with the potential for death in birth, about vaginal wall prolapse, about healing ourselves, and about postpartum sex. We leave no stone unturned with this wildly honest conversation that gets right to the heart of things most are too confronted by to ever really face. Covered in this episode: Follow Poppy's motherhood journey & podcast here: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/outthegateparenting_podcast/⁠ Find out more about my (Carla's) holistic birth & postpartum preparation course here: ⁠https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulful-birth

Pippa is Mum to 5 year old Greta, whose planned home birth ended in cesarean, and 8 month old Flora, whose empowering home birth involved an unexpectedly healing postpartum transfer to hospital due to a third degree tear. In this episode, Pippa shares various dimensions of the healing that becoming a mum has encouraged her to delve into. She talks about how peeling away the layers of the mother wound has supported her to find her voice and be her authentic self, and she shares the journey she has been on to offer her own daughter the opportunity to heal her birth wounds. Threaded throughout this conversation is the notion of generational healing that can take place when we do the work to access our inner healer. I am particularly grateful to Pippa for sharing about the ways she has supported her daughter to heal. In my work, I hear a lot of grief and guilt from new mums about what their baby must have experienced during, and in the wake of, their traumatic birth, and a sense of helplessness around how to heal the damage done. Pippa and I discuss some great tools to guide this process, so hopefully some of you listeners who can relate to this, feel encouraged with helpful suggestions. Also discussed in this episode: * Artificial rupture of membranes * Epidural * Breastfeeding challenges * Laid back nursing * Mother Blessing * Physical support during pushing phase * Setting loving boundaries with children * Laughter & play as tools to help our children heal * The Aware Parenting podcast If you are interested in following my (Carla's) work on Instagram, here's the link: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ You can find out more about the Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training And here's the link for my free Understanding Birth Trauma Basics course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course

As humans we are also mammals, and like all other mammals, evolution has ensured that we are well equipped to birth in safe and rewarding ways with a very rare need for outside interference. In fact, disturbing our innate birth design in the countless ways us humans do, often creates a lot more difficulties and harm than safety. Today’s podcast guest, Lindsay Askins, knows a lot about mammalian birth. She shares with us how her decade long experience as a vet tech, witnessing untold births of horses and other mammals, led her to understand that birthing at home without a midwife in attendance was going to be the safest way to birth her first baby, a profoundly life-changing and positive experience for her. We dive into some great conversations about mammalian biology, about the mind-body connection, about how disturbing a woman’s birth and creating fear in the birth space can lead to all sorts of complications, including damage to the mother-baby bond, and about the needless trauma that is created due to over medicalisation and obstetric violence. Hear about the Exposing the Silence project that Lindsay co-founded with Cristin Pascucci, from Birth Monopoly, and about the Birth Like a Mammal business that Lindsay now runs. She’s a juicy and informative podcast episode, folks! Check out Lindsay's website here: https://www.birthlikeamammal.com/ Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/birthlikeamammal/ Here's a link to the Exposing the Silence project: https://www.exposingthesilence.com/ Email Lindsay at join@birthlikeamammal.com If you're interested in my (Carla's) work, here are some links for you... My free birth trauma training course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course My Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training My Soulful Birth online antenatal series: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulful-birth And you can follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

Today’s guest, Carla, is an Australian traditional birth keeper and healer. She shares with us the deeply moving story of birthing her first baby just days after the passing of her own mother. This planned home birth ended in hospital transfer and provided the lessons for Carla to have a redemptive home birth with her second child. She now works with others supporting them on their own journey traversing the motherhood initiation. Carla describes herself beautifully on her website bio which reads: Birthing my two children has changed me, and I have grown to deeply revere this phase in a woman’s life. My experience of birth is that it is a life-changing event, ecstatic, sacred and challenging, a liminal space between worlds. It also has the potential to be a healing experience. To discover a strength and power you’ve never known. To expand into a deeper sense of self and connection. To love deeply. Yet without appropriate support, the golden wisdom available in this transition is often lost. Included in this episode: You can check out Carla's work on her website: https://www.traditionalhealingbirthwork.com/ And follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carla.sage.birthwork/ And if you're interested in exploring my (the other Carla's) free Understanding Birth Trauma Basics course, head here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course Or my Healing Birth Practitioner Training Programme, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training You can also follow my work on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

After the birth of her first baby, Bekki experienced intense fear and anxiety surrounding whether her baby was getting enough milk from her, or not. She hadn’t addressed the fears she held onto with regards to the breast reduction surgery she had had years earlier and what this might mean in terms of her ability to produce sufficient milk. Through good support, expert advice, generous offers of donor milk, many tears and sheer determination, Bekki’s breastfeeding journey became a very successful one. In fact she is still breastfeeding her daughter even after having birthed her son a few months ago. What is more, Bekki has developed a website and various services that aim to support other mothers on their parenting and breastfeeding journeys. What a legend! Soak up the juicy lessons and heart that Bekki’s story have to offer. Check out The Perinatal Directory NZ that Bekki started... Website: https://theperinataldirectory.nz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MamaShineNZ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theperinataldirectory/ If you're interested in my (Carla's) Soulful Birth course, take a look here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulful-birth Or my FREE Understanding Birth Trauma Basics course, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course Or details about the Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme, click here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training Or if you'd like some 1:1 support from me to guide you on your own healing journey, click here for options to work with me: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/healing You can also follow my work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

In celebration of ONE YEAR of the Healing Birth with Carla podcast, including 45 episodes and 4.6k of downloads in 30 countries, I invited Sophia Paskell to join me on this episode. Sophia was one of my first podcast guests and her episode #3, titled Sophia Paskell - on Grief, Loss, Birth & Death, has been the most listened to episode of them all. This special celebratory episode has Sophia sharing the intimate story of the birth of her niece, a particularly touching birth for her to have attended. She was given the honour of receiving her sister's baby as she was powerfully birthed into the world. Sit back and soak up the oxytocin xox Included in this episode... If you would like to follow Sophia's work or get in touch with her, here are some links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mothers_circle/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/motherscirclenz Website: https://www.motherscircle.co.nz/ And if you would like to follow my (Carla's) work or connect with me, here are my links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healingbirthwithcarla Website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/

Like me, Emma is an ex midwife who now works primarily in supporting new mothers to find healing after a traumatic birth or who have struggled with the transition into motherhood. She shares with us about her midwifery experience and why she quit not long after starting; about her own two birth experiences and the crucial impact that her positive first birth had on navigating major breastfeeding challenges; and about the path she has travelled in her birth work. I love that Emma shares about her experience of doing my Healing Birth Practitioner Training programme and the impacts she sees this work having on the clients she serves. She also talks about her studies in Matrescence and Timeline Reset work. If you’re potentially interested in developing your own understanding of birth trauma and how to guide people on their healing journey, you’re going to want to tune in for the entirety of this episode. And of course it’s a great listen for anyone who is navigating their own pathway to healing after a traumatic birth. Also discussed in this episode: Books mentioned: The Postnatal Depletion Cure by Dr Oscar Serrelach Mama Rising by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz (her course to support mothers through matrescence is also called Mama Rising) Check out Emma's work... Her website: https://www.empowermatrescence.com/ Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/empowermatrescence/ If you're interested in looking into my (Carla's) Healing Birth Practitioner Training, head here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training I also offer a FREE Understanding Birth Trauma Basics course: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/understanding-birth-trauma-basics-course And you can join me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

In this episode I interview free birth mentor and podcast co-host, Victoria whose instagram page is titled @freetobirth. Victoria shares with us the stories of her own two births, 4 and 2 years ago. Her first birth was planned to be a home birth but ended up being a hospital transfer for meconium stained waters. During her second pregnancy, Victoria went on a bit of a journey of self discovery that ultimately saw her declining midwifery care partway through and opting to have a free birth. In this interview Victoria also shares her thoughts on who free birth is for; how we learn to tune into our intuition; the questions we need to be exploring to get the birth we’re seeking; the partner’s involvement in free birth planning; being mindful of people pleaser tendencies, and so much more. Enjoy! Or check out her website: https://freetobirth.co.uk/ If you want to connect with me (Carla) DM via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/ Or via my website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/

In this episode I interview Mieke, a Canadian mother of two, whose Instagram page, @takeyourbirthbystorm, captured my attention and sparked a desire to dive a little deeper with her. After training as a birth doula Mieke went on to birth her first baby at home with a midwife in attendance. Her second birth ended up being a free birth. She shares with us why this was the path she chose and how this ultimately led to her becoming a free and autonomous birth advocate. Mieke shares her love for birth story podcasts and how they were her greatest source of information and inspiration; she offers ways to prepare for a free birth, including how to get in tune with your body and intuition; she speaks on the topics of radical self responsibility and shadow work; and we discuss questions to ask when interviewing potential maternity care providers. Check out Mieke’s instagram profile page to find links to some great free resources: https://www.instagram.com/takeyourbirthbystorm/ Interested in my (Carla's) Soulful Birth course? Head to this page of my website: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/soulful-birth Keen to explore training with my to become a Healing Birth practitioner? Take a look here: https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/hb-practitioner-training Or follow my Healing Birth work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healing.birth/

In today’s episode I talk with Bonnie… and her newest little sidekick, Tilly, also apparently has quite a bit to add to the conversation! Tilly was born in their house bus, a beautifully healing experience for Bonnie after Eddie’s birth having gone nothing like she’d planned and hoped for. I love the openness with which Bonnie shares her stories and the various challenges she worked through. Eddie’s birth involved artificial breaking of the waters, coached pushing, an episiotomy and a time of disconnect with her newborn. In contrast, Tilly’s birth was fully led by Bonnie while her support team watched on in awe. She talks about her lotus birth experience and why honouring the placenta felt important to her. Sit back with a cuppa and enjoy this frank and inspiring chat.