PodcastsEducationPositive Birth Australia

Positive Birth Australia

Skye Waters
Positive Birth Australia
Latest episode

191 episodes

  • Positive Birth Australia

    S7 EP191: Bianca Telford: Living with Epilepsy / “High Risk” Label / Hospital Birth / Freebirth at Home

    28/03/2026 | 1h 25 mins.
    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
    Missed miscarriage and conscious conception
    Preconception detox and preparing the body for pregnancy
    Navigating pregnancy with epilepsy and being labelled “high risk”
    Discovering physiological birth and the desire for home birth
    Feeling limited by the system and shifting birth plans
    Hospital birth experience and cascade of interventions
    The emotional impact of feeling overridden during birth
    Reflecting on giving away power vs reclaiming it
    Choosing a sovereign/home birth for her second pregnancy
    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:
    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
  • Positive Birth Australia

    S7 EP190: Kaitlyn Shofay: Hospital Birth Trauma / Rare Face Presentation Birth at Home / Faith-led Freebirth

    22/03/2026 | 1h 35 mins.
    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
  • Positive Birth Australia

    S7 EP189: Emma Evans: Pregnancy After Loss / Rainbow Baby / Shortened Cervix / Publicly Funded Homebirth

    14/03/2026 | 56 mins.
    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:
    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
  • Positive Birth Australia

    S7 EP188: Laura Gaschk: Private OB + Hospital Shower Birth / Fibroid + Risked Out of Birth Cottage / Postpartum Mental Health / Private Midwifery Care / Rural Birth Options / Homebirth

    07/03/2026 | 2h 31 mins.
    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
  • Positive Birth Australia

    S7 EP187: Jasmine Darke: A Birth Testimony / From Medicalised Hospital Birth to Pain-Free Homebirth / Faith + Prayer Preparation

    28/02/2026 | 45 mins.
    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

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About Positive Birth Australia

A heartfelt Australian podcast sharing real, empowering birth stories to inspire, educate, and heal. Created with love by Skye, a Brisbane mum devoted to normalising the beauty of physiological birth, each episode brings honest stories and guidance from mothers, partners, and birth professionals. Deep, meaningful conversations to help you reconnect with your intuition, trust your body, and remember the innate wisdom of birth, passed down through the ancient art of storytelling. Find us on Instagram: @positivebirthaustralia
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