When VBAC doesn’t go to plan – it’s not failure “Failed VBAC” — it’s a phrase that gets tossed around far too commonly in medical records, hospital corridors and social media groups, yet it carries a heavy emotional weight for the women it refers to. For many women who have planned a vaginal birth after...
Why “maternal alignment” matters more than foetal positioning When we hear the term Optimal Foetal Positioning (OFP), the focus is often on encouraging the baby into the ideal position for birth, usually anterior, head-down, and slightly to the left, which is written in birth text and has become gospel. While this makes sense in theory,...
Investing in your birth: why childbirth education matters According to the Australian Bridal Industry Academy (ABIA), the average wedding in Australia costs approximately $41,400, with couples spending over 250 hours planning every detail of that one special day. It’s a meaningful celebration – but it’s just one day. Now consider this: childbirth is not only...
April is Caesarean Awareness Month: Highlighting Australia’s Caesarean Section Trends April is Caesarean Awareness Month – a time to reflect on how this major abdominal surgery has evolved and what it means for birthing women today, especially here in Australia where caesarean rates are among the highest in the developed world. It’s a moment to...
When it comes to choosing an obstetrician for your pregnancy and birth, you’re not just choosing a care provider – you’re choosing someone who will influence one of the most vulnerable, raw, and powerful experiences of your life. And while there are many excellent obstetricians who genuinely care about supporting women and providing evidence-based care,...
Preparing for childbirth is a deeply personal journey, and the support you receive can have a profound impact on your birth experience. While traditional hospital-based childbirth education classes focus on medical procedures and hospital protocols, independent childbirth education offers a more holistic approach. These classes often integrate essential tools such as massage, acupressure, the use...
I feel it is important to share birth stories of when things don’t go to plan, because even though you may be preparing yourself for a physiological birth, in my classes I discuss also being prepared for “any” birth, because birth is unpredictable. We discuss the deviation to the ideal plan, and how it is...
Fat vaginas can’t give birth! Being a childbirth educator, I get to hear the best and the worst from my clients of our maternity care system. This seems to be the new thing with obstetricians telling women with higher BMI’s that they can’t give birth vaginally because their vagina is too fat, and babies will...
When I found out I was pregnant I immediately felt partial to having a home birth. I was born at home myself in the early 90s, as were many of my cousins and my brother four years later (which my mum encouraged a very excited me to be present for – my interest in pregnancy...
During the Middle Ages women continued to use natural medicines and holistic care for the wellbeing of their families and pregnant women, while men attended university to become physicians, which then started the restrictions on natural healers who were considered “witches” if they were performing healing without formal accreditation. The Church declared that anyone using...
Obstetricians and GP obstetricians are heading a push for machines that go “ping” to replace midwives. What this means is replacing real and dedicated continuity of care, touch, conversations, connections and experts in normal physiological birth with numbers, machines, computer screens and charts that lead to interventions and caesareans. The well-known skit from Monty Python’s...
Updated 03/06/24 We are so lucky to have so many awesome Privately Practising Midwives available in Western Australia, and I am so relieved that the list has grown extensively since I first started this Directory and continues to grow, which is exciting for women of Perth and Western Australia. A Privately Practising Midwife (PPM) is...
A ground-breaking Australian study on effective childbirth education was recently released by Dr. Kate Levett and Dr. Hannah Dahlen (who were also key-note speakers at our annual conference). This study highlighted how important it was to not only participate in independent childbirth education classes but to also find a program that included complementary therapies to...