The Natural Birth Blog

Jane Hardwicke Collings - Birthing in Crisis

In this very special episode of The Natural Birth Podcast, Anna has a conversation with Jane Hardwicke Collings, a former midwife and the founder of the school of shamanic woman craft on How to Birth during a Crisis.

This episode came about the same week that the Ukraine war broke out in Europe and the unprecedented flooding in Annas former home state of NSW Australia.

Jane was also affected by the flooding in NSW, but not as badly as other places like of the Northern Rivers, where reports of women birthing on roof tops due to flooding were reaching Anna.

Both Anna & Jane felt deeply for the community they know and love and wanted to offer their help to them, and to pregnant and birthing women from all over the world faced with war and natural disasters leaving them birthing in crisis.

This episode will go into the full process of labour and birth and how to keep it as safe and physiological as possible in the midst of crisis as well...

Reclaiming Birth as a Rite of Passage - with Rachel Reed
The Natural Birth Podcast Season 5

Australias national treasure Dr. Rachel Reed, author, midwife, teacher, speaker and researcher guested The Natural Birth Podcast in January of 2021.

She was just finishing up her book Reclaiming Birth as a Rite of Passage and had just started The Midwife's Cauldron Podcast with Katie James.

And I had the pleasure of interviewing her about her births and pick her cleaver brain on all things birth as a rite of passage.

There's lots of pearls of wisdoms and gems in this conversation, and a lot of laughs as well.

Rachel is just so funny.

I loved our conversation and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it as well.

So let me introduce Rachel to you, if you've been living under a rock for the last few years and don't know this brilliant woman.

Rachel is a mum of two and a midwife and doctor of philosophy committed to the promotion of physiological birth and women’s rights.

In our...

Welcome to is Season 1 of The Natural Birth Podcast!

The Natural Birth Podcast is here to bring Embodied Birth Wisdom from women from all over the world sharing their Natural Birth Stories with the aim to inspire Mamas to believe in Their Amazing Bodies and in the Natural Birth Process.

The podcast host Anna The Spiritual Midwife wants to change the dominant birth narrative that birth is a medical event that women need to be saved from and showcase the many many stories of women, who when allowing and supporting the physiology of birth, have the most profound experiences of their lives and come out on the other side feeling powerful and capable of absolutely anything.

Listen to Natural Hospital Birth Stories, Home Birth Stories and Birth Centre Birth Stories from Sweden, Australia, Canada, UK, Holland and Switzerland in Season 1.

Listen on:
Itunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-natural-birth-podcast/id1510201555

Spotify - ...

Dear Mama!

You are not alone in fearing birth. 

It is natural and normal to fear the unknown!

And birth is unknown, whether you are having your 1st or your 5th. 

So, please let that sink in. It is not about Not having Fear. It's about not letting the fear overpower you and negatively affect you.

Let me help!

I have written this blog post about the 7 top fears in hope that examining them togther will help release some of the power they might hold over you.

Knowledge is power!

Ok, here we go...

1. I'm afraid I won't be able to handle the pain

Most women will experience the birth sensations of their womb contracting and dilating. Everyones perception of pain is different. Some women don't experience the contractions as painful but as pressure/tension and some women do experience the contractions as painful.

The sensations and/or pain of contractions only last around a minute. The pain is purposeful and you can do ANYTHING for a...