British Birthing Stories

I had Antonia on the pod today to share the story of her first pregnancy, one she describes herself as one in a million. Antonia has worked in health and fitness for almost a decade, runs her own business and is a Pilates instructor who specialises in supporting women with eating disorders and body image.

She knew she wanted a planned caesarean before she was even pregnant. Then hyperemesis gravidarum started on day one and never let up, and at her 20 week scan her baby was measuring on the zero centile, which led to specialist care at St George's. At 26 weeks, after weeks of breathlessness and rib pain she'd been told was probably anxiety, a CT scan found blood clots in both of her lungs.

Antonia made it to her planned caesarean at exactly 37 weeks, with a team she'd helped choose around her. Her breech daughter was born four minutes after the first incision, screaming. She also talks about her recent diagnosis of antithrombin deficiency, a rare genetic clotting condition, and why she and her husband have decided their family is complete.

In this episode we talk about:
What hyperemesis gravidarum is really like when no anti sickness medication works
Being told your baby is measuring small at the 20 week scan and what fetal medicine care looks like
Pulmonary embolism in pregnancy and the warning signs Antonia wants every woman to know
Choosing a planned caesarean by maternal request and holding firm when you're pushed towards induction
Antithrombin deficiency, PTSD from her pregnancy and advocating for yourself in NHS maternity care

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

Signs to look out for:
The signs Antonia noticed were breathlessness on everyday activity that hadn't been hard before, pain in her ribs and mid back running up into her shoulder and neck, pain when lying on her back, and with her second clot, a red, hot, swollen calf with cramp that woke her at night. If anything like this comes up in pregnancy or after birth, please call your maternity triage and get checked.
British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.
These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I spoke with Kristine Lauria, an American midwife who has attended over 5,000 births in more than 25 countries and the midwife at the heart of the documentary Allowed to Birth. Kristine started out almost 38 years ago as an apprentice midwife among the Amish in rural Ohio. Today she works with Doctors Without Borders in places like South Sudan and Bangladesh, and teaches breech and twin birth skills to midwives and doctors all over the world with Breech Without Borders.

We talk about what it really means when a pregnancy is labelled high risk, the follow up questions most women never think to ask, and whether a physiological birth is possible in a hospital. Kristine shares her own unassisted home birth with her son and explains why breech and twin births have come to be seen as so risky. I also share my own VBAC with Kit, including a forceps delivery, a postpartum haemorrhage and a NICU stay, and how the consultant who stayed by my side changed how I feel about it all.

Allowed to Birth is showing at screenings across the UK now. You can find out more here: https://www.allowedtobirth.com/

Work with Kristine here: https://kristinelauria.com/

In this episode we talk about:
What being labelled high risk actually means and the questions to ask your care provider
Why physiological birth is so hard to replicate in a hospital setting
Freebirth and unassisted birth, and what Kristine wants women to understand before choosing it
Why breech birth and twin birth are classed as high risk, and the role of provider training
The trust between a mother and her care provider, and why it matters so much

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.
British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.
These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I had Toya on the pod, a content creator and mum of one from London. She was induced at 38 weeks after a scan found extra fluid, and pushed her son River out with an epidural in.

Toya was low risk and loved being pregnant until her 36 week scan showed polyhydramnios and some pressure on the umbilical cord. She was induced with a pessary at 38 weeks, and on the second day her waters went on the hospital bed. Labour came on fast, she had an epidural, and after 40 minutes of pushing River was born with no assistance.

In this episode we talk about:
• High prolactin before pregnancy, and being told conceiving could be difficult
• Polyhydramnios and the 36 week scan that not every NHS trust offers
• How she pushed with an epidural by visualising and letting it wear off a little
• Her second degree tear, and why she never opened any of the sprays and pads she bought
• Tongue tie, weight loss and why her breastfeeding journey ended at five months

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.
British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.
These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the show Priyanka shares how she went from an unplanned caesarean for fetal growth restriction to a VBAC in the pool on an NHS midwife led unit. She's an antenatal teacher and the founder of the Unbiased Birth Club in Chelmsford, Essex.

Priyanka's son was measuring very small at her 36 week scan and was diagnosed with fetal growth restriction. Her induction at 37 weeks ended in an unplanned caesarean, and the weeks afterwards were hard, with feeding struggles and a readmission she went through on her own. When she fell pregnant again 22 months later she was under consultant led care, but she put together an out of guidance care plan with her community midwife so she could labour on the midwife led unit at Broomfield Hospital, without continuous monitoring or routine vaginal examinations.

Her labour started the night after her due date and came and went for four days. On the Monday, with a happy baby on the CTG and her waters still intact, three doctors and a student doctor tried to persuade her to stay in for an induction. She went home shaken. That night things picked up properly, and with her husband Andy, a TENS machine, gas and air and a midwife who had read every word of her plan, she had her daughter in the water. There were a frightening few minutes on the resus table, a postpartum haemorrhage and surgery for a third degree tear, and she still describes it as the birth she had been hoping for.

In this episode we talk about:
• Fetal growth restriction, asymmetrical growth and why her first baby was delivered at 37 weeks
• Writing an out of guidance care plan for a VBAC on a midwife led unit
• Declining continuous monitoring and vaginal examinations, then asking for one on her own terms
• Being pressured towards an induction when she and her baby were both well
• Why a birth with a third degree tear and a postpartum haemorrhage can still feel completely positive

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

The Unbiased Birth Club provides free and affordable antenatal education both online (UK wide) and in person in Essex. Our 5* rated courses are midwife approved, evidence-based and genuinely prepare you for the messy reality of labour, birth, postpartum recovery and newborn care.
unbiasedbirth.co.uk
@unbiasedbirth
British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.
These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I chat with Sophie, a wedding planner and first time mum, about how her son Cooper was born by C section at 30+5 after preeclampsia was picked up at a routine 28 week appointment. Her only sign had been swollen ankles.

She had been told PCOS meant she'd probably need IVF, so finding out she was 13 weeks pregnant, only because she'd gone off coffee, was a huge shock. After her blood pressure came back high at 28 weeks, she spent a week and a half being admitted and sent home, with protein levels so high she's still known as the record holder at her hospital. By 30 weeks she was on 36 pills a day.

When a scan showed the blood flow to her baby had slowed right down, her consultant Robbie booked her in for a C section that afternoon. Cooper was born weighing 2lb 7oz and spent five weeks in NICU, where he had a collapsed lung and was moved to a specialist unit. Sophie talks openly about the guilt of pumping 5ml, and the lactation specialist who asked whether pumping was really right for her. Cooper came home at four pounds, weeks before his Christmas Day due date.

We talk about:
• Preeclampsia with no headaches or pain, and swollen ankles as the only sign
• Being admitted and sent home again and again with high blood pressure
• Steroid injections, Doppler scans and magnesium sulphate before a premature C section
• What a NICU stay is really like, from a collapsed lung to learning your baby instead of the monitor
• Pumping guilt, donor milk and choosing to formula feed

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.
British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.
These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.