Positive Birth Australia

Skye Waters

Positive Birth Stories and Advice

  • 2 hours 31 minutes
    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

    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


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    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    7 March 2026, 11:00 pm
  • 45 minutes
    S7 EP187: Jasmine Darke: A Birth Testimony / From Medicalised Hospital Birth to Pain-Free Homebirth / Faith + Prayer Preparation

    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:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    28 February 2026, 11:00 pm
  • 1 hour 43 minutes
    S7 EP186: Vanessa Harding: Two Home births / 26-Hour Posterior Labour at 41+4 / House Renovation + Wild Pregnancy

    Vanessa joins me from Coffs Harbour to share the story of birthing both of her daughters at home… her first during lockdown in a tiny studio apartment after a 26-hour posterior labour at 41+4 weeks, and her second in the quiet stillness of dawn - a sunrise water birth that unfolded almost exactly as she had envisioned.

    After reflecting deeply on her first birth experience, Vanessa immersed herself in emotional womb healing, mantra, and the teachings of freebirth philosophy. Her second labour became an exploration of mindset, responsibility, and self-trust… labouring alone through much of the night and anchoring into a simple phrase that transformed her experience.

    In this episode we discuss:

    1. Posterior labour and going 41+4
    2. Labouring at home without scans or medical testing
    3. The role of mindset in physiological birth
    4. Emotional womb work and releasing stored tension
    5. Labouring solo and conscious birth preparation
    6. Having an older child witness birth
    7. Placenta encapsulation and postpartum recovery
    8. Taking responsibility for your birth choices
    9. The power of “knowing”

    This is a conversation about transformation… about shifting from endurance to intention, and from hoping for a positive birth to consciously choosing one.

    Resources & Mentions:

    Personal Instagram:

    @coramba_cottage

    Books:

    📖 Portal by Yolande Norris-Clark

    Instagram: @bauhauswife

    Birth Sling:

    @the.birth.sling

    Pregnancy Yoga (Coffs Harbour):

    @wildernessyoga.coffs

    Womb & Pelvic Healing Work with Chaitanya:

    @wombtemple.healing

    Sydney Midwife (First Birth):

    @janineatibirth

    If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review on your podcast platform to help us reach more women around the world.

    To stay connected between episodes, follow along on Instagram @positivebirthaustralia.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    21 February 2026, 11:00 pm
  • 2 hours 3 minutes
    S6 EP185: Kacee Driver: Infertility + Severe Endo + IVF Recommendation / Healing Through TCM + Nutrition / Hospital Birth with Student Midwife / Homebirth

    Today I’m joined by Kacee, a mother of two whose story is a powerful testament to the healing that unfolds when we take our health into our own hands.

    After many years of being dismissed by doctors and receiving a severe endometriosis diagnosis, Kacee was told her only path to motherhood would be through IVF. But instead of accepting that as her story, she and her husband committed to rebuilding their health from the ground up - through the support of traditional Chinese medicine, nourishing food, bodywork, mindset practices, and conscious living. Along the way they experienced loss, but also the deep transformation that comes with reclaiming responsibility for your body and your journey.


    Her first pregnancy became a turning point, supported by a student midwife and an obstetrician who honoured her choices. When it came time to welcome her daughter, she carried that trust even further - choosing to birth at home, within a safe and familiar circle.


    Kacee’s story is a beautiful reflection of what becomes possible when we refuse to give up, when we find support that aligns with our values, and what happens when we lean into the truth that our bodies are not broken.


    Show Notes:

    Instagram: @kaycee_driver

    Fertility Support: Heather Bruce

    Meditations: Circle + Bloom Meditations

    Diet: Weston A. Price Foundation (Nutrition + Ancestral Diet)

    Subscribe to the Positive Birth Australia newsletter HERE to be the first to know when our Trusting the Journey eBook is released.

    Follow us on Instagram @positivebirthaustralia

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    31 August 2025, 1:11 am
  • 1 hour 15 minutes
    S6 EP184: Laura Bergen-Roberts: GD Diagnosis + Policy Pressure / 42+3 Hospital Birth with PPH / Healing Homebirth

    This week I’m joined by Laura, a mother of two whose journey into motherhood began with loss, resilience, and ultimately, transformation.

    After an early miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy that required surgery, falling pregnant with her daughter felt deeply healing. Yet her first birth inside the system carried its own challenges - a gestational diabetes label, weeks of policy pressure, and the weight of self-advocacy that left her bracing for battle rather than softening into trust. Though she went on to birth she had planned at 42 weeks, a postpartum haemorrhage cast a long shadow over what might have been a fully empowering experience.

    For her second birth, she chose to be at home and entered labour with a profound sense of trust. In the early hours of New Year’s Eve, she brought her baby into the world swiftly and instinctively, receiving him with her own hands - a deeply healing contrast to her first experience.

    Laura’s story reflects the freedom that comes when we step beyond “good girl” conditioning and into the full magic and capability that birth holds.

    Show Notes: 

    Instagram: @wisdoms.from.the.womb

    Midwife: @candace.beautifully.natural

    Birth Photography/Film: @mamacarabirth

    Newborn Photographer: @maddydartphotography

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    23 August 2025, 11:00 pm
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    S6 EP183: Mia Briski: Traumatic Caesarean in UK / Healing VBAC at Home / Posterior Labour Over 2 Days / High Blood Pressure / Fast Third Birth at 11:11

    This week I’m joined by Mia, a mother of three whose birth journey spans from a traumatic caesarean in the UK to two transformative homebirths in Australia.

    Her first birth began as a casually planned homebirth, but a spike in blood pressure at 38 weeks led to a hospital admission. With little understanding of the interventions offered, Mia found herself on the induction conveyor belt - an experience that left her deeply shaken, and unable to call it the day she “gave birth.”

    Determined to rewrite her story, Mia entered her second pregnancy committed to a VBAC at home (HBAC). She poured herself into preparation - mobilising her scar, tending to her mindset, building a strong support team, and learning to trust herself as the decision-maker in her birth space. What followed was a slow, two-day labour with a posterior baby that reshaped her beliefs about birth, her body, and her own strength.

    Her third birth - and longest pregnancy - came on quickly and intensified fast. Together, Mia’s three contrasting births form a powerful testament to healing, self-advocacy, and the transformation that comes from doing the inner work.

    Show Notes: 

    Instagram: @miabriski

    Midwives: @midwifejohunter @central.coast.homebirth

    Books: The Business of Being Born

    Explore Mia's Birth Coaching Offerings HERE.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    16 August 2025, 2:00 pm
  • 1 hour 24 minutes
    S6 EP182: Chloe Poturalski: Infinite Creators / Sovereign Pregnancy and Unassisted Birth in Mexico / 5 Years of Preparation / Mindset Preparation / Trust, Mindset & Birth at 42 Weeks

    This week on the show I’m joined by Chloe, a first-time mama whose birth story is a powerful testament to preparation, trust, and the mind-body connection.

    Long before conception, Chloe immersed herself in years of deep research and learning - equipping herself with the knowledge and confidence to choose an unassisted birth at her grandmother’s home in Mexico, guided by a vision she’d received during a plant medicine ceremony.

    Throughout her pregnancy, she committed to mindset work and mental rehearsal, allowing her to enter birth already familiar with what her body would experience.

    However, when she reached 42 weeks, the waiting began to wear on her - caught between the calm she had cultivated and the pressure to act. Yet even in the messiness of that final stretch, she found her way back into alignment.

    Chloe’s story is a powerful reflection of what becomes possible when birth is reclaimed as a conscious rite of passage - prepared for with intention and grounded in trust.

    Show Notes:

    Instagram: @infinite.creators

    Chloe's Podcast: Infinte Creators

    Books: Portal by Yolanda Norris-Clark

    Chloe’s Sovereign Pregnancy & Birth eBook HERE.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    9 August 2025, 2:00 pm
  • 1 hour 35 minutes
    S6 EP181: Phoebe Snow Leo: Surprise Breech Freebirth / Prodromal Labour at 42 Weeks / Emotional Surrender / Breathing Delay

    This week on the show, I welcome back Phoebe as she takes us inside the powerful story of her third birth. After a hospital birth that left her emotionally shaken, and a second birth that brought deep, village-supported healing, Phoebe’s journey with her third pregnancy asked something different of her: a full-bodied surrende

    Despite preparing consciously on every level, Phoebe found herself caught in the swirl of expectation and a subconscious need to control how and when her baby would arrive. But birth, as it always does, had other plans

    What unfolded was a slow, sacred unravelling - a lesson in letting go. From prodromal labour that dragged on for days, to mounting external pressure, and a final quiet moment of surrender in the bath, this story beautifully captures the truth that often, the only way through is to release the reins and trust the unfolding.

    Her son’s surprise breech freebirth at home became a moment of deep remembrance - that birth cannot be managed, only met.

    Show Notes:

    Instagram: @djphoebesnowflow

    Listen to Phoebe's previous birth stories HERE.

    S3 EP92: Phoebe Snow Leo - Hospital Birth / Interventions / Homebirth

    ✨ If this episode moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe, or leave a review - it means the world.

    Disclaimer: The views shared in this podcast are personal stories and not medical advice. Always consult your care provider for guidance specific to your journey.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    2 August 2025, 2:00 pm
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    S6 EP180: Julie Hunter: Two Hospital Births / Posterior Labour at 42 Weeks / Epidural + Movement / Meconium + Tight Cord / Avoiding NICU / Low Platelets (GT)

    In today’s episode, I’m joined by Julie as she walks us through her two hospital births.

    Her first pregnancy unfolded during one of the most uncertain times. Between navigating mandates that didn’t align, early pregnancy bleeding, and fear planted during her 12-week scan, Julie found herself on shaky ground. After declining multiple inductions, she went into spontaneous labour just shy of 42 weeks - only to discover her baby was posterior, bringing on relentless, intense contractions without rest. Though sheer exhaustion eventually led to an epidural, Julie avoided further intervention and used movement and intuition to her advantage - reminding us that even when medical help is called in, there’s still space to honour your body and your birth.

    By the time her second baby was on the way, Julie was on a mission to do things differently. She immersed herself in powerful birth stories, refined her preparation, and reconnected with her body on a deeper level. During the pushing phase, Julie experienced an intuitive sense that something wasn’t quite right - her baby felt stuck, and progress wasn’t unfolding as expected. What followed required deep trust, inner strength, and powerful advocacy. Her daughter was born with a tight triple cord wrap and, although stable, needed a moment to land. When hospital staff prepared for separation, Julie’s midwife mother stepped in - picked up the baby herself, placed her directly on Julie’s chest, and held that boundary with the team. Skin-to-skin was protected, NICU admission was avoided, and Olivia began feeding shortly after.

    This is a story of maternal instinct, the power of support, and what becomes possible when a woman is both trusted and surrounded by people who know her strength.

    Show Notes:

    Instagram:


    Books:

    • Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth 

    Courses:


    Podcasts:


    Other Mentions:


    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    26 July 2025, 2:00 pm
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    S6 EP179: Isabel Pillings: Hospital Birth + Freebirth + Surprise Breech / After-pains, Trust + Healing

    Today’s episode follows the unfolding of Isabel’s journey - a woman who has walked through the fire of transformation with each birth she’s experienced.

    Her first child was born within the structured walls of a hospital, a beginning shaped by uncertainty and the quiet realisation that something vital was missing. 

    Her second arrived in the stillness of the forest - a freebirth that called her to trust her body in a way she never had before. 

    And her third, a surprise breech born into water, became the deepest surrender of all - a birth that cracked her open and rewrote everything she thought she knew.

    This is a story of becoming. Of leaning into birth as teacher, mirror, and medicine… and coming home to herself in the process.

    Show Notes:

    Instagram:


    Birth Affirmations & Meditations:


    Podcasts:

    • The Life Stylist Podcast with Luke Storey - episode featuring Janice Barcello
    • Free Birth Society Podcast

    Books:

    • Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun S. Weed
    • (Find it on Booktopia / Amazon / your local bookstore)

    Postpartum Support:

    • Blissful Herbs Tinctures
    • (Placenta Release, After-Pain Ease, Stop Bleeding)

    Breastfeeding Support Tools:

    • Silverette Nursing Cups (Silver Nipple Cups)


    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    19 July 2025, 1:00 am
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    S6 EP178: Dr. Lucy Harvey: Emergency Caesarean After 36 Hour Labour / 5kg Baby + Miscarriage + 2 Hour Homebirth / 4.2kg Baby

    Emergency caesarean after a 36-hour labour with a 5kg baby… to a 2-hour homebirth in the shower.

    In this episode, Lucy shares the two wildly different births that shaped her — from heartbreak and healing after her first birth, to the fast, instinctive homebirth of her second baby.

    A powerful story of trusting your body, doing the inner work, and rewriting your birth experience on your own terms.


    Show Notes:

    Homebirth doula: @greer__rose
    Pregnancy pilates: @noosapilatesclass
    Pregnancy aqua aerobics: @noosapregnancyaqua
    Pregnancy yoga & women’s circles: @mamasoul_rituals
    Acupuncture & breathwork: @thegrovenoosa
    Massage & postpartum care: @blossomsandhoneybees
    Chiropractic care: @noosafamilychiro

    Online support:
    Birth debrief & prep: @coreandfloorrestore
    Nutrition: @thenaturalnutritionist
    Mentoring & mindset: @emmamaidment_


    Mentioned in this episode:

    Sacred Birth Affirmations Track

    This gentle affirmation track was created to help you feel safe, confident, and connected in pregnancy and birth. Perfect for daily mindset work or to play during labour.

    Positive Birth Australia

    12 April 2025, 3:11 pm
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