S3 Episode 4. A Broken Heart. Surviving Peripartum Cardiomyopathy.
When Bec, a first time mum, began feeling tired, short of breath and a little dizzy, her symptoms could easily be put down to the normal physiological changes of late pregnancy and birth. By the end of pregnancy, a healthy woman's blood volume has expanded by 50%, the heart is working harder and faster, and oxygen requirements are significantly higher. But every so often, these seemingly innocuous symptoms of late pregnancy can hide a much more sinister condition. A short time after the birth...
16 Jan 202237min
S3 Episode 5. A Mother's Intuition. A story of Love and Loss.
When Dominique was pregnant with her first child, she had an intuition that something wasn’t quite right. Despite being categorized as low risk, and all her ultrasounds and tests being normal, Dom couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with her baby. Following the birth of Zoey, Dom’s worst fears were realized. Instead of enjoying quiet skin to skin with her newborn daughter, there were suddenly emergency buzzers and doctors streaming into the room. Zoey wasn’t breathing, and was...
16 Jan 202241min
S3 Episode 3. The many faces of birth trauma: Severe pelvic floor birth injury and vaginal prolapse.
On paper, the birth of Amy’s first daughter was a traumatic experience. Amy experienced a forceps birth in theatre, a third degree tear, and a postpartum haemorrahge requiring a blood transfusion. Following this, she was in a wheelchair for five days, and couldn’t walk properly for weeks. But as Amy knows better than almost anyone else, it is not possible to identify a traumatic birth on paper. As the co-founder and CEO of the Australian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA), Amy understands that b...
12 Dec 202149min
S3 Episode 2: A story of massive post partum haemorrhage. Waking to the loss of your uterus.
Living on a remote farm in rural NSW, Laura’s options for place of birth were limited by geography. Her local hospital provided care to the entire region, and offered personalized care led by a team of dedicated GP-Obstetricians and skilled local midwives. But with only a small number of births per year, there were no facilities for epidural during birth or specialist obstetrics services in the region. In this episode of Pregnancy Uncut, Laura walks us through the pregnancies and births of he...
12 Dec 202135min
S3 Episode 1: A Mother’s Instinct. Protecting Willow’s memory.
Amie Rohan is mum to three girls. Bella and Sadie are Earth side, and Amie’s second born daughter Willow, is her angel daughter. Following Willow’s short life in 2018, Amie has chosen to reach out to as many families as she can, to share her experience of carrying, birthing, and loving Willow, who was born with anencephaly, a severe and rare congenital abnormality. Amie’s story is made incredibly unique by the fact that Bella and Willow were identical twins. They shared everything; the same m...
10 Dec 202155min
S2 Episode 10: Behind closed doors. A young mother’s experience of domestic abuse
Young and head over heels in love, Sarah was thrilled to welcome her first baby into the world with her loving husband by her side. To the outside world, they looked like the perfect young family. Inside their home it was a very different story. Challenges arose after difficulties around breastfeeding with inverted nipples. Determined, Sarah persevered. However as the emotional and practical help from her partner began to ebb away, the challenges became greater and greater. When her second ch...
30 Okt 202154min
S2 Episode 9: The Birth of a Doula. Holding Space for Women.
Being young, fit and healthy, Gabrielle naturally thought her first pregnancy would progress smoothly. Having never known anyone who had experienced or spoken about miscarriage, Gabrielle’s world was rocked by the loss of her first pregnancy. Despite being surrounded by people in New York City, she felt completely alone. Where were the people who understood, the women who had been through something similar, to be with her and to hold her? This was to be the first moment that led Gabrielle to ...
4 Okt 202152min
S2 Episode 8: The Infertility Trifecta . Queer, single and infertile.
When Holly decided that she wanted to have a baby, her journey to parenthood was anything but straightforward. Holly discovered that she had the ‘Infertility Trifecta’. Unable to conceive naturally due to an ovulation disorder, Holly was also considered ‘socially’ infertile as a Queer person and as a single woman. Undeterred, Holly embarked on the arduous journey of IVF and single parenthood by choice. Holly shares with us the joys and challenges of solo parenting, as well as the trials of na...
20 Sep 202140min
