Interviews with Birth Professionals to support you to feel more confident

These 27 video interviews were originally recorded as a live summit back in 2019. The expert birth professionals and mothers  between them have thousands of years training and experience teaching and have attended many thousands  of births.  They know what really counts when it comes to successfully creating your birth and how to feel confident about your plans.  They know what works and what doesn't.  And they have shared the best of their wisdom here for you to access all completely free.

You will discover:

  • The limits of the maternity system and how to make it work for you
  • Your human rights in childbirth and why this knowledge is essential
  • Finding your tribe and Creating your team
  • How The Good Girl and The Good Mother Archetypes work to undermine you and what you can do about them. 
  • The hidden link that keeps you scared and stuck that almost everyone overlooks.
  • The hidden link that keeps you scared and stuck that almost everyone overlooks.
  • Why birth is not as unpredictable as everyone says and the factors to consider to keep your birth running smoothly.

Lets Get Started


Birthing Imprints and Clearing Cellular Blocks 

  • How Charlotte healed from her own birth into the world and why this is the hidden link to the confidence you may be seeking. 
  • Defining Confidence and creating your recipe for your confident birth
  • Charlotte's three birth stories to inspire

Charlotte Kanyi,     Confidence Mentor at BirthEssence

Home Birth

  • Is birth really unpredictable?
  • Debunking the myths about birthing at home including safety and mess
  • Why home birth gives you the best chance of having both mother and baby in good shape after the birth
  • The history and outcomes of home birth and how our perceptions have shifted

Natalie Meddings,    Author, doula and birth yoga teacher.

Seeing the whole woman

  • The best care that sees a woman as more than just a vessel
  • Trusting your intuition and making choices that fit you 
  • How to know when to call the midwife and is it a problem if you get it wrong?
  • Why induction is a rare event for Debs when it is about 50% in national statistics

Debs Neiger,    Independent midwife at Yorkshire Storks

Your Human Rights in Child Birth

  • Download fact sheets summarising your rights
  • Protecting yourself against Birth Trauma
  • Rebecca's own birth stories and their surprises.

Rebecca Schiller,     Writer, Doula and Co Founder of BirthRights Charity.

Clearing your Fears for a Confident Birth

  • How and when to start clearing your fears.
  • All about Tokophobia and how to know if you have it.
  • Speaking up without minimising your fears

Alexia Leachman,    Therapeutic Coach and Host of the award winning Fear Free ChildBirth Podcast.

Exploring Induction Choices

  • Induction - the low down on what to expect.
  • Being guided by your child in the womb
  • Mismatch of intentions and reality with induction choices

Kemi Johnson,    Independent midwife,  KG Hypnobirthing Teacher and Positive Birth Movement Facilitator

Hypnobirthing for Confidence

  • How hypnobirthing helps even when your plans change substantially during labour
  • Liz's three different birth stories demonstrating hypnobirthing benefits in action
  • Liz's journey through lifelong anxiety and Postnatal Depression

Liz Stanford,     Owner of the Calm Birth School of hypnobirthing.

Raising the Vibration of the Next Generation

  • Build your intuition muscle in advance, practice standing in your 'no' and use cutting edge science to heal birth.
  • 3 small steps to confidence you can take every day
  • How conscious connection in the womb and cultivating a maternal bond is crucial for welcoming the creative out of the box thinkers we need. 

Clare Ford,    Birth Coach and Master Reiki Healer at Beautiful Souls.

Marathons, miracles and Mindset

  • Comparing running a marathon and giving birth from someone who has done both multiple times
  • The common miracle transformations that start  from small regular steps  that you can take
  • Questioning the system and releasing the fear it brings up in you

Mandy Rees,    Pregnancy and Postnatal Yoga Teacher

 Challenging  our perceptions on race

  • Blaming the victim rather than the system, instead raise up the most vulnerable until we are all equal
  • Historical amnesia - how eugenics, colonialism and racism are still impacting birth today.
  • Why we need to be anti racist (active) rather than simply non racist (passive) and what  you can do.

Mars Lord,     Award winning Doula, Doula Trainer at Abuela Doulas and Birth Activist.

Finding your Voice

  • Explaining the Patriarchal system that is the problem
  • Medical Colonialism, including white saviour syndrome and the different power levels that exist
  • Scientific study versus witchy wisdom- Where does the power lie?
  • Plus bonus - written interview with Phoebe on Birth Confidence and Feminism

Phoebe Pallotti,    Practicing Midwife and Associate Professor of Midwifery

Undoing Systemic Bias and Privilege

  • Dr Amali generously shares her lecture, 'Undoing Systemic Bias in Maternity Care', covering:
  • Power imbalances in maternity care
  • Maternal mortality
  • Decolonisation
  • Cultural safety
  • Privilege frailty
  • Bonus Content- moving interview by Suzanne Arms about Dr. Amali's own birth

Dr. Amali Lokugamage,     Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and Author

Visibility, Birth and freeing yourself from the Good Girl Archetype 

  • Exploring the enormous body of conditioning women face that hinders our confidence 
  • The Good Girl Archetype and how to escape her clutches
  • The key to making the system work for you.

Samantha Nolan-Smith,     Writer, Feminist and Founder and CEO of The School of Visibility

Changing our birth imprints and a big vision for the future of birth

  • Revisiting the womb and birth experience to heal deep rooted imprints and programmes
  • We give birth to a fully formed soul with personality not just a body.
  • Bonus Content, 2 clips from our unofficial conversation, absolute gold!

Simone Surgeoner,    Mother of four and Journey Practitioner.

Making the System work for you

  • The role of faith and determination in finding your team of people
  • Beautiful, empowered birth story where  Jo and Christina hold strong for what is truly important to them
  • Adjusting to life as a mother
  • Healing tools and inner work to move through challenges

Jo Bolden,     Mother of one and Co founder and professional dancer at One Dance Epic

 Dropping the Nice Girl Conditioning - Make Birth Better

  • How to honour the different mental and hormonal space you are in when pregnant
  • Undoing the 'Nice girl' and 'doctor knows best' to get the birth you want
  • Make Birth Better - all about birth trauma with crib sheets for parents and birth professionals

Emma Svanberg,     Clinical Psychologist specialising in pregnancy birth and parenting.

Kindness,Compassion and Courage - Make Birth Better

  • How to feel prepared, in control and confident.
  • Defining birth trauma and giving yourself permission to seek support if you do not feel good about how your birth went
  • Every Word Counts - Words matter and hold the power  to bring you down or to empower you 

Dr. Rebecca Moore,    Clinical Psychotherapist in Birth Trauma

Connecting with your body and baby

  • Two inspiring birth stories
  • Birth one in Germany , staying strong and following intuition as baby chose his own birth date
  • Birth Two in a remote mission hospital in Kenya who listened to her mother's wishes in choosing her birth date
  • Lifting the conditioning that birth has to be painful

Naraya Naserian,    Mother of two and Journey Practitioner

Birthing with a high BMI

  • Assessing real risks - absolute and relative in a climate of fear-mongering
  • Using the BRAIN Acronym to get the information you need to make your decisions
  • Debunking myths such as the 'fat vagina' theory
  • A netball coach encouraging her team versus the maternity system approach

Amber Marshall,     Founder of Big Birthas, information and support for mothers with high BMI

Healing from a traumatic birth

  • Unpacking beliefs and blocks to heal trauma from her first child's birth.
  • The empowered feeling arising from taking charge of your experience 
  • The two ends of the spectrum, birth and death and how giving birth helped Zoe let go of a fear of dying.

Zoe Challenor,    Professional Singer and Co Founder of B'Opera and Mother of Two

Getting your needs met with respect

  • The difference being listened to and responding with respect makes
  • three tips for when you are not being listened to
  • The importance of the birthing atmosphere in the room and how to create and keep the right atmosphere
  • Getting your needs met and being a good enough parent

Lorna Phillip,    

Doula and Mizan Therapist at Birmingham Doula

Energy Healing for Birth Trauma for Mums and Little Ones 

  • Remembering we are energetic and not just physical beings and all aspects of ourselves need nurturing
  • Breaking repeated patterns of birth trauma for healing that lasts lifetimes
  • Getting informed, supported and empowered to have a transformative second birth

Jennie Harrison,     Energy Healer, Mindset Coach and Birth Trauma Specialist

Breech Birth - a Variation of Normal and Art Therapy

  • Putting risks into perspective and not being frightened
  • Top Tips for birthing breech and what to check for when choosing a care provider
  • Using art and creativity to prepare for birth and release fears and trauma.
  • Mother Blessings Versus Baby showers

Joy Horner,     Independent Midwife, and facilitator of Positive Birth Movement Group.

Finding Yourself and Getting Rid of Miss Polite

  • Two fabulous birth stories, including Kati's experience of being filmed both times.
  • Ridding yourself of the curse of 'Miss Polite'
  • Ways to feel calm confident and safe in birth
  • What giving birth has in common with getting lost in a snowstorm alone at the top of a mountain

Kati Edwards,    KG Hypnobirthing instructor and Doula at Birth You in Love.

Faith, prayer, and powerful ritual 

  • Bringing through the knowledge of the Grandmothers and relearning indigenous knowledge of our own country
  • The links between death ceremonies and marking the rite of passage to motherhood 
  • Handing over to something bigger and the role of faith in birth.

Nicola Goodall,     Author, Founder of Red Tent Doulas and director of Wysewoman Workshops

Unravelling your childhood stories

  • Why and how birth is a feminist issue.
  • How birth happens is a culmination of hundreds of threads starting in childhood
  • Gather your clan, be surrounded by loving supportive women who believe in you
  • Clear your fears in pregnancy -Even the tiniest fear  affects your physiology.

Maddie McMahon,  Breast Feeding Counsellor, Doula and Doula Trainer at Developing Doulas.

Trusting birth and our bodies

  • The Over the course of four different birth stories  Rachel has experienced - Nuchal cord,PROM, long birth , fast birth, home birth, free birth, pain free, painful and meconium in the waters. Rachel shares her wealth of tips and wisdom gleamed from this wide experience of different births
  • The current epidemic of membrane sweeps that have become routine.

Rachel Elizabeth,    Mother of four and Doula at Creative Birth.

 Feature Photo by Neal E. Johnson on Unsplash

About your host, Charlotte Kanyi

I am Charlotte Kanyi, founder of BirthEssence and mother to three boys.

 I have been on my own journey of confidence just like you. Visiting every emotion from terror and full-blown panic attacks to open, expansive joy and love that pervades every cell of my being. My brand of confidence doesn’t mean you are aiming to bathe in bliss all the time or using valuable energy to avoid the sticky emotions. It is a confidence to be you, living the full spectrum of your emotions and soul desires. Showing up as you are in all your imperfections – it’s the showing up part that counts- learning then going for what it is you truly want.

This is what matters when it comes to your birth. Are you listening and connecting to you? Giving yourself permission to ask for what you need?  I work with women like you to dig into the roots and conditioning that keeps you stuck in terror and silently suffering. I support you to know deep into your bones that you matter and what you want not only matters but is achievable. I have been working in this field for 11 years and 8 of those I have supported mothers to be find their self belief and confidence. It was the birth of my son that inspired a shift to focus on birth and motherhood specifically.  The transformation that I see each time, the deep connection between baby, mother and their bigger vision and soul purpose is what makes my heart sing.

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