Links to the books mentioned in the interview and Nicola's book. Scroll for Bio and Time Stamps.

Nicola Goodall Bio

Bonus Content: Enjoy two clips from our informal conversation after the interview ended and below that watch Simone giving birth in nature.

Simone embodies deep devotion to the liberation of all humans. Simone has worked with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, mothers, CEO’s, millionaires, tradesmen, children and therapists. She has worked in Australia, USA and Mexico and also conducts skype sessions with people from all nationalities.  You can connect with her via her website https://saksana.com.au/

Time Stamps

22 Years ago everyone Simone knew was birthing in hospital but Simone had different ideas from her mother's stories and had two birth centre births, one home birth and one birth in nature.

5.59 Simone had a need to heal her own birth and revisited her womb experience and birth many times to heal the imprinting.  The body remembers even if we don't.

8.47 Revisiting the womb and her experiences awakened the idea in me that babies don’t come in free floating they are experiencing it all and shaping their imprint for this life and creating a matrix in their being.

14.52. In this modern age people think they are giving birth to a body rather than a soul and we need to think how to nurture the soul from conception. Simone was glad of the Journey tools to be able to change imprints.

16.41 Noticing how different she felt in third and fourth pregnancies Simone realised some of her expressions and fears were her child's not her own. The personality was already right there.

20.11 Charlotte visited the womb whilst pregnant with second child and experienced a funeral to let go of something and then her son said remember I am different from my brother which he is very much so.

23.30 Third child a humbling experience as was scared and hadn't been for the other two births. For third mainly worried about being crucified in media but had a deep inner knowing that this was the right path and would be ok.

Simone has a big prayer of wanting to change how we birth

31.45 Simone's viral video on You Tube Many parents choose to show this video as on some level they recognise that the setting is easy for children although the video is graphic and a real birth with challenges.

34.50 Many watch her video in nature and then feel empowered and have a positive hospital birth as the possibility has been opened up.

37.35 Listen to intuition to know where to birth and if to change plans.

40.26 Some commented she was selfish but it is absolutely not selfish to want a good birth experience as it affects you and your baby so strongly.Motherhood is hard enough without having to process trauma too.

43.48 Hospitals have the energy of sick and dying and worry and stress of those visiting and this is not ideal for birth so Simone would like this to change. How we treat the earth and animals and how we birth are all reflected in each other and changing how we birth will change many aspects of life.

49.12 The current medical establishment is like a machine but there is another way.

53.24 To get confident start with education- basic education of how birth physiology works as we are missing this. Knowing about transition helped Simone as when she was ready to give up she knew she was at transition and it gave her understanding and strength to continue.

Secondly do your emotional inner work. If you have fear you need to clear it. We are open and porous in pregnancy so this is an ideal time to do it.

Women are amazing, seek out other women who have overcome challenges and are strong to encourage you.

P

Her family life has taught her that with the loving support from those around us , our toughest challenges can become our greatest achievements and she is particularly passionate about supporting women who wish to regain confidence is themselves and their bodies.

Time Stamps

Women have a huge amount of conditioning about not using their voices. Samantha shares how for her this was strong conditioning against questioning authority.

5.20 Being confident in one area doesn't mean you are automatically confident in another areas such as birth.

8.00  Coming up against the system and how it can knock your confidence and send you into Good Girl Mode.

10.00  The Good Girl in patriarchal systems must be nice, do as she is told, be kind and compliant and all of this can work against you in birth.

12.50  The rise of Caesarean sections and the link to that being the way doctors have the most control over the process.  When you challenge this you are challenging an entire professions ethic and way of managing risk and the human body and we tent to be very hesitant and it doesn't get heard correctly.

15.56  Doctors are unused to be questioned but they are providing a service.

18.22 You are the epicentre of whole universe and everyone else is there to help you. Samantha created this atmosphere for her second birth.

21.20 The key to making the system working for you is to have your own navigation system finely tuned. Be clear on what you want to be feeling throughout the process.

24.20 Samantha's empowered Caesarean birth story  including how she navigated the change in birth as the labour progressed.

30.14 Defining confidence -  The embodiment of self worth.   Live your value in every cell and every moment , there is no question of your value in this place.

34.31  Exposing the Good Mother Archetype and how we can learn from our own mothers and let go of a lot of conditioning that may have been passed down our family lines this way. 

42.15 Transferring your life skills to the birthing room. You have gold in your experience to now that you may be overlooking. Draw on it.

44.30 Is this a jail or a hospital? Samantha advocates for herself about when to leave the hospital and other decisions she made for herself.

50.40 Samantha's vision for the future of birth and motherhood. where our wisdom is respected, acknowledged understood ,shared and that everybody understands the most important person is the woman.

57.00  Find confidence by learning to love your own body and overcoming this particular conditioning of the patriarchal society we live in.

Finishing with a discussion of sexual assault and if this is in your history it is important to have healing work and check your conditioning as you may be living the story that you do not get to choose what happens to your body.  You can give yourself permission to be the one to choose and to set boundaries around that.

Maddie McMahon'ss Bio

Time Stamps.

Maddie describes the exceptional support she had by her mother in law for the birth of her first child which was so beneficial as she had not known what she needed and contrasts that with her second child where the element of a quiet unassuming woman in the corner who had her back was missing.

Why and how birth is a feminist issue.

6.51  Birth is not something that happens in isolation in your life but is culmination of hundreds of threads that start in your childhood roots in how we were mothered.    Having learnt in childhood the birth was quick and easy  when her first birth was long and hard she still had no doubts she  just assumed that I needed to carry on what I was doing and the baby would come out and that is what happened.  

Second advantage is my generation was  which can inundate us with fearful stories.

11.43  the need for more than innate confidence, need information.  How failure to wait can lead to a c-section and is also failure to believe that she can do it and failure to provide loving consistent continuity of midwifery care with midwives who have compassion, and empathy in a safe warm and private environment.

14.30 Why a stiff upper lip as we often have in the UK is not a good example of how to support ourselves and Maddie's advice to her younger self for how she would have supported herself through a challenging postnatal period.  Take time to heal psychologically before 'the wheels fall off.'

18.44 Maternity system  in the UK is not fit for purpose. Being pregnant is not an illness and not something that needs fixing and needs to be lovingly nurtured because it is growth and if we want a flower to blossom, if we want vegetables to grow in our allotment we can’t just blindly follow steps so we have to adapt to individual circumstances and care for those things.  What is lacking in maternity care is the care, the time to ask someone how they are.

23.44  Gather your clan,  you need women around you that believe in you, this is  how we've played this since the dawn of time where older women who've been through it  share their wisdom. and walk alongside you in your journey.

27.30 if you have fear then that  fear needs addressing and this is slowly starting to happen in the NHS. The whole spectrum and not just primary tokophobia needs to be treated  so if birth gives you the cold shudders it is worth unpicking that and getting to the root of where that came from.  Your aim is to build a sense of awe in your capabilities and know you can do it psychologically.

31.49 Even tiniest fear is still worth unpicking  as it may affect the physiology and holding it back takes energy you need. Sometimes all you need is acknowledgement and a cuddle.

35.25 If we want to change society the place to start is at the beginning with birth. If  women are bathed in oxytocin and feel loved and supported then birth is going to go well and she will feel strong and capable. It is not rocket science.   

37.35 Motherhood is a feminist issue and  Maddie would love to see women stand up and come together and demand better better support, be less invisible.  She would like politicians to understand that we are a brilliant resource. Invest in mothers and amazing things can happen.

3949 Maddie is  passionate about women understanding that we are worthy to be supported and worthy to be seen. She wrote her books   to remind you how awesome you are as a mother.

Time Stamps

The pressure of the two extremes of stories, scary horrible birth or the 'Gold Standard' and how all nuance is lost. 

4.20 The different dialogue that happens for men and women and how pregnancy can be considered a 'weakness; particularly in the workplace.

Starting point of what do I want for this baby now.

6.22 A vulnerable time where we are bombarded with information often from unqualified people who know nothing about pregnancy but have an opinion all the same.  We are in a different mental space with different hormones and need to understand and accept that and honour where we are at.

11.05  All about Make Birth Better including crib sheets to support and inform

18.25 How do you respond to stress in ordinary life will inform how you do in pregnancy and help you be prepared. Your partner can take on the role of your prefrontal lobes so you can keep your brain switched off.

21.30 The importance of stories and noticing that sometimes the older generation can be negative as they had to power on and cope and pack away their own challenges.

24.49 Emma's vision for the future with trauma informed support for all including compassionate support for staff trauma.

30.00 All about the 'nice girl' and how she shows up as 'doctor knows best' in a maternity setting. But in birth we are not unwell so it is not the same as seeking out a doctor for an illness.

34.45 Conditioning that means women trying to be assertive are often considered to be aggressive that can prevent women from speaking up.

36.00 Urgent need to challenge the idea of not raising your head above the parapet. the irony of disappointment when we didn't aim high to not feel disappointed and the trickiness of learning what our needs are when we have suppressed them.

38.00 Learn what our body is telling us. Mindfulness is a good tool

Know that what you do has value.

Jo's Bio

Debs' Bio

Here is Debs Guest blog - The Oxytocin Quandary  on Blood to baby website that I reference in the interview. An interesting comparison of our natural oxytocin and artificial oxytocin as used in the induction process.
Here is a video about the Fetoscope as Debs didn't have hers to hand.

Time Stamps:

Debs started working as an independent midwife whilst on maternity with her first son.

3.32 Postnatal care is invaluable and Debs really appreciated this with her independent midwife.

6.00 Debs shares her reason to choose home birth and how the birth went.

10.00 Fascinating to experience birth from the other side and to feel what was going on insider her body.

11.08 Debs shares her second child's birth story.

15.18 Trusting your own intuition and knowing what to do. Debs actually broke her own waters!

17.30 When do you call the midwife? Debs tells you might get it wrong and that’s OK as there is no hard and fast rule. Don’t go by the numbers as there is lots variance in numbers and in women and in different pregnancies

24.30 Debs explains what a  fetoscope is and how she uses it to check babies including their position. A skill that we are losing that is very useful. 

33.40 Debs shares her bafflement that half of women are not deemed capable of starting their labour spontaneously and how this is not what she sees in her own practice where induction is rare. Plus striking a balance on having important nuanced conversations to support a woman to make choices.

43.45 Supporting a Vbac for Debs is kind of a non issue as support with physiology of birth and choices is just as important as for anyone else and if it is not going well there would be warning flags that pop up.

47.00   Debs discusses respect versus trust for birth. 

49.59 We need to see women as more than just  a vessel to give her the best care.

55.00 How helpful it is for both women and care providers to be very direct and say what you need and what you  want.

Alexia Leachman Bio

Time Stamps

Despite her stress and grief Alexia was able to pull her fear clearance skills and as a coach together and changed her plan from c-section to a home birth. This led to changing career from working mostly with men to helping women to clear their fears of birth and a popular podcast.

Book fearless birthing and many products on website for all budgets

6.30 Women are not always speaking up as their fears get minimised. It is acceptable to say we are a bit worried and then put up with it.

9.42 Starting motherhood with a birth you enjoyed that you wanted even if it wasn’t the way you planned it sets you up in a good place for mother hood. Set yourself up for a great birth experience  and stack the cards in your favour as birth can be a defining moment for you as a mother.

12.22 All about tokophobia- a pathological fear of birth and/ or pregnancy including  primary and secondary tokophobia. Trauma is usually at the root of tokophobia even if you can't remember it.

14.00 Alexia's personal story of tokophobia including her  fear of seeing bumps, fear of delivery and wanting to be knocked out.  The impact on women who cannot release including multiple abortions of wanted babies and relationship breakdowns.

18.32 It is OK to be scared and OK to ask for help. Seek help now to give you enough time to process emotionally and know that the fears can be released and usually more quickly than you may think.

20.43 Should I wait until I am tryingfor a baby to clear my fears? You may hit fertility problems due to the fears , for example the stress may cause inflammation in your tubes. Living with fear on a daily basis which doesn’t feel nice so don’t wait.

22.51 Can't change the past but can change our relationship with the future.  Phobias are defined as irrational but actually the reasons are rational to each woman and calling it irrational dismisses that woman's lived experience.

27.30 The Vision is to be in control of your destiny and the one making the decisions.   Nonsense to eradicate like not supporting home birth ( Alexia has just moved to France and contrasts the two systems in UK and France)

Make a difference in schools, you can ask teachers what they teach about birth in schools.

34.00 Women  who have babies early e.g. as teenagers are more likely to have a positive experience with zero preparation and no classes as they haven’t encountered all the negative narratives round birth. 

Birth is different for everyone but we can change how we think about it as it changes the experience for us.

37.00 We are more than only the motherhood part and birth can enable a lot of the other parts to come out. Reclaim the value of mother as well as other roles in your life.

39.31 A simple place to start is to read positive stories and maybe watch good births on youtube. Caveat: Women with tokophobia can’t do that , this is too triggering. If this is you , you may need to start with therapeutic support.

42.23 Discussing all the ways women get undermined including feeling vulnerable, listening to doubts from others and not knowing that you can put your foot down and you do the allowing.  Getting clear on what you want in time to set in place especially in the US.   Make your decisions from an informed place.

47.00 You can sail through obstacles if you are getting the right support There are groups out there if the one you are in is not supportive find one that is. E.g. fb forums and local groups

50.00 Know that you have everything in you to have this birth even if you cannot access it straight away.  Self trust is not easy to learn but you can learn it and birth can help you learn to trust your body.  It is all within.