The Calmbirth Conversation Podcast: Recent Episodes
Karen McClay
The Calmbirth Conversation Podcast explores issues of pregnancy, birth and parenting infants. Hosted by Karen McClay, director of the renowned Calmbirth® childbirth education method, midwives and experts explore topics for expecting and new parents. Calmbirth’s goal is to educate and improve the birthing outcomes for all women and their families, not just physically, but emotionally as well.
This episode is all about exploring the wonders of the Female pelvis. Karen and Fiona share their passion for the Pelvis and how it adapts in birth. They go on to discuss how birthing women and people can prepare their pelvis to create space for birth, because after all, birth is all about creating space.
In this episode Karen discusses different Fetal Monitoring options ,and the research behind them, for labour with Kirsten Small, a retired Obstetrician, researcher and educator.
Kirsten has a passion for ensuring that women and birthing people have all the information they need to make informed decisions around their choices for monitoring in labour.
After listening, if you would like to take a deeper dive with Kirsten into this topic we recommend that you have a look at Kirsten’s course “Fetal Monitoring: The Basics” which you can find through her website https://birthsmalltalk.com.
If you are a Birth Professional we highly recommend that you look at her more comprehensive courses “Fetal Monitoring for Birthworkers” or “Fetal Monitoring for Maternity Professionals”, both of which can also be found on her website https://birthsmalltalk.com.
In this episode, Karen and Bashi are having a raw and frank conversation about informed consent and birth.
It is our hope that by honouring and hearing those women who have experienced trauma in our maternity system and by having important and yes at times, confronting conversations such as this one, we may be able to reduce the incidence of preventable birth trauma for future women.
It’s important to acknowledge there are many Doctors and Midwives who work in our maternity system who are very woman-centred and value informed consent.
If at any time you are feeling triggered by what is being discussed, please feel free to stop listening and we will see you next time.
Bashi Kumar-Hazard is an Australian competition and consumer rights lawyer and the principal of B W Law, a legal practice established to support and assist women and children. She is also the chair of the international organisation Human Rights in Childbirth and works tirelessly to advocate for women’s rights and birthing people worldwide.
In this episode, Bashi and Karen discuss the outcome of the NSW Birth Trauma Inquiry and the recommendations handed down in the report. They cover some important and at times big, topics including stories of birth trauma. If you feel that you may be triggered in any way by listening to this episode, please feel free to move on to another episode of our podcast.
If you are someone who has experienced birth trauma there are amazing organisations that you can reach out to for support such as Beyond Blue, The Gidget Foundation, Panada, Cope and Lifeline.
In this episode, Karen discusses the two different approaches and perceptions of pain in labour. These are the medical approach where pain in labour is seen as dysfunctional and something to be ‘fixed’, and the holistic (midwifery) approach where it is seen as a functional discomfort that is purposeful and therefore important to ‘work with’. It is a fascinating conversation that we hope will plant many seeds that will continue to change the way we think and feel about labour and birth for the better as a culture.
Join Karen McClay as she talks with Dr Sarah McKay about her new book “Baby Brain: The Surprising Neuroscience of How Pregnancy and Motherhood Sculpt Our Brains and Change Our Minds”.
Karen and Sarah take a fascinating dive into what the research is showing us about the neurological changes that occur within a woman’s brain as they travel through pregnancy and motherhood, while at the same time demything the cultural assumption that ‘baby brain’ is a negative side-effect of this transformative time.
Join Karen McClay and Dr Marina Weckend as they discuss Marina’s research into the natural pauses of labour and the importance of normalising these plateaus or rest periods.
By seeing these natural pauses as normal fluctuations in labour Marina hopes that we can reduce the time pressures placed on women and birth people during birth and to reduce many of the potentially unnecessary interventions in our current maternity system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdfXwekKMFkFor more information about Marina’s important work you can visit her website https://www.marinaweckend.com/Research/
WEPAUSE Study Link to share your own experiences of pauses in childbirth (survey active from March to August 2024): https://bit.ly/WEPAUSE
Welcome to another episode of the Calmbirth Conversation Podcast. In this episode, our Calmbirth Director Karen McClay talks with Emma Park. Emma is a Functional Nutritionist Clinician and Clinical Educator and is an industry leader in the field of gut health and the microbiome in the First 1000 Days of life.
Karen and Emma discuss the importance of the microbiome for pregnant mamas and people, and their babies, and how we can maintain and create an optimal environment for a healthy microbiome during pregnancy birth and postpartum. This is particularly important for those whose microbiome is already out of kilter e.g., they have a history of vaginitis, candida infections (thrush), recurrent UTI’s, GBS and mastitis. Karen and Emma also discuss the impact that antibiotic use during pregnancy and birth, and caesarean births have on the microbiome and what these mamas and birthing people can do to help their and their baby’s microbiome recover.
If you would like more information on this you can have a look at Emma’s “The First 1000 days” course, or download her booklet, both of which can be found here: https://www.thefirst1000days.com.au/
And because stress is one of the biggest influences on a healthy microbiome, come and join us for a Calmbirth course because we are all about helping you to change your relationship to stress through knowledge and tools that will not only help during your pregnancy and birth but will continue to be an asset for the rest of your life. You can find a Calmbirth Educator near you here: https://calmbirth.com.au/
If you enjoyed this podcast episode please share with your friends, and tag us on our socials @calmbirth.
Dr Sarah Buckley is a GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics and family planning. In this podcast, she talks about oxytocin and its impact on birth.
In Episode 16 of the Calmbirth Conversation Podcast Calmbirth Director, Karen McClay talks to our wonderful Calmbirth Educators and Yoga Instructors, Maja Batista and Karen Shlegeris about the benefits of pregnancy yoga in preparation for labour and birth.
In Episode 15 of the Calmbirth Conversation Podcast, Calmbirth Director, Karen McClay talks to Dr Carla Brion & Nadia Parisi about the Golden Month - an in-home postpartum service they have created based on Traditional Chinese Medicine & Ayurvedic practices to nourish and nurture women in the postnatal period.
Dr Carla Brion is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncturist & Women’s Health Specialist while Nadia Parisi is a Women’s Health Massage Therapist, Fertility, Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher, Holistic Pelvic Care Practitioner - two dynamic women who are here to break the mould, shake things up & bring women the care that they really need. It takes a village to hold the mother. “We want to re-shape the postpartum care in our community, for our daughters & their daughters to come."
In Episode 14 of the Calmbirth Conversation Podcast, Karen McClay talks to Dr. Nicole Highet who is the Founder & Executive Director of COPE, the Centre of Perinatal Excellence and how COPE is providing support for the emotional challenges of becoming a parent.
How the work of Possums & Co prepare, educate and support families through the challenges of the first 12 months: Baby sleep; cry fuss problems; parent mood; and attachment.
Discussion with Psychologist Rachel Bridge about creating a safe, calm and private environment in the fourth trimester.
Discussion with Hazel Keedle, a Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC) Researcher and Lecturer and Academic Course Advisor of the Bachelor of Midwifery and PhD candidate in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University
Tune in to this episode of the Calmbirth Conversation Podcast with Director Calmbirth, Karen McClay, who chats with the leading obstetrician here in Australia on breech birth delivery, Dr Andrew Bissett.
In the episode I am speaking with Lael Stone and Marion Rose. Both Lael and Marion are Aware Parenting facilitators and have a real passion for guiding and supporting parents to become aware and conscious parents. The philosophy of Aware Parenting very much aligns with Calmbirth as it is about being present and listening to our babies and children to become the Parents that our children need us to be.
In this Episode, Karen chats with @melindawebb_healthpractitioner about the benefits of Chinese Medicine and acupuncture for pregnancy, labour and birth.
In this episode I chat with Professor Hannah Dahlen for Western Sydney University about the importance of choosing the best model of care and the right caregiver to support you with your wishes for your pregnancy and birth. We talk about why this decision is so important and what the latest research is showing. Happy listening!
In this episode I Chat with Catherine Bell, a Birth Cartographer @birthmapping, about her book "The Birth Map".
Karen McClay and Sophie Carrol discuss pelvic discomfort during pregnancy and abdominal muscle separation and what you can do to recover after birth.
In this episode Karen chats with Sophie Carroll from Enlightened Physiotherapy, a women's health physio about caring for your pelvic floor during pregnancy.
In this conversation, Karen chats with Melinda Webb, Doula, Dr of Chinese Medicine, and Calmbirth Educator, about Doulas’, what their role is and how they support couples and families in labour and birth.
In this conversation Karen chat’s with Janine O’Brien and Jo Hunter, both independent and privately practising Midwives in Sydney about the benefits of midwifery care and homebirth for pregnancy, labour & birth and postnatal care.
Calmbirth® Director Karen McClay interviews Peter Jackson, the founder of Calmbirth® on where the organisation came from, where it is now and why we do what we do.