Birth Journeys - Leonie MacDonald

Stop listening to horror stories! Find out how beautiful and powerful your birth can be by reading positive, powerful and beautiful stories. Birth Journeys is a collection of 29 encouraging and inspiring birth stories by Australian women (and men).

These stories reflect a wide range of birth experiences and journeys: caesareans, VBACs and plenty of normal, natural births in hospital, birth centres and at home. Some are warm and light-hearted, some serene and peaceful, while others catch the reader up in a wild whirlwind experience. Each story makes a strong contribution to the overall message that a woman’s experience of birth matters. Regardless of the path labour takes, trust in birth, feeling safe and nurtured, and a respectful relationship with carers are shown to be key factors in having a positive birth. Each story is a positive, empowering, transformative experience.

Birth Journeys also contains contributions from midwives, academics, doulas, birth educators, organisations and authors: Stephanie Corkhill Hyles – Pregnancy and Birth Art; Dr Shari Read – Birth Preparation; Assoc Prof Hannah Dahlen – Children at Birth; Renee Adair (Aust Doula College) – Doulas; Gabrielle Targett – Estimate Due Dates; Jane Hardwicke Collings – Learning from Birth; Dr Sarah Buckley – Ecstatic Birth – hormones of labour and birth; Rachana Shivam – Lotus Birth; David Vernon – Men at Birth; Melissa Bruijn & Debby Gould (Birthtalk) – Birth Trauma; Jane Hardwicke Collings – Blessingways and the Rite of Passage; Leonie MacDonald – Preparing for Breastfeeding; Rachel Reed – Vaginal Birth After Caesarean; Annie Sprague – Water Birth; the Maternity Coalition – Models of Care. These are short introductions to topics that you may wish to explore further in your own journey of learning and preparing for birth.

The beautiful and powerful stories in Birth Journeys contain the keys to preparing for your own positive birth — the best beginning to motherhood.