Hello and welcome back after a much longer break than I was anticipating. For various reasons I needed to take the podcasts offline for a short period of time and it turns out it's much harder to get them back online than anticipated! But here we are again I hope.

This is a special bonus episode with my colleague and good friend Rebecca Verlander, aka the Lactation Doula. Rebecca is a birth and postnatal doula, IBCLC lactation consultant, hypnobirthing instructor, sleep consultant and baby massage teacher. She's a busy lady!

She is also the mum of 5 children and has a huge wealth of experience to share about pregnancy, birth and postnatal. It's fair to say that Rebecca has had a whole range of experiences. Since this podcast focuses on positive birth, here she tells the story of her 3rd baby, and what a joyous one it is! We also explain why we are talking about positive birth, not perfect birth, and you can pick up some information Rebecca wished she had known at the time. 

I also couldn't let her go without mining a bit of infant feeding gold, and Rebecca lets us know how breastfeeding went this time around and what you can expect from those first few hours after birth. 

You can find the lovely Rebecca at:

https://lactationdoula.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/thelactationdoula/

If you would like to get in contact about something shared on this episode, or to share YOUR positive birth story, I'd love to hear from you. You can find me at:

https://www.doulaforyou.co.uk/

lisaharrisdoula@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/lisaharrisdoula/

This week season's finale is a very special and super useful episode as I speak to the inspirational Megan Rossiter from Birth-ed.

Megan is one of the people I wish was active on insta when I was pregnant with my son in 2012. At the time I was bashing my head against a maternity service that I felt was viewing me a policy and not a person, and I found it oh so hard to find any nuance in the system. I wanted to take responsibility for my body, my baby and my birth but how to do it? I felt very alone.

I am so thrilled that organisations like https://birth-ed.co.uk/ now exist to try and help women find that nuance... by giving you confidence to ask questions, establish your rights, help you take control of your own birth experience and be reassured that are other people out there who believe that birth works.

So, if you haven't already then get over to https://www.instagram.com/birth_ed/ immediately! Megan has loads of free resources including a f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s podcast, and she also runs antenatal education courses online and in person in SW London / Surrey.

In her podcast episode Megan generously recounts her pregnancy journey with hyperemesis gravidarum, her introduction to hypnobirthing and where Birth-ed began, her homebirth plans and then how she retained control of her birth experience and ensured it remained a positive one when things didn't go according to plan A.

Honestly, the episode is gold. Thank you Megan. 

If you would like to get in contact about something shared on this episode, or to share YOUR positive birth story, I'd love to hear from you. You can find me at:

lisaharrisdoula@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/lisaharrisdoula/

https://www.facebook.com/lisaharrisdoula

This week I am speaking to Rebecca about the birth of her daughter Sunny, and wow, it is just such a sunny episode

One of the many things I love about Rebecca's story is that she grew up around positive birth, she was around for the birth of her own baby brother at home as a child... and just what a legacy that was. The power of positive birth! It's exactly what motivates me to record the podcast.

But I also love how Rebecca went on her own journey, as we all need to do, to discover what were the right choices and mindset for her as she birthed Sunny. And even if you make different practical choices to her, the mindset and the affirmations she descirbes are of benefit to absolutely everyone.

This is how birth can be. Enough said.

If you would like to get in contact about something shared on this episode, or to share YOUR positive birth story, I'd love to hear from you. You can find me at:

lisaharrisdoula@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/lisaharrisdoula/

https://www.facebook.com/lisaharrisdoula