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In this episode, host Rose Ricketson talks with community development worker Holly, about her experience with IVF in Australia. Holly shares a very personal IVF journey that impacted every corner of her life, shedding light upon a very common experience, so we can each have more awareness of what the IVF is like for the women and couples in our communities, and how we could better support them through it all. We also explore the issues related to the IVF industry and the inequality of access, and look at ways we can help amplify the stories of people navigating this journey. Holly Rankin Smith is a community development worker with a passion for advocacy, activism and social change. With over 15 years experience in the sector, she has worked on projects addressing a range of social challenges from isolated elderly in aged care to at to at risk rural youth. She is also a marriage and funeral celebrant and is fascinated by the ceremonies and rituals through life and death. Holly is passionate about shifting the stigma around IVF since her experience of 3 years trying to conceive with a very broad diagnosis of 'unexplained infertility'. A light through this dark experience was stories and connections with other women experiencing infertility, but this seemed hard to find which is strange when it's experienced by 1 in 6 Australian couples. Holly hopes by sharing her story she can help people who are experiencing infertility feel less alone and help give context for those who know someone going through it. Contact: @hollyrs It Starts With The Egg - The book Holly referenced https://www.amazon.com.au/Starts-Egg-Second-Naturally-Miscarriage-ebook/dp/B07NJ85ZFJ

Rose Ricketson talks with Hazel Keedle, PhD, Lecturer of Midwifery at Western Sydney University and author of her recently released book Birth after Caesarean: Your Journey to a Better Birth. They discuss her research and findings around VBAC in Australia, as well as her work in midwifery. Hazel has more than two decades of experience as a clinician in nursing and midwifery, educator and researcher. Hazel’s research interests are vaginal birth after caesarean, birth trauma and maternity experiences explored primarily using feminist mixed methodologies. Hazel's work is recognised nationally and internationally, with more than50 conference and seminar presentations including 15 as an invited speaker. Hazel has a developing publication track record as an early career researcher, with 15 peer reviewed publications and a best selling book for women based on her PhD findings, Birth after Caesarean, your journey to a better birth. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/hazelkeedle (this has all the links to my papers, events, etc) Instagram: @hazelkeedle Facebook: @VBACmatters Twitter: @HazelKeedle Book on Amazon.com.au: https://tinyurl.com/2jmrfb9p

It would be reasonable to assume that the care one provides is the care one would be happy to receive. But this is not what new research reveals. Today on Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond Annalee Atia speaks with Sharon Stoliar - researcher, academic, midwife and Mother. Sharon received her Bachelor of Nursing in 2006 and Graduate Diploma in Midwifery in 2008 from UTS. She later obtained a Master of Public Health and Master of International Public Health from UNSW. Her recently published research around maternity care providers choices in childbirth, sparked some curious public debate around the ethics, equity and the quality of maternity care in Australia. Guest: Sharon Stoliar Produced and presented by Annalee Atia Recorded on Bundjalung Country on August 13th, 2022 Links: > Sharon's website plus pre order Sharon's new book Scars of Gold - www.sharonstoliar.com > A national survey of Australian midwives’ birth choices and outcomes - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187151922200302X?dgcid=author > Insider knowledge as a double-edged sword: an integrative review of midwives’ personal childbearing experiences - https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-022-04962-y The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media Incorporated. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at the Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, neighboring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

Today our host Rose is chatting with Catherine Bell about the need for better maternity care for rural women, consent and communication in maternity care, the need for rural midwives and policy change, and more. Catherine Bell is the Birth Cartographer and creator of The Birth Map, an innovative approach to birth preparation. She is undertaking her PhD to evaluate the potential of The Birth Map in facilitating communication and decision making in maternity services. As a community activator, she is not afraid to volunteer to ensure the future is one of compassion and connectedness. She sits on the board of Maternal Health Matters, is the ACT President of Maternity Choices Australia, treasurer for Braidwood Youth Performing Arts Association and a committee member for the Braidwood Community Association. She is also a Director of Tender Funerals Canberra Region, a not-for-profit, community-led approach to funeral care, seeking to establish. You can find her at www.birthmap.life IG @birthmapping and FB/TheBirthMap Https://chf.org.au/social-prescribing To our wonderful listeners. We love hearing from you and receiving your notes, questions and ideas.. how do you feel about this episode? If you have any questions/comments at any time about this, other interviews or our work at PBB Media, get in touch. You can email us through hello@pbbmedia.org or catch us on socials @pbb_media.

Today's episode is with Klyne Love, who shares generously about her experience with single motherhood throughout floods, housing crises and a lot of grief. Despite being a heavy topic, Klyne has a spirit of hope and optimism and holds a beautiful vision of a more mother-centred world, reflected in the work she does with mothers. Single motherhood has taught Klyne so much about herself, about care, community, wellbeing and complex social and cultural issues relating to how we look after each other, and how we don't. Klyne's story is so important, for all of us who wish to know how to support single mother's better, and for single mothers to know they are not alone in many of the common struggles faced when mothering without support. Klyne is a radical advocate for Mother-centred care and feminine embodiment. She works in postpartum education and care, having completed trainings with Julia Jones from Newborn Mothers, Sophie Ward Koren from Milk & Seed and Rachelle Garcia Seliga from Innate Traditions. She is also a Qoya teacher and ultimately these two threads weave together as sacred spaces for women to connect deeply to themselves and access their intuitive Knowing and self-healing. At the core of her work is a burning passion for a collective returning to community and thriving life (not just survival). She runs both in-person and online workshops. Connect with her here. https://www.klyne.love/about-4 Instagram: @ klyne.love Website: www.klyne.love If you loved this episode, please leave us a review or get in touch with us! @pbb_media

Jerusha Sutton is a doula, birth videographer, actor, and recently, one of the faces behind the documentary 'Birth Time'. In this episode, Oni Blecher speaks with Jerusha about life since Birth Time; what's happening in the Birth Time movement and where key researchers are at with the aligning Birth Experiences Study. Enjoy this conversation and find Jerusha through @jerushasutton www.jerushasutton.com.au @birthtimeworld www.birthtime.world

Welcome to Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond! Today we bring you a special podcast recorded in May 2020 for World Maternal Mental Health day. Birth Trauma Awareness week 2022 just concluded with a powerful theme this year on Birth Injuries. Our panel discussion raising awareness of maternal mental and other health issues with experts and mothers is as timely and relevant as ever. We hope you enjoy todays long form discussion. For questions and comments on this podcast email us at hello@pbbmedia.org Our live-stream event took place on Wednesday 6th May and was streamed through Facebook live via Maternal Mental Health Matters. The focus for the panel discussion is celebrating mothers and marking World Maternal Mental Health Day in a positive way (prevention, solutions-based approach, support etc) - a panel of experts, practitioners and mothers coming together to discuss the latest in maternal health and wellbeing. Maternal Mental Health Panellists: * Dr Oscar Serrallach - Integrative Doctor with a special interest in maternal health and postnatal wellbeing. Dr Serrallach was the first to recognise something he termed Postnatal Depletion. The Postnatal Depletion Cure is his first book.
 * Callie Brown - Mother, Coach, writer, speaker and life enthusiast.
 * Dr Sophie Brock- Sociologist, mother, and founder of The Good Enough Mother: a podcast and platform for mothering discussion and resources. Sophie is also AMIRCI President.
 * Alecia Stains - Mother, Maternity Advocate, Director of Maternity Consumer Network and Hypnobirthing Educator.
 * Mary Kirk - Midwife and maternity advocate. Mary is Vice-President of International Confederation of Midwives and founder of Safe Motherhood For All - First Baby Campaign Inc.
 * Ella Noah Bnacroft, proud bundjalung woman, artist, published author, mentor, consultant and founder of “The Returning Indigenous Corporation”. The Returning is an Indigenous charity that brings health and wellness through a nature based approach and connection back to country led by Indigenous facilitators
 * Kirilly Dawn, Barkindji woman, doula and embodiment practitioner. Kirily is also a Development Director at PBB Media Incorporated. 
 The panel is hosted by Sally Cusack from our acclaimed Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond podcast Produced and directed by Annalee Atia, co-founder and Development Director at PBB Media Incorporated. This panel discussion was recorded on Gadigal lands on Wednesday, 6 May 2020 
 This event is brought to you by four major Australian nonprofits: Maternity Choices Australia, Safe Motherhood for All, Maternity Consumer Network and PBB Media Incorporated. #maternalmhmatters #birthtraumaawarenessweek

Dr Ella Kurz is a midwife from Ngunnawal Country in the ACT. Today we chat through her work in maternal and child health research at the University of Canberra, as well the term 'parturescence' she coined in her PhD to refer to the opportunities for transformation made possible through childbirth. Ella was awarded the Stephen Parker medal for outstanding thesis for this work. She recently co-edited the anthology What We Carry: Poetry on Childbearing (Recent Work Press, 2021) and authored My Mother is a Midwife. What We Carry: www.amazon.com.au/What-We-Carry-Poetry-Childbearing/dp/0645009091 www.ellakurz.com

Allison Davis joins us today from New Mexico, USA. Allison is a counsellor, educator and researcher of maternal mental health. Today we discuss the ecological domain of matrescence - learning to approach the challenges and struggles with a viewpoint of growth and transformation. We look at how our evolution can mirror the evolutionary processes of nature and how we can align ourselves with nature's desire for growth. Allison's work focuses on the development of mothers' psycho-ecological growth in matrescence, aiming to reframe eco-related distress as resilience, and offering a path through the mental health dangers of idealised 'green motherhood' towards lifestyles that are psychologically healthy, and ecologically sustainable. Through articulation and application of an ecofeminist-informed developmental approach, she fosters ecological thinking and contact with nature for psychotherapeutic healing and growth. She works in private practice at Mother Nature Therapy, teaches in the Master of Counseling program at Alliant International University, and researches in the Maternal Psychology Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. Links: https://www.instagram.com/dr.allisondavis/ https://www.instagram.com/mothernaturetherapy/ https://www.mothernaturetherapy.com/climate-circles

Today's guest is Sarah Smits, who joins us from Lake Atitlan in Guatemala where she is learning traditional Mayan practices. Sarah is a home birth midwife, lactation consultant and body worker who incorporates her experience of travelling the world and learning about traditional midwifery practices, to provide holistic care to women and families, whilst supporting other birth workers on the path of reclaiming birthing wisdom as women’s wisdom. Today we discuss home birth midwifery practice, traditional approaches to maternal care, self-responsibility, community care, postpartum wellbeing and more. W: www.downtobirthmidwifery.com Instagram @down_to_birth_midwifery Details for The Midwife Project Guatemaya Website: www.midwifeproject.net Go fund me: www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-midwife-project-guatemaya To our wonderful listeners. We love hearing from you and receiving your notes, questions and ideas.. how do you feel about this episode? If you have any questions/comments at any time about this, other interviews or our work at PBB Media, get in touch. You can email us through hello@pbbmedia.org or catch us on socials @pbb_media.

Hi out there to our listeners, its Annalee. It is Tuesday, 8th of March in 2022. We are bringing you a special bulletin on the catastrophic flooding in Northern NSW, Australia. In the early hours of Monday 27th February, a little over a week ago, heavy rains causing what was already severe flooding, took a fast turn and created what has been deemed by some scientists as a ‘rain bomb’. The scenes across Northern NSW have been nothing short of harrowing and the community response as a result a powerful reminder of immense good that is available within us all. I'm catching up with PBB’s Oni Blecher who’s on the ground in Mullumbimby, one of the region’s badly hit towns. We address the current needs in the community, what our organisation is doing to support families and lessons for the wider community. MUSIC: The music you will hear on this podcast is by local Artist and song- weaver Olivia Rosebery, her potent song REMEMBER echoing a message of hope for everyone in need during these trying times. Find Olivia on socials @olivia.rosebery.music and www.oliviarosebery.com DONATE Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond Fundraiser for Northern Rivers Birthing Families https://gofund.me/777ad721 EPISODE INFORMATION: Guest: Oni Blecher. Oni is a PBB Media Producer and Creator, Craniosacral, Arvigo, Visceral + Myofascial release practitioner and Poet @thetempleofwords and Village keeper @@earthedtobirth. Find Oni @oni_keeperofthehearth Get in touch and info about The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond Community Hub www.pbbmedia.org / hello@pbbmedia.org SEEK/GIVE support at Northern Rivers Community Volunteer Directory NRVD.ORG Guardian Article Anatomy of a ‘rain bomb’: scientists strive to understand phenomenon that caused Australia’s east coast floods https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/05/anatomy-of-a-rain-bomb-scientists-study-phenomenon-2022-australia-east-coast-floods More links coming soon. Produced by Annalee Atia for PBB Media. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org This episode was recorded on Gadigal lands and Bundjalung Country. Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at the Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, neighboring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

Lissie Turner is our guest today on Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond. Lissie is a mother, blended family parent, foster carer, grandmother and an accomplished radio host and producer in the music industry. She is the creator of several renowned Yoga and wellbeing programs and spaces including The Yoga Shack along with her Husband Shane, both of whom avid surfers. Lissie is also a fellow Vagina (as we are lovingly called by the producer of the Vagina Conversations, Zenith Virago) and is working on her next piece for the show, which we touch on too in our conversation. It’s been a while that we have wanted to interview Lissie for the show, she is a wonderful female role model in our community with a colourful past and a powerful salubrious journey of redemption. As women do, we gathered and circled and touched on several themes from this evocative journey. You can find Lissie on on the Living Harmoniously Podcast and through the links below. Show Links: https://www.lissieturner.com/ IG @lissieturner To our wonderful listeners. We love hearing from you and receiving your notes, questions and ideas.. how do you feel about this topic? Have you had a similar experience or would like to share your insights? If you have any questions/comments at any time about this, other interviews or our work at PBB Media, get in touch. You can email us through hello@pbbmedia.org or catch us on socials @pbb_media. Guest/Interviewee: Lissie Turner Recorded January 2022 Produced and presented by Annalee Atia The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org This episode was recorded on Bundjalung Country. Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at the Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, neighboring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

Midwifery in Private Practice, Mothers & Babies 2021, March of Midwives and deskilling in Maternity Care In this episode of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, we catch up with privately practicing Australian Midwives Astra Joynt and Sunae Reilly. We chat deskilling in midwifery and the maternity care profession, the latest Mothers and Babies report from the Australian Institute of Health Welfare, March of the Midwives in the UK, vexatious reporting in Midwifery and what it takes to be a Jedi Midwife in today’s healthcare landscape. We also touched on Homebirth, vaginal birth of twins, breech birth and being prepared for childbirth. About our guests: Sunae Reilly is a private midwife living and working in the Northern Rivers of NSW on the land of the Bundjalung people of the Bundjalung Nation. She finds great joy in seeing women and birthing people find their inner strength and power in pregnancy and birth and supporting them in their transition to parenthood. Sunae is available for antenatal, labour and birth, and postnatal care between Byron Bay and Grafton. You can find her at Artemis Midwifery. www.artemismidwifery.com.au and @artemismidwifery on Instagram Since 2008 Astra Joynt (Endorsed Midwife) has worked in a variety of settings in both large urban and small regional hospitals, in the community and at home. She passionately believes in maternity care that puts the needs and desires of the woman and her family at the centre of the experience, and that building a trusting relationship is the best way to achieve this. Astra offers Medicare rebatable antenatal & postnatal care to all women, regardless of planned place to birth, with bulk-billing available. Home-birth packages also available. To discuss how Astra can work with you email astra.joynt@gmail.com Referenced during the interview: >> Dr Denis Walsh: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/expertiseguide/health-sciences/dr-denis-walsh-.aspx >> Australia's Mothers and Babies Report December 2021: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies/contents/about >> Dr Neel Shah interview: https://www.spreaker.com/user/pregnancybirthandbeyond/dr-neel-shah-csection >> Dr Stu (Stuart James Fischbein, MD): http://www.birthinginstincts.com/ >> Dr Andrew Bisits: https://wch.med.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-andrew-bisits To our dear listeners! We'd love to hear from you - how do you feel about deskilling in maternity care? Have you had an experience where you were unable to access appropriate maternity healthcare because of deskilling or a lack of those services in your area (such as publicly funded homebirth or Midwifery continuity models)? And if you have any questions/comments at any time about this, other interviews or our work at PBB Media, get in touch. You can shoot us a line at hello@pbbmedia.org or catch us on socials @pbb_media ! Guests: Astra Joynt and Sunae Reilly Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org This episode was recorded on Gadigal Lands (Sydney). Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, neighboring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

This is a special edition interview coming from the SheBirths podcast ! In this conversation, Annalee Atia from Maternity Choices Australia and PBB Media speaks with Nadine Richardson about how adverse times can further inspire us to commit to being responsible in advocating for our choices in Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond. This is not a 'how to' guide, rather a reminder of human rights in healthcare settings, specifically in the pregnancy, birth, and parenting realms. These times are confusing for most. Our value systems are swimming hard to keep up with variations of instruction and direction. What does this mean for birth ? Our Birth rights are never in lock down. Thank you for your support. Please feel free to leave reviews, feedback, or to simply get in touch with the team. We love hearing from you. Enjoy this conversation !

During this pandemic, there has been a huge increase in the demand for home birth in Australia and private practicing midwives are being flooded with calls from women and birthing people looking to birth outside of the hospital system. However, the regulations and education pathways for private practice midwifery are yet to change, and issues around accessibility and affordability remain. So how did we get here? When the research continues to show that home birth is the safest option for birth place, and continuous midwifery care the safest model, how do we need to revolutionise maternity care in this country to truly meet the needs of all birthing people? In this episode Kirilly Dawn is joined by Dr Melanie Jackson as we unravel some of these questions and take a deep look into the history of home birth, where we are today, and where we need to go. Dr Melanie Jackson is a private midwife living in the Blue Mountains in Sydney who has been attending women giving birth at home for 13 years, and has two homebirthed children herself. Melanie has completed a PhD called ‘Birthing outside the system’ and she also works as a midwifery researcher at western Sydney university.  You can find out more about Melanie and the mentorship she offers for midwives wanting to enter private practice at www.melaniethemidwife.com, her YouTube channel Melanie the Midwife, and on IG and Facebook @melaniethemidwife

In this episode, Oni Blecher interviews Eva Rose. Eva Rose is an internationally renowned Norwegian birth photographer, videographer, documentary filmmaker, doula, and by virtue of all of these things; an activist for many birth issues. Eva is a third generation photographer, and in 1999, when she was 19, Eva Rose started her career in birth photography for a magazine called ‘Pregnancy’. Eva has wholly dedicated her life to being with birth. She’s been showing the wider public the intimacies of birth for over 20 years, and through the beauty of this exposure, has normalised many parts of the huge moving picture of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. With her decades of experience, Eva has seen all kinds of birthing experiences. Now she has a huge instagram following with her grateful followers vouching that her photographs and stories create accessible education. Eva and her partner’s video ‘The Birth of Purdie’ has had 1.9 million views and counting. In her work, Eva frequently sheds light on birth related things people don’t usually talk about; including practices of clinicians, cross cultural ways of birthing, early birth, still birth, and sharing a plethora of various birth stories from her followers. Last year, Eva and her partner OJ started filming a birth around the world documentary until their filming was cut short by COVID. Now, she is doing other very inspiring things in her home country of Norway. I have been following Eva for a long time now, and was so excited to speak with her. She is passionate and the fire lit inside of her is warm and illuminating. I hope you enjoy this conversation. If you haven’t already, check out Eva’s instagram and her incredible birth photos. Find Eva at @evarosebirth evarose.carrd.co/ and Youtube: Eva Rose Birth

It’s 21st May, 2021 and some months back I caught up with Tori Heath, mother of four with a background in psychology, who has worked in child protection and executive recruitment. We meet to recount the story of her first birth experience. At the time, Tori was a young, fit and healthy pregnant woman, growing up in outback Australia on a 14,000 acre farm, heading to girl’s boarding school in Sydney for high schooling. She later stays on in Sydney for University, eventually meeting her husband and then becoming pregnant with her first child. Tori is a resilient woman by all accounts. A well educated woman, she was relatively well informed and chose a continuity model of care for her maternity care along with other support. Options that at the time, and even now, are available to few women in Australia. Even with all that, Tori’s experience of childbirth was traumatic. Tori’s family nearly lost her and her baby. Now mother of four, a clear picture emerges from her first birthing experience - unnecessary interventions from ill-informed policies and those being imposed on her and her body at the wrong time, leading to grave lasting harm that lives on today. The price of this harm being paid by mother, child, family and the wider community - but with very little awareness from the medical systems involved. Meconium present during the last leg of labour engaged a policy that failed to protect from harm and directly caused further harm to mother and baby. Follow the link to Dr Rachel Reed’s blog post to find out more about meconium during labour: https://midwifethinking.com/2015/01/14/the-curse-of-meconium-stained-liquor/ This podcast was recorded on Bundjalung Country, an area encompassing Byron Bay and surrounding flatlands, hills and rivers. We pay our respect to elders past, present and those emerging and deeply acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land whose cultures and customs have nurtured and continue to nurture this land and waters for over 60,000 years and upon which we now work and live. We recognise that the sovereignty of the pre-colonial peoples of these lands was never ceded and that recognition of culture, connection to land and waters and the sovereignty of all indigenous peoples across Australia is a matter of current and vital importance. First published on Speaker on 21st May, 2021. Guest: Tori Heath Produced and presented by Annalee Atia Original Music by Romy Agam Rom https://www.romyagamrom.com All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org

If you are someone that understands how important maternity care and the perinatal period are for mother, baby, family and community health and wellbeing, tune in today to learn about vital new research into mothers experiences of maternity healthcare and childbirth in Australia and find out how you can support the study reach more people and become an even more powerful force in improving experiences and healthcare. Today on Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, Oni Blecher speaks with Dr Hazel Keedle researcher at Western Sydney University and Annalee Atia, National President of Maternity Choices Australia and co-founder of our very own PBB Media about a critically important new study looking into the birth and perinatal care experiences of mothers in Australia. The Birth Experience Study (BESt) can be completed here, only complete this questionnaire if you are Australian and have given birth in Australia in the past five years: https://surveyswesternsydney.au1.qualtrics.com/CP/File.php?F=F_3FeQerXzd8yoeI6 To donate and support the study head to the Community Funding Campaign: https://gofund.me/c92a1829 Maternity Choices Australia: www.maternitychoices.org Guests: Dr Hazel Keedle Annalee Atia Produced & Edited by Oni Blecher and Annalee Atia Presented by Oni Blecher The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.org Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Budjalung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

In March 2021 Totonaca Indigenous birth companions Montse Olmos and Mayte Acolt started a petition titled 'Removing Rebozo Teachings From Doula Trainings'. It was a call to the international birth community and large training organisations, to stop their participation in the cultural appropriation and misuse of the sacred textile, the Rebozo. In this conversation Montse and Mayte generously share on the cultural use, meaning and place of the Rebozo in their Indigenous communities and in traditional midwifery practices in Mexico, and how this knowledge is traditionally passed down. They share why they started this petition, and why proper training with Indigenous birthworkers is necessary for the Rebozo to be used safely and with respect, acknowledging it as an intervention. They also speak to being in relationship with the communities we learn from, the importance of accountability, how birth work and anti racism work go hand in hand, and give us points for necessary pause and reflection. Montse Olmos and Mayte Acolt are Totonaca Indigenous birth companions and migrants in the United States. Mayte is a traditional Sobadora since age seven, taught by her grandmother. Montse was raised by her family elders who practiced herbal medicine, Sobadas and energetic healing. They host "What You Didn't Know About the Rebozo" together and share about the history of the Rebozo from an Indigenous perspective, while connecting it to the work of anti-racism, Indigenous liberation and becoming an accomplice to historically oppressed communities. Mayte and Montse began a movement in March 2021 to remove Rebozo birth techniques from Doula Training Organization in the U.S., as a result of the excessive and inappropriate use of this sacred textile amongst Doulas and Midwives. They conduct this work with genuine concern for the commercialization and dilution of the Rebozo and propose that extensive mentorship and hands-on learning from expert Elders is necessary in order to practice Rebozo body-work in an ethical way. Link to the petition titled "Removing Rebozo Teachings from Doula Trainings" http://chng.it/K5NyHqD4XD Montse and Mayte also host a bi-weekly workshop about cultural appropriation of the Rebozo titled "What You Didn't Know About the Rebozo". Any information regarding the workshop can be found on Montse's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/montsedoula You can follow Montse and Mayte on Instagram here: Montse Olmos @mujer_dela_tierra Mayte Acolt @maytethewombdoula

In this conversation, Oni Blecher speaks with Dylan Smith. Dylan Smith is a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and holistic health educator based in Sydney, Australia, where he runs and operates the Vital Veda clinic for patients and for those who love to nourish themselves with precious herbal elixirs. Aimed at uncovering the root cause of ailments, Dylan shares wisdom through podcasts, teaching programs and travels the world to teach patients to effortlessly integrate foundational techniques into their daily life so they can thrive. Regularly travelling to India to train with an internationally renowned family of Ayurvedic doctors, Dylan is devoted to learning, sharing and radiating this ancient knowledge for everyone to utilise and enjoy, to experience total wellness and bliss. Dylan has a passion for treating, a Passion for Education, and a for Herbs and Nature. Staying and learning from his Guru (teacher) in India for 6 month periods started a beautiful and purposeful learning teaching relationship. revolutionised Dylan’s Ayurvedic practice and increased the effectiveness and success rates of his treatments and prescriptions profoundly. Since then until today, Dylan continues to travel back and forth to the Raju Clinic in India to work and receive advanced teachings and initiations. In this conversation, Oni chats to Dylan about health pertaining to the menstrual, pre conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum health. We also speak more broadly about Ayurvedic wisdom through the nature of the doshas and the masculine and feminine and how finding balance can positively effect partnership and parenthood. At the end, Dylan lists some of his generous free resources for these periods of life. Enjoy this conversation ! And please leave reviews and feedback to help us produce more of what you need !