Pregnancy

This article was first published elsewhere in June 2023.

No matter how big or small, every business owner sometimes gets the urge to throw it all into the bin and get a “normal” job. While this happens only occasionally for me, I recently had the unsettling revelation that this option isn’t available to me right now. Not because of some virtuous reason of “serving families” or “doing my life’s work” but, depressingly, because my kids and I are sick too often for me to hold down a…

A recent post by prominent birth-related Instagram account @trusting_birth suggested, as many others have done previously, that surrogacy is unethical. This was the case, in their opinion, regardless of whether the surrogate carried the pregnancy through commercial or altruistic avenues.  As commercial surrogacy is illegal in Australia, this article will address altruistic surrogacy, whereby the surrogate[1] does not receive payment for their role in carrying or birthing the baby. 

The original…

Anti-fat sentiment is pervasive in all aspects of our society, and is particularly dangerous and harmful in the realm of pregnancy, birth and postnatal care. In the words (1) of size-friendly birth educator Pamela Vireday,

“Fat women are tired of being marginalized by the medical community. They tell stories of egregious bias, of being treated as less than human. They also tell stories of subtle bias, of providers who seem to be size-friendly but ultimately are not.”

In this week’s newslet…

Hello and welcome to mid-December, the time I remind those in their third trimester that the upcoming festive season and public holidays are not a good reason for induction.

Before I go on, I want to be clear that there are good reasons for induction in certain circumstances. When truly indicated, induction can be an important way to keep babies and their mothers or carrying parents safest. This article is not about those inductions but the ones that are pushed on pregnant women and people who …

I was 41 weeks pregnant, and both myself and my baby were healthy. When I went to my antenatal appointment, the doctor at the hospital told me that if I didn't get an induction soon, my placenta would fail and my baby would die.

This story is common amongst women and birth parents whose pregnancy progresses beyond 40 (or in some cases even 39) weeks.

Interestingly, these words often come parallel to us being told that if we don't deliver the baby soon, it will grow too big, so perhaps our plac…