MINNIE’S BIRTH STORY
This is the story of bringing our beautiful baby girl into the world. It's vulnerable and honest, and I was hesitant to share something so personal. Every birth is different, and I know not every story unfolds like ours. Personally, I found reading and listening to positive birth stories so helpful in preparing for birth. They gave me hope, excitement and confidence when I needed it most. I've also spoken to women who have felt they needed to stay quiet about their positive birth experiences for fear of making someone else feel inadequate. I believe those stories deserve to be heard too, alongside the difficult ones.
This is our story. My intention in sharing it is that someone else might feel a little more informed, hopeful, or confident as they navigate their own journey.
Minnie's birth story started about five years before she was born.
After Mick and I got married in 2020, our focus shifted to starting a family. We'd spent years working towards creating a life that felt stable enough to bring children into. We made the decision to move back to the country to be closer to family, started building our dream home, and worked hard to establish careers we loved. Having children was always one of our biggest dreams. We felt like we had so much love to give.
We thought conception would be fairly straightforward. We'd both always been healthy, I'd already had some routine blood tests through my GP, and I'd been tracking my cycle and ovulation for years. There was nothing in these results to indicate infertility or barriers to conception. I think this was because we had been pregnant before, when we were much younger, we unexpectedly fell pregnant and made the difficult decision to have an early termination. At the time we didn't feel ready to become parents, a decision we both grieved later.
After our wedding, we shifted our focus to trying for a baby. It was during the COVID years and, like many people, we felt conflicted about the mandatory vaccinations. Because of our jobs, we both received the required jabs to continue working. Now, I think this may have played some role in our conception story. A few months later we fell pregnant and I had an early miscarriage. I think I moved through that reasonably well because I genuinely believed we'd be pregnant again soon. I knew miscarriage was common and held onto a lot of hope.
Then the months became years…
People constantly ask, "When are you going to have kids?" Always with the best intentions, but there were so many moments where I felt like saying, we're trying... ffs, please stop asking.
The following years are a bit of a blur now.
I remember constantly moving between it'll happen when it's meant to and what the fuck... why us? Infertility challenged us in ways I never expected. There was grief, guilt, frustration and the impact it had on our relationship and intimacy. I became hyper-focused on trying to optimise our health and found myself trying to control Mick's health too. Eventually, I realised I had to let go of those expectations and trust that we were both doing our best. Mick had his own journey and needed the space to work through it in his own way and at his own pace.
One thing we always agreed on was that, for us personally, IVF wasn’t the path we wanted to pursue. Instead, I immersed myself in learning and improving my health as best I could. We tried not to attach ourselves to an infertility diagnosis. I genuinely believed there were aspects of our health and lifestyle that were within our control, and I wanted to focus my energy there. We held onto hope and trusted that, if it was meant to happen, it would happen at the right time.
I poured my energy into my love of all things health and wellness. I completed my Master's in Women's Health Medicine, further qualifications in pelvic health, continued growing my business, trained with the incredible Rhea Dempsey as a birth attendant, and had the privilege of supporting other women through birth and assisting with birth education. I read countless books, listened to podcasts, and immersed myself in everything conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Some of the resources that shaped me most were Birth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed, Birth with Confidence by Rhea Dempsey, Ten Moons: The Inner Journey of Pregnancy and Birth by Jane Hardwicke Collings, Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Dr Sarah J. Buckley, Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols, and online articles/books of Dr Sara Wickham, I also loved listening to the Australian Birth Stories and The Great Birth Rebellion podcasts.
Initially, all of this was to better support my patients and continue growing as a practitioner, but along the way it became a huge part of my own healing and preparation too. I think every birth I attended, every book I read, and every conversation was part of my own preparation. I'm not saying everyone needs to prepare the way I did. But I do believe education is incredibly important. Understanding your options and the physiology of birth helps you make informed decisions and approach birth with more confidence.
People often ask what we think helped us finally fall pregnant. The truth is, I don't think there was any one magic thing. Fertility and health in general, is individual and multifaceted. Sometimes it's also hard to see yourself objectively when you're in the middle of it. We wanted to focus on addressing potential root causes and taking a holistic approach. Being stubborn, I tried to do a lot of it myself. In hindsight, I probably should have sought more guidance earlier instead of trying to figure everything out alone. I explored functional blood testing, genetic testing, gut and vaginal microbiome testing and looked more closely at things like hormones, nutrient status and inflammation. My testing showed methylation polymorphisms that affect folate metabolism, nothing else that was clearly impacting conception. More than anything, I learnt to stop chasing perfection and instead focus on understanding my body and creating the best environment for it to thrive. We became much more intentional with our lifestyle. We focused on supporting mitochondrial health, improving sleep and light exposure, reducing stress and removing environmental toxins where we could. We prioritised water quality, local, organic food, ate more animal protein, limited alcohol and continued exercising regularly.
Typical for me and my personality, the biggest shift was actually slowing down. I started training more efficiently. I fuelled my body properly, learnt to work with my cycle instead of pushing through it and became much more aware of my stress levels. Resting more, doing less and learning to regulate my nervous system were probably some of the most important changes I made, and constantly have to work on.Optimal health isn't something you achieve overnight. Many of the habits we developed through our journey have become the foundation of how we still choose to live today. Ever evolving and adapting to the changing demands of day-to -day life. I also think there was an element of divine timing in our story. One of the most special parts was that all three of my sisters and my sister-in-law fell pregnant around the same time, and all five babies were born within just a few months of each other. A number of my friends have also had babies around to same time too. I feel grateful that our children will grow up together.
When we finally fell pregnant with Minnie, we were absolutely over the moon. We told our family and friends almost immediately after I peed on the stick. Despite everything we'd been through, I knew this was our baby.
I'm grateful that I had a straightforward pregnancy. Apart from a few weeks of nausea and tiredness, I felt really well. I'd dreamed for years about the kind of pregnancy care I wanted, and Megan and Fi, my midwives, provided that and so much more. I was fortunate to be able to choose private midwifery care. This model of care gave me continuity of care with highly skilled midwives. I had always hoped for a pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience that was as unmedicalised as possible, where physiology was supported and unnecessary intervention was limited. For me this felt most achievable at home. I also wanted to feel safe, and guided by experienced professionals. If anything unexpected arose, I wanted to know I could make informed decisions about the best care for both me and our baby.
Another huge part of feeling safe was Mick. People often ask how he felt about home birth, and the truth is he trusted me completely. He knew how much time I’d spent learning about pregnancy and birth, the conversations we’d had with Megan and Fi, and how deeply I’d considered every decision. We made those decisions together, but he trusted my judgement and my body’s capacity to birth our baby. I think his calm presence and belief in me gave me the confidence to surrender to birth. It was one less thing for me to carry because I knew we were on the same page.
During pregnancy prioritised eating well and staying active throughout. As a keen runner, I'd imagined I'd run the whole way through, but by around 13 weeks I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore, so I stopped. A mix of walking, strength training, Pilates and yoga became my choice of movement instead.
Towards the end of pregnancy, I had the usual aches and pains, along with a nasty bout of rib pain after a cough. Haemorrhoids were honestly the most painful and frustrating part of the whole pregnancy. I managed them with regular osteopathy, acupuncture, internal pelvic floor treatment, breathwork, mobility, gentle strength work and paying closer attention sitting/standing extended periods and bowel health.
I spent those final months trying to prepare as best I could. Physically, I wanted to give my body every opportunity to support Minnie's postion for descent and birth. Mentally, I was trying to quiet the noise, and build trust in my body's ability to do what it was designed to do. Some days that trust came easily, and other days I had to consciously remind myself of it. It wasn’t about achieving the "perfect" birth. It was about feeling prepared, informed and grounded enough to surrender to whatever birth asked of me.
The weeks leading into Minnie's birth were honestly some of the happiest of my life. From around 37 weeks I slowly stepped away from work. It took me nearly a month to properly unwind and hand over control. Adjusting to a slower pace. We had the most beautiful late summer weather. I spent my days walking, swimming, stretching, reorganising the nursery, cleaning every part of the house, and soaking up the sunshine. Mick had recently changed jobs after more than ten years of FIFO work, so for the first time in years he was home every night. Every day I spent time in our birth room moving, breathing, visualising, stretching and chatting to our baby. I'm so grateful I gave myself that space to prepare and genuinely enjoy those final days with Minnie still inside me. Advice from so many women was to cherish those final days with your first pregnancy. I didn’t have any worry about post dates, I truely believed that baby would come when we were both ready.
At 41 weeks gestation, 3:30am on Friday 13th March, I woke to go to the toilet and noticed what felt like period cramps. I had little niggles that made me shift around in bed with a bit of discomfort. I climbed back into bed and drifted in and out of sleep until we got up around 6am.
We had breakfast, went for a walk, did a few jobs around house and I pottered around cleaning and putting washing on. The contractions were manageable and I kept thinking, this could go on for days. Denial that I was in labour was one of my birth prep tactics. I wasn't getting ahead of myself, although I did have a feeling I wanted Mick to stay home from work.
Around 9:30am my friend Catie dropped in for coffee. We chatted, caught up on a few work things then she was off and would pop back after lunch. I baked Minnie's birthday cake, something I'd always imagined doing during early labour, and did some stretching and mobility while Mick pottered around in the shed.
At lunchtime Megan came to check in.
I'd had a bath, was lying in bed listening to music and was still convinced this was just early labour. She checked over both baby and me and simply said my body felt like it was softening and preparing beautifully. She headed off to another appointment about 45 minutes away and we agreed we'd stay in touch. By then, I think I'd already started disappearing into labour land. I didn't have much capacity to answer questions, and I was starting to go inward.
At 1:30pm Catie came back after work. We sat out on the front lawn with a cup of tea and some of the lemon cake I'd baked that morning. This was when things really started to shift. I found myself standing through every contraction, stopping to breathe while Mick and Catie laughed away at one another's lame jokes between contractions, completely unfazed. I was still telling myself, this could go on for days. Catie suggested I lie down for a while and brought me a hot water bottle. We'd always planned for her to be my second support person and, because she lived an hour away, we decided she would stay in case things changed overnight. Having her there made me feel incredibly safe and held.
At about 2:30pm, while I was lying in bed hugging my hot water bottle, and my waters broke with one huge gush. Everything changed almost instantly. I peeled off my soaked clothes, jumped into the shower, put on one of those glamorous adult nappies because my waters just kept coming, and we put the TENS machine on. We moved into the birth room we'd spent weeks preparing.I stayed upright most of the time, leaning into the birth sling, swaying, kneeling over the ball and moving onto all fours. From this point, everything becomes a bit of a blur. I was completely inside myself. Deep in labour land, hardly speaking and barely aware of anything happening around me.
Somewhere in this period the midwives arrived.
The intensity built quickly and it felt like there was hardly any rest between contractions.Being on all fours, hanging into the sling and sinking back towards child's pose felt best at this point. I was also starting to get doubts about my ability to continue at this intensity. I remember getting onto the toilet to empty my bowels, and not long afterwards I could feel the urge to bear down.
Soon after, I climbed into the birth pool. Mick thankfully got the pool filled up just in time. The warm water was instant relief. Everything slowed down. The contractions spread out enough that I could finally catch my breath between them. I felt calmer, more alert and have much clearer memories from this point onwards. I felt strong and completely in control. Deep breathing and making loud, low sounds helped me work through the now longer and stronger contractions. The stretching sensations were incredibly intense, but I felt like my body was doing the work it was supposed to. My mum arrived at this point, I was getting quite hot in the pool. Without saying a word she came straight over with a cool washer on my forehead. This was another moment I felt really held. As well as mum, Catie, Mick and my dog honey were by my side the whole time. I also had a birth photographer, Erin. She quietly slipped in and I had no idea she was even there.
I honestly loved this part of birth. I relate in to being in a flow state in a long run, I felt like I was at the tail end of a race with the best support crew. I could feel how productive every contraction was and could feel Minnie navigating her way through my pelvis. There was something incredibly powerful about working with my body rather than fighting against it. I told myself over and over at this point open, soften, and surrender. I had absolutely no idea when Minnie was crowning. I was so focused on working through each contraction that I didn't realise until after her head had already been born. The relief in that moment was incredible. I remember thinking, the hard part is done. I felt so relieved and proud of myself.
At 5:50pm our beautiful girl was born into the water. Mick caught her and passed her through my legs and onto my chest. The whole room became still as Minnie took her first breaths and we both recovered. Just over two hours after my waters broke, she was here.
No words… wow.
One of my favourite parts of supporting women through birth has always been those first few hours afterwards. The baby is earthside, everyone takes a deep breath, and the room is filled with oxytocin. I loved witnessing that feeling. Now it's one of my strongest memories from my own birth. It was daylight savings, so the most beautiful golden evening light streamed through our lounge room windows. Mum had baked a fresh batch of hot cross buns, and I'd put a slow-cooked butter chicken on that morning before I knew labour would really kick off. We sat around eating beautiful food, soaking up our new baby and trying to process that she was finally here. was surrounded by so much love. Mick, Catie, Mum and my mother-in-law Nat were all there. Honey, was curled up right beside me. Minnie started making her way to the breast while we waited for my placenta to arrive. It needed a little assistance from my midwives in the end, and birthing the placenta was actually more uncomfortable than I expected. I FaceTimed my sisters to tell them she was here, all from the comfort of my own lounge room. I rehydrated, drank cups of tea and was fed like an absolute queen. It was honestly the best.
Once everything had settled, Catie helped me have a shower. I put on my favourite pyjamas, climbed into bed with fresh sheets, a nappy and ice packs tucked everywhere they needed to be. I'd loved helping women get comfortable after birth when I'd attended births myself. Making the bed, fluffing the pillows, making a cup of tea and helping them into fresh clothes always felt like such a privilege. Experiencing that same care myself is something I'll never forget.
The midwives stayed with us for a few hours afterwards. Minnie was checked over, weighed and measured, and we all just sat around chatting while the reality slowly sank in. Megan gave everyone an anatomy lesson of the placenta and there were lots of helping hands for packing up birth equipment and clean the house.
Then came our first night as parents.
Mick and I laugh about it now because we genuinely had no fucking idea what we were doing. I was still riding the biggest adrenaline and oxytocin high of my life and couldn't sleep. I definitely underestimated just how much newborns feed. Minnie wanted to suckle almost constantly, and Mick and I spent the entire night trying to do everything. Nappy changes, swaddling, cuddles, resettling... we definitely could have done less.
Thankfully Catie had stayed the night. Around 3am, she must have heard us completely exhausted, arguing and with our patience wearing thin. She quietly came in, scooped Minnie up, cuddled her for a few hours and let us sleep. Absolute angel.
My milk came in almost exactly 48 hours later. Minnie became much more settled, and thankfully my nipples slowly recovered too. If I'm honest, I found breastfeeding really awkward and painful at first. For the first few days, every time Minnie latched I wanted to kick someone in the head. It was genuinely toe-curling pain. Thankfully, it got better. Megan my midwife visited us every day during that first week. We'd troubleshoot feeds together, adjust positioning and slowly work it all out. I don't think I started enjoying breastfeeding until about two or three weeks in, finally I started to feel more confident.
During those first few weeks, my body was actually more sore from breastfeeding than it was from birth. My neck and upper back ached from spending hours in positions I'd never been in before. I did’t have any perineal tearing, a small graze on my labia stung for a few days, and my haemorrhoids took a good week to resolve. Overall I was just amazed with the healing and changes happening in my body in that first week postpartum. By day three I felt like doing some gentle stretching and muscle activation exercises.
One of the greatest gifts we received was the support around us. My mum and mother-in-law took turns staying overnight during that first week. They cooked, cleaned, folded washing, cuddled Minnie between feeds and looked after us while we learnt how to become parents. Those extra hands made such a difference, and they're memories we will all treasure forever.
Now, as I write this, Minnie is four and a half months old. We're still figuring it out day by day, but we're completely in awe of our beautiful little girl and loving this new chapter of our lives. don't think my birth unfolded the way it did because of one single thing. There was preparation, privilege in the care we had access to and an element of luck.
I believe what made the biggest difference was prioritising my health long before pregnancy, taking the time to understand birth, learning to trust my body and surrounding myself with people I trusted. It was potentially years of lifestyle and learnings… And having midwives who knew me deeply and understood exactly what I needed. Because I trusted Megan and Fi completely, I was able to let go of everything else and put all of my energy into the work of bringing Minnie into the world.
Birth stretched me in every possible way, but it also reinforced something I already believed. The human body is extraordinary. Women's bodies are capable of incredible things when they're supported, respected and trusted.
I believe birth isn't just something to survive or get through. When we're informed, supported and genuinely cared for, it has the potential to become one of the most empowering, transformative and joyful experiences of our lives.
It certainly was for me. And on Friday 13th March 2026, we welcomed the greatest gift we've ever received. Our beautiful Minnie.
