Have you ever wondered what birthing at home is actually like?
Maybe you’ve heard stories, or perhaps you’re just starting to feel like the standard hospital path doesn't quite fit your vision for your birth.
The Podcast "Are You Homebirth Curious?" is a space for those questions. It’s a podcast designed to take the mystery out of birth at home, giving you the clear information you need to make the choice that feels right for you.
What We Explore
We look at birth from every angle - not just the clinical, but the emotional and environmental too:
The Physical: How your body is designed for birth.
The Environment: Creating a "birth bubble" that feels safe.
The Mindset: Moving past the common fears and myths.
The Intuition: Learning to trust your own gut feelings.
The Experience: Honouring birth as a major life milestone.
This project is built on a foundation of Reciprocity. I am committed to centring and professionally honouring the voices of First Nations sisters and artists. By paying professional fees to the Aboriginal storytellers on this show, I seek to ground into respect for the lands we birth and parent on.
Season 1 of “Are You Homebirth Curious?”
Podcast Trailer
Have you ever felt an inkling that birth could be something more than a managed clinical event?
If you’ve found yourself looking for a path that feels more aligned with your own body and your own rhythm, you’re in the right place. You’re simply Homebirth Curious.
This is a first glimpse into a project dedicated to shifting the narrative around birth: moving away from the idea of home as a place of risk and back to the understanding of what coming home really feels like. It’s about the relief of familiar floorboards, the comfort of your own space, and the safety that allows you to settle into your own internal knowing.
Episode 1:
Land and Lineage: Reclaiming Homebirth and Ancestral Wisdom
What does it mean to birth from a place of deep connection to land, lineage, and inner safety?
In this powerful premiere episode, Claire yarns with Wiradjuri family counsellor and mother of twelve, Alison Burrell. From navigating teenage pregnancy to standing fiercely against a colonial medical mindset, Alison shares how our bodies are hardwired for autonomy. Together, they explore how birth imprints ripple into parenting, the vital necessity of Birthing on Country, and how to dismantle institutional birth fear.
This podcast has been kindly sponsored by Jen Nicholson - home visiting Senior Pelvic Health Physiotherapist and Director of Whole Human Therapy.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 2:
Whole Human Pregnancy: Navigating a Plus-Size Birth
Pelvic health physiotherapist Jen Nicholson joins Claire to tackle the realities of navigating a plus-size pregnancy. During their conversation, Jen confronts the pervasive weight stigma and rigid BMI risk-profiling within the modern maternity system that often restricts choices for women in larger bodies. She maps out exactly how to protect your birth autonomy against defensive medical protocols, using targeted pelvic biomechanics and nervous system regulation to achieve a safe, undisturbed physiological homebirth.
Through her own lived experience, Jen provides practical tools to optimise birth physiology, understand space-making in the pelvis, and establish an unshakeable perimeter of safety regardless of your body shape or size.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 3:
Navigating Homebirth Transfers: How Midwives and Paramedics are Collaborating with Melissa Gardiner
Senior paramedic and registered midwife Melissa Gardiner joins Claire to directly confront the number one contingency consideration: the homebirth transfer. Mel shares the operational reality of emergency birth logistics and introduces STORC - Western Australia’s groundbreaking 24-hour telephone service linking on-road St John WA paramedics with expert midwives in real time.
The conversation strips away the panic and stigma surrounding hospital transfers, mapping out exactly how cross-disciplinary clinical collaboration can help protect the boundaries of physiological birth when a homebirth plan requires a change in direction.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 4:
Postpartum is Forever: Reviving Traditional Birth Practices and Maternal Autonomy with Hadhee Jah
Birth invites a return to instinct and lineage, yet standard maternity systems routinely disconnect us from our inherited wisdom. Birthkeeper Hadhee Jah explores how this happened almost overnight in her home country and how Maldivian perinatal traditions are at risk of being lost forever. But hope is at hand with Hadhee’s growing movement: Mothers of the Maldives.
From honouring the natural, biological rhythms of labour to creating a protective 40-day postpartum sanctuary, Hadhee illuminates the power of cellular memory, traditional healing practices, and the vital importance of postpartum rest, warmth, and nourishment. If you are seeking to ground your birth preparation in cultural reverence, somatic safety, and innate intuition, this episode is a deeply moving invitation home.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 5:
Bridging the Distance: Rural Homebirth and Trauma-Informed Care with Holly Jones
Living outside a major city shouldn't mean sacrificing your birth choices. Holly Jones (The Family Room, Rural Roots Midwifery) is one of an increasingly rare few dedicated endorsed midwives who ensure that continuity of care can be accessed beyond metropolitan borders. Holly reveals the creative logistics of supporting homebirths, some over 600km away: from collaborative shared-care arrangements to antenatal checks in parks and the back of cars.
Beyond geographic isolation, Holly shares how recovering from a severe spinal injury transformed her practice into a trauma-informed sanctuary. Claire and Holly discuss how navigating rural constraints and isolation helps mothers learn more about their own priorities and boundaries as they step into matrescence. If you're exploring birth options in a regional or remote area, this episode is essential listening.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 6:
"There Is No Such Thing as a Failed VBAC": Birthing at Home After Two C-Sections with Nikola Moore
This episode explores the journey of taking radical responsibility and self-trust for a HBAC2 (Homebirth After 2 Caesareans). Nikola shares how she consciously stepped away from intense birth preparation - letting go of the overwhelming need to micromanage every variable - and instead cultivated an unshakeable determination. Her story is a powerful roadmap for how birthing parents can build real, grounded confidence in their choices.
Together, Claire and Nikola lean into the raw reality of physiological birth without negating the true intensity of labour, offering a refreshingly honest look at what it takes to surrender to the process. They also unpack why reframing our birth language is so vital, stripping away harmful labels like "failed VBAC" or "failed homebirth", so that every parent can step into matrescence with pride rather than shame. Whether you are navigating birth after previous C-sections or looking to shift from over-preparing into deep body trust, this episode is an inspiring invitation to own your story completely.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 7:
Homebirth Heals Families: Kaupapa Māori Birthing Wisdom with Joanne Teina
Joanne Teina (Jo Rama) is a proud Ngāti Apakura midwife with over 20 years of experience in Kaupapa Māori birthing. After surviving ovarian cancer at age 18 and being left with just one-eighth of an ovary, Jo was told she would never have children—yet she went on to experience ten pregnancies, birth seven children, and welcome 24 grandchildren. Jo openly shares her journey of overcoming medical trauma, navigating postnatal depression, and discovering the healing nature of physiological homebirth.
Together, Claire and Jo explore how Indigenous birthing wisdom centres the entire whānau (family) and how homebirth can return the sacred responsibility of new life to the hands of parents, partners, and community. Jo’s provides generous insights into traditional Māori wisdom including the dual meaning of whenua (placenta and land), muka (flax fibre cord ties), oriori (composed birth songs), and karanga (welcoming calls). This conversation is an invitation to advocate for birth sovereignty for first nations people, honour ancestral wisdom, and embrace Jo’s enduring message: homebirth heals families intergenerationally.
This episode is generously sponsored by Vicki Hobbs, founder and trainer at Doula Training Academy, offering online and in-person doula training courses and Back to Basics Birthing - comprehensive birth education to take the fear out of birth.
Access the podcast transcript here.
Episode 8:
Homebirth, Hospital, or Both? Finding Your Best-Fit Birth Team with Kelly Langford
To be released 7th October 2026!
Kelly Langford is the co-founder and midwifery leader of MAMA Midwifery Practice - Victoria’s largest private midwifery service. Kelly shares her inspiring journey from her early days as one of Australia's first endorsed private midwives to navigating her own contrasting birth stories, including a hospital transfer for her son and a straightforward homebirth for her daughter. She offers a beautifully nuanced perspective on how intentional preparation allows parents to make clear, grounded decisions in any birth setting, illustrating that feeling safe and supported doesn't stop at the hospital doors.
Together, Claire and Kelly dive into the mechanics of private midwifery care, exploring flexible models that bridge both home and hospital births. Kelly details her groundbreaking work in developing sustainable staffing models to combat midwife burnout, establishing graduate mentorships, and helping re-establish publicly funded homebirth programs through public-private partnerships.
Access the podcast transcript here after launch.
Episode 9:
When Homebirth Plans Change: Transcending Limitations and Championing NT Birth with Leesa Burton
To be released 21st October 2026!
Leesa Burton is one of the tireless advocates behind Our Birth, Our Voice and Birth Stories NT. Her conversation with Claire reveals what it truly takes to navigate system limitations and protect your birth experience when plans fall through. Leesa shares her personal journey through the Northern Territory’s public homebirth program, facing sudden care shifts across both of her pregnancies: first transferring to hospital after reaching 42 weeks, and later facing a mid-labour crisis when staffing shortages left no midwife available to attend her homebirth. She breaks down how she transcended these sudden curveballs by leaning into her homebirth preparation, value-alignment and unshakeable self-trust to retain full autonomy in the hospital birth centre. Leesa’s story demonstrates that intentional homebirth preparation is never wasted, serving as an internal anchor whenever external plans collapse.
Beyond her personal births, Leesa details how she channelled her experiences, alongside other dedicated mothers, into championing regional birth choices across the NT - from bringing babies into parliamentary estimates to address severe scan shortages, to securing $10 million in federal hospital upgrades and restoring 24/7 staffing to the Darwin Birth Centre. This conversation is for any birthing parent interested in learning how to transcend healthcare limitations, find their voice and demand maternity care that honours choice, dignity, and bodily autonomy.
Access the podcast transcript here after launch.
Episode 10:
Replanting the Birthing Trees: Weaving home into any Birth Space with Prof. Catherine Chamberlain
To be released 4th November 2026!
Claire Holloway is joined by Professor Catherine Chamberlain: proud Trawlwoolway woman, midwife, public health researcher and Head of the Indigenous Health Equity Unit at the University of Melbourne. Cath shares how "Birthing on Country" has evolved into a creative, living practice of bringing the sacred elements of home, land and cultural connection into whatever physical setting birth occurs - whether that is a living room, a birth centre, or a high-tech hospital ward. From laying down soil and plants to bringing in possum skins or preserving umbilical cords, she illustrates how birthing parents can actively transform any clinical room into a sanctuary of safety and belonging.
Prof. Chamberlain also details the clinical and systemic pillars of the Replanting the Birthing Trees framework. She breaks down how trauma-informed care must address the deep fear of child protection surveillance that impacts First Nations families, why health professionals must scrub deficit language (like "failed homebirth") from medical records, and how postpartum wraparound care protects the mother-baby dyad. Grounded in evidence-based research on relationship-based care and the brain-rewiring power of oxytocin, this episode offers every homebirth-curious listener a tangible toolkit for bringing safety, autonomy, and reverence to their birth.
This episode is generously sponsored by Holly Jones, private midwife at The Family Room WA and founder of Rural Roots Midwifery Collective.
Access the podcast transcript here after launch.