{"podcast":{"title":"Australian Birth Stories","slug":"australian-birth-stories-401092","podcast_index_feed_id":401092,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/68ba6fc2f8dc6bde38345645","website_url":"https://australianbirthstories.com/","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/68ba6fc2f8dc6bde38345645/show-cover.jpg","author":"Sophie Walker","episode_count":616,"summary":"A Podcast of Mothers' stories of childbirth. Weekly interviews with mothers giving their first hand accounts of child birth in Australia. Designed to help educate and inform first time pregnant women, parents wanting to have better subsequent births and birth enthusiasts who love to hear and tell birth stories. An entertaining and heartfelt resource for pregnancy, labour and delivery and postpartum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T12:20:23.779683+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/australian-birth-stories-401092"},"episode":{"title":"Special Announcement from Sophie","slug":"special-announcement-from-sophie","published_at":"2026-02-21T03:29:38+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/australian-birth-stories-401092/special-announcement-from-sophie","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/australian-birth-stories-401092","url":"https://shows.acast.com/australian-birth-stories/episodes/special-announcement-from-sophie","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68ba6fc2f8dc6bde38345645/e/699926a2166f1768580d5aa7/media.mp3","summary":"I wanted to share something important with you — especially if you’re currently pregnant, planning a pregnancy, or supporting someone who is. Over the past seven years of Australian Birth Stories , I’ve had the privilege of sitting down with more than 600 women and their families to hear their pregnancy and birth stories. And alongside that, I’ve also birthed my own three boys — each pregnancy, each labour, and each birth teaching me something different about preparation, trust, and the importance of feeling informed and supported. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned — both through my own births and through hundreds of conversations — it’s this: Birth rarely unfolds exactly how we imagine it will. But the women who feel calm, confident and empowered aren’t the ones who had a specific type of birth… They’re the ones who understood their options. They’re the ones who knew how their body worked. They’re the ones who had practical tools, trusted support, and evidence-based education behind them. That’s exactly why I created The Birth Class. I wanted to bring together everything I’ve learned — from my own experiences, from the stories shared on this podcast, and from Australia’s leading midwives, obstetricians, physiotherapists, lactation consultants, and birth educators — into one calm, clear, comprehensive course. Because when you understand birth, fear naturally begins to dissolve. You stop feeling like birth is something happening to you… And instead, you feel like an active participant in the experience. You understand how labour works. You understand your choices. And you trust yourself to navigate whatever unfolds. Since launching The Birth Class, more than 7,000 women and their partners have taken the course. And the feedback I hear again and again is: “I felt cal…","meta_description":"I wanted to share something important with you — especially if you’re currently pregnant, planning a pregnancy, or supporting someone who is. Over the pas…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":212,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/australian-birth-stories-401092/episodes/special-announcement-from-sophie/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/australian-birth-stories-401092/special-announcement-from-sophie.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}