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Childbirth is supposed to be empowering, but for many birthing people it is not. For Indigenous women, immigrant women and women of colour, birthing within the western healthcare system can be anything but affirming. It can feel unsafe. In this raw and challenging talks series, health researcher, clinician and nursing educator Dr Ruth De Souza (RMIT University) hosts conversations about birth, racism and cultural safety with change makers working within the maternal health-care sector to bre ...
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Synopsis: Diasporic nurse scholar Dr. Favorite Iradukunda studied in Rwanda, South Africa and the United States. She is a global nurse leader and commited to decolonising nursing through an African lens. She combines her research on advancing the holistic well-being of African-diasporic women, with activism in black birth equity and justice. Notes:…
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Series 4 Episode 7: Hannah Donnelly and Omar Sakr on centering the birth experience under capitalism
54:08
Synopsis: Experiencing a “high risk” pregnancy and birth while growing a new life during the pandemic was transformative for Wiradjuri writer and producer Hannah Donnelly, and Arab-Turkish partner, writer Omar Sakr. We talk about queering birth, the administrative load of pregnancy, and the need for collective infrastructure to improve birthing exp…
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Series 4 Episode 6 Sapna Samant on being a GP, creative practitioner and adoptive single parent
42:58
Synopsis: Dr. Sapna Samant, is a GP, radio producer, film maker, activist, and single adoptive parent and is passionately committed to social justice. Both her creative work and medical practice strive for equity and work to rectify injustice wherever it occurs. Notes: Twitter Mastodon Sapna's blog What Bridgerton gets right and wrong about being I…
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Series 4 Episode 5 Aseel Tayah on connecting communities through creativity and storytelling
37:49
Synopsis: Melbourne-based artist and cultural leader Aseel Tayah was born and raised in Jerusalem and is passionate about the role of the arts in connecting diverse communities across generations. Aseel uses art and storytelling to foreground the experiences of displaced people and advocate for artists of color, mothers, children and young people —…
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Series 4 Episode 4: Sara Motta on feminine lineages, healing justice, and reconnecting to the ancestral Mother
45:11
Synopsis: How do Indigenous communities weave together ancestral feminine lineages? This question is at the heart of Associate Professor Sara Motta’s praxis of transformation and collective liberation. Through a lens of feminised resistance, Sara, a proud mestiza salvaje, shares her healing journey from the wounds of patriarchal capitalist-colonial…
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Series 4 Episode 3: Alice Te Punga Somerville on fertility and making babies for the revolution
49:04
Synopsis: Birthing holds a different significance for Indigenous communities that have experienced colonial attempts at elimination. For scholar, poet and irredentist Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville, (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki), birth is an act of resistance. She joins us to talk about her journey to parenthood and her experiences as a scholar who t…
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Synopsis: For Professor Cath Chamberlain, babies are a gift from the ancestors and birth is a critical life event. But what if this time is coupled with intergenerational and complex trauma? Cath is a Palawa Trawlwoolway woman, registered midwife, and public health researcher who works to support the emotional and spiritual well-being of Aboriginal…
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Series 4 Episode 1: Jacynta Krakouer and Indigo Willing on how colonisation and the idea of the “white saviour” have shaped responses to child welfare
58:36
Synopsis: What does it mean to be part of a community without access to your birthing stories? Dr Jacynta Krakouer, a Mineng Noongar social worker and Dr Indigo Willing, a sociologist and adoptee from Vietnam contribute a powerful discussion about the history and politics of out-of-home care and inter-country adoption addressing justice, kinship, a…
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Series 3 Episode 7: Carla Pascoe Leahy on connecting the past and future in the Anthropocene
41:30
Synopsis: Historian Carla Pascoe Leahy was surprised at how her own experiences of new motherhood were affected by the relationships and stories she was told by her own mother and grandmothers. In this episode, she talks about how learning about her past led to researching the experience of birth in Australia over the last 75 years. Carla discusses…
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Series 3 Episode 6: Ritodhi Chakraborty and Aline Carrara on intergenerational happiness and joy in an era of climate change
50:30
Synopsis: In countries where development has been tied to nation building, birthing more than one child has been viewed as antithetical to ‘progress’. In this episode, I talk with Ritodhi Chakraborty and Aline Carrara about living in Aotearoa and creating multifunctional equitable landscapes that might help address the challenges of climate change.…
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Synopsis: Decentring whiteness and decolonising birthwork are central to Janelle Da Silva’s life and work. By challenging spiritual bypassing and cultural appropriation using critical race theory and anti-racism praxis, Janelle is committed to having inclusive and robust conversations about social location, and power and privilege in white spaces. …
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Synopsis: What if you thought pregnancy was going to be easy, a breeze? You had even planned an overseas holiday – but then suddenly, pregnancy became frightening and stressful, needing admission to a mental health unit? Natalie Kon-yu – a Naarm-based writer descended from Italian and Mauritian migrants – talks about the experiences of medical sexi…
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Synopsis: It’s tough negotiating the highly technocratic spaces of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a hospital – let alone as the queer, autonomous-single parent of a micro-preemie. Aruna Boodram is part of the Caribbean diaspora living in so-called Canada. In this week’s conversation, we discuss the stress and uncertainty of caring for one…
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Synopsis: As a US-based Black nurse-midwife, Lucinda Canty knows that nurses and midwives do not leave their prejudices at home. Implicit assumptions and biases follow them to work and wield a profound influence on perinatal care and patient outcomes. In this episode, we talk about the challenges of addressing racial disparities in reproductive hea…
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Season 3 Episode1: Cherisse Buzzacott on opening the door for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives
38:12
Synopsis: Mparntwe (Alice Springs) midwife Cherisse Buzzacott has achieved a number of firsts. She was first in her family to graduate from university, and the first ever graduate of the Australian Catholic University’s Bachelor of Midwifery Indigenous course. To Cherisse, though, firsts are about opening the door for others. She’s passionate about…
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This is the trailer for season three of the Birthing and justice podcast. This podcast is for anyone who is interested in helping to transform how birthing is experienced for people who are not the ideal imagined users of health services. For many birthing people – especially those who aren't white, cisgendered, middle class, straight and able bodi…
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Synopsis: To Eleanor Jackson, pregnancy and childbirth are formative practical, philosophical, and social experiences that connect us to life force and joy. The arts producer, performer and author of Gravidity and Parity brought a book and a baby into the world during the coronavirus pandemic. She joins us to talk about medical acceptability, share…
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Season 2 Episode 6: Helen Ngo on bilingualism, the habits of racism and embodied experiences of parenting
22:32
Episode Synopsis: To Helen Ngo, birthing matters because it’s transformative – for new parents and communities as well as newborns themselves – and provides new ways to experience and relate to personal and cultural histories. In this episode, Dr Ngo discusses language and its potential to open us to the world; her experiences as a new parent of re…
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Episode Synopsis: Nisha Khot’s experience of working in women’s health in India made her determined to make a difference in the field. Dr Khot’s working experience across various medical contexts around the world, from India and the UK to Melbourne and regional Victoria, brings perspective and depth to her practice. Her current roles see her workin…
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Episode Synopsis: Annabel Farry's forte is in finding a balance between the personal and political, theory and practice, embodied time and clock time, and the physiological and spiritual. She's a midwife, parent and academic, and a third generation Lebanese immigrant to Aotearoa who considers herself Tangata Tiriti. In this episode, she talks about…
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So often, health professionals focus on the baby, but birthing parents need nurturing, continuity and community too. Restoring power to Black women and reclaiming joy is what doula Habiba Ahmed’s work is all about. She believes in helping mothers to empower themselves with information while tuning into their bodies, learning to trust themselves and…
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Episode Synopsis: Racism is a distraction from flourishing, says Associate Professor Donna Cormack, a Māori academic whose work attempts to transform health futures for Māori. We talk about obstetric violence, abolitionist approaches to healthcare reform, heterosexualism in birthing and the careful use of time and energy. Donna believes being conne…
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Episode Synopsis: Storm and Gina talk about working at “The Women’s” (Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne). The Women’s has a complex history involving the enforcement of the ‘Aborigines’ Protection Act (1869) which caused First Nations babies and children to be removed from their families, community and culture. How is it possible to build trust in …
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This is the trailer for season two of the Birthing and justice podcast. This podcast is for anyone who is interested in helping to transform how birthing is experienced for people who are not the ideal imagined users of health services. For many birthing people – especially those who aren't white, cisgendered, middle class, straight and able bodied…
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continue reading
Synopsis: Dr Mimi Niles has described healthcare as a very large, vast, deeply problematic institution. The New York-based midwife and academic grew up in Queens, New York to immigrant parents and this experience has led to the belief that every sort of disparity and inequity plays itself out in the bodies of Black people in the United States. Epis…
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Episode synopsis: What role does community play in childbirth? And why has childbirth become centered on the western hospital system? Karel Williams is an Aboriginal woman with family connections to the Palawa and Western Arrernte Nations and is an experienced Indigenous policy advisor and midwife who champions the culturally simple yet politically…
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Episode synopsis: Difference, writes Dr Naomi Simmonds, has always been intricately woven into the fabric of her life. A Maori woman, a mother, an academic and a leader Dr Simmonds’ world is encased by the structures of western thought and colonial legacies. Yet from within this space she finds ways to champion mana wahine in order to empower and l…
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How many of you have been told that childbirth is the most natural of processes? That you’re strong and powerful, and that you’ve got this. When the reality is you’re vulnerable, exhausted, exposed and desperate for it all to end. Birthing and Justice with Dr Ruth De Souza is a new interview series about birth, racism and cultural safety. Subscribe…
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