Hospital or home birth? Interview with Sonia Killik

Choosing between a hospital or home birth is one of the key decisions you will face as a pregnant mama. Making choices around your birth can feel a little overwhelming. It can be easy to procrastinate on this and put it off. But actually, that's the last thing you should do, because once you start getting your head around things, you realise that there's actually quite a lot for you to consider. It's not like you have a bunch of inconsequential decisions to make. Each decision you're faced with has the potential to have quite an impact depending on how things go. But whichever way things end up going on the day, you will need to live with your decisions. So for the sake of your future feelings about your birth, I would urge you to spend the time up front getting savvy on things so that you feel well-enough informed on the various aspects of birth. No-one else is responsible for the birth of your baby other than you and your partner; your responsibility for the little one start now.


Hospital or home birth?
In today's podcast, I want to help you think through the hospital or home birth dilemma. To help me, I'm going to be joined by Sonia Killik.

Sonia is the author of the book Birth {f**k yeah!} in which she urges and empowers expectant mothers to take back control of their bodies and their births. In a medicated world dominated by caesareans, interventions and impersonality, this step-by-step guide navigates the world of pregnancy and birth. It provides an in-depth account of all the options available to expectant women – from midwives and doulas, home and hospital births, and all the drugs and interventions in between – leaving the reader fully-equipped, knowledgeable and ready to take on nature’s biggest and most rewarding challenge – to bring a baby into this world.

During our chat, Sonia draws on a lot of the research that she carried out as part of the writing for her book. One thing is clear: she desperately wants to arm you with the facts so that you can make a decision that's right for you. By sharing her own personal experience of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, this book is an honest, empowering and highly readable guideline to childbirth;

Learn about each birthing method available to you
How your birthing choice effects your baby and yourself
Pre and post birth guides and support
Breastfeeding and formula choices

I have to warn you though, Sonia and I are both pretty passionate when it comes to birth and helping women to be informed and feel empowered about their birth, and we did have a few rants! But I hope that in doing we help you to figure out what feels more appropriate for you: hospital or home birth.

Sonia was a true super-star on the podcast too because she came armed with a ton of facts and statistics around birth, and I hope that this helps you when trying to navigate all this when it comes to chossing between a hospital or home birth. But that's not all. She's also provided a load of extra FREE goodies to help you on your pregnancy and birthing journey, but I'll tell you about those in a bit.

We covered so much during our chat, including

the difference between a hospital birth and a home birth
some statistics on the the level interventions encountered during hospital births versus home births
statistics on the safety of home birth
why a clinical or hospital environment is not conducive to birth
important considerations for a hospital or home birth
the need to consider birth holistically when making your birth choices
how some birth choices impact you and your baby over the long-term, and why it's important to bear long-term impact in mind
insights into how care providers within the hospital environment might be approaching birth

Om Podcasten

The Fear Free Childbirth podcast is for parents-to-be who want to take the fear out of pregnancy, birth and beyond. The show is a mix of real-life positive stories, experts sharing their wisdom and Alexia sharing psychology insights to help you to get into a fearless mindset. Mindset is a key aspect that can help to you have a positive experience with all three, and it all starts with preparing for pregnancy and childbirth. One of the biggest fears parents-to-be face is the fear of the unknown. This is where this show can help. By learning more about what to expect, and how to handle it, you can lose one the fear and embrace the journey. It all started when Alexia experienced her first miscarriage and felt relief; she knew something was amiss. She had tokophobia, the extreme fear of pregnancy and birth, which is pretty terrifying. To help her cope with her pregnancy and the thought of the birth, Alexia developed a technique to get rid of her fears and anxieties. She went on to have two amazing births and she now teaches this technique to others that they too can overcome their fears and have the life they want. What started as a maternity leave project, is now an essential resource with tens of thousands now listening to Alexia’s podcast each month as they seek to lose The Fear and prepare for pregnancy, birth and motherhood. The podcast is credited with helping thousands of women around the world in having a positive birth experience. A empowered birth experience is the best way to start the parenting journey because it infuses you with strength and resilience. Alexia is the developer of the healing modality Head Trash Clearance, a coach, speaker, trainer and author of the books “Fearless Birthing: Clear your fears for a positive birth” and “Clear Your Head Trash: How to create clarity, peace and confidence in your life and work”. She works privately with people from all over the world, as well as supporting them with her online products and programs. Fear Free Childbirth is the online destination for women seeking to take the fear out of pregnancy and birth with fear-clearance meditations, online fear-clearance courses, professional training and specialist programs for overcoming tokophobia. Find out more at FearFreeChildbirth.com and Fearless-Birthing.com