Soul Midwifery, Wodonga (2026)

07/10/2026

This week Doula Lou and I went on The Great Birth Rebellion podcast ❤️✨

We spoke about twin pregnancy and women navigating options to get the outcome that they desire, not being restricted by location or provider skill around them.

And I also just want to take a little moment here to share how absolutely impactful Mel and this podcast have been along my journey.

I remember the very first episodes when I was working in the hospital and hearing her share things that were the complete opposite to what I was seeing in front of my eyes.

I remember the early controversial podcasts about GBS screening, routine vaginal exams in labour, the cascade of intervention, pushing out your baby. So many things that felt wildly controversial, although now are my completely normal.

After a year of being a devout listener, Mel opened up a mentorship opportunity. I absolutely jumped at it, although I had no idea how I would move from hospital to the homebirth space.

Through her mentorship I met some amazing other midwives and absolutely found my home at the yearly Convergence of Rebellious Midwives.

I had never felt so lit up in my career. So many other midwives feeling exactly the same as I was and wanting to make changes.

From there, Mel helped me navigate through the rest of my time in the hospital, focusing on gathering skills and increasing my experience to help serve women in the community.

When the day finally came that I could step out into community midwifery, the mentorship continued. Including navigating different ways of doing things, leaning on other private midwives and giving women true informed consent to make the decision that felt best for them, while also unlearning some things that I had known before.

This woman is a pure example of how if you have something on your heart, or you feel like you should do something but you’re worried about what other people think, you should absolutely do it!

Thank you to Mel, this podcast and this amazing community where we support each other to thrive in a field that is HARD! ❤️✨

Dr Melanie Jackson (PhD) The great birth rebellion podcast

06/10/2026

What a job! 🤎

I truly love the work I do, the beauty of watching undisturbed birth, the journey of navigating ALL things with women. The watching as women exhibit her full power through birth.

From undistrubed home birth too navigating complexities alongside women, it truly is such a joy.

Cinnamon scrolls by the fire after a birth, postnatal visits sitiing on the end of the bed, it’s midwifery like this that fills my heart.

What an honour.

📸 Doula Lou

04/10/2026

The highs and lows of midwifery.
Can we just take a moment to completely acknowledge that life as a midwife can be a total rollercoaster?

I’m telling you guys, the highs are HIGH and the lows are LOW!

From happy dancing in the corner of the birth suite, or being filled with excitement when you see a mum transition from active labour to that full pushing stage at home.

The highs are ecstatic. They’re oxytocin-filled. They fill you with joy for days. It’s hard to go back to normal life or get any sleep when you’re just so excited that a woman got to experience everything that she wanted. Your job oozes out to all around and your filled with love, hope and faith in all things women and birth.

For the lows, it’s about coming home and crying in your husband’s arms, saying, “you can’t do it anymore,” while knowing full well your totally going to keep doing it.

For those feelings when women are left with no other options.
For the times when you feel like you have given absolutely all you are, but there have been complexities that have left both the woman and the team in fight mode.

For the times that conflict happens and people don’t like your message, and they don’t like what you’re doing. They think you’re not good enough. They think you’re too loud about it, and they try to make you feel small and insignificant so that you just go away.

For the times that you witness abuse, assault and birth control unfold in front of your eyes, and you have to just keep going, knowing there is little you can do in those moments to change it.

The highs and lows of midwifery are truly incomprehensible. It’s a life we live to serve women through the ecstatic, oxytocin-filled moments, and also through the trauma, pain and disappointment.

It’s the moment our walls come down and boundaries blur because we too must acknowledge that we are human, and there is only so much that we can handle and experience it all.

I love it and I struggle, but every day I continue to choose midwifery, and I continue to choose women. It’s a gift and an honour, and as much as I’d love to some days, I don’t think I’ll ever be without it.

📸 Doula Lou

03/10/2026

I see the global impact of medicalised birth, and I choose to serve women differently.

As midwives we are ‘with women’. For me, I found my home in out of hospital birth.

Community midwifery aligns with what I believe birth can be.

More choice.
More flexibility.
More autonomy.
More space for families to be involved.
More opportunity for women to understand their options and make decisions that feel right for them.

And importantly, choosing out of hospital care does not mean choosing unsafe care.

With a skilled, trained midwife, appropriate screening, clear clinical pathways and collaborative relationships, women can be supported to birth outside the hospital while still having access to the wider maternity system when it is needed.

This is why I do what I do.
Not because I believe there is one right place to birth.
But because I believe women deserve real choice about where, how and with whom they give birth.
And I will always advocate for that. ✨

Photo Cred: Albury Wodonga Wedding Photographer Kelsey

02/10/2026

A bath is not a medical intervention.
It’s a bathtub.

Something you might have at the end of a long day to relax, unwind and feel good in your body.

A place to find comfort, release tension and simply feel human again. So why does water suddenly become such a controversial conversation when a woman is in labour?
The removal of bath plugs from birth suites because a woman has certain risk factors raises some serious questions about how we approach maternity care.

“Risk factors” limiting use of water or a bath, is unethical.

Let's talk about monitoring.
CTGs are waterproof, just like they are regularily used in the shower, so to can they be used in water.

A birthing room should be a space where women feel safe, supported and comfortable. A space where their needs are heard. Where options are explored. Where care is individualised, not dictated by a protocol that leaves no room for discussion.

Your birthing room is your space. You deserve to use it for your comfort and wellbeing.

Let’s remember - Its a bathtub, and a women can and will get out when a clinical reason calls for it

Doula Lou

30/09/2026

“They couldn’t do it back then, and they definitely can’t do it now.”

A quote from Dr Andrew Bisits

Offering women only one option for a breech baby is not the standard of care women deserve.

If a service does not offer vaginal breech birth, women should at least be given a referral to somewhere that does.

And in regional areas, this is a huge issue. Travelling 3+ hours for care is not a simple ask. Women have families, jobs, finances, other children and lives that cannot simply be put on hold.

I’ve attended four breech courses in the last two years and witnessed three vaginal breech births in the last four years 🍑

So when we say the skills cannot be maintained, I think we need to ask:
Are we actually investing in the skills needed to offer women this option?
Because skills do not disappear because something is difficult. They disappear when we stop learning, stop practising and stop offering the opportunity.

Vaginal breech birth is an option for most women when skilled care and appropriate support are available. But it becomes impossible when services do not offer it.
Women deserve honest conversations, skilled care and meaningful choices.

Not one option simply because it is the only option a service is prepared to provide.

Breech birth matters to women. And therefore, it should matter to us!

📸 Doula Lou

22/09/2026

Home birth availability for 2027 🤎
Planning a home birth next year? Here’s our current availability.

If you’re considering home birth and would like to discuss your options, get in touch early. Availability is limited, and once a month is full, we’re unable to take additional bookings.

📩 Send us a message to enquire about your due month and continuity of care.

19/09/2026

A little placenta tour feat. Lou Thornton 💕

There’s nothing quite like doing a placenta tour after mum has disconnected from baby and she’s resting with her sweet new arrival.
We often start by showing the implantation side of the placenta. Essentially, the site inside mum’s uterus where the placenta has detached and healing now needs to take place.

I always emphasise this one to the partners and kids if they’re around! If we could see this healing area on the outside of a woman’s body, I think we’d probably give postpartum women a whole lot more rest and support.

Then we show the sac where baby has lived for the last nine months, find the three vessels in the cord, look through the different layers and show mum, partner and family just how marvellous this organ truly is.
And when we’re finished, we simply do whatever mum wants with it.

Sometimes it goes in the freezer. Sometimes it’s encapsulated. Sometimes it’s buried. And sometimes mum just wants it discarded.

All completely reasonable choices for a pretty incredible organ that has sustained this little life for the last nine months

18/09/2026

The pressure to conform.

We know caesarean rates are continuing to rise globally. We know intervention rates can vary significantly between models and providers. We know birth trauma is a real experience for many women, and that disrespectful and harmful maternity care still occurs.

So why should we simply accept the current model of medicalised birth because “that’s just how we do it”?

I don’t believe we should.
I believe we should keep questioning.
Keep listening to women.
Keep protecting physiological birth.
Keep looking at the evidence.
And keep putting the woman at the centre of her care.

Being “with woman” means more than standing beside her.

It means listening to what she needs, respecting her autonomy and supporting her to make informed decisions, even when those decisions don’t conform to the norm.

We don’t need to all birth the same way.

But we should all have access to care that respects us as individuals.

Good on every person challenging the status quo and doing this in their own way, in their own space. 💪

photo Doula Lou

Soul Midwifery

07/10/2026

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