EPISODE 12

Lael

In today’s episode I had the privilege of speaking with Lael Stone. Lael has worked in the birth community for over 14 years. She has worked as a doula, childbirth educator and Calmbirth practitioner. Lael is also an Aware Parenting instructor who has worked with women who have had birth trauma. Further to this she also teaches Sex Education to teenagers. Lael has interviewed and collected birth experience data from hundreds of Australian women throughout her career. This data provided insight and motivation to develop the About Birth Online Education Program.

Download Episode

Today she shares with us the births of her three children who are now 17, 14 and 9 years old. Lael beautifully recounts the journey of her first pregnancy and labour where she had little to no birth knowledge and experience. This lead to a long, intervention filled, traumatic birth. This experience lead to her to explore alternative birthing options for her second birth. She decided to hire an independent midwife and doctor for a home birth. For her third pregnancy Lael explains that she wanted to draw on all her birth experience and knowledge from having worked in the field to have the best possible birth. Her third and most challenging birth unfolded very differently and challenged her in the most profound way. Tune in to hear what happened in more detail.