Erin’s Tokophobia Healing Journey
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
I'm thrilled to share with you another incredible tokophobia healing journey. As the host of the Fear Free Childbirth podcast, I have had the profound privilege of connecting with many incredible women, each on her unique path to overcoming the fears and anxieties that accompany pregnancy and childbirth. Today, I want to share with you one of the most touching and inspiring stories to grace my podcast – the profound journey of Erin, a woman who bravely faced her tokophobia and emerged with newfound confidence and strength. Tokophobia, an intense fear of childbirth, is more common than many...
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Overcoming Birth Trauma: Heather's Journey Positive Birth
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In today's episode, I am joined by Heather to dive into her incredible journey from a fear-filled first birth to two positive and empowering experiences. Heather shares her deep emotional work in overcoming the negative feelings from her traumatic first birth and the steps she took to prepare herself mentally and emotionally for her second pregnancy. From therapy to Emotion Code, to Head Trash Clearance and hypnobirthing, Heather explores the various tools she used to transform her mindset and approach childbirth with a newfound sense of confidence. Here are some of the things we talked...
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Celeste's Journey from Tokophobia to Inner Peace
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In this episode, I sit down with the inspirational Celeste to delve deep into her transformative journey of overcoming fears and phobias related to childbirth and pregnancy. Throughout the episode, Celeste candidly shares her profound and life-altering experiences, providing invaluable insights for anyone navigating similar challenges. This episode is for you if you want to have a peep under the bonnet to better understand what it looks like EXACTLY to clear your head trash (tokophobia, anxiety or indeed anything else) using Head Trash Clearance. We get down to brass tacks and...
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Periods & Pregnancy: Learning to love your cycle
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In today's episode, I have a thought-provoking conversation with Elizabeth Tidwell, a menstrual cycle coach, as she shares her journey of healing and embracing the power of her menstrual cycle. I wanted to talk about periods because even though they're not front and centre of the pregnancy and birth experience - they are! We obsess over when they stop - are we pregnant??? - and then we obsess over when they start again. They are a HUGE part of this. And, more importantly, I wanted to talk about them because I don't think that we appreciate our periods much. There's lots of negativity around...
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Solo Parenting: Steph's Choice
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In this episode, we dive into a powerful and inspiring conversation with my guest, Steph Bennet, as she shares her experience of choosing to solo parent. Steph's story is a testament to the strength and resilience of women who navigate both career success and motherhood on their own terms. Join us as we explore the challenges, triumphs, and joys of Steph's unique journey into motherhood. Steph made the decision to prioritise a career that allowed her to have control over her work without judgment. She is a strong advocate for not compromising but optimising her life to create a balanced and...
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Transforming Birth Culture: Resolving Conflict in the Birth Space for Improved Maternity Care
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
Birth is a profound and transformative experience, but unfortunately, conflicts and disagreements within the birth space can sometimes overshadow the joy and empowerment that should be at the forefront. In this episode of the Fear Free Childbirth podcast, Jenny Koslow, a perinatal educator with four decades of experience, sheds light on the issues of conflict and tension within the birth world. Understanding the Birth Space: Jenny begins by sharing her wealth of knowledge and stories gathered from birth workers around the globe. She highlights the conflicting views and struggles...
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How Puberty Trauma Shapeshifts into Fear of Pregnancy and Body Image
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
Today's episode is a deeply insightful conversation between Alexia and a previous guest, Ramona who recently shared her story of overcoming tokophobia. They share personal experiences and explore the connection between puberty trauma, body dysmorphia, and the fear of pregnancy and childbirth, known as tokophobia. In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into our own experiences during puberty, our struggles with body image, and the impact it has on our adulthood, especially as they transition from maiden to mother. Here are some of the things we touched on during this conversation; ...
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From Phobia to Calling: From Fearful Mama to Confident Midwife
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In this episode, I have an incredible story of transformation to share with you. My guest, Jessica, was once plagued with fear when it came to pregnancy and childbirth. However, she conquered her fears and had a positive birth experience that inspired her to make a bold career change. Jessica talks about her journey from fear to becoming a midwife. It's a remarkable turnaround that showcases the power of overcoming our deepest fears and embracing new paths in life. But before we delve into Jessica's inspiring story, I want to share with you a tale that highlights what can happen...
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Conversations with Spirit Babies
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
In this episode, my special guest is Emma Moon, a cosmic fertility guide and a spirit baby medium. Emma's unique background includes a Bachelor of Science in nursing and expertise as an integrative health practitioner. She blends both science and spirituality in her work, supporting women through their fertility journey, pregnancy, and conscious birth. Emma's approach involves connecting with the energy and spirit of her clients, helping them navigate emotional and spiritual blocks that may affect their fertility. Through a combination of nutrition, lifestyle changes, and intuitive guidance,...
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Measuring Healing Progress in Pregnancy and Birth
Fear Free Childbirth Podcast with Alexia Leachman
Welcome back to Fear Free Childbirth! In today's episode, I want to delve into the fascinating concept of the Map of Consciousness. Have you ever invested time and energy into courses, therapy or retreats to bring about a change in how you feel, only to wonder if they're really making a difference? We all have, right? Today, I want share a powerful tool that you can use to measure the effectiveness of these activities in overcoming fear, anxiety, and finding calm and peace. Once I discovered this method of measuring healing progress I decided to revisit my own healing journey around overcoming...
info_outlineToday's podcast is all about the maternal brain and the neuroscience of pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting.
A few months back I shared an article about the maternal brain on my Facebook page and it went a bit nuts. It's since been shared over 40 times which is unprecedented for my Facebook page. It also received tons of comments, many of which were saying how the article helped them to better understand what they were going through. So I knew I had to cover this topic on the podcast.
I reached out to the expert that was quoted in the article, Jodi Pawluski, and was thrilled when she agreed to come on the podcast to talk about all things maternal brain.
Jodi Pawluski is a perinatal mental health expert and Research Associate at the University of Rennes in France. Her research aims to promote maternal mental health: enhancing the health and well-being of both the mother and child. Her research focus is to determine the behavioral and neurobiological processes underlying maternal mental illness and use this information to improve mental health in women during the perinatal period. In other words, she knows a thing or two about the maternal brain!
The Maternal Brain
During our conversation, Jodi talks about
- the changes that are happening to our brain during pregnancy and how it's an important evolution for becoming a new parent
- how we have new brain circuitry coming online that provides us with the ability to tune into our infant by enabling us to experience a feeling of reward from our child and a feeling of attachment
- changes to the mood and emotions during pregnancy
- the role of the environment on the maternal brain aka "pregnancy brain"
- how quickly a mother can tune into her infant
After half an hour of touching your baby's hand, you will recognise your baby's hand from touch alone.
Pregnancy Brain
We talk about whether this is a "thing". Some articles have stated that it's not a thing, so we talk about what it could be instead and why it might feel that it really IS a thing.
15% of women during pregnancy will have a high level of anxiety
We touch on the important topic of anxiety and depression during pregnancy and taking medication when pregnant.
And, we also cover the brain changes happening to dads.... there is so much in this conversation!
Further Resources
The Neurobiology of Postpartum Anxiety and Depression.
The adaptive human parental brain: implications for children's social development.
The Neglected Neurobiology of Maternal Anxiety and Depression