
Birthing and Justice with Dr Ruth De Souza
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 break down the structures built on colonisation. This is a series that will give birthing people hope and power when they’re at their most vulnerable.
Episodes
28 episodes
Series 4 Episode 8: Favorite Iradukunda on decolonisation, justice and inclusion
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 a...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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40:27

Series 4 Episode 7: Hannah Donnelly and Omar Sakr on centering the birth experience under capitalism
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 quee...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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54:08
Series 4 Episode 6 Sapna Samant on being a GP, creative practitioner and adoptive single parent
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 rec...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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42:58

Series 4 Episode 5 Aseel Tayah on connecting communities through creativity and storytelling
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 fo...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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37:49

Series 4 Episode 4: Sara Motta on feminine lineages, healing justice, and reconnecting to the ancestral Mother
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 resi...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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45:11

Series 4 Episode 3: Alice Te Punga Somerville on fertility and making babies for the revolution
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 ...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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49:04
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Series 4: Episode 2 Cath Chamberlain on transforming intergenerational trauma.
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, ...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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34:12

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
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 dis...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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58:36
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Series 3 Episode 7: Carla Pascoe Leahy on connecting the past and future in the Anthropocene
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 lea...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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41:30

Series 3 Episode 6: Ritodhi Chakraborty and Aline Carrara on intergenerational happiness and joy in an era of climate change
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...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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50:30
Series 3 Episode 5: Janelle Da Silva on the right to be born into love
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 com...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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40:27
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Series 3 Episode 4: Natalie Kon-yu on writing, birth trauma and medical sexism
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?Natali...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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41:46

Series 3 Episode 3: Aruna Boodram on abolitionist parenting and surviving the NICU
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 dias...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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43:50

Season 3 Episode 2: Lucinda Canty on racism in institutions and birthing care
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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41:51

Season 3 Episode1: Cherisse Buzzacott on opening the door for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives
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 Mi...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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38:12

Introducing Season 3 of Birthing and Justice
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 se...
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Season 3
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2:50

Season 2 Episode 7: Eleanor Jackson on the poetics and politics of birthing
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 b...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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35:22

Season 2 Episode 6: Helen Ngo on bilingualism, the habits of racism and embodied experiences of parenting
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 t...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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22:32
Season 2 Episode 5: Nisha Khot on making a difference in obstetric care
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 th...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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40:35

Season 2 Episode 4: Annabel Farry on finding the sweet spot
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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41:27

Season 2 Episode 3: Habiba Ahmed on reclaiming power and joy
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 mo...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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30:39
Season 2 Episode 2: Donna Cormack on transformation for Māori health
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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31:39

Season 2 Episode 1: Gina Bundle & Storm Henry on trust in hospitals
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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42:58

Coming up in Series 2 of Birthing and Justice
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 serv...
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Season 2
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3:29

Season 1 Episode 3: Dr Mimi Niles on birthing bodies
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 e...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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27:20
