Building Birth Confidence
Building Birth Confidence is the podcast for anyone who is pregnant after a difficult birth, pregnancy loss, or traumatic experience, and who is scared, exhausted, and trying to find a way through.#
I’m Katie, an NHS Mental Health Midwife and Perinatal Trauma Specialist. Every week I bring you honest, clinically informed conversations about the things that rarely get said out loud: the fear, the guilt, the disconnect, the grief that comes with pregnancy after trauma. And the tools, the understanding, and the realistic hope that can make a real difference.
This is not a positive thinking podcast. This is a podcast for people who need more than reassurance. You deserve support that actually meets where you are.
New episodes every week. Start wherever feels right.
Building Birth Confidence
What Is Actually Happening In Your Body When You’re Terrified
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Have you ever wondered why 'just calm down' makes absolutely no difference when you're scared about birth? In this episode, Katie explains the actual neuroscience of fear, in plain language, so you finally understand why your body responds the way it does. And why that response is biology, not failure.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- What the amygdala is and why it fires before your thinking brain catches up
- The four threat responses - fight, flight, freeze, and fawn - and which one feels most like you
- Why 'positive thinking' can't reach trauma-based fear - and what the science actually says
- The window of tolerance - what it is, how trauma narrows it, and why that matters
- A body scan practice to help you check in with where you actually are
PRACTICAL TOOL THIS WEEK:
The body scan, a 60-second check-in that helps you identify whether you're activated, shut down, or inside your window of tolerance, so you can choose the right response.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Free Trauma-Informed Birth Plan Workbook | Birthcare with Katie
30-Day Calm & Confident Birth Challenge (free)
https://birthcare.co.uk/30-day-mindset-challenge
Better Birth Anxiety Workbook — The Birthcare Collection
https://birthcare.co.uk/products-list
Birth Without Fear: Essentials for a Better Birth
https://birthcare.co.uk/birth-without-fear
CONNECT WITH KATIE:
Instagram: @birthcarewithkatie
Website: https://birthcare.co.uk/
With compassion,
Katie - NHS Mental Health Midwife | Perinatal Trauma Specialist