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
The Reframe That Changes Everything
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There is an idea that changes everything about how you approach this birth. Trauma isn’t caused by what happens to you, it’s caused by what feels too much to bear. In this episode, Katie explains what that distinction actually means, why it gives you more control than you might think, and how it shifts the whole question of birth preparation from ‘how do I stop bad things happening’ to ‘how do I make sure nothing feels unbearable.’
In This Episode
- Why trauma is defined by the experience of an event, not the event itself, and what the research actually shows
- Why two people can have the same birth and one walks away fine while the other carries it for years
- How this reframe shifts preparation from trying to guarantee a perfect birth to building the skills and support that make hard things bearable
- What ‘prepared’ honestly looks like for someone with your history, and why it’s more achievable than you think
- A practical two-column exercise to start identifying what was unbearable last time, and what is within your control this time
Practical Tool This Week
The two columns exercise, a two-part written practice that helps you identify what felt unbearable in your previous birth, and then map out what is genuinely within your control for this one. Start with what you can actually influence. That list is longer than you think.
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/