What I've Learnt - Sophie Walker

WHAT I'VE LEARNT

Sophie Walker

Australian Birth Stories

Nearly 300,000 women give birth in Australia each year and one third of them describe their birth experience as traumatic.

“I wish someone had told me!' is the most common phrase for women after they give birth for the first time.

Sophie’s ground-breaking new book The Complete Australian Guide to Pregnancy and Birth is out this month.

Author of “Australian Birth Stories” Sophie is a mum of 3 with a Masters in Public Health.

In 2017 Sophie Walker launched her business from the back of her Nissan X Trail. In 5 years it’s grown to a million dollar empire.

Since the podcast launched, it’s had over 10 million total downloads (episodes now clock upwards of 30,000 downloads) and has shared over 350 women’s birthing stories including Turia Pitt, Zoe Foster-Blake, Ash London, Steph Claire Smith and Emma Isaacs. It has a waitlist of 5000 women who want to share their stories. And, 146,000 mothers, mothers-to-be, and midwives now form Sophie’s online community.

Endorsed by the Australian College of Midwives, the podcast is nationally recognised as an education tool and is used as certified professional development for student midwives across Australia.

Sophie’s motivation comes from personal experience – her first birth was traumatic; a long labour and forceps-assisted birth resulted in a postpartum hemorrhage and pelvic floor trauma.

When she fell pregnant for the second time, she was fiercely determined to do things differently. She listened to every birth podcast, watched every birth documentary, read every book and armed herself with birth skills. Her second birth was positive, empowering and redemptive and it became the first ever episode on the podcast.

A new generation of mothers are desperate for stories of conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and breastfeeding. After years of pandemic isolation and with one-third of Australian women describing their birth experience as traumatic, pregnant mothers and those trying to conceive are hungry for tips, tricks and first hand accounts of birth.

They want to know how to prepare, what their options are and how they can navigate the challenge of labour with birth skills. And they want to learn from the wisdom of women’s birth stories.

For Sophie, education is the secret weapon against birth trauma. She believes every woman has the right to a positive birth experience.

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/
Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850