At your antenatal appointments, from about 20 weeks of your pregnancy you will (…should) be having some monitoring of your baby’s growth. Firstly, by the simple tape measure test, up over your tummy to the top of your uterus and then by ultrasound if needed.

What we are trying to determine is if your baby is small for dates. This is known as Intrauterine Growth Restriction or IUGR.

In this podcast we talk about:

• What is EFW or estimated fetal weight
• How EFW is measured and the measurement accuracy.
• What other ways we measure your baby's health
• Problems that can arise if your baby is diagnose with IUGR
• What plans need to be made if your baby is measuring small for dates.
• When sometimes... you just have a small baby.

Why did we start this podcast? Well we think there is a barrier for women to get EXPERT pregnancy info that is practical, relatable and easy to understand.

Dr Pat has helped 1000s of women have their babies and through this we know that this kind of information given to a woman at the right time can totally change her experience of pregnancy and birth.

How long between babies is a question that pops up ALOT. It is a big topic with lots of different factors in helping you make your decision.

Financially able? Physically ready? Emotionally ready? Mentally ready? 

Even how many babies are you planning?

All of these things matter when trying to decide when to have your next baby.

In this episode we sneak in a little chat about our own journey and the factors we considered to help us decide when to try for another baby.

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This episode Brigid talks with early parenting consultant, Jen Butler. Jen is a midwife, maternal and child health nurse, IBCLC trained lactation consultant, sleep consultant and circle of security facilitator.

Jen talks about her top tips when it comes to the common things on a new parent's mind. Namely - Feeding, Sleeping and understanding what is normal baby development.

This is the first of our two part series about baby loss. It was recorded ages ago but we've delayed publishing it again and again. We just thought there's too much heartbreak at the moment to add something else to the mix of 2020.

But you have requested this topic many times and we realised that it is needed. There are parents coping with the loss of their baby every day.

This is for them but it also for everyone else so we can all be better supports for our friends, family and strangers.

It will be hard for some, probably most, and we have compiled a list of resources for everyone to access who may have experienced pregnancy and baby loss and for people who may need support after listening to our podcast.

(Sorry if we have missed any)

Organisations like:

@pinkelephantsupport @bearsofhope @pandanational @cope.org.au

And of course we are @grow_my_baby in our DMs to chat.

Little babies. Held in our hearts. ❤️

In this episode we talk to Keira Rumble, founder of Krumbled foods and Beauty Bites. She candidly, and calmly, walks us through her 5 pregnancy losses as she continues on her rollercoaster journey to having a baby. She has experienced miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, a loss of a fallopian tube, endometriosis surgery and the possibility of IVF to help her get to her goal of starting her family.

We talk about:

• Ectopic pregnancy diagnosis, treatment and recovery
• What we can do better to support women through pregnancy loss both medically and via our social supports.
• We define a heterotopic pregnancy
• The importance of women knowing what a normal and abnormal period is  
• How to manage your emotional and mental health dealing with fertility trauma

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The umbilical cord is an incredible structure, the connection between mother and baby. It is beautifully adapted and designed to do exactly the job it needs to do, help us grow our baby.

In this episode we talk about:

• A little bit about the anatomy
• How the umbilical is protected from compression
• True and false knots in the umbilical cord
• Cord accidents and what we can do to prevent them
• What happens if a cord is wrapped around your baby’s neck
• When there is a cord prolapse
• Delayed cord clamping
• Cord blood storage

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Issues with your thyroid are common in the baby-making years. In Australia about 2-3% of pregnant women are hypo or hyperthyroid. Then there is post-partum thyroditis. This is something that happens to 1 in 20 women after their baby is born. This needs careful assessment because the signs and symptoms can be dismissed as 'just part of having a newborn' or it can look like postnatal depression.

In this podcast we talk about:

• What the thyroid gland does in our body
• What is hypo and hyperthyroidism
• The special plans you have to make in pre-pregnancy
• What changes during your pregnancy if you have problems with your thyroid
• What medication you can take during your pregnancy
• What is post-partum thyroiditis

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Epilepsy is pretty common, about 1% of our population take some form of anti-epileptic medication and about 2000 women in Australia each year have a pregnancy when they have epilepsy.

The effect of anti-epileptic drugs are highly relevant to women's health from the contraceptive choice, right up to the management of pregnancy and breastfeeding. If this is you, then this podcast will give you tonnes of answers. 

We talk about:

• Who is in your healthcare team
• Contraception and epilepsy
• Folate needs during pre-pregnancy and pregnancy
• Labour and epilepsy
• How your medication needs may change during pregnancy and breastfeeding

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VBAC or vaginal birth after Caesarean is possible for lots of women.

There are a few ‘rules’ to help get you to your goal of a vaginal birth after having a Caesarean but the primary driver is…you have to want it.

There are some extra interventions that will happen and knowing this before your labour is key so the interventions don’t detract from your experience.

In this podcast we talk about:

• What makes you a good candidate for a successful VBAC
• Why there needs to be monitoring during a VBAC labour
• What pain relief is available
• How to get in the right mindset for your VBAC
• Why knowing the ‘rules’ of a VBAC labour helps
• What the elephant in the room is when it comes to VBAC.

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