Stop listening to horror stories. Be encouraged and inspired! Birth Journeys is a collection of 29 diverse birth stories by Australian women (and men) written to encourage, inspire and reassure you. Find out how beautiful and powerful every birth can be by reading these positive, uplifting and truthful stories.

Birth Journeys is not a collection of ideal or perfect births. The stories in Birth Journeys reflect a wide range of experiences: caesareans, VBACs and births in hospital, birth centres and at home. They include first births, second, third and fifth births, twins and emergencies.

The stories were handpicked with feedback from mothers, midwives and educators to share different positive and inspiring journeys. Birth Journeys shows that a caesarean can be an empowering and positive birth as can a drug-free water birth. While a ‘perfect’ birth is not always possible, every woman deserves and can achieve a positive birth.

The beautiful and powerful stories in Birth Journeys share the physical and emotional experiences of pregnancy and birth with great honesty and warmth. These stories prepare you for birth in a way that a guide to pregnancy and childbirth does not. Instead of focusing on timings, measurements and medical descriptions, the stories in Birth Journeys share the human experience of birth with sensitivity, honesty and joy.

Birth Journeys offers ideas you can use for preparing for your own positive birth — the best beginning to motherhood.

Birth Journeys also contains informative contributions from some of Australia’s leading midwives, academics, doulas, birth educators, organisations and authors including Dr Sarah J. Buckley, Dr Hannah Dahlen, David Vernon and Gabrielle Targett.