Maternity services and birth trauma

In Episode 60 of Sprogcast, Rebecca Brione explains the Holding It All Together research carried out last year by Birthrights and Birth Companions. Karen also chats with the Secret Midwife about her revelatory book.

We're calling this episode 'Homo in the birth room,' and we're very pleased to have an interview with the great Michel Odent (unfortunately on a rather patchy line). Karen is down with a cold, but Mark is upbeat enough for both of them.

Mark and Karen awake from post-festivities slumber to record the first episode of the 2020s, in which there are many and varied digressions, so it seems that nothing much has changed. Our interview this month is with pelvic health specialist Grainne Donnelly, and we discuss the latest news and gossip!

Our festive Q&A ranging from culture change to hedgehogs in audis.

We promised Helen Ball but delivered Amy Brown. With a full interview about her new book 'Informed is Best', as well as some feedback on episode 55, and comments about the recent issues of racism in midwifery.

This is one of those lovely episodes where Mark and Karen get along harmoniously throughout (at least in the final edit!). Highlights include the bit where BBC Journalist David Gregory Kumar describes Sprogcast as "surprisingly intellectually intense," and Karen apologising to Mark for cutting off his talk at the Northern Ireland Positive Birth Conference.

In Sprogcast 54, there are some small feminist moments and some big moments of feminism. We talk to Milli Hill about her new book, and explore some of our responses to it.

In Episode 53, Mark interviews AJ Silver about non-binary birth, we have the latest news from One To One Midwives, and we're still just about keeping it together in the summer holidays.

Episode 52 on models of midwifery care rises from the ashes of various hardware and software issues, to bring you an interview with midwife and researcher Phoebe Pallotti, expounding her idea for a co-operative model of midwifery. Mark and Karen disagree about summer holiday parenting. Leah Hazard tells us about her new book, great summer reading for wannabe-midwives.

In this episode of Sprogcast, Mark interviews Maureen Treadwell of the Birth Trauma Association, and Karen chats with author Emma Svanberg, whose new book Why Birth Trauma Matters is out now from Pinter & Martin.