Cuppa with a pro #06 Sally - Maternity Choices Australia secretary “advocating for better choices for women in birth”

Hey hey,  Welcome back to another episode of Cuppa with a pro where I interview professionals that work within the pregnancy, birthing or parenting space to chat about their expertise.  In today’s episode, I am chatting with the Sally Cusack, secretary from Maternity Choices Australia (MCA). MCA advocates to improves women’s birthing options state wide. In today’s conversation we chat about the following  ✔️how to make a complaint to the hospital if you have received a service you are not happy with or about the way you were treated in birth/postpartum  ✔️why hospitals are usually unaware of the birth and postpartum experiences of women  ✔️how to give feedback to your local maternity  ✔️what the best birth finder and why it is helping to drive change in hospitals  ✔️how best brith finder can help give hospital a REAL perspective on the reality of birth, especially when your nearest hospital is HOURS away from you…  ✔️needing to realise that we are conditioned to be compliant with what professionals tell us and that we need to fight that to be able to advocate for our choices  ✔️use the BRAIN acronym when seeking medical advice or when going through the hospital system - Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition and Nothing  ✔️a disconnect during birth when birthing in a hospital - mum pushing a baby out and OB/midwife putting gloves on “hurry up” feeling  ✔️needing to be feeling private, safe and unobserved during birth to favour the physiological unfolding of labour and maximise oxytocin release  ✔️how the hospital’s environment lighting and overall feel can negatively impact your labour or cause labour to stall  ✔️how to have the most positive birthing experience even when birthing in the hospital  Maternity Choices Australia website https://www.maternitychoices.org/  Best birth finder website https://www.bestbirthfinder.org.au/  If you are currently pregnant, thinking of trying for a baby or know someone who is, please check out my FREE YouTube series “I’m pregnant! Now what?” Where I take you through how to navigate the system, how to effectively question and say “no”, what is consent, what models of care are available and so much more, it is available on my YouTube channel @Cuppawithadoula  To be sure to be notified when a new episode comes out please subscribe to the show on your listening platform. If you would like to support the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a 5-star review on your podcast listening platform or Apple podcast.  If you would like to come on the show and tell your own birth story please get in touch through this link here https://forms.gle/YCCP5dMg8bYSXuAYA  This podcast is available on Deezer, Spotify, Apple podcast, most other podcast listening platforms and Youtube  Follow me on social media for more content  Facebook: www.facebook.com/cuppawithadoula  Instagram: www.instagram.com/cuppawithadoula  Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode!  Alicia :)