Our Tits Up Guest today is Brave Mumma, Stephanie Thompson, cancer survivor, author, advocate, change maker, wife and mother of two little people. In 2015, Steph suffered a traumatic childbirth injury that changed her body and life forever.

(Trigger warning, birth trauma).

I guess few women really want to hear about the risks of childbirth. As a support person, partner, grandparent or professional, it’s just not
at the forefront of your agenda: “Let’s hope it all goes well and face the challenges if or when they come.”

We can be forgiven for buying into ‘idealised’ portrayals of motherhood, but it can be a tricky role that women sometimes feel they need to face alone, be immediately competent at and be ‘naturally able’ to do.

Those confident expectations can be challenged in an environment where a woman is at her most vulnerable, and where trust, education and support
are vital.

This is what my guest Steph Thompson’s message is all about – be independently informed of all aspects of birth, motherhood and parenting, so you go into it with both eyes open and trust your intuition when you feel things aren’t ‘normal’.

Don’t take ‘everything will be OK’ for an answer if your instincts tell you otherwise. Don’t rely too heavily on professionals to make decisions on behalf of you and your baby if things don’t ‘feel’ right.  Be persistent and find another opinion if you don’t get answers and consider having trusted family support – your second pair of eyes and ears.

Stephanie Thompson is the author of The Day My Vagina Broke and chief Brave Mumma.

In 2015, Stephanie suffered a traumatic childbirth injury that changed her body and life forever.

Stephanie is now on a mission to share her story and start conversations about how we view and talk about women’s health. She wants to do everything that she can to stop anything like this from happening to her daughter, Elsie.

‘Because when we know better, we can do better’

https://www.bravemumma.com/