Our show Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond (radio/podcast) turned new idea PBB Media (in development) along with around 100 other excited projects, has been chosen by the Walkley Media Incubator & Innovation Fund for longest in their much coveted training program. It is an absolute honour to be included in this list and for us as a group of women/mothers to enhance our skills, connections and understanding within the world of Media. Equally important, we are acutely aware of the critical position we hold to represent women in Australia  and women's rights at large, within the context of childbirth. 

As mothers, we undoubtably run full and rich lives (a term I borrowed from Deathwalker and dear friend  Zenith Virago, instead of using the old 'busy' all the time, which is tiring to-even-just-say!). We have our children, houses, husbands, work, family community duties and connections, and civic duties to engage, satisfy and maintain. Then, we have our own health & wellbeing to attend to. Not an easy task for any woman and certainly any mother.  Yet, we have all been pulled in by the lure of something bigger than us to PBBM. Woven over the years by the countless stories we have heard, each of us in our own roles - Sally as Maternity Consumer Representative, Lara trained in Psychology, Doulaing & Lactation support, and me Annalee, as Health Coach & problem solver (AKA Producer), we have heard these stories form our own unique capacities and threaded them into our tapestries, unable to un-hear them.

Our work at Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond crosses many borders, on a daily basis. We collect stories from researchers, we bring them back to base. We hear stories from mothers, and bring them back to base. We hear stories from midwives, families, fathers, doctors, professors, mothers (of all ages), heads of obstetrics, local health districts, consumers, teachers, colleagues, children, grandparents... We collect these stories that have been entrusted with us, knowing that they have a place in the bigger puzzle, not always knowing exactly where they fit and how they fit. Although slow and sometimes tedious is our work, there is a sense of urgency in it. There is a deeper understanding that each story is powerful in its own right and merits our full attention. No longer can we just 'hear a story', traumatic or positive, from a mother, caretaker or child. We must come full circle with it, seek resolve and make sense.  

We see a world where families have access to the best quality information & are equally supported by their community and healthcare teams. Congruency between evidence-based research, long-held traditions & new ideas.. All converging to enhance health, happiness & resilience. This is our ethos, what stands behind our will to get up every day and continue the work that we do. 

We have been OVER THE MOON finding out that we have been long-listed for the Walkeys Incubator & Innovation Fund this year, after applying for a grant through their program. The opportunity to learn from and connect with some of Australia's leading mentors in an incubator style learning and growing experience! Just like being in the womb :-D (you can imagine our delight!).

"This year, we extended the program significantly and brought in several of Australia’s best startup mentors to make sure as many projects as possible get access to transformational education to turn their idea into a viable and experimental venture. This year, 162 projects were entered, around 100 will receive training in the incubator program and three to eight will receive grant funding."   Rose Powell, Innovation manager at The Walkley Foundation, Australia’s centre for excellence in journalism.

Hop on to Medium to find out more about the Walkleys Incubator & Innovation Fund, click HERE.

If you have a compelling story to share with us, please get in touch! Enter your name and email below and a short description of what it is you want to talk about. 

​This episode of Pregnancy Birth and Beyond Radio features an interview with Pam England, author, midwife, artist and founder of Birthing From Within. Her first book 'Birthing From Within An Extra Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation' released in 1998 has sold over a 1 million copies. Pam's newly released book is called 'Ancient Maps for Modern Birth'. One of the themes in this new book explores the Hero's Journey as a of map for childbirth preparation. In this interview I ask Pam What is Birth as a Hero's Journey.

Just a quick note on the HJ, a very basic Analysis of HJ consists of three parts, preparation, ordeal and return.
The term or more so the map so to speak of a Hero's Journey, was coined by the late Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, write and lecture born in 1904 and who passed away in 1987. Best known for his seminal book The Hero with a 1000 faces.

In 'Ancient Maps for Modern Birth', Pam England likens the HJ to the parents journey through pregnancy to parenthood, which too at a basic level consists of three aspects – pregnancy (preparation), labour and birth (the ordeal) and the postpartum journey (the return of the hero).   

Additional key features of this episode include:  
The Sumerian myth of Inanna Decent. 
Fathers and partner in their own hero's journey to becoming a parent. 
Joesph Campbell on birth as a heroic journey for the mother. 
Postpartum, birth story integration as part of the hero's return journey. 

Here are a couple of great quotes about the Hero's Journey. 

“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know. The hero journey is a symbol that binds, in the original sense of the word, two distant ideas, the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity, always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find.”
by Phil Cousineau


The Hero Path
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...
we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an a-bom-I-nation
we shall find a God.


And where we had thought to slay another
we shall slay ourselves.
Where we had thought to travel outwards
we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone
we shall be with all the world.”
by Joseph Campbell