Real birth stories, told by the women and their partners who lived them.
Each episode, host Carly Sandland - birth doula and founder of The Doula Club - sits down with parents to hear their birth stories. What they expected. What actually happened. The decisions, the turning points, and what they wish they'd known.
New episodes weekly.
In this episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to Scott Mair - dad of seven and founder of Fatherhood Solutions - about birth from a perspective the show doesn't often hear on its own: the birth partner's.
Scott has been in the room for seven births, from one textbook day to some genuinely frightening ones - a placental abruption, time in neonatal care, and a birth that nearly took everything from him and set him on the path to the advocacy work he does now. A former infantry soldier, he's spent the years since helping other dads prepare for a role almost no one teaches them, without ever taking the focus off the woman doing the hardest part.
We talk about:
What a birth partner can actually do when something's gone wrong and they can't fix it
Advocating for your partner when you're frightened yourself - and why "no plan survives first contact"
The conversations worth having before the day: who goes with baby, pain relief, the what-ifs
Skin-to-skin for dads, and the practical things no one mentions
Why the romantic partner isn't always the right person in the room
The birth that changed him, and the work it led to
Content note: this episode includes discussion of birth trauma, serious illness after birth, neonatal care and paternal mental health.
Scott: instagram.com/fatherhood__solutions_ (http://instagram.com/fatherhood__solutions_) · Fatherhood Solutions on LinkedIn
Carly: instagram.com/thedoulaclub (http://instagram.com/thedoulaclub)
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: readybirthgo.com (http://readybirthgo.com)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
19 Aug 2026
Karla on holding out to 44 weeks for the birth she wanted
In this episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to Karla about her two very different births - a first that spiralled into intervention she hadn't seen coming, and a second she took completely into her own hands: a home water birth, with Carly as her doula, at 44 weeks pregnant.
Karla's first labour started calmly and quickly became anything but - meconium, a room full of doctors, an induction, an epidural that left her unable to move, and a baby who turned out to have the cord wrapped twice around his neck. She came out of it certain she never wanted to feel that powerless again. Second time, she changed hospital, changed plans, and held her nerve through weeks of pressure to get the birth she wanted.
We talk about:
How a calm early labour turned into meconium, an induction and a forceps birth
Why being unable to move became the thing she'd never repeat
Deciding to do it completely differently, and getting properly informed
Holding her nerve through the phone calls and the fear as the weeks passed
Taking back control: a home water birth, on her terms
What she'd say to a woman being told her baby's in danger if she doesn't act now
Carly: instagram.com/thedoulaclub (http://instagram.com/thedoulaclub)
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: readybirthgo.com (http://readybirthgo.com)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
12 Aug 2026
Isabelle and Mike Parr on the extreme sickness that changed her birth
In this episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to Isabelle Du Plessis and Mike Parr - Ross Barton in Emmerdale - about the hyperemesis that shaped Isabelle's entire pregnancy, and the birth she chose in order to take back control.
From five weeks until the day she gave birth, Issi was sick almost hourly. She was hospitalised for dehydration, couldn't keep down water or medication, and struggled to be believed - all while grieving the soft, joyful pregnancy she'd imagined. Mike was the one picking her up off the floor.
We talk about:
What hyperemesis is actually like, day to day, and how it differs from morning sickness
Being disbelieved and second-guessed by doctors, and finally being looked after
The guilt of taking medication in pregnancy
Feeling robbed of the pregnancy she'd hoped for
Why she chose to elect for a caesarean a week before her due date
Being the birth partner, and what Mike carried through it
The surprise they saved for the birth itself
Isabelle: @issiduplessis· Mike: @mikeparr226
Carly: @thedoulaclub
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: readybirthgo.com (http://readybirthgo.com)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
5 Aug 2026
Laura Guckian on checking herself into a psychiatric hospital when her baby was ten months old
In this episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to Laura Guckian about the decision to check herself into a psychiatric hospital when her first baby was ten months old - and everything that led her there.
We talk about:
The rush of love everyone promises, and what happens when it doesn't come
The "good mother" myth, and where the guilt begins
Caring for a baby with severe silent reflux
Asking for help for ten months and not getting it
Why it turned out to be the right decision
Turning all of it into the work she does now
Content note: this episode includes discussion of maternal mental health, postnatal illness and suicidal thoughts.
Laura: instagram.com/mindmommycoaching (http://instagram.com/mindmommycoaching) · her podcast, Momfessions
Carly: instagram.com/thedoulaclub (http://instagram.com/thedoulaclub)
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: readybirthgo.com (http://readybirthgo.com)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
30 Jul 2026
Madeleine Shaw on lifting her own baby out during her caesarean
In this episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to nutritionist and bestselling author Madeleine Shaw about her two births, and the honest, messy, wonderful reality of becoming a mum twice over.
Her first birth was fast and unmedicated - ten hours, and she arrived at hospital already eight centimetres. Her second was a planned caesarean, and nothing about it went the way she'd pictured.
We talk about:
A breech, big baby, and deciding not to try to turn him
Why she never wrote a birth plan
How an early loss shaped everything that came after
What no one warns you about caesarean recovery
The love, and the fear, that arrive with a new baby
Quickfire: three words, and the worst advice she was given
Content note: this episode includes discussion of pregnancy loss and miscarriage.
Madeleine: instagram.com/madeleine_shaw_ (http://instagram.com/madeleine_shaw_) · tiktok.com/@madeleine_shaw_ (http://tiktok.com/@madeleine_shaw_) · The Glow Space, her wellness platform: madeleineshaw.com/the-glow-space (http://madeleineshaw.com/the-glow-space)
Carly: instagram.com/thedoulaclub (http://instagram.com/thedoulaclub)
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: readybirthgo.com (http://readybirthgo.com)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
22 Jul 2026
Amy Walsh on learning to trust her body in birth
In the first episode of Ready Birth Go, Carly Sandland talks to Emmerdale's Amy Walsh about two births, four years apart, and how the first one shaped everything about the second.
Bonnie arrived on Boxing Day 2021 after a Group B Strep positive result, an induction Amy was pushed towards on her due date, an epidural that fell out without anyone noticing, an episiotomy and a haemorrhage. She calls it torture, and says she came out of it feeling cheated.
So when she was pregnant with Nell, she read more, asked more, and declined nearly everything she was offered.
We talk about:
Group B Strep, and how one test result can shape an entire labour
Why a sweep is an induction, and why it's rarely described as one
Declining a seven-day induction and negotiating for ten
Epidurals that don't work
Fetal scalp monitoring
Birth trauma, and how a second birth can reopen the first
What partners carry into a second birth
Quickfire: three words, the TENS machine, and a six-hour playlist
Amy: https://www.instagram.com/amyvwalsh (https://www.instagram.com/amyvwalsh) · https://www.tiktok.com/@amy.walsh27 (https://www.tiktok.com/@amy.walsh27)
Carly: https://www.instagram.com/thedoulaclub (https://www.instagram.com/thedoulaclub)
Ready Birth Go, Carly's birth preparation course: https://readybirthgo.com/ (https://readybirthgo.com/)
Content note: traumatic birth, haemorrhage, and postnatal mental health.
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me (https://uppbeat.io/t/william-proulx/for-me)
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