37 - Womanhood: A Conversation with Milli Hill

Gender: A Wider Lens

Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Mental Health

4.6 • 961 Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2021

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The founder of the Positive Birth Movement speaks to us about the birthing process and women’s health. A common theme of self-assertion and empowering women to speak up has characterised Milli’s work over the last decade. There were attempts to silence Milli last year when she said that the word “woman” has significance in relation to childbirth. Milli, however, decided to assert her boundaries and speak her truth; in this episode she explains why.

Links:

Milli Hill: 

https://www.millihill.co.uk/

I will not be silenced:

https://www.millihill.co.uk/2021/07/10/i-will-not-be-silenced/

The Positive Birth Book by Milli Hill https://www.amazon.co.uk/Positive-Birth-Book-Approach-Pregnancy/

Give Birth like a Feminist by Milli Hill https://www.amazon.co.uk/Give-Birth-Like-Feminist-Milli/

Mumsnet:

https://www.mumsnet.com/ 

Birth: A History by Tina Cassidy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birth-History-Tina-Cassidy/

#BirthJustHappened:

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/birthjusthappened/?hl=en [Text Wrapping Break]

The Business of Being Born:

https://www.amazon.com/Business-Being-Born-Helen-Ayres/dp/B001IIHAGK[Text Wrapping Break]

Jane Hardwick Collings & Female Rights of Passage:

https://janehardwickecollings.com/[Text Wrapping Break]

Birth & Sex (Book): 

https://www.amazon.com/Birth-Sex-Sheila-Kitzinger/dp/1780660502

Project Netti:

https://projectnettie.wordpress.com/ 

Panics and Persecutions – Quillette book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=panics+and+persecutions

Extended Notes

A little bit about Milli and why she decided to start the Positive Birth Movement.
What were some common themes coming up for women who were about to give birth?
The birth room was built with the needs of the midwife and doctor in mind, not for the women in mind.
Sasha shares her experiences with an American hospital vs. an overseas one.
So many mothers are not listened to when they’re at the hospital. Their wishes are ignored.
Milli is passionate about everyone having a positive birth experience, no matter the context or environment they choose to be in.
You don’t have to just “go with the flow” when it comes to giving birth. You have the right to choose.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to gender, a wider lens.
0:04.0	I'm Stella O'Malley, a psychotherapist in Ireland.
0:06.5	And I'm Sasha Ayad, an adolescent therapist in the United States.
0:10.6	Since 2016, my practice has been exclusively dedicated to gender questioning teens
0:16.1	and families impacted by gender dysphoria. I also work with gender questioning
0:20.7	teenagers and I facilitated support meetings for families and
0:24.2	individuals who have been impacted by gender issues. We're curious about the
0:28.1	concept of gender and how it's unfolding in the wider culture. Join us as we look at gender through a wider lens.
0:35.0	Hi, Stella, how is it going?
0:39.0	It's going very well.
0:41.0	We have Millie Hill on the podcast today which is really exciting
0:46.2	especially for somebody like myself who who had babies maybe 10 years ago when
0:50.9	I did have babies it was such a big experience so and I jumped
0:56.5	into it so deeply at the time and I think Millie Hill did as well and became and I
1:02.0	think you you you ran with it you started a whole movement as far as I can
1:06.8	see from from my research and I knew about you anyway you started a movement from a real
1:11.7	exactly where I was at where so many millions of women before me was,
1:16.0	where is the positivity, where is the support, where is the movement in this huge and you started your own positive
1:25.5	birth movement as far as I can tell yeah well I mean I didn't you don't always
1:29.2	realize when you're starting something like that that you are starting something
1:31.7	big obviously for me it was just you know I
1:34.5	I think the main thing was just seeing birth trauma being so widespread and just thinking
	...

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