The Australian Surrogacy Podcast Episode 65: Birth Education and Support with Sheridon Byrne.

In this episode, I spoke with Sheridon Byrne about the importance of birth education and support in surrogacy births.

Sheridon is a Birth Doula and Educator in Melbourne, supporting birthing people, birth partners and community members in the lead up, during and after birth. You can find more about Sheridon on her website.

I’ve previously spoken with Sheridon about my experience as a surrogate in the Podcast.

Sheridon and I covered a lot in this interview, including:

• The importance of birthing people, their partners and intended parents being educated about labour and birth before entering the birthing space;
• Why having a Doula is so important in any birth including a surrogacy birth;
• The importance of birth photography, to capture the processes and moments so that you can focus on witnessing the baby being born and meeting their parents and tell the story of the birth to the child as they grow older.

You can hear more about surrogacy birth planning in my Podcast interview with surrogacy counsellor Katrina Hale and read more about it on this Blog post.

If you are needing help with navigating healthcare and hospital protocols when it comes to managing a surrogacy birth, check out this post.

If you are looking for LGBTQI+ birth classes, you can check out Sheridon’s website, find these ones in Melbourne, and these ones in Sydney. If there are none near you, you might like to search for a birth educator who can do private classes with your team.

If you’re searching for birth photos on Instagram, make sure to check out Bree Downes, Doula and Photographer, award-winning photographer who has photographed a number of surrogacy births, including my own.