Vicki Hobbs - Back to Basics Birthing

24/07/2025

Machines that go ping, and the slow erasure of midwives...
We're told it's innovation. We're told it's progress. But when tech starts replacing touch, and data replaces dialogue, we need to ask - at what cost?

I’ve updated an old blog (with a few sharp edges and a dose of humour) to reflect the latest “game-changing” device promoted by Roger Cook and the ongoing push to medicalise birth even further. Spoiler: just because it beeps doesn’t mean it’s better.

Have a read. Have a laugh. And maybe have a think about where birth is heading - and who’s holding the reins.

I originally wrote this blog back in 2018, but with the chatter (propaganda) the last few days, I decided this was a good one to update. Once again, the cru ...

23/07/2025

CTG monitoring does not improve outcomes - even though you have probably been led to believe that it does. If you are a birth professional and you haven't done the Birth Small Talk training on CTG monitoring do yourself a favour so you can confidently challenge why CTG's are being overused.

20/07/2025

Birth trauma is an urgent and growing issue in Australia. Every year, thousands of women leave the birth suite not just physically wounded, but emotionally and psychologically shattered. Despite giving birth to healthy babies, many feel unheard, unsupported, and dismissed, especially when interventions are rushed or consent is not fully informed. The phrase “at least you have a healthy baby” continues to silence women and invalidate their lived experiences.

PANDA has developed a free short course for health care providers in partnership with Birth Trauma Australia: Understanding birth-related trauma.

This course is an introduction to birth-related trauma. At the end of the course, you will understand:

- what birth related-trauma is.
- how to identify it.
- who is impacted.
- factors that can increase the likelihood that birth will leave a traumatic impact.
- practical, compassionate ways to support people who feel traumatised by their birthing experience.
- how to be helpful.

We will explore:
- evidence-based strategies that may help to reduce and prevent birth-related trauma.
- unique insights from PANDA’s Helpline.
- lived experience insights.
- opportunities for reflection throughout the course, with a focus on how we can support connection, healing and recovery for people who have experienced birth-related trauma.

Enrol now: https://learning.panda.org.au/external/catalogue/preview/course/55?tenancyId=2

16/07/2025

I am so excited for the world to read this powerful book written by Wendy Jackson.

I was lucky enough to be selected to read the draft, and I can confidently say: “Mother Becoming” is going to be the next must-read on your birthy bookshelf.

This book places the mother front and centre - where she has always belonged. Her choices. Her needs. Her voice.

Wendy weaves truth, strength, and deep wisdom through every page. I can’t wait for you to read it, and for the discussions it will create about our birth culture.

Keep checking… it’s coming soon!

I uploaded the manuscript to Amazon today!
Mother Becoming is coming soon!
A book to turn the birthing world upside down.
To place the mother front and centre. Her choices, hers needs.

Praise for the book.
"I can well imagine loving something like this when I was pregnant with my first baby - I devoured everything I could find on being mentally and spiritually prepared fro birthing, as many first time mums do, and I would have valued it when I was a midwifery student as well for the practice suggestions, evidence summations and references".
Professor Sara Bayes PhD RN RM FACM
Vice Chancellor's Professorial Research Fellow
Edith Cowen University

16/07/2025

This is exactly why I do the work I do. Far too many women across Australia are experiencing birth trauma and slipping through the cracks of a system that fails to support them. The phrase “at least you have a healthy baby” is thrown around far too often — but what about the mother? If we don’t have a healthy, supported mum, we don’t have a truly healthy baby. We end up with wounded women, broken confidence, and fragmented families. This has to change.

‘My quality of life was completely impacted.’

03/07/2025

Why are hospitals asking doulas to sign agreements that silence them?

Over the past few years, a troubling trend has emerged in some hospitals across Australia and beyond – the requirement for doulas to sign “agreements” that restrict what they can say or do while supporting their clients during birth.

On the surface, these agreements may seem harmless or even reasonable. Hospitals frame them as ensuring patient safety, limiting the possibility of doulas giving medical advice or interfering with clinical care. But when you look closer, they raise some deeply concerning questions about the erosion of a woman’s right to informed support, and the role doulas play in modern maternity care.

Let’s break it down.

Click on the link to read more.....

Why are hospitals asking doulas to sign agreements that silence them? Over the past few years, a troubling trend has emerged in some hospitals across Austra ...

30/06/2025

It’s deeply confronting to hear about the real and devastating consequences of systemic racism and bias in maternity care here in WA. You're absolutely right - race itself isn't the risk factor, but racism is, and it continues to be a major threat to safe, respectful, and equitable care for culturally and linguistically diverse women.
The stories of Monika Mann and others are tragic reminders that internal investigations and assurances of "appropriate care" don’t always reflect the lived experiences or outcomes for women and families. It’s especially concerning that these issues are rarely acknowledged publicly by health services, even though they’re well known within communities and among birth workers.
It’s encouraging to see initiatives like the culturally and linguistically diverse MGP at OPH and the work Maternity Consumer Network is doing to provide tailored resources for South Asian families. These are steps in the right direction - but we still have a long way to go.
We must keep speaking up, sharing resources, listening to the voices of those with lived experience, and standing in solidarity to push for real change. No woman should have to prepare for birth fearing she'll be dismissed, disrespected, or worse.

So a few weeks ago we covered AHPRA, the NMBA and their 'standards of care/ in the case of baby Hugo, whose primary midwife missed 6 hours of fetal compromise on a trace, didn’t pass this information off to an obstetrician, resulting in Jenna Mcgregor being augmented with syntocinon, which killed ...

29/06/2025

Today my business turns 21 - she’s all grown up and officially old enough to order a cocktail in Vegas.

Let me be honest though… she’s been putting in the work long before she got her name on paper. I was running this gig before ASIC even knew I existed.

From back rooms to boardrooms, massage tables to birth suites and training rooms, I’ve built this baby from scratch - with no investors, no handouts, just passion (oops, I mean determination 😏 LOL IYKYK), late nights, and a stubborn streak the size of the ocean.

Today, this little biz of mine is rippling through Australia - and beyond - helping make birth better, bolder, and way less medicalised.

And you? Yes you. You’re part of this story. Whether you’ve come to a class, taken one of my courses, trained to be a doula, shared a post, booked a massage, invited me into your birth space, or just clapped from the sidelines - thank you. Your trust, support, and belief means everything.

Here’s to 21 years of doing things my way… and I’m not slowing down anytime soon.

Watch this space, the best is yet to come.
Vicki x

25/06/2025

Were you told your baby was “too big” and encouraged - or pressured - into a caesarean?
You’re not alone.
Many women are told late in pregnancy that their baby is measuring large and that a vaginal birth might be too risky. Sometimes they’re encouraged to induce early; sometimes it leads straight to a caesarean.
But here’s the catch - many of those babies turn out not to be particularly big at all.
I hear this story so often:
“I wish I’d asked more questions.”
“I didn’t realise I had options.”
“My baby was barely 3.5kg, and I was told she was over 4kg.”
“I feel like I missed out on the birth I wanted.”
Let’s start talking about this more openly. How many women are being swept into major interventions based on inaccurate guesses?
In my latest blog, I share the evidence (including Cochrane Review findings) on the risks of inducing for a suspected big baby - and what women can do instead if they’re told this late in pregnancy.
What was your experience?

The “big baby” threat: why induction for a suspected large baby is often unnecessary and unsupported by evidence It’s something I hear from women far too of ...

24/06/2025

I have space for one more couple in my July Back to Basics Birthing classes, which consist of 3 sessions on 1st, 8th & 17th July and also includes my Maternal Alignment Blueprint - helping you get into optimum condition, so your baby gets into optimum position.
Email me at vicki@vickihobbs.com to secure your place.

19/06/2025

Every woman deserves access to quality care from midwives.

When women have a trusted midwife by their side, they are more likely to choose their birth position, enjoy mobility in labour and have a companion of choice.

Midwifery models of care build communication, trust and partnerships for a healthy labour and birth.

New guidance: bit.ly/4kShgEQ

19/06/2025

We have our doula training practice day this Monday 23rd June 2025 and if you or someone you know are preferably 35 weeks or more around that time and would be able to donate your time to helping out with doula practice that would be great. You would need to be willing to spend approx. 3 hours having a combination of massage (clothes on), acupressure, a variety of doula skills including working with a rebozo, pelvic pathways positioning / stretching and receiving labour and birth information. All our past volunteers have gained so much information and enjoyed the pampering. We need 9 women for the morning session 9:15am for a 9:30am start till 12:00pm then another 9 women for the afternoon session 1:45pm for a 2:00pm start till 4:30pm (we cannot change these times so you must be available these times). Please email me at vicki@vickihobbs.com to book your place.