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Valentina's resources are below this description

Born on a tiny river boat in Colombia during a tropical storm, Valentina grows up across continents and later lands in Switzerland working in maternal health and gender equity. Then pregnancy hits and theory becomes real. Hyperemesis gravidarum leaves her sick for months, and she learns how quickly a system can turn “protocol” into pressure when a mother is exhausted and vulnerable.

We talk through what informed consent actually sounds like when your waters break, time starts ticking, and someone pushes oxytocin or an early induction at Triemli Stadtspital Zurich. Valentina shares how she asks for the least invasive option, gets second and third opinions, and holds her ground even when it makes the room uncomfortable. She also opens up about postpartum anxiety and that disorienting early feeling of “is this my baby?” plus the relief of finally getting clear mental health guidance instead of vague reassurance.

Then the breastfeeding story deepens. Persistent pain gets brushed off again and again until she finds La Leche League support and starts connecting the dots to oral restrictions, including posterior tongue tie and lip tie. From there, we follow her through breastfeeding after breast implant complications and surgery, a second pregnancy with better care, a planned home birth that transfers to hospital, and the surprisingly complex beauty of tandem feeding and child-led weaning.

If you care about birth stories in Switzerland, doula support, breastfeeding help, tongue tie assessment, and maternal rights, this conversation will stay with you. Subscribe, share this with a parent who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find the support they deserve.

Valentina's Resources:

Aline Schneckenburger who was also my therapist (perinatal psychologist) for all these years

Ximena Silva who is also known as the birth fairy for the Spanish speaking mamas. Her company is called Nacer -

midwife for the home birth

Christine Faessler

Postpartum Hebammes and former colleagues

Haerzklopfä Hebamme

Surgeon who performed the implant explant and removed my implants during my first lactation journey:

Dr. med. Alessia Lardi

Valentina's information and contact:

1) VSV Perinatal Health & Equity Consulting - se

Link to the Blooming Beyond Birth summit

This FREE, online event taking place May 4th-7th 2026 will help you prepare for postpartum with practical strategies, expert guidance, and self-care tools that leave you feeling supported and confident in the early days of motherhood. Join Christine and Julia and many other amazing experts during this summit.

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Please connect with us! See below for how to contact and interact with us:

To share your story: https://www.happydayhypnobirthing.ch/swiss-birth-stories

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Lisa's resources are below this description

What an episode. When Lisa is told again and again that her recurring miscarriages are “just bad luck,” she knows that's not it. She follows her intuition, pushes for deeper testing, and finally gets an answer. Lisa has a balanced chromosomal translocation, a rare genetic rearrangement that makes naturally conceived pregnancies far more likely to end.

That diagnosis forces impossible choices. Lisa and her Swiss husband look at IVF realities, adoption barriers, and the heartbreak of more loss, then choose donor egg IVF. But because egg donation is illegal in Switzerland (a topic discussed in the episodes), they travel to a Greek fertility clinic and learn the logistics and emotions of cross-border care, donor screening, anonymity, and what it means to build a family this way.

The first transfer works, but pregnancy still brings health anxiety, intense symptoms, and the lingering fear that good news can disappear.

Then comes birth. Lisa shares her fears of childbirth, why she planned a hospital birth in Kantonspital Winterthur with doula support, how an induction is recommended after late-pregnancy measurements, and what it’s like to move through a long, brutal labour when pain relief doesn’t fully touch the intensity.

We also unpack the cascade of interventions, vacuum-assisted delivery, brief newborn oxygen support, retained placenta surgery, a severe postpartum haemorrhage, and the months of triple feeding and guilt that follow. It’s a raw, honest story about resilience, anger, tenderness, all so generously shared by the honest and candid conversation with Lisa.

If this conversation helps you, please subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a rating and review so more parents and parents to be in Switzerland can find these stories.

Here are Lisa's resources:

Fertility specialist in Zurich: https://www.kinderwunsch-zuerich.ch/

Lisa's clinic in Greece where was matched with her egg donor: https://www.newlife-ivf.co.uk/

Christine was Lisa's doula: www.lilybee.ch

Lisa can be contacted here for connecting about issues like balanced translocation, fertility assistance, donor eggs: lisa.schwander712@gmail.com

Link to the Blooming Beyond Birth summit

This FREE, online event taking place May 4th-7th 2026 will help you prepare for postpartum with practical strategies, expert guidance, and self-care tools that leave you feeling supported and confident in the early days of motherhood. Join Christine and Julia and many other amazing experts during this summit.

Support the show

Please connect with us! See below for how to contact and interact with us:

To share your story: https://www.happydayhypnobirthing.ch/swiss-birth-stories

All episodes:

https://swissbirthstories.buzzsprout.com

Be a guest on the show:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdT5vU_CFCMszaXOLtFcy_Tz6Kf2Sp08NAbM9Hq2Tbz4mthbQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=101116351783345578092

Our websites:

www.swissbirthstories.com

www.juliathedoula.ch

www.lilybee.ch

Instagram:

@swissbirthstories

@juliathedoula.ch

@lilybeezurich

Send us Fan Mail

Giulia's resources are below.

Wow, what a story. You will want to stick around for the postpartum discussion and her incredibly brilliant moment which left not a dry eye on the recording that day.

A birth plan can be thoughtful, informed, and deeply held and still get rewritten in real time. Guilia came into labour hoping for a low-intervention, midwife-led experience at Triemli Hospital in Zurich, supported by preparation, hypnobirthing tools, and the belief that staying open to Plan B matters. What follows is a powerful Swiss birth story about patience, endurance, and the strange mix of grief and gratitude that can sit side by side when labour stretches past 24 hours and a very difficult postpartum diagnosis of Hirschsprung's Disease.

We talk through monitoring post due-date and induction choices, including acupuncture, a castor oil cocktail, and the moment an unexplained bleed changes things. Giulia shares what helped her cope during intense contractions, why the birth pool felt like relief, and how it felt to keep trying position after position while dilation and descent stayed stubbornly slow. When exhaustion takes over, she chooses an epidural, and eventually a caesarean section becomes the safest next step. The care and steadiness of the midwives becomes a central part of how she remembers a tough birth with warmth. Her incredibly willingness to truly "try it all" (and then some!) is such a powerful part of this story.

Then, nine days postpartum, everything shifts. Feeding struggles and poor weight gain turn into an emergency visit, NICU separation, and a rare diagnosis: Hirschsprung disease, a gastrointestinal condition that blocks the colon. Giulia walks us through pumping and visiting daily, learning colon flushes at home, and waiting months for major corrective surgery. We also zoom out to the postpartum realities people don’t warn you about, from C-section recovery and breastfeeding pressure to freelance work, childcare costs, and finding a village in Zurich.

If this story resonates, subscribe to Swiss Birth Stories, share it with a parent who needs hope, and leave a rating or review so more families can find these honest conversations. What part of Giulia's journey did you relate to most?

Link to the Blooming Beyond Birth summit

This FREE, online event taking place May 4th-7th 2026 will help you prepare for postpartum with practical strategies, expert guidance, and self-care tools that leave you feeling supported and confident in the early days of motherhood. Join Christine and Julia and many other amazing experts during this summit.

Support the show

Please connect with us! See below for how to contact and interact with us:

To share your story: https://www.happydayhypnobirthing.ch/swiss-birth-stories

All episodes:

https://swissbirthstories.buzzsprout.com

Be a guest on the show:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdT5vU_CFCMszaXOLtFcy_Tz6Kf2Sp08NAbM9Hq2Tbz4mthbQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=101116351783345578092

Our websites:

www.swissbirthstories.com

www.juliathedoula.ch

www.lilybee.ch

Instagram:

@swissbirthstories

@juliathedoula.ch

@lilybeezurich