Swiss Birth Stories

Send us Fan Mail Her pregnancy is “textbook” until a routine late-pregnancy check reveals high blood pressure and protein in urine, and suddenly every day feels like a decision point. We’re joined by Kaitlin, an American-Swiss mother living in Zurich, who walks us through severe preeclampsia monitoring, a surprise ICP diagnosis after relentless itching, and how quickly things can escalate when your body starts sending warning signs at 35 to 36 weeks. Kaitlin shares what labour looked like for h

Send us Fan Mail 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 t

Send us Fan Mail 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 heartbrea

Send us Fan Mail 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 follow

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a healthcare system’s “just in case” meets a mother’s calm, clear questioning: “what’s actually happening right now?”, "How is my baby doing?" Originally from Ukraine, we meet Kateryna to explore her five-year fertility journey, her two planned home births in the Zurich area, and the tightrope walk between hospital protocol, fact-finding and personal autonomy. From a low fluid scare and a breech presentation to a successful ECV (a procedure to turn the baby be

Send us Fan Mail After five years of trying, Emily and her husband's fertility journey ends not with another treatment cycle, but with an act of surrender and faith. And then, a positive test surprises them two weeks later! Emily, a UK–Italian psychologist living in Uster, ZH, invites us into her honest, layered journey through PCOS, infertility, a late breech pregnancy, and an induction at Spital Uster that swung from serene to urgent in minutes. We talk about the moment her waters broke, why

Send us Fan Mail A clear plan helps, but the real story begins when birth asks you to adapt. Anna joins us from Zurich to share how she chose motherhood on her own terms, navigated a heart-shaped uterus without panic, and prepared through hypnobirthing, swimming, yoga, and an English antenatal class at Triemli Stadtspital in Zurich city. What follows is a vivid, vulnerable account of labour: nausea between contractions, a walking epidural that brought crucial rest, and the moment where language

Send us Fan Mail What happens when labour quickly goes from quiet to unstoppable and the only “birth room” around has four doors and a meter running? We sit down with Diana, a Brazilian living in Zurich, to relive two unforgettable births: a swift, positive first delivery at Spital Zollikerberg in Zurich and a second that arrives in a taxi during rush hour - no midwives, no doctors, no time, just instinct and inspirational courage. We start with the ease of her first birth and the rare gift of

Send us Fan Mail Sara is a researcher and doula in Zurich. What if the difference between a hard birth and a healing one was a few well-chosen words, a handful of choices and a team that truly listened? Sarah’s story spans two countries and two radically different experiences where she found her rhythm, her voice, and her power. Her first, an induction in Denmark marked by pressure toward an epidural that failed, and later, in Zurich, having to forgo her goal of giving birth at Delphy's Birth Ho

Send us Fan Mail A birth can change your life. Two births can change your map. Andrea, a teacher and author living in Lenzburg, opens up about a first labour that moved faster than anyone expected, a cramped exam room at Hirslanden Aargau standing in for a delivery suite, and the cascade that followed: retained placenta, agonising uterine compression, a major postpartum hemorrhage, and surgery during the height of pandemic restrictions. With her partner sent home and information scarce, recover