S01:E10
In this powerful two-part conversation, host Heather sits down with Samantha Jones — an ex-NHS midwife, acupuncturist, and now a fertility and pregnancy specialist — for an episode that comes at maternity care from both sides.
Samantha always wanted to be a midwife, and after having her own children and a wonderful experience of midwifery care, she went back and trained. But the reality of the job wasn’t the one she’d signed up for. After around seven years in the NHS, she found herself building rapport with women she then couldn’t care for the way she wanted: ten-minute appointments, protocols that didn’t fit the people in front of her, and a system where care felt disjointed rather than trauma-informed. She is candid about the two things she would change tomorrow — the blame culture and the time constraints — and equally clear that midwives genuinely want to be with women. That, after all, is what the word means.
Heather shares her own experience of being sent away after a loss with no leaflet, no aftercare, and a walk back through a waiting room full of scan photographs — and together they talk about what compassionate, trauma-informed support after baby loss could actually look like.
In the second half, Samantha turns to her fertility work. She explains how supporting women through birth trauma led her to women who simply didn’t want to try again, and how that shaped a practice built on choice rather than being pro- or anti-anything. She talks about unexplained infertility as good news rather than a diagnosis, why not everything needs to be medicalised, the “cycle of despair” couples ride every single month, and the profound effect of feeling disconnected from your own body — including one client of ten years who conceived naturally after seven months of working together.
A moving, hope-filled conversation that ends with both women in tears — and a message that it is okay not to be okay.
Connect with Samantha: Samantha Jones — Fertility & Pregnancy Specialist, Ex-NHS Midwife & Acupuncturist Website: naturalfertilityandpregnancy.com Email: sam@naturalpregnancy.wales
