Allowed to Birth-SAWTELL, NSW documentary screening PLUS Live Q&A panel

Join Us for Allowed to Birth - Documentary Screening + Live Q&A Panel!

Allowed to Birth is a powerful new documentary following midwife and educator Kristine Lauria, exploring the global maternal health crisis and what it would take to make childbirth safer, more humane, and more empowering for all. Featuring leading voices in the birth world including Dr Melanie Jackson, Dr Stu Fischbein, Kemi Johnson and more.

Join us in Sawtell for a special screening, community connection, followed by a live Q&A panel with experts,

• Britt Richards. Britt is a privately practising midwife supporting women through pregnancy, birth and postpartum with individualised, evidence-based care. Her philosophy centres on birth as a natural physiological process and a woman’s innate ability to birth her baby. Britt is passionate about helping women feel informed, confident and supported in their choices.

• Kiran Mallie. Kiran is an experienced birth doula and childbirth educator serving women and families in the Coffs Harbour Region. She has attended over 100 births both at home and in the hospital and she is passionate about women walking into birth feeling informed, empowered and educated.

• Bec Gilby, Bec is a Registered Midwife and experienced yoga teacher with a background in molecular biology. Her work brings together an understanding of the body, birth, movement and wellbeing. She is passionate about supporting women through pregnancy and beyond to recognise their own strength, build confidence and trust in their bodies.

• Sasha Hopkins. Sasha is an Endorsed Midwife, educator, homebirth advocate and host of The Breech Birth Podcast, based in South East Queensland. She provides homebirth care and has extensive experience supporting physiological and vaginal breech birth. Sasha has completed advanced breech training with Breech Without Borders and Dr Stuart Fischbein, and has worked alongside Dr Andrew Bisits teaching breech skills to hospital clinicians. She is also the creator of the CPD-endorsed Reclaiming Breech Birth workshop, delivered across Australia to expand breech birth education.

🎥 Event Details

📅 Date: 7th September 2026

⏱️ Time: 7pm-9pm

📍Location: Sawtell Cinema. 25 First Ave, Sawtell. NSW 2452

Babies in arms welcome

Across cultures and continents, birth is both a universal experience and a deeply personal journey, yet for millions it has become increasingly shaped by systems of control, risk, and intervention.

This documentary explores the global landscape of childbirth, revealing the growing maternal health crisis and the projound impact of the medicalization of birth.

Through intimate stories and cross-cultural perspectives, the film examines how modern obstetric practices (while often lifesaving) have transformed a natural process into a highly mangaged medical event. It questions whether this shift has always served mothers and babies, or if it has, in some cases, distanced them from safer, more holistic care.

At the heart of the film is the life and work of midwife and educator Kristine Lauria, whose approach offers a powerful alternative. Grounded in respect, physiology, and evidence-based care, her work challenges conventional models and reimagines what childbirth can look like when autonomy, trust, and continuity of care are prioritized.

By waving together global insights with one woman's mission, the documentary invites audiences to reconsider how we bring life into the world, and what it would take to make birth safer, more human, and more empowering for all.