About this Event
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 Byron Bay for a special screening, community connection, followed by a live Q&A panel with experts;
- Sarah Smits is an Australian midwife, educator and mentor with more than a decade of experience supporting women across hospital, birth centre and homebirth settings. Drawing on her work in Australia, India and alongside traditional midwives throughout Latin America, she is passionate about integrating evidence-based maternity care with traditional birth wisdom. Through Bridging Worlds Midwifery, Sarah mentors birth workers and supports families to experience birth as a safe, deeply respected and transformative life event.
- Sunny Hunt- Based in the Northern Rivers of NSW, Sunny has more than 30 years’ experience supporting women and families through pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and early parenthood. Through Holistic Family Homebirth, she offers personalised continuity of midwifery care, including antenatal care, homebirth, waterbirth, postpartum care and breastfeeding support. Sunny blends evidence-based practice with a deep respect for the natural and transformative journey of birth, centring informed choice, safety, connection and women feeling heard and empowered.
- Keshia Tognazzini- With a background in Exercise Science and a Doctor of Physiotherapy, Keshia’s journey into motherhood deepened her interest in pregnancy, birth and women’s healthcare. Through Return to Wisdom, she explores birth, motherhood and health, creating conversations around informed choice, physiological birth and maternity care.
- Tahnee Taylor- Tahnee Taylor’s work explores women’s bodies, birth, embodiment and spirituality, informed by more than a decade of teaching across Taoism, yoga and women’s traditions. A mother of three who birthed all her children physiologically, including two freebirths, Tahnee’s work centres on supporting women to develop greater trust, discernment and sovereignty in their bodies and birth choices.
- Fiona O'Shaughnessy- Based in the Northern Rivers, Fiona is a full-spectrum doula, Hypnobirthing practitioner, childbirth educator and mother of three. As a Director of Hygieia House, she is passionate about maternity advocacy, strengthening community around birth, and supporting women to understand their options and make informed, empowered choices about how and where they birth.
🎥 Event Details
📅 Date: Tuesday 17th November ,2026
⏱️ Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm
📍Location: Byron Community Centre- Theatre. 69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 2481
A portion of proceeds from this screening will be donated to the Hygieia House and Midwifery Fund
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.
Event venue & nearby stays
Byron Community Centre, 69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay, Australia
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