The Chaser’s Chris Taylor, who you might recognise from B&T TV (cheeky plug), is the latest star on LiSTNR podcast Birth, Baby and Beyond.
Taylor will join famed midwife Cath Curtain (who has delivered thousands of babies over her famed 47-year career) to talk about the realities of becoming a father.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there are days where I don’t feel terrified, scared and clueless,” Taylor said on being a new parent.
“A lot of other dads I speak to feel the same because so much of the parenting literature – even state government resources – is still geared to mums. Modern dads want to be involved”.
In episode one, which drops Monday June 19, Chris tells how it took five years for he and his wife to fall pregnant, how he found it important to share their struggle, and how so many don’t.
“I think a lot of dads probably approach conception thinking, this is the fun bit where I get to have a lot of sex. Lots and lots of sex, and in nine months, we’ll have a baby. While I’m sure that’s true for some, I think a lot of other dads like me might discover that the reality can be quite different,” Taylor said.
“We went five years without conceiving. It was quite a quite a journey… traumatic and harrowing and depressing, anxious, frightening, an existential crisis.”
Taylor and midwife Cath Curtain talk about why couples traditionally wait for 12 weeks until they share the news of a pregnancy. Curtain said it was a societal thing, tinged with an old fashioned hiding of loss.
“It’s if you lose the baby, then you don’t have to tell anyone, which is so bad because when you lose a baby, what you want is family around,” she said.
Taylor holds nothing back – he asks Curtain about masturbation, and should a man stop if trying to conceive, and in the second episode they talk about the miscarriage Taylor’s wife experienced, how it affected them as a couple, and him personally.
Birth, Baby and Beyond is one of the country’s most listened to podcasts because of its trusted and relatable style. Cath Curtin brings more than four decades of experience to guide new parents through the highs and lows of pregnancy, birth and the complexities of parenting.
Where previously the podcast has had the birth mother at its centre, in this season LiSTNR focuses the lens on dads; exploring the facts, fiction, questions, concerns and hopes of the dads who navigate their own unique, challenging and rewarding journey through pregnancy, birth and parenting.
