Contributor terms
The rights and terms that apply to everything contributors publish with us. There are two sets: one for professional contributions and one for personal stories.
Fear Free Childbirth publishes two kinds of contribution: pieces from practitioners and researchers, and personal stories. The same terms apply to both, and you'll find them under professional contributions. Personal stories have a few extra protections because of how sensitive they can be, set out under personal stories.
Professional contributions
These are the terms that apply to every free contribution we publish, professional pieces and personal stories alike (personal stories have a few extra protections, set out below). They exist so that both sides know where they stand: you keep your copyright, and we get the certainty we need to publish and promote your work properly.
- The author retains copyright in their original submitted text.
- FFC receives a perpetual, exclusive, worldwide licence to publish, edit, translate, adapt and repurpose the piece across the site, newsletter, podcast and social channels.
- Exclusive means the author may not republish their submission in full anywhere else. They may quote from it and link to it freely, and we encourage both.
- The author warrants it's their original work and doesn't breach anyone else's rights or confidentiality.
- FFC has final editorial control, including headline, subheadings and cuts. Material changes are shown to the author before publication as a courtesy, not as a veto.
- The author waives their moral rights in the piece to the fullest extent permitted by law, including the right to object to derogatory treatment, so editorial changes cannot be challenged after publication. FFC will always credit the author by their chosen byline unless they ask otherwise.
- Copyright in the edited, published version, including headline, subheadings, cuts and any additions made by FFC, belongs to FFC. The author's copyright in their original submitted text remains unaffected.
For how to pitch and write your piece, see the contributor guidelines.
Personal stories
These terms apply to personal stories shared with us through the story guidelines.
The same terms apply as for professional contributions. However, because we understand the potentially sensitive nature of personal stories:
- We will take a story down if the author asks us to. We take it off the site promptly and stop using it in anything new. We're honest about the limits: newsletters already sent, podcast episodes already downloaded and posts already shared can't be recalled.
- The author must confirm in writing that the story is their own, and that they have anonymised everyone in it who hasn't given their consent to be named.
- The author may choose a pseudonym as their byline. Whatever byline they choose (full name, first name or pseudonym), it stays as it is once the story is published.
Questions
If anything here isn't clear, or you'd like to talk it through before you pitch, email hello@fearfreechildbirth.com. These terms sit alongside our editorial standards.
Last updated September 2026