Doula Services

Birth and Postnatal

I work as both a Birth Doula and a Postnatal Doula. You may be exploring the possibility of having emotional, practical or physical support during your birth, or perhaps you know you need that same support but postnatally, during your fourth trimester (weeks 0-12 following birth). Or maybe, both!

I love holding space for people. I love continuity of care and building safe relationships to help you feel held, nourished, understood, confident and courageous.

A bit about me

I am a trained Birth and Postnatal Doula (with Birth Bliss Academy) and went through their accreditation process which means I had a mentor for two years following qualification.

I’ve been working in the birth world since 2016, and have had the great honour of supporting over 400 pregnancy journeys with families across the UK, through Doula services, Mindful Natal courses, Hypnobirthing, Pregnancy Relaxation, Postnatal Relaxation, Infant Feeding and Baby Massage. I’ve been part of birth stories involving hospital births, home births, inductions, planned and unplanned caesarean births, quick and slower births and everything in between. I have gained so much knowledge and experience of pregnancy, birth, the fourth trimester, and also the maternity system we are working with in the UK. As your birth doula or postnatal doula, you will have my continuity of care, and I will help you to navigate through your pregnancy, birth and/or postnatal period by helping you feel informed, confident and safe.

Most importantly, we both need to make sure we’re the right fit for each other - and I’ll love to chat to you more to find out.

Working with me as your Postnatal Doula

My love for the Fourth Trimester

What is the fourth trimester?! It’s the transitional period after giving birth, where you and your baby/babies adjust to the world outside the womb, and the world after pregnancy. It’s a time when significant physical and emotional changes happen for all of you, and wanting and/or needing support during this time is completely normal. In fact 100% of people who ask what a Postnatal Doula does, say to me “oh my goodness I needed that! I wish I’d known that was a thing”. Everyone deserves this close support in one of the most transformational times of life. Whilst many doulas, including myself, have stayed with families far past the end of the fourth trimester, those first 12 weeks are definitely where my passion lies. Holding you in this bubble of recovery until you feel ready to explore again in your new normal.

Do I need to have a specific reason as to why I’d like support?

No, not at all. I have clients who have had a really rough time of it in their previous postnatal experience and know they need to do things differently this time round. I have first time parent clients who don’t have any family around to help them and need me to be their person. I have clients who do have family around, but don’t want them to be the ones to help (for various reasons!). And I have clients who know that if they don’t put this support into place, it will be to the detriment of their physical healing and mental wellness. You could have all the reasons or no specific reason at all; you don’t have to be massively struggling to justify postnatal support.

What does a Postnatal Doula actually do?

I would love you to feel like you’re thriving instead of just surviving. To feel that you’ve actually enjoyed your fourth trimester as a healing and connected experience. And I do this in four main ways.

Physical support: Sometimes it’s really tangible, physical help. I love to help create calm in homes, so sometimes that means whizzing round the kitchen to make it tidy and smelling lovely; or having baby in the sling for you while you rest, wash, eat. I love to cook, and am happiest when chopping away to create you some nourishing breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks; batch cooking some meals for the freezer, and leaving you with a week’s worth of overnight oats and energy balls to take the stress away from feeding yourself. Sometimes the physical support means helping you with breastfeeding or bottle feeding or expressing and everything that comes with it; or helping with the constant stream of laundry/drying/folding.

Practical support: I love to organise! I can help you declutter - everything from your kitchen larder to the baby’s clothes drawers. I truly believe that an organised space helps a calm mind and I love to help you achieve that for your mental wellbeing as well as for practical ease. I also enjoy taking baby/babies out for a walk in the buggy to help them get to sleep and gift you some time alone in your home to do whatever you want!

Emotional support: Perhaps the most needed and least prioritised postnatally. I am there to listen, to talk or debrief, and be a totally judgement-free confidant. The conversations I have range from recommendations for the right product, service or practitioner, to talking about the long, hard, sleepless nights, to listening to relationship strains or older children challenges. Sometimes it’s just nice to have company of someone else in the house. More than anything, I make sure I really hear you. I hold the space that you need to go through the rollercoaster of emotional changes that the fourth trimester holds.

Adjustment support: Whether this is your first or fifth baby, this a period of adjustment for you, baby/babies, and the rest of your family unit. I’m passionate about helping you discover, understand and embody what is normal in baby sleep, feeding, healing, hormones and relationships. As a society we’re fixers, and our cultural messaging is around ‘fixing’ a baby who doesn’t sleep or a body that isn’t healed quickly enough. With my support, you can unlearn these unhelpful concepts and embrace your own journey, whilst really getting to know your brand new baby/babies.

What is a Postnatal Doula NOT?

This will vary depending on the doula you’re talking to! But for me, my priorities are:

• Nourishing the mother/parents with healing food, batch cooking and energising snacks and drinks

• Enabling bursts of rest, whether that’s sleeping, bathing, disconnecting, being in nature or not being needed

• Supporting your emotional needs, through talking, listening and empathising

• Protecting the safety and calm in your spaces, by organising, decluttering and lightening the household load

What am I not? I’m not a child-carer or a cleaner/home-help. Obviously there is cross-over with both those roles and the role of a postnatal doula (sometimes I will be caring for your child, and sometimes I will be cleaning your kitchen!), but it’s all about balance. I’m there to support your nourishment, healing, rest and adjustment, and while that means gladly doing some baby care and home care, it’s not my focus and can’t become my main role within your home. If I feel the balance tips over more than one session, I will chat to you about how we can structure my time with you so you feel most supported and that we’re both happy.

My rate for Postnatal Doula support is £25 per hour, plus expenses (i.e. parking, ingredients to cook for you), with a minimum package of 20 hours. My available hours are between 09:30 and 14:30 Monday-Friday. Do get in touch to discuss your needs, such as how many weeks support you’d like, and for how many hours per session.

Working with me as your Birth Doula

Whilst it may seem that the main benefit of having a birth doula would be the support you have on the day of birth, I actually find most people experience the unexpected benefit of having ‘their person’ all the way through pregnancy to be a huge comfort. I am here for you outside of our official sessions together, on WhatsApp and on the phone, through any ups and downs you have. This could be asking for recommendations, chatting to you before/after appointments, helping you reframe something you’re struggling with, helping you make decisions that are right for you, sharing my knowledge of the maternity system, just listening to you if you’re having a hard time, and building a relationship together. So that, on the day of birth, we’re already all a team. I’m also an Infant Feeding coach so you could choose to make part of a session all about preparing to feed your baby.

I love helping you become knowledgeable and informed, build in confidence, advocate for yourself, cut through jargon and policies. And as you may have read on my About Me page, I am hugely passionate and experienced with pregnancy after loss, so if you’re navigating that then we can do that together.

Why invest in a BIRTH doula?

Research shows that when women have continuous support from a doula, with whom they have a trusting relationship, they experience:

• Shorter labours, and more likely to birth vaginally (39% decrease in Caesareans, 15% increase in spontaneous vaginal birth)

• A significant reduction in medical intervention

• A birth they are more likely to rate as positive (31% decrease in the risk of being dissatisfied with the birth experience)

Source: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/

What is in my Birth Doula package?

• 3 private antenatal sessions (normally 2 hours each), where we will cover all aspects of your labour, birth and beyond. (These antenatal sessions are normally arranged for weekdays between 09:30-14:30, but I can be flexible. These sessions are best taken somewhere between 22 and 36 weeks.

• I will help you write, tweak or add to your birth preferences together, ensuring we are all on the same page and all know your wishes for all eventualities.

• I will guide you through some relaxations during our sessions together, and recap on any Hypnobirthing techniques you’d like to.

• You have full access to my library of books and online resources - a wealth of information I’ve collated and regularly update.

• Continuity of care throughout your pregnancy, labour and birth, supporting both you and your partner.

• Continuous phone and email support, from the time of booking until 6 weeks after your baby has been born.

• Guidance navigating the maternity system.

• My years of experience as an antenatal educator, Hypnobirthing practitioner and pregnancy relaxation teacher.

• I will be on call for you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from 10 days before your due date, until 42.5 weeks. (If your baby comes outside of these times, I will do my absolute best to be with you and attend your birth.)

• After your baby has been born, I will stay with you during the golden hour and initial bonding period, until you feel ready for me to leave.

• I will provide you with guidance and support with baby's initial feeding.

• You will receive a two hour postnatal visit within 10 days of the birth, where I can help you with feeding, bonding, providing a bundle of nutritious food prepared for you, and signposting information if needed.

What is the investment?

Birth Doula + Mindful Natal course:

My Birth Doula service includes the Mindful Natal course which equips you with all the Hypnobirthing and mindfulness tools you’ll need, plus dives deeply into birth options, choices and advocacy. You wouldn’t need to take any other antenatal/hypnobirthing courses as it’s all included. You also get full access to the PregnaHub which you can read about here. £1950

Shared-care with another Birth Doula:

I also offer my birth doula services alongside another trusted doula. You get the benefit of two doulas, we share the on-call period and antenatal sessions. From £1950

Postnatal Doula service: £25 per hour, with a minimum of 20 hours booked.

I offer free phone/Zoom calls as an initial enquiry to see if we are a good fit for each other, and then I encourage a face-to-face meeting before you go ahead and book. It’s so important we both agree we’re the best Doula/birth team/family combination! If you’d like to chat, do get in touch and arrange a date and time.