Birth doula

Nope! Midwives and doulas are both very important members of a birth team, but we do different things.

In simple terms, it looks like this:

• A midwife is a medical expert: they focus on things that need measuring, monitoring and fixing (eg: blood pressure, heart rates, respiration and drugs)

• A doula is a holistic expert: I focus on the influence of all the things which make your body work as well as is can during birth (eg: hormones, physical positioning, emotions, environment).

Both are unique skill sets with really clear boundaries.

As your doula, I will do anything you need (within reason) to help you feel calm, in control and confident during your pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal period.

What that looks like will be totally different for everyone, but it may include…

• physical support (massage, positioning and breathing guidance)

• practical support (putting up the birth pool, helping with childcare during labour, accompanying you to appointments)

• emotional support (doulas are EXCELLENT listeners and we honestly carry no judgement),

• knowledge based (signposting to different reputable sources of unbiased, evidence based information)

• advocacy based around your birth rights and helping you to navigate the maternity system.

Doulas have existed for millennia (we actually pre-date midwives and obstetricians by centuries!) and the fact is that we wouldn’t exist if we weren’t needed.

But it also depends on you and the birth experience you want to have…

If just want to get it over with and really don’t care how it happens, a doula probably won’t bring much to the party.

But if you want your birth to be more than just a medical appointment, having a doula like me on your team could be the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Not even slightly. It’s time to smash this stereotype to bits…

• Am I a hippy? No.

• Do I do homebirths? Yes!

• BUT, do the majority of my clients plan a hospital birth? YES!

Doulas bring everything about themselves to your birth & baby adventure. This includes personalities, experiences, specialisms and interests.

There are hundreds of doulas working in the UK and each of us are different.

Of course, there are some who only do freebirth and whose practice is focused on traditional and ancient approaches to birth. But that’s not me.

I choose to define myself as a mainstream doula: I have great respect for ancient birthing wisdom and ideas, but largely I focus on supporting the reality of births that are experienced by the mainstream majority.

I believe everyone deserves to have a doula by their side if they want one. But I do also need paying…

My clients tend to pay for their doula packages in chunks to help them budget effectively; this is why you’ll see the prices listed in either three or six instalments.

However, you can also choose to split the payments over more time, or pay in full at the start.

How you choose to pay is up to you; so long as the full balance is paid before our on-call period begins, I am a happy ginger!