How I can support you
Birth. Before, during and after.
As your doula, I will be a compassionate companion, a fierce advocate, an empowering presence, and a gentle witness honouring you through this transition.
What I can do for you
My role is to offer you personal care and support throughout your birth experience, including before and after. My role is not to offer medical advice.
Every birth companionship will be different, according to your needs.
Specific things I can offer you include:
Sharing knowledge about birth to prepare you for what’s to come
Building up your trust in your body
Sharing ways to protect you from avoidable birth trauma
Advocating for you in medical environments
Protecting the birthing person and environment to allow for physiological birth to unfold
Working alongside medical professionals such as midwives and doctors
Supporting and championing my fellow queers to create families their own way
Helping you to integrate the experience after birth
All of my work is infused with my values, and informed by my specific approach, outlined in more detail below.
My values
All of my work is infused with my values.
01
Inclusive
As an intersectional feminist, neurospicy queer and gender-diverse person, I’m a natural protector of identities, especially minorities and queer families. I’m an ally for Black and Brown people, who face institutional racism in birth settings. For me, being respected for who you are and accessing the same level of care is the bare minimum.
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Connected
A doula is not a medical role. It’s a human role. I’m available to you as a loving, connected presence to offer you personal care and support. Your journey will be witnessed with compassion, your feelings met with empathy, and your experience of this transition honoured.
03
Intimate
Birth is intimate. Bringing me into your birth space is a beautiful act of trust, as you’re allowing yourself to be supported and witnessed at a very raw and vulnerable time. My role is a guardian of this intimate environment, holding space for you to have the birth YOU want.
04
Consent-based
Your body, your choice. Our work together will build your confidence in your body, giving you the tools you need to make informed choices during your birth. I won’t make any choices for you, but with your consent, I will advocate for your choices in a medical environment, if required.
05
Shame-free
Birth is beautiful. You also might shit yourself. Both these things can be true at once! Working with me will be shame-free. Nothing is gross, it’s just a body doing exactly what it needs to do. There are no stupid questions, no embarrassing thoughts, and no judgement of you, your body, or your choices.
My approach
Queer-ing birth
Are you bored of the images of high-femme cis het white pregnant women in every information leaflet you’ve read so far? That’s not how we do it over here. I’m here to queer birth with you. We’ll navigate the system together and overcome the many biases along the way, whatever your family setup is. I work with both queer and straight families, but think my lived experience of queerphobia would really benefit queer folks.
Knowledge is power
The birth process can feel mysterious, and there’s a lot of new information. I’ll break down the process for you, at a pace that is comfortable and allows you to take it in. If you’re giving birth in a medical environment then you will likely be offered many different interventions. We’ll learn about the cascade of interventions, to understand the implications of the choices you might be offered by doctors and midwives. Please note I cannot offer medical advice, and will always work collaboratively alongside medical professional, whilst advocating for your choices and space to make decisions.
Embodied
There’s a whole dance going on in your body during birth, between you and your baby. The more you can tune into it the better, by really living in and feeling connected to your body. My aim is to support you to be totally embodied during your birth, so that it feels like nothing is happening ‘to’ you, but within you and coming from your own power.
Birth how you want
I’m here to accompany you through the birth that you want. Birth needs safety, so I’ll support you to give birth wherever you feel most comfortable and safe, whilst integrating advice from medical professionals. I would always encourage birthing people to create the environment conducive to physiological birth, which is calm, gentle and womb-like. This might be harder to create in a hospital setting, but it’s still possible. I support both home and hospital births. And of course, birth is unpredictable, and I would accompany you through any changes of plan needed to keep you and your baby safe.
Your body already knows what to do
Uninterrupted, the unfolding of birth is a story that your body already knows how to tell. This is called physiological birth: a beautifully orchestrated flow of hormones, movement and breath, resulting in new life. When we interrupt with bright lights and words, we can halt this innate self expression. When we create the right environment of intimacy, physiological birth is more likely to unfold. I will be the guardian of this intimate environment for you. With thanks to my mentor Camalo Gaskin for this beautiful framing, from her Guardians of Intimacy Doula Immersion.
Trauma-informed care
It’s not just about what happens, it’s how it happens. You can have a loving, empowering, gentle caesarean. Or you can have a traumatic water birth at home. Atmosphere matters. The people with you during your birth can help hold the space and ensure you have a sense of agency and safety, to try and avoid birth trauma. I love and respect the NHS so much, but unfortunately, the system often doesn’t always allow people the time or resources to hold this space. Having a doula accompany you through birth can help establish a compassionate and caring atmosphere, even in a clinical setting.
Balanced
I don’t know about you, but I can find the birth world a bit all or nothing: science vs ‘woo’. We’re a bit of both over here. I think a bit of woo can be so helpful: affirmations, visualisations, trusting in the universe and your body. But also there’s some incredible science and medicine available to us now, and we can make the most of that: truly believing your body can do it, while still accepting medical help and changes of plan when needed.
Integrated
It’s not over once you’ve met your baby (unless you want to be). Giving birth is a big deal! We meet after to integrate the experience, and land you softly into early parenthood. This includes both emotional and practical support, primarily taking care of you as new parent(s), so you can better take care of your baby.
My services and pricing
Prenatal support
We’ll work together to understand your wishes for your birth, overcome any fears, and build your trust in your body, to get you the beautiful birth you deserve.
12 hours of in person time.
£360 - £600 sliding scale
Birth companionship
I’ll be there at your birth, however long it takes. I’ll hold the space for you to be fully embodied, so you can let go and allow your body do what it already knows how to do.
On call from 2 weeks before birth.
£720 - £1200 sliding scale
Postnatal support
We’ll meet several times to talk things over and integrate your birthing experience. I’ll also provide practical and emotional support during these first few weeks.
12 hours of in person time, up to 6 weeks after birth.
£360 - £600 sliding scale
The full birth support package
All the above, with the continuity of person-centred care that you deserve.
£1200 - £2000 sliding scale
Do you want a beautiful, empowered, cosmic birth? Let’s talk. I would love to help.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A doula is a companion through a transition. A birth doula is companion through the transition of birth, and provides emotional, physical, practical and educational support.
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Doulas are not medically trained, and don’t offer medical advice. They don’t make decisions for you, but can offer judgement-free information to make your own decisions.
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I offer a gentle, grounded, empathetic energy, combined with fierce advocacy and drive for justice. My lived experiences as a non-binary person and in queer relationships are particularly helpful for queer couples.
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I work with all kinds of people. I centre queerness as it’s a core part of my lived experience that I think would really benefit queer folks, but I also work with straight folks too.
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You can reach out via my contact form or email. Please include your due date, and I’ll scheduled a time to chat. We’ll meet for a coffee to get to know each other, and see if we would be a good fit. If we both decide it’s a good fit then I’ll invoice you for your deposit. Once I’ve received your deposit, I am booked!
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Yes, I support both home and hospital births, and work alongside midwives and doctors in both environments. I will support you to give birth wherever you feel comfortable and safe. I would always encourage birthing people to create the environment conducive to physiological birth, which is calm, gentle and womb-like. This might be harder to create in a hospital setting, but it’s still possible.
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It’s totally up to you! Doulas are not a replacement for birth partners, and can support both the birthing person and their birth partner. In fact, doulas can support your partner to be more involved, if that’s what they want.