You already know me as your hypnobirthing teacher. What you might not know is that I trained as a doula in 2014, working with Michel Odent and Paramana Doulas, and I'm now returning to being physically present in the birth room for a small number of families each year.
If you want someone beside you through pregnancy and birth who understands both the evidence and the emotional undercurrent of it all, this is for you.
If you've never come across the word before, you're not alone. A doula is a trained, experienced companion who supports you through pregnancy, labour and birth. Unlike your midwife, who is there to provide clinical care, a doula's role is continuity and reassurance. My role isn't a clinical one, you are the one who births your baby. I'm there so you have a familiar, steady person with you the whole way through, someone who knows your birth preferences, who you can call at 2am with a worry, and who stays with you throughout your labour and birth, whatever setting you choose and however things unfold.
A continuous, known support person during labour changes outcomes. Families who have doula support are more likely to have a spontaneous vaginal birth, less likely to need a caesarean, and consistently report feeling more informed and more in control, whatever shape their birth takes.
But most doulas don't also bring twenty years of birth education and hypnobirthing expertise into the room with them. I do. That means your preparation isn't separate from your support on the day. It's woven together from the first antenatal visit right through to your birth.
I take a very small number of births each quarter, one or two at most, so that I can be fully present for each family I work with. There's no dividing my attention. When you're my client, you're not sharing me with anyone else.
For most of my packages, support starts at 20 weeks, right around the time of your anomaly scan. That's often when worry creeps in, an offhand comment, a measurement that sounds worse than it is, a "we'll keep an eye on that." You shouldn't have to sit with that alone until your next appointment. From 20 weeks, you have someone to call.
Continuous phone and WhatsApp support from 20 weeks. Two antenatal sessions (2 hours each). On call for birth from 38 weeks. Attendance at your birth. One postnatal visit. Four weeks of postnatal phone and WhatsApp support.
Continuous phone and WhatsApp support from 20 weeks. Three antenatal sessions (2 hours each), including hypnobirthing-informed preparation. On call for birth from 37 weeks. Attendance at your birth. Two postnatal visits. Six weeks of postnatal phone and WhatsApp support.
Continuous phone and WhatsApp support from the point of booking. Six antenatal sessions in total: the complete Silver Foundation hypnobirthing course (four sessions) plus two dedicated doula preparation sessions. On call for birth from 37 weeks. Attendance at your birth. Two postnatal visits plus extended check-ins. Eight weeks of postnatal phone and WhatsApp support.
Add-ons: Extra postnatal support is available at £30 per hour (minimum 2 hours). Sibling support at the birth is £75.
I cover Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. If you're further afield, get in touch and we can talk about travel.
You might be wondering whether you need a doula if you're already doing hypnobirthing. They work well together, not against each other. Hypnobirthing prepares your mind and body. A doula is another layer: someone who knows you, who is physically there, who can advocate for you when you need your voice, and who has seen enough births to stay calm when things shift.
You might also be wondering if it's worth the cost. That's a fair question, and one only you can answer. What I can tell you is that the families I've supported describe it as one of the best investments they made in how they experienced their birth, not just what happened, but how they felt through it.
This isn't only for you either. Your partner is stepping into an arena they've likely never been in before, often carrying a huge sense of responsibility with very little idea of what to expect. My role is to be their backstop. I'm the one asking the questions, gathering the information, and advocating alongside you, so your partner can put their full attention on you rather than trying to hold everything together themselves. Many of the partners I've worked with say having me there let them actually be present, instead of anxiously managing a situation they didn't feel equipped for.
You don't need to have done my hypnobirthing course to work with me as your doula. If you've found me through my birth education work, that's a natural fit, but I also take on doula clients who come to me for doula support alone. What matters most is whether we're the right fit for each other, which is exactly what a discovery call is for.
