The woman I am today …

Like many women, I grew up with the narrative that birth was something either to be feared because it was painful, or something that simply “wasn’t a big deal”. It wasn’t until I listened to a mother share her blissful home birth story that I realised that the stories I had been told about birth thus far were incomplete - that birth could (and should) be an empowering, transformational and sacred experience.

At the time, I was already teaching yoga and facilitating and attending women’s circles, but the call to support pregnant women and mothers was strong. I enrolled in my Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training with the amazing Uma Dinsmore-Thuli, and it was during this training that I first discovered the work of a doula. That training changed my life. After years of feeling directionless, I finally felt as though I had found my soul’s purpose - supporting women through pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

But I was at a crossroads - do I become a mother, or do I follow the path of becoming a doula? I will never regret choosing motherhood first. Motherhood gave me a depth of empathy and understanding that can only come through lived experience.

I brought my son earth side with my husband and my doula by my side. Although I had to let go of my dreams of a home birth, I can honestly say that his birth was one of the most transformational and empowering experiences of my life. I met that raw, primal and deeply powerful place within myself, and I was totally humbled by the experience.

After moving through the birth portal myself, I felt an even deeper calling to support women as they navigate their own journey into motherhood. I completed my doula training through Conscious Birthing with the incredible Samsara Tanner, who I am now blessed to have as my mentor.

Becoming a mother has been the deepest spiritual work of my life - the hardest and most rewarding experience I have ever known.

During my pregnancy, I spent a lot of time creating the foundations for a gentle transition into motherhood. Although my birth was complex and required deep integration and processing, I experienced a blissful first 40 days postpartum. But I quickly realised that, beyond my postpartum sanctuary, the modern world was not set up to support mothers. So I turned to nature - our Great Mother. Many of those early months were spent walking amongst the trees with my son asleep against my chest in his sling. As I slowly emerged back into the world with my now 4 month old, contact-napping baby still firmly attached to me, I found it difficult to balance the demands of mothering with the pressure to earn money and show up as a productive member of society.

I longed for spaces where motherhood could be spoken about honestly, spaces where mothers could feel seen in the enormity of this transition and held within community. It was from this longing that Mother & Baby Circle was born, and my work as a postpartum doula deepened.