About Me
I am a conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum doula, Birth Story Specialist (trained by the Birth Story Medicine® school) and a parent educator and I live on the land and by the sea in West Wales, UK. I have supported people in hospital and at home, in-person and online, in sickness and in health.
I am also a mother, a daughter, a partner, a sister, a friend, a poet, a singer, a food grower, a goatherd, a playwork practitioner and a mortal, striving to support myself and others to feel more connected, interconnected and whole, with the truly wise help of the earth.
I have been working with people in pregnancy, birth, postpartum and baby loss since the birth of my second child in 2017.
What drew me to birth work
Both my daughters were born in hospital labour wards. One birth flowed like a ‘natural birth’ textbook, the other birth ducked and dived and almost went to theatre before it turned around and she came vaginally instead, with moments to spare. (Read my blog post about why I became a doula).
I was seen as a ‘high risk’ pregnant person, due to having an inherited blood clotting disorder. Yet in my dream world, I wanted to give birth at home. Working with this dissonance of being ‘high risk’, but feeling ‘low risk’, I learnt so much and so quickly about the complexities of birthing in general, in our times, and within the medical paradigm. And of how to advocate for an empowered birth, even when you find yourself giving birth in a setting far from your dreams, with care-givers who have your best interests at heart, but whose hands are tied by a system mired in litigation culture.
Uncovering Matrescence
Birthing and parenting my daughters, I found myself flung into Matrescence. Matrescence is the profound yet forgotten physical, emotional, psychological, cultural, personal and spiritual transformation or rite of passage that a woman/ birthing person goes through when they become a mother/ parent.
It was shortly after birthing for the second time, and as I found myself slowly, messily, carefully rediscovering my new self, that my calling began to show itself to me loud and clear (see my blog post about this here). I am here, I discovered, to support women, birthing people and families to navigate the huge transformation and rite of passage that is Matrescence; pregnancy, birth, parenthood and beyond.
I am called to be part of the vital and essential Matrescence Revolution – a global network of change-makers working to create much better systems of support for women, birthing people and families. A revolution where our lives are enriched personally, within our communities and societally, in order to truly celebrate, honour and support holistic health and well-being within this unique reproductive season of our lives.
My offerings for the childbearing year and beyond can be both in-person and online.
A huge inspiration to my birth-related work has been former certified nurse-midwife Pam England, author of Birthing From Within and the Ancient Map for Modern Birth and founder of the Birth Story Medicine® School. She has lit my way as my eyes have opened to the depths of healing and learning available, with the right support, on this journey of metamorphosis of pregnancy, birth, parenthood and beyond.
About Embracing the Waves
Embracing the Waves was set up with the intention of being a portal to a range of wisdom, tools and skills to support you in the realms of fertility, the perinatal year, in parenthood and in navigating our human-ness.
Along with other local birth workers and alternative health and well-being practitioners, Embracing the Waves offers workshops, courses and one to one processes and packages to support you and your families and birth partners in the rites of passage that are pregnancy, birth and parenthood.
Embracing the Waves is here to offer you support and community as you find your way, through the ups and downs and the ebbs and flows of this hugely transformational reproductive season of your life.
