Photo by @sophieleakphotography
All colour images taken by @barefolk
I grew up in a family where birth was deeply honoured and the intuitive wisdom of women celebrated.
My mother birthed us freely, outside of the medical system and at the age of nine I watched as she birthed my brother into water, in our living room. As a young girl, this was a profound experience; an imprint for truly undisturbed birth and a wellspring of trust and knowing that I always return to.
Following a calling to work with women in their childbearing time, In 2021, I trained with Conscious Birthing and began supporting births as a doula. As I witnessed and held space for births, I was continually shocked by the trauma and harm that was caused by our maternity services. This wasn’t the kind of birth or midwifery that I knew in my bones, I felt a deep grief and a longing for another way.
In 2022, I found The Free Birth Society and completed their Radical Birth Keeper School. The teachings of Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris Clark were a reclamation; a remembering of what birth really is and how to truly support it. The school brought me back home to myself and gave me new clarity about the work that I offer.
At the same time, I conceived my first baby and experienced a totally wild pregnancy, free from monitoring, tests and NHS care. It was a blissful unravelling, a journey of surrender to the unknown, to nature and the wisdom of my body. In February 2023, I gave birth to my daughter at home on Dartmoor with just my partner present. It was a beautiful birth dance that lasted six and a half hours, easeful, peaceful and everything I’d dreamed of. I birthed my baby in power and I felt ecstatic for weeks!
The fabric of my life, my lineage are weaved into my work as a Birthkeeper. It has been a journey of becoming, to deeply know and embody my truth; that pregnancy and birth can be blissful, powerful and simple!
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