My approach to doula support - helping you feel held & empowered

I firmly believe birth & early motherhood deserve to be approached from a place of calm, understanding and power, not anxiety or fear.

These are not just one day or a few weeks in your life, but powerful experiences that will change you, stay with you and affect how you go into motherhood, and therefore deserve to be fully honoured and deeply supported.

Whether you’re expecting your first baby and everything about birth is new to you, or whether you’re hoping for a different birth and/or postpartum experience this time round…

Whatever your birth plan, hopes, and circumstances, my purpose is to provide you with personalised, unbiased guidance, presence and support to navigate birth & postpartum with more confidence and trust, and help you stack the odds in your favour of a positive birth & gentle beginnings with your baby.

I support all types of births, whether you are hoping to birth at home, in a birth centre or at hospital, vaginally or by caesarean birth, with or without pain relief. My sole agenda is to help you feel safe, well-informed, supported and respected in your choices throughout. 

I am based in Richmond, London and support women in families in the whole South West London, West London, Central London and Surrey borders areas.

Amélie’s support went far beyond what I could have imagined, and I will always be grateful for everything she did for me during this life-changing experience. I recommend her a hundred percent to any parent looking for genuine, compassionate, and knowledgeable support.

Amelie’s ability to support us has been nothing short of amazing. When we navigated a change of plans in our birth, she helped us adapt and supported me to trust my instincts whilst also remembering my birth preferences. She made me felt held, even when I was ambivalent about certain decisions, helping me never feeling rushed or pressured. She was upbeat and positive, fierce enough to protect our birth space without causing friction with birth care staff. She has lots of knowledge and deep empathy, and proved to be a strong emotional pillar throughout birth & my early postpartum. I couldn’t be more grateful!

My support encompasses:

• providing you with evidence-based knowledge and education and helping you navigate the sea of information about birth and babies that surrounds us all (which can be really overwhelming and confusing), to guide and make you feel empowered but not overwhelmed in your decision-making
• body and mindset preparation, and pregnancy & postpartum body care, blending in my expertise in pregnancy and postpartum yoga/movement, birth biomechanics, pelvic health & pelvic floor work, mindfulness and hypnobirthing
• advocacy tools and in-person support, to ensure you feel heard, respected and supported in your choices, before, during and after birth
• emotional & practical support to help you feel held, find trust in yourself, instincts and abilities;  honour these experiences as the important thresholds that they are, and experience these pivotal times in a way that feels RIGHT FOR YOU, YOUR baby and YOUR body
• postpartum: feeding support (breast, bottle or both), essential baby care techniques; supported rest and postpartum movement, pelvic floor rehabilitation and nutrition support designed to soften your landing into motherhood and actively support your initial physical postpartum recovery.

My birth & postpartum doula ethos & beliefs 

• fully individualised care: there is no 'right' way to give birth, or do postpartum, only the way that works and feels right to you. No two people, pregnancies, births, babies are the same. As your doula, my number one priority will be to get to know you and understand your situation, needs, wishes, concerns and any particular fears or challenges, meeting you exactly where & how you are.
• importance of understanding & supporting birth & postpartum physiology: however you’re hoping/ or end up giving birth (whether vaginally or by caesarean birth), helping you understand how your body and your baby ‘work’, during and after birth, is one key element that will help you navigate your pregnancy care, birth options & choices, postpartum period and early parenting with more awareness, calm and confidence.
• what happened before and how you came into this pregnancy matters: and needs gentle exploring, in a trauma-informed way, as it will always affect to some degree your current pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience. I have experience supporting women & families with anxious and/or long-awaiting pregnancies, including after IVF/assisted conception, pregnancy loss/recurring miscarriage, and a previous traumatic birth/PTSD, and can share extra tools to support you.
• importance of preparing and looking after your body and mind: depending on your individual circumstances and needs, this might include exploring breathing techniques, deep relaxation, mindfulness practices, pelvis mobilisation, pelvic floor awareness/work, release techniques, biomechanics for birth, postpartum recovery practices, baby massage, specific baby holds and comforting practices, and more!
• that establishing a strong feeling of connection and trust with the women/families I support is the foundation of truly effective doula support

A bit about me

A mum of 2, it is my own experience becoming a mother that I came to work in this field, which is where my heart and expertise lies.

There is not a day I don’t regret not having a doula to support me for my first, very difficult birth despite what I thought was quite thorough preparation (with the usual antenatal course, reading and movement classes), and my crash-landing into motherhood that followed. A time that really brought home how little I knew, and how hard it can be to parent without support, or to navigate the UK maternity system without a guiding hand.

I went on to experience a magical second birth and much softer, joyful postpartum, which really showed me that these important thresholds can be beautiful and much easier with the right understanding, preparation and support in place. 

And I feel truly privileged to be let in to offer this support to families and witness the arrival of new babies.

Types of support I offer

• in-person antenatal preparation & birth support packages
• in-person, stand-alone postpartum/postnatal support (with the option of postpartum preparation done antenatally)
• 'full' antenatal, birth & postpartum support package
• specialist package for elective caesareans 
• virtual/remote antenatal support & birth preparation, with or without remote birth support
• ad-hoc workshops & consultations, including 'doula SOS' 1-hour consultations, practical birth skills preparation workshop with partners, birth planning sessions, postpartum planning sessions, and more

More details of all my packages and what they include can be found on my website: https://www.firsttofourthyoga.co.uk/south-west-london-birth-postpartum-doula

I offer a free discovery call if you'd like to learn more and see if I could be the right person to support you. You can book one here: book a free call

It would be wonderful to meet you and support you!

(you can access many more testimonials on Google or on my website)

Coming from the US,  we were really hoping to find someone who could offer consistent, one-to-one support throughout our entire birthing journey. 
From the very beginning Amelie truly listened, taking the time to understand our needs, our hopes, and the birth plans we were aiming for. She shared a wealth of evidence-based information in ways that felt clear, manageable, and empowering, always offering guidance without a hint of judgment. Most importantly, she gave us confidence; in our decisions, in our choices, and in ourselves. Her calm presence and steady support throughout made everything feel less overwhelming and so much more enjoyable. Without her, the experience would have been far more daunting, confusing, and stressful.
Thanks to Amelie, we had the birth experience we had hoped for — and we will always be so grateful for her care.