Ânia Freitas (she/her)

About Me

Hello, my name is Ânia.

​I am a pregnancy, birth, and postnatal doula based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

​I was born in one of the most beautiful islands of the Atlantic, Madeira (Portugal). I have travelled a bit around the world, lived in different countries, and learned from different cultures, but I decided to settle in Belfast, which I now call home. I am a mother of 2 amazing children born in 2017 and 2020, they were both born in a Belfast local hospital. I am also working in a local homeless charity for over 8 years in the head office.

​I have never had a great dream of having children, maybe because I was too focused at the time on living and absorbing as many life experiences as I could from my travels.

n 2011, I came to NI to support my sister as she had a baby and she was going back to work, this was only to be a temporary thing, but I have been here since then. So, I can say, that my doula journey started there, however at the time I had no clue what a doula was.

​In May 2020, I had my second child, and once again was a very positive experience, however, what I was seeing around me was just loads of obstetric violence and people’s rights being denied and a huge lack of family support especially postnatally, so I felt that I had to do something. I can say that at this point I have started looking for information, also a couple of friends of mine had already called me their doula (even at the time I didn’t know much about it). The more I looked into it, the more certain I was that this was the right path.

​In 2021 I completed my Birth and Postnatal Doula Preparation Course with Developing Doulas, and this was the best thing that I could have done, has given me the opportunity to meet amazing people and learn so much, and since then every day is a school day.

For more information on my Training please visit About Ânia | Ania Freitas Doula