Elisa Terren

About Me

I work as a Doula because I value the profound importance of conscious birthing and motherhood.  I work with women and their partners to cultivate consciousness and self-trust to cross this threshold in a loving, connected, wild and powerful way.

I am the proud and grateful mother of 2 children both born at home. Birth and motherhood has been the most empowering, profound and consciousness enhancing experience in my life. It has inspired me to search deep, question everything, laugh wholeheartedly, and find my inner compass.

CONSCIOUS BIRTH

We women know how to birth. It is in our inherent design. It is written into our bodies. No one needs to learn how to birth.

I deeply believe in preparing for our births, not by learning methods but by shedding our cultural conditioning, through being sincere with our selves, informing ourselves, addressing our fears until they turn into the trust we need to birth our way. The anchor of a Doula can make all the difference between a birth-in-awareness and one that is out of our control.

I am there to protect and empower your process, to keep you informed of your choices, to remind you of your capacity to birth, to 100% trust you even when you are going through self doubt. I am there as a maternal, caring, knowledgeable and loving presence that enables you to look after yourself.

I lend emotional and practical support to the couple in this huge transition by addressing your individual needs. As a Doula I am a companion in your journey towards parenthood. Someone who can truly listen to you, and give you the trust, time and intimate space you need to make informed decisions, and feel safe and sustained through the threshold of birth and the first few weeks of motherhood.

I have experience in supporting home births and hospital births (labour wards and midwife led units), Cesarean sections and IVF babies.

POSTNATAL

The first few weeks of a baby’s life are an incredible transition for the family. A huge number of things are happening, but most importantly the mother is getting to know her baby and the baby their mother, upon this relationship lies the foundations of the baby’s life. They need a lot of safety and intimacy, and not to worry about anything else. Breastfeeding is being established, and especially in first time mother’s this process can benefit from calm and patient support. The whole dynamic of the family shifts and a lot of space and time is needed for this adjustment. As a Doula I am there to mother the mother, so that she can mother her baby. Each individual family’s needs are different during this period and I aim to care for you in the way that you need.

ABOUT ME

People meet me as a mother, doula, trauma informed Life Coach, and a women’s circle facilitator.  Motherhood in all its facets interests me deeply, in particular the “primal period” of pregnancy, birth and the first year of human life. Birth and Motherhood is deeply misunderstood in our society.

Becoming a mother is the most transformative experience I ever had. It led me to train and work as a Doula, as well as in psycho-somatic therapy with a special focus on the mother-child relationship.

I was born in Colombia, and raised in Bogota and London. I have lived in Madrid, California and Russia and finally settled in London in 2006. I used to be an actress and theatre maker, motherhood has been such a transformative experience that I feel compelled to explore it more deeply and support other people in their journey.

HOW I BECAME A DOULA

I had always wanted to be a mother. I thought I’d have children in my twenties but I didn’t feel ready then – I needed to know myself better before I took the responsibility of raising a child. In 2012 I felt ready – the time seemed right and my husband and I embarked on this most miraculous journey of creating life. My pregnancy was a huge period of inner learning, connecting to my body, to the life giving force, to the cycles of life, marvelling at the hugeness of what was happening in my body, and educating myself. I instinctively felt that birth should be straightforward and natural, and that I shouldn’t need pain relief or obstetricians. And yet I had crippling fears – like so many of us, we don’t exactly grow up with a positive view on childbirth; the vast majority of our images are of traumatic ones – with helpless women in supine position being coached or operated on to deliver a baby!

Fortunately we have 9 months of pregnancy, and I slowly worked through my fears, I informed myself, spoke to many women, unwound the negative images in my head and replaced them with true ones not based on our cultural conditioning but on the truth of childbirth. One morning around 38 weeks into my pregnancy I woke up with a clear sense of trust, my fears had dissipated and I felt ready. I went into spontaneous labour at 41 weeks and 6 days after declining induction and gave birth to my daughter in the comfort of my own home in London with 2 NHS community midwifes.

Giving birth was profoundly wild; it was at once straightforward and life changing, it left me full of love and joy, not only for my baby but for the whole world!

In the years after the birth, I continued to enrich my knowledge of childbirth. I supported close friends who were pregnant on their journey, and slowly came to realise that this was my calling. I believe deeply that all women can give themselves the chance of a straightforward birth, and an empowering right of passage, no matter what course the birth takes.

I took my Doula training with Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers, who have been at the forefront of the Doula movement since its conception – truly inspiring and knowledgeable human beings. I have attended many births now and am only more inspired and empowered to continue working with women in their journey to motherhood.
TRAINING

Paramana Doula training December 2014

Introduction to Breastfeeding support with Breastfeeding London, May 2015

Psycho-somatic therapy, Crianza Institute. 2015

Supporting every birth workshop on Loss by Michelle Every November 2015

Younique Postnatal Developing Doulas November 2015