Samantha Gadsden Cardiff, South Wales and the South West

About Me

Passionate about empowering women and families to achieve the births they want and deserve, wherever and however that is, I believe in choice and honesty, so that women can make informed decisions about their births and achieve the birth for them, at home, in hospital, vaginally or by caesarean section.

As a mother of 4, my own journey has moved through birth trauma to ecstatic birth. I have personal and professional experience of bottle feeding, breast feeding, tandem (and triandem) feeding, cloth nappies, baby wearing, natural term weaning and baby led weaning, as well as one of my children being home educated.

Having supported loss in all its forms, I am able to hold and support you in trauma and grief.

My experience as a doula includes supporting complex and assisted conception and IVF pregnancies and also rainbow pregnancies after loss.

I have experience of home and hospital birth, freebirth and gentle caesarean and work across a number of Welsh and English Trusts.

I have birth and post natal experience of singletons and multiples, bottle and breast feeding and have been called back to a number of clients at around the 6 month mark to support weaning. I am trained in the Rewind Technique for trauma support and am a KG Hypnobirthing practitioner alongside experience of supporting premature babies, twin and NICU parents.

I co-admin both a local and a national home birth group, a positive birth group for all birth, a birth trauma and survivors group and a positive parenting group. This enables me to support women nationally online and if they choose to come and visit here in the South Wales Valleys.

I live just outside Caerphilly and am central for the A470, the South West, Bristol and the M4 corridor and the South Wales Valleys.

Packages start at £25 per hour (£20 for post natal work), minimum 3 hours, for individualised ante natal information, birth advocacy and post natal work, discount for block bookings.

Birth Packages start at £750 plus mileage.

A keen amateur photographer,  for an additional fee I can incorporate photographs into your package.

Payment plans and skill swap accepted.

Some words from my clients.

“Such a knowledgeable and lovely lady, has provided me with invaluable knowledge, confidence and belief. Wonderful!”

“Sam gave me the support and courage to write a birth plan that would help me get the birth I wanted. My birth plan changed considerably through my pregnancy, from hospital birth to home birth, and …eventually to planned c-section. Sam stood by me through each decision, helping me research and work out exactly what I wanted.”

“A natural facilitator, Sam has a knack for being able to recognise the needs of the mother and unobtrusively meet those needs.”

“Sam is a very kind, caring and passionate individual. Her work as a doula goes beyond what you expect with her constant care and consideration for your personal circumstances.”

“I really felt that Sam was a safe pair of hands for all of us and she helped make the pregnancy, birth and the initial time with the newborn more comfortable and relaxed.”

“Although this is for post natal doula work done by Sam, I’d like to say that she was invaluable in supporting me during labour. It felt as though I had my mother there and that was really important”.

“A post-delivery infection and stress had meant that my milk hadn’t yet come in.  That evening, in bed, feeling calmer, I felt the milk come in. As I was able to sleep more soundly, knowing that Sam was watching the baby, I felt less tired too the next day.”

“Samantha is a very down to earth person. She was never overbearing and always carried with her an aura of calm. We felt that she respected and fully supported our wishes, and whilst she provided us with a lot of interesting and useful information, she was very conscientious about not pushing her opinion.”

“Samantha was like a guardian angel – constantly there but rarely seen. Her presence was very reassuring, a calm, wise presence at the periphery of the action. She helped physically by keeping the water at a constant temperature whilst dad and mum were deeply involved in the labour. She was constantly vigilant and able to provide things we needed (water, towels, etc.) without ever being overly involved. ”

“This woman is truly the best advocate any pregnant woman could ever ask for. She knows woman’s rights in this area, she is well read, experienced and has made many links with professionals and other birth advocates and doulas in the region. She is not afraid to step forward and fight for the rights of the woman she is supporting if that is what they want, to help do everything possible to help woman achieve the birth they want.

Samantha Gadsden, I now have the birth plan in place I wanted but did not have the confidence or knowledge to fight for on my own. Thank you so much X Xxx”