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Vera Dubrovina-Thompson – London English/Russian speaking Doula

Doula service offered:
  • Postnatal (Recognised since November 2021)
  • Birth (Recognised since July 2018)

Lives in: London SW18

Local info and availability:
Hospitals: Chelsea & Westminster, Kingston, St George's, St Thomas', King's College and UCH. I live in Wandsworth and aim to work locally in South West London but I had clients and worked in hospitals across other parts of London (NHS Trusts: West Middlesex, Whittington, Homerton, Royal London, Lewisham, Newham, Northwick Park; Private Hospitals: Portland, Kensington Wing) and outside of London under special arrangements (specifically John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford or for home births in wider areas around London) so please enquire as it all depends on my availability at the time of the birth. I offer full online birth and breastfeeding support across the UK and Internationally.

Languages spoken other than English:
Russian

Other services:
Over 2,500 training hours completed to offer comprehensive support to women including: 1) Yoga Therapy (specialising in female health - fertility, menses, postpartum recovery including diastasi recti, menopause support; yoga nidra; mindfulness and meditation practices; pregnancy and postnatal) 2) Antenatal Preparation and Birth Rehearsals for couples 3) HypnoBirthing (KG, Sophie Fletcher, Anastasia Ivanova, Maggie Howell, Marie Mongan) 4) Three Step Rewind Technique for Birth Trauma Release 5) Postpartum "closing the birth" ceremony (Angelina Martinez, Rocio Alarcon, Natasha Tomilina, Mizan's sacred wrapping) 6) Other holistic treatments: Rebozo massage, Aromatherapy during labour, Homeopathy for pregnancy, birth and postpartum, Homeopathy for lactation and mastitis, Ayurvedic massage, Mizan therapy (including fertility, pregnancy and postnatal), Bach Flower remedies therapy. 7) I am also a certified IAIM and Developmental (Peter Walker) baby massage instructor, Spinning Babies/Biomechanics of birth practitioner and Breastfeeding Counsellor.

How to contact Vera:
Use the Contact form below or:
https://www.veradubrovina.com/
info@veradubrovina.com
07957468895

About Me

I welcome you to my page with an open heart! Perhaps you are interested in finding out how I can help you on your journey to motherhood?
Giving birth to my children was life changing experience, and I was inspired to become a doula and help other women to experience the joy of birth and motherhood in a way that allows the woman’s voice to be heard. I am truly passionate about the idea that this experience has a positive and transformative impact on your life. I try to provide the environment in which this can be achieved.
The approach I adopt when supporting you, my perspective client, is to focus on understanding your individual and unique needs, and meet you at your level of experience. As your doula, I will help you prepare for birth and postpartum, discuss your choices and listen to your concerns, previous experiences and wishes. I will work with you so that you can develop tools and confidence to go through labour without fear by using among other things active positioning (yoga and Spinning Babies), breathing exercises, meditative and visualisation practices, hypnosis and relaxation techniques and other holistic practices such as massage, shiatzu, acupressure, rebozo, Bach Flower remedies, homeopathy and aromatherapy. I will be there to provide you and your partner with emotional and practical support before, during and after birth. I give every birth I attend my all, and will aid and encourage you without judgement or imposition in whatever decision you make.
What do I bring with me when I support you?
Years of experience in birth and postpartum space: I have started supporting women in 2008 and to-date I have been a direct birth companion to 119 births (as of Nov 2023) and indirectly to hundreds more through my work as pregnancy yoga teacher, antenatal educator and HypnoBirthing practitioner.  Whilst I work primarily as a birth doula, from 2019 I have started offering my services in postpartum space to the clients, who live within 3-4 miles radius from my home in Wandsworth, by sharing my expertise and years of practice as postpartum yoga and mindfulness teacher,  massage therapist, baby massage trainer as well as breastfeeding counsellor. I support my clients through a carefully structured birth and postpartum programmes that has been honed over the years and I welcome all new enquiries.
Variety of settings and circumstances: As your doula,  I will cherish the privilege and opportunity to be present at a home birth – at home a woman truly comes into her own and those births feel really undisturbed and precious. However, I appreciate that circumstances are different for each of my clients and over the years I supported births at hospitals, birthing centers and home covering a wide range of scenarios such as straight forward vaginal birth, water birth, VBAC and HBAC, IVF pregnancies, twins, high risk (gestational diabetes, cholestasis), induction (medical and postdates), caesarean (planned and emergency), premature and instrumental interventions (episiotomy, ventouse and forceps) that were aided by a variety of relief methods from hypnosis, movement, water and massage to epidural and pethidine. This was done in a variety of settings – women on their own, with their partners, partners and other members of the family – things rarely faze me and I will make it work so that your wishes are respected.
I spend a lot of time going through your birth wishes, expectations and preferences covering different birth situations so that these options are processed early and on “the day” we can focus only on your labour, your feelings and emotions in a flow that is unencumbered and free.
Cultural diversity: Being bi-lingual and living in multicultural London, I thrive on supporting my very unique international clientele (English, Irish, Polish, Italian, Russian, German, Ukrainian, French, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Kazakh, American, Czech  to name a few) and learning more about their cultures and how birth is viewed by them. Respect of tradition, cultural and religious background is very important to me and the diversity and richness continues to fascinate at every birth that I attend.
Solid and continuous education: To educate myself on this path I completed the Paramana Doula course in 2011, with the inspiring Dr Michel Odent and Doula Liliana Lammers. This was supplemented, among other things, with my Birthlight Diplomas under the tutelage of a wise woman Francoise Freedman (covering both ante and post-natal yoga support), a Well Woman course with Uma Tuli-Dilsmore, Advanced Doula Training with Red Tent Doulas, IAIM Baby Massage Course, HypnoBirthing, Bach Flower Remedies Therapy as well as Breastfeeding Counsellor certification to name a few. I never stop studying even after over 2,500 hours of training and I like to be kept up-to-date with the most recent findings so all of my advice and support is evidence-based.
Holistic approach: I have been teaching yoga since 2004, and its key philosophy tenant of combining strength and softness, when appropriate, permeates all aspects of my life and I bring it with me to every birth that I attend. In February 2016 I obtained a Yoga Therapy Diploma, with a graduating distinction, to ensure that I am equipped to deliver consistent individual care across my main specialisation. I focus now primarily on pregnancy, labour and postpartum recovery support as well as women’s health issues such as menstrual problems, fertility and menopause with particular interest on associated pain and stress management.
My aim is to use all this knowledge and experience in a calm and practical way so that you can make the best choices during pregnancy, labour and beyond. I strongly believe that birth can be an empowering and beautiful experience, and my role as your doula is to create the environment where we honour your choices and create memories that are positive and rewarding regardless of circumstances. You have that power within you and we work together to unlock it.
Are you open to have a conversation with me?

Full details of my birth and postpartum programme are on my website including pricing and engagement questionnaire. I am looking forward to meeting with you and helping you on your journey.

My current pattern of birth/postpartum support is to take maximum two clients per month to ensure consistency and continuity of care, so booking early is important. I always respond within 24 hours. If you don’t get a response from me using an online inquiry form, it is possible that the request has been blocked by the email server, so please send me a direct email instead.

Testimonials:

” Vera is so passionate about birth it’s infectious. She is always happy to help and answer questions and come up with solutions. Vera’s approach to pregnancy and birth is natural and intuitive which suited my husband and I perfectly. Her views and advice were always balanced which allowed us to make balanced decisions. We could not have done without her support throughout my pregnancy and birth. I would love Vera to be our doula if we have another child – I can’t image going through pregnancy and birth without her! “ LG

“Vera is very passionate, supportive, knowledgeable and resourceful doula. She gives way more than you initially agree. She is fun and easy to be around. Working with Vera was a truly enjoyable and memorable experience.” M

“Vera has been a great support both as a doula during childbirth as well as for pregnancy yoga. I don’t know how I would have coped without her. Having her as a doula has been the best decision we took to prepare for childbirth and she went above and beyond to support me as well as my husband to experience this as a ritual, helping dealing with the physical and psychological aspects of it.  She really showed compassion, care and support that helped me cope with the birth of our first child in the best way possible. We couldn’t have received better support and would really recommend her services. “ S

“Throughout three of my pregnancies, Vera has been absolutely wonderful and has completely changed my experience of pregnancy and birth. Her involvement, before, during and after each birth has hugely helped my bonding with my two sons and daughter, and helped me remain calm and positive in the face of all the challenges and stresses that I have faced as a new mother.”  S

“I could not imagine having to give birth again without Vera’s support. Thanks to Vera my natural birth experience turned out even better than I had imagined it could be. She was there with me, present and supportive, every second of the process, as well as before and after. I felt protected, confident and optimistic thanks to Vera’s skillful and gentle approach to facilitate the labour. I was able to relax as much as it is possible to be relaxed during the contractions thanks to Vera’s continuous guidance. Vera’s invaluable help during the pregnancy prepared me so well for the big day and her continuous postpartum support helped my baby and me to smoothly adapt to this new life. I am already looking forward to my next birth giving!“ N

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