Verina Henchy

About Me

“I’m so pleased and blessed to have had you present when labouring and bringing [our baby] into the world.  You knew what I needed when I didn’t necessarily know myself, you supported my decisions, listened to my concerns, voiced what I wanted and got me what I needed!”

I am an experienced doula having been present at more than 100 births since I trained with Nurturing Birth in 2009.

I strongly believe that everyone has a right to a positive birth experience and I know that this can mean different things to different people.

Through support, active listening and advocacy, I help parents to express their individual needs and the context for their own choices and decisions.

Exploring what matters and what is likely to happen is key to confident decision making and my role is to help you to explore these areas and to facilitate confidence in your own expertise.

Needless to say, I do not believe in a ‘one size fits all’ model and I am certainly not there to tell you how to have your baby!

As a doula, I draw on my own life experiences and professional development to inform my practice.  I have previously worked in the field of substance misuse and mental health, social and health policy and holistic health.  I have a passion for world travel and learning about different cultures and their approach to birth and early parenthood and have my own children and grandchildren to act as a constant reminder about the importance of bringing life into the world and the never ending role of nurturing and parenting our offspring and our communities.

I have the privilege of facilitating the learning of new doulas on the Developing Doulas course and I have been mentoring (doulaing) other doulas for many years.

I teach hypnobirthing (small groups) and I work with Maddie McMahon and Emma Ashworth to bring our ‘Rights and Consent in Childbirth’ course to as many doulas and midwives as we can through our quarterly online workshop.

I am always telling new doulas “you are enough – you don’t need to advertise a long list of ‘specialist’ skills”! Saying that, I have of course explored some specialist interests to fuel my own curiosity and passions.  These include breastfeeding and feeding issues, use of a rebozo, biomechanics of birth, closing the bones ceremony, birth blessings, 3 step rewind for birth trauma, homeopathy in pregnancy and childbirth and more. Ultimately though, the only true expert in the room will be you and I will do all that I can to ensure that you have sufficient tools and resources to know that.