Katelyn Commerford - Doula and NBAC Guide

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Katelyn Commerford - Doula and NBAC Guide

Hello! I'm Katelyn - doula, VBAC educator, homebirth advocate, and all round supporter of mothers.

I regularly share content on pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting topics.

22/07/2025

I mean 🥹🥹🥹

pure wizardry

13/07/2025

My beautiful, beautiful women ran the most perfect mother blessing for me yesterday 😭

It was the most lovely, nourishing, heartfelt time with my gorgeous friends who have been by my side on this entire journey... from processing my first and second births and deciding we wanted a third, this conception which was quite different to my first two babies, and then this pregnancy which has been emotionally tumultuous to say the least.

I don't know what I did to have possibly deserved friends like you three, but I'm grateful each and every day. And I feel soooooo lucky to know I've got you all by my side on the next stages of this journey.

Words honestly fail to express how much you all mean to me and how much this day meant 🥹🥹

Also, pics for example of why you need a photographer friend in your life 😅 even with a phone camera she just creates magic ✨

07/04/2025

A small update ✨

It's been very quiet here and much of that can be attributed to this wee bump. With enquiries continuing to come in for the second half of the year, it was probably time to share this little tidbit here by way of explanation for my radio silence.

This pregnancy has been relatively smooth, alongside a rocky start to the year. Still freshly grieving the loss of my Nanny, and then battling the joys of first trimester (which I'm endlessly grateful does tend to be manageable comparative to many, but still highly unpleasant 🤢), it's also just been busy with my eldest starting school and navigating those shorter days, the usual colds I've been hit with and have lingered thanks to pregnancy immune systems 🫠 and just life generally.

We also suffered yet more grief a few weeks ago when my father in law died suddenly from injuries following a bicycle accident. Our lives very much hit a standstill over the last few weeks while we navigated that shock and grief. We were grateful to live so close by and have him very involved in our and the kids' lives, so it really has been a deep and tragic loss.

A good opportunity to thank all my wonderful people for holding us through: my family, my friends, and my greater support network including my most excellent midwife and counsellor.

I've had the luxury of professionally having a quieter first half of this year, but I am really hoping to run a few more things before I take official leave including the promised online homebirth transfer circle, potentially another in person circle, and I've been toying with running the VBAC education class online over six hour-long live classes if there's interest for that.

Personally, I'm choosing not to share a whole lot about this pregnancy, as it's been a looooong journey here in terms of the work I've been doing and continue to do, and much of that sees me needing to tune further inward, lean deeply into my intuition and inner knowledge, and practicing vulnerability with those I've chosen to walk with and support me.

Please do reach out if you've got questions about any of this, but I will have some boundaries in place about how much pregnancy info I'll be sharing 💓

06/03/2025

Feeling this deeply this 🥹

Thank you, to my women, you have nourished me so beautifully.

poem

13/01/2025

📸

I love facilitating Mother Blessings. I do them sparsely, only for women I know personally or who have booked me for doula support that I know I'll get to know. This was the most special yet, for one of my dearest friends and she prepares to meet her third and last baby.

What an honour, what a gift, what a joy. Made all the more special by her choosing a group of women to join her who I personally know and adore. It was beyond special.

Thanks to gorgeous Beth for taking some precious shots of our day as well!

01/01/2025

Happy new year! I'm behind schedule, as always, but we have been enjoying some quality family time.

2024 was a big year, professionally and personally, and it taught me a lot. In the posts, there's a low down for those interested, as well as a snapshot of random stats from doula work over the year.

To my ride and dies who have been with me for every single moment, know that it has meant so very much to me. To the old friends who have been there when things have gone to s**t, thank you.

Last year was a lot, but there was much to celebrate as well as much to mourn. What a wild ride this life is.

Thanks for sticking with me, through the busy and hard. I've put a lot of effort into being more present with my kids when we're home together over the last year, and my socials have suffered as a result. But that's where my priorities need to be, so I'm no longer apologising for it.

This year, I'll be slowing down a bit, as mentioned in my previous post, and I'm heading into the year with faith that it's the right call and the right families will find me 💓

Happy new year, wonderful folks. May it be a blessed one.

05/12/2024

Ahead of rolling into 2025, I wanted to share this update in my service area to exclusively Nepean hospital births. This is a tough decision, but with my eldest starting school and so a new routine and potentially also a new need for connection in different ways, among other things, I feel I need to be prioritising my time day-to-day and this is one way I can do that.

I will still travel for homebirths when they come up (for a myriad of reasons, not least of all because they simply make up less of my overall caseload) and repeat clients 💗

I'll also continue working with women virtually (or in person in Penrith where women are prepared to travel) for antenatal birth preparation, birth mapping etc, which has been a real joy to do this year.

So far for birth support in the first half of 2025, I do still have capacity for March, and possibly Feb and May depending on guess dates.

I appreciate your understanding and support while I incorporate such a big change 💕 My website will be updated accordingly to reflect these changes ASAP as well (added to the neverending admin list 😅)

03/12/2024

Busting this one out of the archives as, yep, it's THAT time of year! Induction season!

Oh, it's also Christmas and New Year coming up... And that is what feeds induction season.

25th of December, 1st of January & 24th of December make up the least common birth dates across the world.

This is the time of year when women start hearing things like "hmm, your baby is tracking on the larger side, might be safest to book in an induction at 39 weeks" and "hmm seems your blood pressure is slightly higher than it has been, we should probably think about just scheduling an induction for next week in case we need it".

Sometimes in pregnancy, genuine complications occur and inductions can be incredible and life-saving interventions. However, something we also see is hospitals trying to manage their rosters, staffing, and beds by scheduling as many births as possible either with induction or elective caesarean.

This becomes even more crucial in the lead up to Christmas with staff on call and limited numbers on shift. It's pretty expensive for a public hospital to call an on-call doctor in on Christmas day. And if you have a private OB, they are already (more than likely) very used to scheduling their patient's births as needed, and Christmas is no exception.

But that's also not your problem - it's theirs. Inductions are known to have risks for mothers and babies, including increased risk of caesareans, haemorrhages, and foetal distress. They should not be taken lightly and especially not for the convenience of the hospital.

So what DO you do if you feel you're getting a bait and switch in the lead up to your Christmas or New Year due date?

Ask. Questions. Use your BRAIN, get second and/or third opinions. Get some space to really listen to your gut.

Of course, there may be a genuine need for intervention. But you may also just have an OB who wants an uninterrupted Christmas lunch.

15/11/2024

A brief dump of photos/videos from another transformative HBACON.

1. A mesmerising flight
2. 80% of my luggage (carriers and demo doll)
3. Bush turkey at eye level
4. Saltwater therapy
5. Opening ceremony - signposts
6. Messages of solidarity and staying on course
7. A goddess changing the midwifery landscape one student at a time
8. Panel of legends
9. Handing down of the knowledge 🥹
10. A photo of a search for courage and self-belief

Never not changed.

12/11/2024

I may be a bit slow to respond or need to make last minute cancellations or adjustments to appointments in the next couple of weeks.

My Nanny, alongside my Granna who we lost just over a year ago, was a constant and unwavering safe haven for me. A deeply intuitive woman whose eyes would sparkle whenever she had the joy of listening to or watching her children, grand children, and great children doing or saying literally anything. The love she had for her family was immense.

She was an eldest daughter, who makes me a third generation eldest daughter. She gave birth to two babies via a classical caesarean section. Her doctor after her first told her she "couldn't give birth to a rat". She suffered secondary infertility between these two births, and it's always been uncertain how much the caesarean contributed versus the affects of Agent Orange on my Granna that he was exposed to in the Vietnam war.

She was taken into hospital on Sunday morning as the 36th Homebirth Conference began. I decided not to fly home, her death was imminent and she had been suffering a long while. I had seen her on Wednesday and had a perfect final conversation with her, had kissed her goodbye and told her I'd loved her. And that I'd see her when I got home.

She waited until the final moment of the closing ceremony to let go. As close as on the beat of the drum closing the conference as makes no difference, she let me hear everything I needed to hear this weekend before choosing the moment that then meant I could be surrounded by love and support from my own beautiful doula and midwife, more birth worker friends who I love and adore, and Elders of the birth community.

It's a loss that's continued to hurt more deeply as the time has ticked over these last couple of days. I feel almost as though losing the second half of a pair has intensified both losses.

I will miss her so very much. She was a knower of the unknown and in her absence, I'll be practicing my own skills of deep intuitive listening and feeling, and trusting in it.

Thank you for indulging my sharing of my love for her, and for the patience I'll be in need of for the next little while.

09/11/2024

Morning workout on the sand and then a dip with great mates - what a life! Looking forward to Day 1 of the Conference today 🥰😍

08/11/2024

After a bit of waiting around at the airport, I'm here on the Sunny coast ready for a huge weekend of homebirth joy. I'll be womanning a table at the Community Day tomorrow with a handful of carriers for people to try on and test out, and some expo deals for orders 🥳

Address

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+61431369352

Website

http://www.katelynthedoula.com.au/

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