Natal Nurturing - Doula Services

29/08/2025

A beautiful summary of what a doula can do for you. Thank you Kicki Hansard for getting across the beauty of having a birth and postnatal doula by your side throughout pregnancy, birth and into parenthood ❤️

28/07/2025

29/06/2025

This is absolutely brilliant - Maddie McMahon showing the power of asking for time to consider your options during birth!

09/06/2025

Join us for a free 1-hour Antenatal Academy Taster Session designed for pregnant couples. This relaxed and informative birth and baby class gives you a chance to meet your course facilitators - Debbie Willis and Helen Fortes - and experience a sample of what our full antenatal course has to offer.

You’ll get a feel for our teaching style, the topics we cover, and how we support you both to feel confident, informed, and prepared for birth. Perfect if you're considering joining us but want to explore first before committing.

📅 Wednesday 23rd July at 19 30
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Book now - see link in bio or in comments

21/05/2025

Are you joining us? Come and chat with us about our course!

Sunday 1st June
10am-1pm
Lavenham Village Hall
FREE ENTRY

22/04/2025

01/03/2025

Two tiny reminders that every family deserves rest.

Sleep is not a luxury - it’s a necessity. As a night doula, I give parents the rest they need while providing expert overnight care for their little ones.

Get in touch for more information; I’d love to support you and your family to thrive in 2025!

07/01/2024

Let us introduce ourselves, we are Debbie Willis and Helen Fortes, and we created Antenatal Academy back in 2021.

With both of us facilitating the course you get double the knowledge and double the experience!

We believe that you need to educate and prepare both your mind and your body to have a positive experience and we were beyond excited to discover that our expertise and knowledge combines perfectly to give you a comprehensive and unique antenatal education.

💙 Debbie is an Antenatal Educator, Pregnancy and Birth Coach, Practitioner and facilitator of the local Pregnancy Support Group. Having learnt about hypnobirthing and after having straight forward positive birth experiences where both she and her two children were born healthy and recovered quickly, Debbie realised she wanted to support women through teaching them how to trust their bodies and learn the very effective tools of hypnobirthing. She trained through Natal Hypnotherapy and has been supporting couples through Group and Private antenatal courses and birth coaching since 2012.

A self-confessed ‘Birth Nut’ Debbie is an experienced facilitator; she loves talking about the nitty-gritty of birth and you certainly won’t be bored in her class!

💚 Helen is both a Teacher and a Birth and Post-natal , providing emotional and practical support for families. She is a trained 3-step-rewind practitioner (to help couples with negative birth experiences) and birth educator, and is passionate about home birth and the rights of all women and birthing people. She also helps to facilitate the local Pregnancy Support Group.

Helen loves supporting people to navigate the maternity system and give them the confidence to make informed decisions that shape their birth and postnatal experience. Helen is a Mum of two and recently a surrogate where she carried and birthed another couples baby, how amazing is that!

We can't wait to meet you and support you on your birth and parenting journey.

Our next course starts on 27th January, simply go to our website for more info and to book.

17/12/2023

Lovely birth story from one of my recent clients made it onto the West Suffolk Maternity page. So privileged to walk alongside such amazing parents as they grow their families! 💗

HELEN’S BIRTH STORY

My first baby was born at the end of COVID. I got to 42+4 weeks and ended up having an induction with oxytocin and baby was delivered via c-section. It was a positive story with my little girl delivered healthy and safe with decisions made with the information that was in front of us at the time. But for my 2nd baby I really wanted to do it vaginally, led by midwives and with as little intervention as possible.

From my first midwife appointment I had the same midwife throughout my care. This was brilliant. I built an excellent rapport with her and she was able to see me at Newmarket Community hospital that was so much easier for us to attend. I had all of my Ultrasound scans done there too. Being a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) I was slightly higher risk and had a number of Consultant appointments to discuss through where to have my baby.

I knew from my previous birth what the Labour suite looked like but also visited the Birthing suite at West Suffolk. I dreamed of a homebirth but thought it was out of reach. I felt a homebirth would give me the greatest chance of successfully delivering vaginally and would mean that my birth would be more midwife led.

After discussing the risks with my midwife and my husband we decided that it was possible to have a homebirth and I was only 30 minutes away from the hospital if we needed to go in. I had discussed my wish to have a doula too and my husband felt that he would be happier with a homebirth if we had a doula.

Spanner in the works happened at 39 weeks when my bump suddenly measured big. I was referred for a growth scan and a discussion with a consultant. To our absolute shock after being happily head down at my 20 week scan the little man had managed to get himself head up and was now breech; coming out bum first. My partner and I walked into the Consultant appointment shell-shocked. Thinking my homebirth was out the window and ready to accept another caesarean.

Again, I had an amazing and very experienced Consultant at West Suffolk who explained that we still had time to turn him and would we like to try that afternoon. Well, that was an experience. For me it didn’t hurt. My little boy had always kicked like a trooper and I was used to him fidgeting around in there. It was no more uncomfortable than what little man had put me through already. I closed my eyes tight and the Consultant quickly put him back down and guided him to the correct exit point.

Birth day at 41+2 weeks. We kind of realised from our first little girl that I like to have my babies ‘well cooked’. I had had my third sweep the day before in the hope of showing little man where the fire exit was and we were due another Consultant meeting at the hospital the next day to ask how much stronger an eviction notice this little man needed.

I had had a number of false starts in the last week, been walking around at about 3cm dilated for most of week before, but little man decided to hang on in there and all my hopes had come to nothing. That morning, I took my toddler to a stay and play session at 10:00 and thinking back now I was really uncomfortable and unable to sit down. I rang my husband at home to say we were moving onto the next toddler class of the morning but I was having strong pains in my stomach so could he meet us there to help. I did not make that class.

My husband made the short drive to find me holding myself up by a lamp post and my toddler thankfully patiently waiting to be rescued by her daddy.He bundled us all in the car and got us home. Where he sat my toddler in the front room with biscuits and a movie.

While ringing our Doula, Community Midwife and the in-laws to pick my eldest up I ran a bath and got in. My husband told me to turn around as people did not want to walk straight into a view of the ‘business end’ when walking into the bathroom. My Doula arrived and I cannot speak highly enough of how her sacral massages got me through the next few contractions. She quickly ascertained that I could not wait much longer for my Midwife and that we needed to ring her again and explain my progress.

My community Midwife who I had throughout my care arrived and (despite my amazing Doula) I was so relieved to hear her familiar voice and know I could now have the gas and air.
Well labour progressed rapidly. My husband coordinated letting midwife 1 and 2 in, handing my eldest over to in-laws, blowing up and filling birthing pool before coming upstairs to take my hands from the Doula that had supported me up to that point.

We spent time in the bath, then on the bathroom floor where I was examined and had dilated to 8cm (although my midwife later said I could have been 9); then the whole team and husband somehow managed to get me downstairs to my birthing pool. My waters broke at the bottom of the stairs right over my husband’s feet. I descended into my birthing pool that felt like a whirlpool bath. I had intermittent monitoring of baby through-out and my little relaxed boy seemed to take it all in his stride- according to his heartbeat.

In the birthing pool contractions seemed to slow and I got worried. But was reassured that we were just moving to the next stage. They seem to become much more muscular at this point. At this point after having my eyes so tightly closed up to this point, I cried that “I just want to go home”. My midwife brilliantly told me “open your eyes and centre yourself”. Seeing my kitchen floor and then looking into my husband’s eyes for that moment took a bit of the pain away and gave me strength.

For some reason, I suddenly needed to not be in that birthing pool. I stood up and hanging onto my husband’s shoulders got out of the pool. Standing there I remember bearing down twice before little man was in my arms. Poor midwives had to quickly throw down pillows to cushion his bungee jump out.

The adrenaline rush was amazing. I was on cloud 9!!! I could not believe it. I had birthed my little boy at home, all by myself with the help of gas and air, a TENS machine and a birthing pool. I could not stop nattering - my poor husband and midwives could not shut me up.

As with anything I do, my birth story does not finish there. After 2 injections and an hour my placenta was not coming out. But I did not care. I had birthed my baby at home and could not stop swooning about how amazing that was. I had a non-urgent ride to the hospital in an ambulance. I was brilliantly looked after in theatre where that pesky placenta was finally removed.

I had one night in hospital where I was able to ask for help and advice from the brilliant F11 ward team on how to change a nappy on a boy and get any advice or help on breastfeeding. In the morning my little man had a full top to toe inspection and his hearing checked. I had the best of both worlds in the end. Birthing my baby at home with my midwife and the experts of hospital to check him over. I feel a bit greedy really.

I would like to say a massive thank you to my husband for supporting my decision to have a homebirth. I love you. Thank you to the Forest Heath Midwives and my personal midwife at Newmarket Hospital who made it a reality. Thank you to my Doula who provided an extra pair of helpful hands while my husband sorted out logistics, as well as reassurance and being a further source of knowledge. Thank you to the Obstetrician team at West Suffolk who helped to put my little man pointing the right way round and got my placenta out.

15/10/2023

Our course is perfectly designed to support you to have the birth that you want, where you feel in control and knowing what to expect. From how the physiology of birth works to mental and physical strategies to manage contractions, you will learn how you can help your body to birth your baby effecti...

19/09/2023

Only five days to go until the next St Edmundsbaby Fair this Sunday 24th September at The Apex! Check out some of our fabulous exhibitors below and come along to meet us all on Sunday - first fifty visitors will receive a free goody bag!

Awe & Wonder Parenting with Calm
Antenatal Academy
Better Birth & Baby - Hypnobirthing
Natal Nurturing - Doula Services
The Hive - West Suffolk Outdoor Family Eco Centre
Suffolk Slings
Little Livvy’s
Popolo Ceramico South West and South Central Suffolk
https://instagram.com/annabirchphysio
Nuzzle. Nursing Clothes
https://instagram.com/bumbleandme_
Joy Connection
Mini First Aid Suffolk
West Suffolk Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership
Water Babies
Lisa's Little Book Den



St Edmundsbaby Fair

13/09/2023

HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT BECOMING A PARENT?

We love seeing the change in the couples that we support as we go through the course.

They often arrive anxious or worried, confused and overwhlemed with information, and feeling unprepared for what is to come and the next stage of their lives.

At our last session we try and remember to take a quick photo.. and what is lovely is the transformation we see from that first class to our last class together. They leave feeling prepared, confident and knowledgeable and with the skills to make their own decisions that are right for them and their baby.

PLUS we always stay in touch after the course, answering any questions that come up during the rest of pregnancy, helping our new parents feel confident and calm in their parenting journey.

We have 2 spaces available on our next SATURDAY morning Group Antenatal Academy course in , it would be great if you can join us, message us for info and go to our website to book now.

Debbie and Helen
Antenatal Academy 💙