Doula Julia, Saint Albans (2025)

13/09/2022

We’re back 😀 Offering pregnancy walk and talk sessions 🫄
Come along and ask questions or share birth stories, find out more about our local hospitals and how to navigate the system ! £5 per session.

Please DM me for more info.
Or click on linktree on our profile 😀

09/09/2022

Queen Elizabeth after her fourth Homebirth. Unusually for the time Prince Phillip was present ♥️

What a woman! What an inspiration. She gave her whole life to her commitment to the public.

She birthed all her 4 children at home, Charles was born via c section, so she went on to have 3 VBACs. She also breastfed all her children.

11/08/2022

I’m just chilling for a while, taking a break between clients and indulging in some self care. I will be back 😀

15/06/2022

Love this graphic of from Royal Cornwall Hospital Maternity Voices. It looks like Maternity Voices have worked hard to ensure birthing women and people are treated respectfully and appropriately, allowing choice.

Language really does make a difference, it can have a huge impact on a birthing experience.

31/05/2022

So lovely to hear back from clients about the positive impact a doula can have on a birth experience ❤️

we work in pairs, ensuring we both spend time with our clients to understand their needs and desires. From the feedback we receive we know it can make a difference, a difference that can effect long term health.

To find out more about how we can support you, click on the link on my bio or email us at stalbansdoulas@gmail.com 😀

27/05/2022

Hip Eights - another biomechanics technique we learnt with in the Biomechanics for Birth course.

We can now support our clients using techniques to allow more space in the pelvis which can encourage babies to move into more of an optimum position. This can in turn make it more comfortable in the latter phase if pregnancy or during labour.

25/05/2022

Going to the toilet in labour - that’s one of those jobs a “doula does”, regularly reminds their client to go to the toilet. Close the door and relax. Keep the lighting low and atmosphere private. If need be waft a little peppermint under her nose. 😀

Emptying your bladder ensures there is nothing stopping your baby from descending down the birth canal. It’s a great squatting position and can allow some privacy and peace too ❤️

For more tips and pointers just press like ❤️ and follow ✔️

23/05/2022

Your Birth Bag 😀
What do you really need to take to hospital for labour and birth, or may be you want to pack a “just in case” bag.

I always say pack some essentials as early as possible so you have what you need when you go to hospital. Then you can take your time thinking about what are the “nice to haves” too.

My top items are:

🌟Snacks and drinks - 100% essential for labour and after birth for you and your partner
🌟Lip balm, hand cream, moisturiser - whatever suits you - you know yourself what you will need
🌟Maternity pads and big black un**es - for post birth
🌟 Warm comfy socks - sometimes you get cold in hospital and warming your feet can really help
🌟Flip-flops - essential for walking around, especially in hospital toilets
🌟The comb - wonderful comfort measure (see my post further down the grid)

Then you need your “baby items” bag too 😀

Have I missed anything? What would your top items be?

21/05/2022

Be more “cat like” 🐈‍⬛

When we consider the way most mammals birth, most of the time we see an undisturbed straightforward birth to usually more than one offspring. Their hormones and body take over and birth in a place that works for them:
💙 Safe
💙 Quiet
💙 Private
💙 Dark
💙 Calm

When it comes to humans we now see over 50% of births experiencing interventions.

Our “thinking” brain tends to intervene and often, fear takes over. We trust a broken system instead of trusting our bodies.

19/05/2022

I often get asked about what is “normal” in preparing for birth.
Bump sizes, emotional feelings, due dates, how labour starts, position of your baby, mostly it’s a variation of normal. Trust your instincts, if it feels normal it probably is 😀 If you are told it’s not normal, do you research, check in with yourself, what’s best for you and your baby ?

18/05/2022

Don’t be afraid to dream about your positive birth. A positive birth is a birth where you feel listened to, you feel supported and you feel the decisions were yours. Preparation helps!

1. Plan
2. Research
3. Question
4. Believe
5. Dream

17/05/2022

It’s sooooo important to research and plan your labour and birth preferences, it matters, you have a choice 😃

Things don’t always go to plan, even more of a reason to know your preferences.

Decide what you would like for your labour and birth:

❤️ Your environment
❤️ Your support team
❤️ Pain relief & comfort measures
❤️ Intervention & Monitoring
❤️ Freedom to move
❤️ Meeting your baby
❤️ Birthing your placenta

Talk it through with your birth partner 😀

12/05/2022

“The Side-lying Release (SLR) uses a “static stretch” to temporarily and slightly enlarge and soften the pelvis. Stretching the muscle spindles in the pelvic muscles lengthens them for a short time. The SLR can then be repeated every 4 hours in labor if needed. Typically, doing the SLR once before engagement and once in active labor when the head is in the pelvis is recommended unless labor is progressing somewhat quickly.”
Spinning Babies

One of my favourite “stretches”, which can be done in pregnancy and labour, creates space in the pelvis.

we support couples to do the SLR in the latter part of their pregnancy and always happy to pop round and do some “jiggling” and “stretching”. 😀

10/05/2022

There is a beautiful article on mothering.com explaining the “in-between” time, the period of time when you are at the end of your pregnancy but not yet birthed, not yet transitioned into a new parenting journey.
“One foot in your old world, one foot in the new.” We don’t have a word for this place of being in English, but in German they call it zwischen, which means “between”.

It can be a difficult time of pregnancy as the wait sometimes stretches on and the biological and psychological changes have an unknown impact.

The author, Jane Studelska states; “give permission to follow the instinctual gravitational pulls that are at work within them, just as real and necessary as labor.”

You can read the full article on Mothering.com

09/05/2022

Membrane sweeps 😀
Sweeps are *offered* towards the end of your pregnancy 🤰
They are offered as a form of “trying to start labour”. It is successful for about 1 in 8 pregnancies, but we don’t know if that labour may have started anyway without the sweep 🤷🏻‍♀️

A midwife will try to separate the amniotic sac around the baby from your cervix and encourage the release of prostaglandins.
It is a form of induction but has less risks and you can still carry on as normal.

A sweep can be uncomfortable and for some quite painful and may result in some uncomfortable cramping.

Your body, Your baby, Your choice!

05/05/2022

➡️Swipe ➡️
4 Essentials for preparing for your birth 💥

1. Educate yourself on the physiology of birth 😀 Read books, listen to podcasts, follow birth workers on social media, watch you tube vids !

2. Work on your positive mindset, understand what’s important to you and your family when it comes to birth. Ignore negativity, surround yourself with positivity ❤️

3. Choose an awesome birth team. People who have your back. Think about hiring a doula - they support you and your partner ❤️

4. Learn about the biomechanics of birth, keep upright, forward and open as much as possible In the latter part of your pregnancy

You’ve got this 😀

04/05/2022

This is absolutely beautiful ❤️ Please watch with the sound on, warning though …. There will be tears of joy 😭

with
・・・
✨ Tiggy’s birth story, final part. I’ve wondered whether or not to share this video, being so personal & all. But I passionately believe that seeing births like this can help so much in overcoming the fear of birth that is drilled into us for most of our lives. Birth can be many things, but most importantly, it can be life changing, amazing & empowering!...

(Story continued).. Once the pool was ready I sunk into that water. The weightlessness, the warmth, the relief... it’s just wonderful! I can’t really tell how long I was in the pool because I went deep into labour-land here. I was high as a kite, eyes closed, oxytocin everywhere, mind focussed, just trying to get through these powerful surges one at a time. Toby had a cold flannel on my head, holding my hand, Zara ( ) was next to me too, holding the gas and air for me, reminding me to breathe the tension away. Everyone was totally on my side and it felt incredible. The midwives trusted me, I could feel it. They didn’t ask anything of me, they just followed my lead.

When I felt pressure, I went with it. I kept thinking ‘just open, Lucy, open’. I knew I was at the ‘pushing stage’ and was going to wait for my body to do it itself. I imagined my birth canal opening, and told myself to just allow it. I could feel the head coming and I didn’t resist it, but before I could even reach down to touch her head, flew into the water. I couldn’t believe how quickly she arrived, and was shocked she was already in my arms! I needed a minute to get my head around it!

I hadn’t known she was a girl, but my gut told me she was my whole pregnancy. Seeing for myself was the most amazing surprise. My girl was here 💗
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Doula Julia