Hi there,

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I'm Deannah.

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A few years ago, I found myself right where you might be finding yourself right now... pregnant, overwhelmed with information, unsure about birth and what to expect after the baby arrives, and maybe a bit naively confident about becoming a parent.  

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When I was pregnant with my first child, I did all the things you are told you "need" to do:

• Give up 100 different foods and drinks

• Attend the local antenatal and breastfeeding classes

• And read all the books

 

I can tell you now, the birth with my first child did not go to "plan".  I did everything I was "supposed" to do to prepare myself, but that in no way truly prepared me for birth or life with a newborn.

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When I was pregnant with my second baby, I was determined I would have a different experience than my first.  I wanted a more from my pregnancy, birth and post partum life. 

I wanted more information

I wanted more tools

I wanted more coping mechanisms

I wanted to feel in control

I wanted to truly embrace this experience and surrender to birth

I wanted my husband to embrace the experience as well. 

I wanted an intervention free, hospital water birth, and I wanted as much education and preparation as possible to help me achieve this.  

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So I did just that.  I became better educated, I found more information about interventions and how to prevent them, I learnt about the things I could control, I discovered tools I hadn't ever thought about, I researched different coping mechanisms, and guess what, I fully surrendered to my labour and birth, and I had my dream intervention free, water birth in a hospital setting.  

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I had a magical positive birth, and this is what inspired me to pursue a career in the birthing world.  

 

My goal as a birth doula is to support YOU to have the birth that YOU want.  I want the women I support to feel educated and empowered enough to make informed decisions regarding their pregnancy, labour and birth.  I want them to have a positive birth.  

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Positive birth to me, is not an intervention and drug free, vaginal birth. To me, a positive birth is when the woman can walk away from her birth, knowing that she made informed decisions the entire way through and did everything she could, even if the outcome was different to what she had hoped.  

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As a post partum doula, I want to support you in one of the most challenging, yet beautiful and rewarding transitions you might ever experience - life as a parent.  We are all told about how hard life with a newborn can be, but until you are experiencing it first hand, it is difficult to understand the true extend of it.  I remember the fourth trimester after my first baby.. I had a lot of negative emotions running through me from the birth, and once I got home, they only got worse.  I thought I would take to being a parent, like a duck takes to water, but I was wrong.  I was overwhelmed, stressed and exhausted with all the challenges that a newborn brings, and I didn't know who I could turn to for help and I didn't even know what I actually needed help with, so I continued to struggle, for years.  

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I don't want this to be you.  As a post partum doula, I want to support you in your transition to life with a newborn.  I want you to be able to rest when you're tired, shower when you need and eat when you're hungry.  I also want you to know who and where you can get additional support from.