You have probably heard of “doulas” - essentially a birthkeeper is one in the same. However, I use the term “birthkeeper” to separate myself and the services I offer from more ‘modern’ doulas.

A doula originally meant ‘female servant’, and a ‘midwife’ meant ‘with woman’. Unfortunately, society has greatly lost sight of what a traditional doula or midwife is, and has completely medicalized the midwifery and doula fields.

A doula is not intended to be medical whatsoever. Many doula organizations do not

allow their students to carry things as simple as essential oils or a homeopathy kit

(which are not medical), and many doulas are restricted from attending certain birth

settings. I was first trained under one of these doula associations before my eyes

were opened to the beautiful world of homebirth, and the breathtaking capabilities

of the female body and birth. Now I am a certified holistic birthkeeper, and I empower women to step outside the box and into freedom.

My role as a birthkeeper is to honor how birth was

created to be - wild, natural, physiological, life altering, beautiful.

My role is NOT to condemn or look down upon anyone who

chooses to birth differently (within the medical system), nor do

I disregard hospitals and medicine entirely. They have their time

and place, and in some circumstances are essential - I

recognize their purpose and am thankful for times

when they are needed. However, in most cases, birth is

not a medical event.

I am here for the woman who

longs to step outside the medical world of birth, and

into her freeing birth space that she is crying out for

desperately. My role is to educate, empower and

evolve women that are told they are broken before

they even become mothers, and guide them towards

blossoming into wise, resilient mamas.

What can a holistic birthkeeper do for you?

Evidence Based Birth states that both mothers and babies are statistically more likely to have better outcomes when a labour support person is present. It says that women who received continuous support during birth were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and less likely to have any pain medication, epidurals, negative feelings about childbirth, vacuum or forceps-assisted births, and Cesareans. In addition, their labors were shorter by about 40 minutes and their babies were less likely to have low Apgar scores at birth. There is also evidence that doula support in labor can lower postpartum depression in mothers.

As a mother myself, I know how hard it can be to ask for

help and to advocate for yourself - especially when our

dreams and goals go against the medicalized system. I

know how difficult it is to want to trust your care

provider, but what they’re telling you goes against

everything you know to be true. Though I’m not a medical

professional, I have countless hours of research and first

hand experience. I offer evidence based facts and I can

take all the guesswork out of the pregnancy/birth

questions you might have, while at the same time helping

you tune into your intuition and trust your body and what

it was created to do. I work professionally and selflessly,

with intuition and a skill for reading people's emotions

and needs in a way that allows me to serve them with beautiful attention to detail.