About me

My Story

Back when I had my first child in 2015 I had a tough time transitioning into motherhood. I had high expectations that I would easily adapt to my new role, but I was in for a shock! I wanted to breastfeed my daughter but faced a lot of challenges along the way. I’d made the mistake of crossing my fingers, doing as I was told (which changed depending on who I was speaking to ) and not which had a big impact on those early months.

When I fell pregnant with my second child in 2016 I wanted something different. I started researching anything and everything to do with pregnancy, labour and birth. I felt empowered by the knowledge and confidence I’d acquired, and I was determined that I would have a positive experience this time around. Although I didn’t get quite the birth experience I had hoped for, it was still an incredibly positive one. The difference was that this time I felt I had been part of the decision-making process. I’d made my wishes clear to the health care professionals who were involved in my care and I found that they were incredibly respectful when I told them what I wanted.  Again, I had many challenges with breastfeeding but with a greater knowledge of the local support that was available, I was able to breastfeed my son for as long as I wanted to.

Once my priorities had shifted and I thought our family was complete I realised that I wanted a job that was more rewarding and flexible (I had been a Police Officer for 10 years). After many months of trying and failing to find careers that fitted the bill I refocused my search to include what I was passionate about. I realised that the biggest challenge I had ever faced was becoming a mother and that I wanted to support other women and families during this transition. I started volunteering with a national charity that supports new families and decided to take the plunge and study to become an Antenatal Teacher and Breastfeeding Counsellor at Worcester University. Studying full time for a foundation degree with two small children was challenging but I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

In 2018 when my second child had just turned one, I found out that I was pregnant again! Finishing my studies with three children really was hard work but now that I’ve had the absolute privilege of supporting hundreds of families I know that all the hard work was well worth it! The birth of my third child was transformative and healing.

I soon realised that I wanted to offer more bespoke support to birthing women and their families. Becoming a doula is a dream come true! I trained with doula UK and have found their support network incredible. I am now a busy doula supporting around 30 families per year. I also support aspiring doulas, forming a supportive community is essential for our role. I find it so rewarding to offer bespoke support to families that will have a positive impact on their experience of birth and early parenthood. Training and keeping my knowledge up to date and relevant is really important to me; and this is a continuous process.

Here are my three children. Whilst being a mum is the hardest job I will ever have, it is also the most rewarding!

 Testimonials

‘‘We booked Jen for the birth of our first baby and her support was invaluable. The support we received throughout the whole pregnancy, birth and postnatally has been amazing and we would highly recommend Jen's services to any expectant parents. Jen gave us both all the information and tools to make informed decisions throughout the pregnancy which gave us the confidence to have the most incredible experience of a homebirth to our beautiful daughter. I ended up having a really quick labour and the midwives only arrived 5 minutes before our little girl was born so having Jen there to support us was a complete gamechanger. I also experienced a really rough time postnatally with breastfeeding and Jen was integral to my perseverance to not give up. We're eternally grateful for Jen's expertise, reassurance and compassion throughout our whole experience.’’.

— Sophie

“I can’t imagine what this pregnancy and birth would have been like without Jen. From the antenatal support and hypnobirthing, through to the birth and breastfeeding support after, Jen was an absolute superstar! She never tried to influence our decisions, she gave use information (from her ridiculously extensive knowledge base!) and then supported whatever decision we made. My partner was particularly thankful we had Jen onboard when the birth did not go to plan and she was able to support him so that he was able to better support and advocate for me. Having my placenta encapsulated was particularly helpful post partum getting my iron levels up again after a haemorrhage. We cannot recommend Jen highly enough, you need her in your birth journey!”

— Clare

“I cannot recommend Jen highly enough, she has been a huge support to both my husband and I throughout my pregnancy and delivery of our baby girl. As a first time mum to be, this support was invaluable and having the opportunity to discuss birthing options in detail gave me the confidence I needed to develop a birth plan which worked for me.
Jen is incredibly knowledgeable and her priority is to support the mother ensuring that her choices and preferences are heard. With Jen’s support I was able to make informed decisions and navigate the NHS Maternity service with confidence.”

— Anie

“Jen truly is an amazing Doula! I'm so grateful that we were able to hire Jen to support us during our pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
We had four antenatal sessions with Jen that involved discussing our hopes and fears for our home birth as well as the physiological process of birth and navigating the medical system to ensure we could deal with any situations that came up. Jen provided reassurance and clarity on all aspects of birth. Going into our birth, we felt prepared for any eventuality and with confidence that we could achieve a positive birth experience.
During our birth, Jen was a comforting presence and knew exactly how to support my partner and I. I really do believe that having Jen as our Doula helped us to experience the birth we dreamed of. I would absolutely recommend Jen to anyone looking for a Doula who is professional, down to earth, highly knowledgeable, and personable.

Thank you Jen!”

— Emma

“I’ve had an amazing experience breastfeeding thanks to Jen’s support and sound advice. I’m hugely grateful as breastfeeding has been such a positive journey for me and my baby. Never preachy and always professional and friendly, our chats were very open and interesting. I’ve learnt a great deal from Jen’s knowledge and mindful approach, I’ve already shared with other women. Thank you again Jen, you really are amazing at what you do :)”

— Nicola

“I didn't need a birth partner, my husband is more than capable of that - and that's what I told Jen! I wanted her support after I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes to get the birth that both me & my baby deserved, one free of unnecessary medical intervention. Jen supported me through my consultant appointments and scans, challenging recommendations that weren't in guidelines. Her knowledge and support through these appointments were absolutely critical in us achieving a positive birth.

When I went "overdue", Jen was on hand to give words of encouragement and help me make my decisions about what interventions I was happy to accept (this ended up being "none"). She helped me stay calm in that final week of pregnancy when I had so many messages etc.

On the day of the birth, I gave Jen a call. She came over to our house and brought her calming, reassuring presence. She got my husband organised, ensuring I was comfortable on the car journey (even making sure the car was cooled before I got in). I was unfortunate to have gone into labour when there were lots of traffic issues and diversions. Jen researched the route and was like the pied piper of Leamington, taking all the stress off my husband during the journey so he could focus on helping me through contractions.

When we reached the birth centre, she ensured that my birth was free from unnecessary VEs, she held off the midwives when my labour started to stall, and she helped my husband to support me to get labour back on track. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, only using a TENS machine, in a calm, wonderful environment. She stayed with us for a few hours and helped us to get our baby to feed.

Jen came over to do a post natal visit, helping me to understand what happened during the birth and for us to re-live the wonderful day.

I'm feeling very positive following the birth of our baby and I have absolutely no regrets - Jen has been paramount in us achieving this and I will forever be grateful to her.

She listened to what I wanted, acted on my choices and was non-judgemental throughout the whole process.
Thank you so much!."

— Caroline