After undertaking hypnobirthing classes, we decided to seek out a doula to join me on the ‘birth support team’ for my wife. While I was initially unsure about having someone else at this very intimate occasion, it was important for my wife that she have someone also supporting her who had experience in childbirth. Stephanie is the type of person that you feel comfortable with right away, she is warm and friendly while also being professional throughout.
Our baby boy Elmore decided to come into this world earlier than expected and with a few challenges that we hadn’t 100% prepared for. Stephanie came to the birthing suite straight away and was invaluable with both the emotional and practical support that she provided – assisting us with massage and positions, gentle suggestions to make my wife more comfortable, reassuring words, and even little things such as packing up our belongings for us when my wife was rushed off for an emergency caesarean. For me, Stephanie was a wonderful -team-mate’!
The follow-up postnatal visits proved to be even more valuable than we anticipated. She is generous in sharing her great knowledge and wisdom, and providing links to helpful information about topics that we were interested in. We also learned some baby exercises that we now do with Elmore every day.
When Elmore was 8 weeks old, we organised with some friends, who had recently had babies also, to join us in baby massage classes. A friend hosted the classes at her house and Stephanie taught us all a full body massage sequence over three weeks. Everyone loved it – including the babies! It was a great opportunity for us as new parents to socialise together, get to know eachother’s babies, and to learn a wonderful new skill.
I can’t recommend Stephanie highly enough and found the addition of her presence and expertise to be an instantly calming and never intrusive. Stephanie’s care and confidence really helped the experience and made it easier for us to focus on the things that were important, knowing that she was there to help guide us when we needed it.
Joel, Marika and Elmore – 2016