I’m a mum to Jack and Olivia (32 and 30) and boy Ben, suddenly 18 years old! I help run a family brewery business with my husband of 35 years, Bill. I have wanted to work in the world of birth for a long time, but other roads opened up, and I have now had 3 different careers, solicitor, musician and then brewery owner. My daughter is a midwife, and I have loved seeing her progress, and learning more and more about the challenges facing midwives today. She said ‘Mum, I love it when I have a doula at a birth, it’s so much better for the woman and makes life easier for the midwife’ and then several conversations later ‘Why don’t you train as a doula?’

So here I am. I have enjoyed fantastic training with the Doula Training Foundation. I want every woman to have the best possible birth she can, and to feel calm and strong as she heads towards childbirth, whether this is first time, second, third or more.
I have had three positive birth experiences, first in hospital, then one at home, and 12 years later another in hospital. I breastfed my three children and I worked part time while they were toddlers.

Aside from being a doula and doing brewery accounts, I love walking my dog Isla on the beach, cooking, playing piano, patchwork and crochet, and making kombucha tea! I often meet my sister Clare, who is also a Mentored Doula, we visit our Dad who has advanced dementia, and explain to him for the umpteenth time what a doula is! This pic is Dad and me, remembering how to play the piano.