BIRTH
Hello! I'm Jenna, a birth doula and anam cara serving the greater Waikato, NZ.
As a birth doula I offer education, care & community to women & birthing families.
As an anam cara ("soul friend") I can see, guide and hold sacred space for the spiritual path of you and your baby through conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum & beyond.
I love working with women as early in pregnancy as possible to provide the depth of emotional and spiritual support many crave at this uncertain, transformative and expansive time—as well as have lots of time to prepare, nourish and really get to know you and your family before your birth.
I work Waikato-wide, further as needed, and as a 'virtual doula' for those who don't want labour and birth support, but would still value wise woman care during and beyond pregnancy.
PREGNANCY & BIRTH | POSTPARTUM | SPIRITUAL SUPPORT
"I will not rescue you for you are not powerless.
I will not fix you for you are not broken.
I will not heal you for I see you in your wholeness.
I will walk with you through your darkness as you remember your light."
MEDICINE WOMAN'S PRAYER
DOULA, BIRTH SUPPORT & POSTPARTUM CARE
The beauty and wisdom of birth are largely lost to our culture, but your body and soul remember.
The Spanish say dar a luz—literally, give to the light. A birthing woman brings not just her baby, but also herself, through the unknown darkness to lusty, blazing life.
Only you know what you need as you walk through the sacred portal from maiden to mother (or mother to born-again mother).
My job is to witness and help you bring your birth dream into being.
As your doula, I support your intuition with encouragement, evidence, education & wisdom.
I offer friendship, nourishment, comfort and guidance for your journey through fertility, pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
As needed, I hold space and grace for you as you release any fears and patterns standing in the way of the birth you and your baby want.
Motherhood is sisterhood, yet many of us are disconnected from each other as we enter and grow into this most sacred role. Too many women believe only the baby matters, but you matter. Your loved ones matter. Welcoming your baby's first breath in this world with love, beauty, and triumph matters.
The day you meet your child will be branded on your heart for the rest of your life, and is the brand new beautiful beginning of theirs.
The experience, however it unfolds, will be part of you both forever.
As your doula I will whole-heartedly support you as you find your own truth, stand in your own power, and birth your baby, your way, with all the love in the universe.
NATURAL FERTILITY & FULL-SPECTRUM DOULA
Remember & reclaim your body's rhythm.
Women are wild, cyclical creatures. Living as a cyclical creature centres the truth, power and love of your own body and planet earth in your life, instead of using your life to suppress, ignore and suffer from nature's ways.
The "Blood Mysteries" keep alive the ancient ways of tending to the biological rites of passage women experience in their lives: menarche, birth and menopause.
How we bleed is how we birth... and so many of us don't know how to bleed well.
Blood, sex and death have been cast out of polite society, but these are all integral to women's experiences, to women's wisdom, and to women's power. Society's shunning of them is largely responsible for the immense lack of balance and emotional and spiritual immaturity our planet is currently experiencing.
As women, bleeding is our native religion, offering—should we accept it—a sacred place for body, mind, heart and spirit to collide and guide our life.
Birth support for miscarriage, abortion & loss.
Life and death are wedded and women's bodies are the temple.
Love is risk. I believe there are no guaranteed outcomes ever, and that both babies and women sometimes choose not to continue the journey for spiritual reasons all their own. I believe all pregnancy ends in a birth, and all women need the option of being supported, nourished, and cherished through all and any kind of pregnancy outcome.
The possibility of birth is a sacred contract between two souls and is theirs alone, not for anyone else to understand, judge, control or condemn. Some babies don't need to be born to live their whole life story. Some only need a short stay.
We can love and honour our spirit babies through sacred, powerful birth, remembrance, healing into their wisdom, and—when we are ready—letting them expand our hearts and human understanding greater than we ever knew was possible.
I can be with you in the ways you choose during the birth or release of your spirit baby, and/or afterwards, or any other time you are seeking extra comfort and guidance as a woman or mother.
This support is offered in the spirit of the gift, whereby you choose how (and whether) to reciprocate in your own way and time. Please reach out.
Celebrate & honour yourself as you open and close your birthing rite of passage.
Energy Clearing
Space Clearing For Homebirth
Birth brings its own strong, sacred energy. Prepare for and honour your upcoming homebirth with a ritual to energetically clear and bless your chosen birth space.
Personal Energy Clearing
Energy clearing is a gentle yet profound way to integrate and ground your energy and emotions, release what is ready to go, and leave you feeling clear, supported, centred and positive.
Mother Blessing
A Mother Blessing gives your community an opportunity to support your body, mind, heart and spirit both in the final weeks of pregnancy and into postpartum. It honours the significance of becoming a mother and offers essential encouragement, care, and wisdom for the journey to come.
An alternative to a traditional baby shower, this ceremony offers a more personal and spiritual way to connect, share and feel ready for labour and birth.
Included in Birth Doula Package
Closing the Bones
"Closing the Bones" is a beautiful tradition that warms, heals, aligns, thanks and grounds the body, mind, heart and soul that brought life into the world. It is a way to tend, mend and renew yourself as a mother and person after the rending transition of birth.
The ceremony is often done during or at the end of the fourth trimester, but can be done at any time after the birth of a child or children, or to honour and heal from a loss, no matter how long ago.
Included in Birth Doula Package
Women sitting in circle is a universal source of comfort, power & tribal wisdom, as ancient as the human race.
Soul Circle is medicine for our times, an antidote to the relentless, competitive demands of most women's everyday lives. It is a space for women to gather, connect with each other, and drop deeper into themselves...if only for an evening!
This is a women's circle with a special purpose: to hold space for our emotional and spiritual recovery. We will share, learn, laugh, cry and heal. We will reclaim our lost knowledge, our wise ways, and our sacred purpose...eventually!
This is not a circle for "like-minded women". This is a circle for any and all women. It is an all-inclusive invitation to come together in sisterhood across age, background and experience to support and be supported in all our differences and diversity.
Subscribe to my newsletter, Electric Circle, to get infrequent, eclectic emails that encourage, inspire and support your wild, soulful self.
FLOW
Know Your Cycle, Know Yourself
Discover how remembering, reclaiming and honouring your natural menstrual cycle is a radical and important act of self love and healing, and how you can flow with your flow to improve your moods, health, relationships and life.
Wombs of all ages and stages welcome.
Coming soon
Register your interest
BIRTH WISE
Birth Education for Everyone
Birth is the heart of healthy communities and birthing wisdom belongs to us all. Reclaim your wisdom before you need it & learn how blending the sacred with the scientific leads to powerful birth that is woman-centred, earth-healing and paradigm-shifting.
FREE
All welcome
DOULA DAD
How to Rock the Birth Partner Role
Learn about birth, your role, and how to be an awesome birth partner, including an in-depth Partner Preparation Checklist so you are ready to go when she is!
All birth partners are warmly welcome, but please note this workshop is offered to meet the specific needs of men at birth.
Coming Soon
Register your interest
HOLISTIC BIRTH EDUCATION
BIRTH WORKS
Bringing Your Baby Earthside
Alternative antenatal education for birthing families to give you the knowledge and tools you need to inspire your intuition, expand your options, and birth in truth, power & love.
$220 per private class
Email to book
MAMABABY
Planning for Postpartum
Let's bring your village together to support the rest, space, peace, love, and nourishment you need to care for your newborn and recover from birth. Set your mothering up for success from the start!
$350 / 2 private classes
Email to book
Indie Birth
A hub for learning how to birth the way you want, from the sacred to the scientific.
Check out the podcast and blog for education, alternative options, amazing birth stories and to be part of a paradigm-shifting community.
Don't miss the incredible pay-what-you-can 13 Moons online course.
Midwife Thinking
midwifethinking.com
@midwifethinking
Dr. Rachel Reed, a midwife and academic, writes this evidence-based blog that answers modern birth's most perplexing (and arguably dangerous) questions.
Also check out her important, illuminating book Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage.
The Midwive's Cauldron
midwivescauldron.buzzsprout.com
@themidwivescauldron
If you love podcasts, start your learning here! Midwife-friends Katie James & Dr. Rachel Reed blend their holistic perspective, global experience, academic study, and The Evidence with loads of cackles, common sense, and great guests! Listening feels like having a cuppa with your two favourite aunties who know everything important about birth, mothering, and being a woman.
Birthing Instincts
birthinginstincts.com
@birthinginstincts
Rethink risk with Dr. Stu Fischbein OBGYN; homebirth advocate, twin specialist, and global leader in the lost art of undisturbed breech birth.
Dr Stu's podcast covers the most up-to-date evidence and offers informed insider opinion to support your decison making.
Dr. Sarah Buckley
The author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, Sarah Buckley's site is full of research-based articles and information to support real informed choice for pregnancy, birth and mothering.
Pregnancy Nutrition
lilynicholsrdn.com/blog
@lilynicholsrdn
Everything you need to know about pregnancy nutrition based on the very recent research of registered dietician/nutritionist Lily Nichols, who discovered that standard approaches are outdated and not supported by evidence.
The Holistic OBGYN
belovedholistics.com/podcast
@nathanrilyobgyn
Dr. Nathan Riley is a birth and death doctor who left mainstream medicine to follow and support the midwifery model as the gold standard of care for women. His depth of reflection, breadth of experience, network of other innovators, and pioneering spirit make his podcast an illuminating must-listen for all parents-to-be.
Freebirth Society
freebirthsociety.com
@freebirthsociety
Reclaim birth the way it was meant to be-natural, raw, sovereign, free. Hear and be inspired by the unassisted birth stories of women from all over the world who have found and birthed in their power.
Enter your email to get my free guide:
7 Sleep Strategies for New Parents
(Including tips & advice from other wise, well-rested mamas.)
"I feel so incredibly grateful and blessed to have had Jenna as my doula through the whole journey and beyond and I know without her this incredible soul and heart moving experience would never have happened. Her wealth of knowledge, ability to hold space and open mindedness was a real gift and our boy has been blessed to come into this world in such a sacred and special way."
TALIA
Omokoroa
"Jenna is the real deal. Kind, wise and deeply intuitive. You are in good hands."
BERNADETTE
Raglan
"Jenna's influence on both my births was truly and deeply impactful. Jenna's support and education allowed me to birth the way I felt was right - and two very different births revealed a nuanced and vast skillset that was surprising for one small lady! Thank you Jenna, Anam Cara X"
SHANNON
Hamilton
BIRTH DOULA & ANAM CARA
Waikato, NZ
jenna@soula.nz
Ask me anything! I would love to hear from you and be a resource for you.
Let's meet for coffee to talk about fertility, pregnancy, birth and postpartum, even if you don't intend for us to work together—especially if you're struggling and want an encouraging alternative perspective.
