Optimum Doula

03/09/2026

26/08/2026

I am now fully booked for birth support, for the rest of the year. I can now only take on birth clients with due dates later than 16th January 2027.

I do however still have some space for more antenatal and/or postnatal work.

23/08/2026

Tomorrow, I will be at the West Swindon Family Hub, as I am most Mondays.

For the first half of the session, I will have my Breastfeeding Counsellor hat on, providing feeding support, alongside IBCLC Elena Rossi.

For the second half, I will have my Babywearing Consultant hat on, providing help choosing and using slings.

As well as feeding and babywearing support, there are scales available for you to weigh your baby.

The Hub is run as a free to attend, drop-in session.

22/08/2026

What is the difference between a certified doula, a mentored doula and a recognised doula?

There are no entry requirements, or exams to pass, to be able to work as a doula. Anyone can call themselves a doula, whether they have any relevant qualifications and/or experience or not. Doulas do not need to become members of any specific organisations, and there is no governing body that all doulas must join, or abide by the rules of.

But most doulas, in the UK, do complete some sort of doula preparation course. This is a course which prepares them for life as a doula, by teaching them about pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period, as well as how to best support expectant and new families. There are many providers of such courses. The entry requirements and the volume, level and content of work varies from course to course. Some courses are online, although most involve at least some in-person participation. Some take weeks or months to complete, while others are intensive courses, lasting a few days. And some require quite extensive written assessments.

Some of these course providers give the title of ‘Certified Doula’ (sometimes other words may be used, such as ‘qualified’ or ‘accredited’) to those who have completed their course.

As doula preparation courses vary a lot, just knowing that a doula has completed a course does not necessarily tell you much about just how prepared they are! If you are considering hiring a doula, whom has completed such a course, and want to know a bit about the course, you can always visit the website of the course provider.

So that’s the term certified covered. But what about mentored and recognised? Here’s where we need to start talking about Doula UK.

Doula UK is the leading organisation of doulas in the UK. It is a not-for-profit community interest company, with a membership of over 700 doulas. Although Doula UK does not provide its own doula preparation courses, it looks at those provided by others, and gives its approval to those it considers to be of a good enough standard.

Doulas do not need to join Doula UK, and although many choose not to, around 70% of doulas in the UK do.

If a doula wishes to be Doula UK doula, they must complete a Doula UK approved doula preparation course, go through a rigorous mentoring and recognition process, and agree to comply with Doula UK’s policies and code of conduct.

When doulas, who have completed an approved preparation course, initially join Doula UK they are ‘mentored’. This means that they are working towards becoming ‘recognised’, as they gain experience working as a doula. The recognition process may take months or years, depending on the individual doula. The doula has a mentor, providing support and supervision, until they have gained enough experience to be considered ‘recognised’. Doulas must work with at least four birth clients before they can be considered a ‘Doula UK Recognised Birth Doula’ and at least four postnatal clients, before being considered a ‘Doula UK Recognised Postnatal Doula’.

There is an alternative route to gaining Doula UK membership and Doula UK Recognised status. This alternative route involves extra training modules and is open to experienced doulas, who have not completed an approved doula preparation course.

So to answer the original question:

A 'Certified Doula' has completed a doula preparation course.

A 'Mentored Doula' has completed a Doula UK approved doula preparation course, and is going through the Doula UK recognition process.*

And a 'Recognised Doula' has completed both a Doula UK approved doula preparation course and the Doula UK recognition process (unless they have gone through the process via the alternative route).

I am a Doula UK Recognised Birth and Postnatal Doula, btw.

19/08/2026

We have two foster puppies living with us for a few days.
They are proving to be good therapy dogs for my husband, while he is at home, recovering from his accident.

14/08/2026

As some of you know, on Tuesday 28th July, my husband was involved in an RTA. He was airlifted to Southampton Hospital, where he had emergency surgery and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He remained in Intensive Care for for 8 days, before moving to a thoracic ward.

He suffered significant internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen and 21 rib fractures, which almost cost him his life.

While he has been in hospital, I have been spending most of my time in Southampton, and have had to hugely cut back my work commitments.

But last night he was discharged from hospital. So, no more spending more time in Southampton than in Wiltshire!

However, while he has been discharged from hospital, he is not 100% better. He is still in a lot of pain and on a lot of drugs. He still needs assistance with everyday tasks, and without a ward full of nurses, that falls entirely on me. This means that I am still unable to get fully back to work. I will be able to do more than I was doing while he was in hospital, but not as much as I was before the accident. But what he can do for himself should increase a little everyday, and my availability should increase with it.

And just to make my life that little bit harder, I haven't been able to access my email or edit my website since Monday. And with everything going on, I've struggled to find the time to sit down and get it fixed. But it is on my list of things to do, today. So, if you are waiting for a reply to an email you have sent me, now you know why.

04/08/2026

As some of you know, last Tuesday, my husband was involved in an RTA. He was airlifted to Southampton Hospital, where he still is. He is currently in the Intensive Care Unit. When he is well enough to leave Southampton, it will be to a more local hospital, rather than home. He will probably be in hospital for several weeks.

He has improved significantly, since his admission, but with 21 discreet fractures to his ribcage, it will be a long and painful recovery.

Currently I am spending more time in Southampton than Wiltshire. So until he is transferred, I will only have very limited availability for any doula work. And obviously I may take longer than normal to reply to emails and messages.

03/08/2026

Every year from 1st to 7th August is World Breastfeeding Week: a week dedicated to the promotion and support of breastfeeding.
And every year people ask, “Why isn’t there a week for people who couldn’t breastfeed?”

Well, there is. And this is it!

World Breastfeeding Week is not just to celebrate all the ways in which breastfeeding and breastmilk are amazing, or just for those who had (or are still having) a problem free breastfeeding journey. It is for everyone who wanted to breastfeed, whether they breastfed for as long as they wanted or not, and for whatever reason they stopped.

World Breastfeeding Week is to raise awareness of the support that is out there, so that those who are struggling can give themselves the best chance possible of reaching their goals. It is about trying to make sure that nobody stops before they want to, simply because they didn’t know that there was support out there.

World Breastfeeding Week is to raise awareness of the support that isn’t out there! It is about trying to make sure that nobody stops before they want to, because there wasn’t enough support out there. It is an opportunity for those who couldn’t get the support they needed, to let those who should have been providing them with support know that they need to do something about it.

29/07/2026

Yesterday morning my husband was involved in an RTA, on his way to work. He was airlifted to Southampton Hospital, where he still is, and probably will be for a few weeks.

I will likely be cancelling or postponing lots of things, to be with him. So if I'm due to see you over the next week or so, look out for emails or messages. And obviously I may take longer than normal to reply to emails and messages.

26/07/2026

This seemly unrelated-to-breastfeeding photo shows the difference in two of my fingers. The one on the right is what my fingers normally look like. The one on the left has recently had a plaster removed. (I won't show you the wound I have on the front of my finger.) After several hours of being in a waterproof dressing, there is a band of 'pruney' skin, where the plaster was. The skin looks wrinkled because it has become waterlogged. In this state, skin is more easily damaged.

Now, imagine you've had a waterproof dressing covering your ni**le (which may be leaking milk into the dressing, making everything extra wet) for a couple of hours. And then imagine a tiny baby who hasn't quite perfected their latch, taking that 'vulnerable to damage' ni**le into their mouth. You're just asking for injury to be inflicted, right?

Well, this is what can happen if you wear silver ni**le cups for too long. Yes, silver has healing properties, which may be beneficial to damaged ni**les. And yes, that cold, smooth silver may well feel much better against sore ni**les then your clothing. But if you don't want baby latching on to a waterlogged ni**le, don't leave those silver cups on for too long. Ideally they need to be removed at least half an hour before feeding, which with a newborn is likely to mean not keeping them in for more than half an hour after a feed.

You may be interested to note that it took my 'pruney' finger well over half an hour to look, and feel, like my other fingers.