02/09/2026
REAL DOULA TALK
I think almost everyone says the same thing when I tell them what I do…
Your job must be so special, getting to meet all those beautiful newborns. And it really, really is.
But there is another side to this work that you don’t always see from the outside.
I’ve had the most INSANE week. Two babies welcomed earthside, both in completely different circumstances. One arriving much later than expected, the other earlier.
What happens behind closed doors during weeks like this is the bit that I think only other doulas really understand. The juggling, the waiting, the uncertainty.
The rollercoaster has been real! Navigating my own tiredness, my own emotions (Ozzie has been away for a week in Los Angeles all by himself!) and somehow finding the grace to put all of that to one side and show up. Fully.
Because when you walk through that door, your client needs you. They need the calm, grounded, safe person who can hold the space for them.
And that takes a village. This week I have been so incredibly held by my beautiful colleagues, Amber Strong and Clair | Doula, Antenatal Workshops, Trauma Recovery The kind of holding that happens quietly behind the scenes. The check-ins. The “are you ok?” messages.
I’m so grateful for you both.
And then there was theatre.
Sometimes birth doesn’t follow the plan. Sometimes the birth you thought you were going to support looks completely different. And this week I found myself in theatre.
Musgrove Park Hospital are absolute legends I know bot every local hospital routinely allows, two birth partner’s. It made such a profound difference.
I wasn’t thinking about the fact that we were in theatre. I was simply there. Holding her hand. Reminding her that she wasn’t alone.
And I think that’s perhaps the part of being a doula that is hardest to explain.
Yes, I get to meet the babies.
And yes, it is one of the most extraordinary privileges in the world.
Yet sometimes, behind the photographs of beautiful newborns there is a very tired doula in scrubs, driving home after a long night, feeling everything.
This work is beautiful.
But it is also a lot.
