Doula Bea

Birth and Postnatal Doula

13/03/2026

Oh hey there! It’s March (mid March even) so my plan to do a bit more social media this year has clearly failed 🤦🏻‍♀️

But that’s ok, because I have been so busy working with some lovely lovely families; I’ve had my first birth of the year which was an absolutely dreamy home water-birth, and a privilege to support one of my first ever clients again; I am eagerly anticipating baby number two who I dont think will be many sleeps away; and I’m with three postnatal families at the moment (hence the no time for social media!), all of whom are really getting into their stride now.

Anyway, I thought I would hop on to say hi and show my face. I’m Bea, I live on the edge of Crowborough with my husband and two children, my favourite place (aside from the birth room of course) is walking my dog on Ashdown Forest and today is a perfect day for it, blustery but dry 🙏🏻

I have snippets of time for postnatal work between now and September so do reach out if this is something you are considering, and plenty of space from September. My birth calendar is open for early April, May and early June and from August.

👋🏻👋🏻

20/08/2023

POSITIVE HOME BIRTH STORY - One of my recent clients has kindly given me permission to share her incredible birth story - a perfect physiological second time homebirth after a covid restricted hospital first birth. I am so grateful to you, both for involving me in your journey, and for permission to share - I hope it inspires and empowers. Names have been changed for anonymity. Link to blogpost in my bio.

“…My Tens machine came off and I got into the pool. As soon as I got in, my body started involuntarily pushing through each surge. Down breathing went out of the window and I just focused on breathing slow and controlled and letting my body do what it needed to do, as it seemed to be doing it without conscious effort from me….

At around 6.50am my body completely took over. It was almost as if I'd fainted and was watching myself from afar in slow motion. My body completely changed position (without any input from me) from a squat to almost standing holding the edge of the pool and made a noise which I can only describe as 'primal!' for a good 30 seconds. The head was born and I came back from the bizarre but amazing euphoric out of body experience, reached down and felt the shoulders wiggle out one by one, then pulled my baby up on to my chest. We realised that we had a boy and I held him in complete disbelief as to what had just happened. He was born at 6.57am. The midwife said 'Now that is how you give birth’…

I stepped out of the pool and we went to the living room, nestled on the sofa, all three a bit bewildered by what had just happened. He had his first feed, we had tea and crumpets…

Recovery and feeding are going really well and we're still riding on a high of what an incredible experience that was.”

08/08/2023

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK - a bit late, been busy doulaing!

The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. Research shows that 81% of mothers initiate breastfeeding at birth, but many stop in the first few weeks with only 17% still exclusively breastfeeding at 3 months, and 1% at 6 months. 63% of women who stop breastfeeding report that they would have liked to have breastfed for longer and many (17%) state a lack of support from hospital staff, midwives and family as their reasons for stopping.

Breastfeeding is beautiful, healthy (for mum and baby), natural and practical, it reduces your chance of postnatal mental illness, promotes bonding, decreases illness, risk of SIDS, fewer allergies and ear infections.

It’s also physically and emotionally difficult, it’s not the only way and it’s not for everyone which is why my favourite phrase when it comes to infant feeding is “breast is not best, fed is not best, informed and supported is best”

You are more likely to establish and continue breastfeeding if you hire a doula - so get in touch if you’d like to chat about how I could support you.

Thank you to my wonderful client for letting me use this gorgeous image of her feeding her twins (still exclusively breastfed 3+ months in! 🙌🏻)

27/03/2023

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN MILK - Breastfeeding is as fascinating as it is wonderful and as it is challenging. I loved learning more about the science behind breastfeeding, and breast milk, with Microbiome Courses, which reiterated to me just how important it is to support mothers to breastfeed, if they choose to.

It took me a while to make sense of all of this and even longer to write it into a reasonably easy to understand format!!

1) During vaginal birth, the mother transfers her unique bacterial ecosystem to her baby. The bacteria coming from Mum colonise the infant gut and crowd out the pathogens; they are the bacteria to optimally train the infant immune system, giving protection for life

2) These microbes are then fed by the unique sugars - the human milk oligosaccharides (HMO’s) - in Mum’s breast milk, which are matched to the bacteria that were passed to the baby during vaginal birth. These HMO’s are the 3rd most abundant component of milk, but are indigestible by the baby, they are there specifically to feed the infant gut microbiome

Caesarean birth, antibiotics and formula feeding, whilst sometimes necessary but widely overused, alter this process and if the microbiome doesn’t develop normally in early life you can have a misfiring of the immune system which can increase risk of asthma, allergies, diabetes and obesity etc.

Read more in my latest blog post - link in my bio.

26/03/2023

TESTIMONIAL - “I contacted Bea at a point when I was all baby’d out. After 3mths of breastfeeding, lack of sleep, baby unable to nap in the day without contact, I was desperate for some time to myself, to do anything without baby attached.

Bea was able to reassure me that these feelings were normal and gave me the chance to get things done, confident that my daughter would be well looked after. It felt a bit weird handing my daughter over to a stranger but Bea was warm, friendly and helpful and any concerns quickly disappeared. I’m grateful that Bea enjoyed walking as she certainly did a lot to ensure my daughter had adequate sleep in the day.

After a couple of weeks I felt more confident in my new role as Mum. I’d recommend Bea to any new parents needing that reassurance and a moment to breathe. Wish I’d found her sooner!”

Address

Beulah Road
Tunbridge Wells
TN1

Website

http://Www.doulabea.co.uk/

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