postnatal care at home
I offer caring, knowledgeable postnatal support in the fourth trimester that will transform your experience of becoming a parent, whether it’s for the first or fourth time.
Working with me means you’ll feel better rested, calmer and more confident, and nourished enough to be able to truly enjoy these early days of holding, feeding and resting.
Some of this support is practical - a nourishing meal brought to you in bed, technical support with feeding or wearing your baby in a sling and whilst I cook or tidy round the house while you nap or shower.
It might mean providing information, answering questions or passing on knowledge about local services.
Sometimes it’s emotional support - listening to you and giving space for your joys, fears and tears, reflecting back, supporting you to reframe or make decisions and reminding you that you’re doing brilliantly. Usually on a visit (I tend to work in 3 hour blocks) we can achieve all these things!
This kind of support in the early days is an investment families rarely regret, setting you up to thrive in the months and years to come.
Why choose a postnatal doula?
All mothers deserve loving, knowledgeable support in the early days of parenthood, but modern living means that we can sometimes feel overwhelmed and isolated in this period. Many of us live some distance away from wider family and postnatal health care can feel sparse compared to antenatal care.
With endless information available, it can feel hard to find your own way amidst the intensity of caring for a newborn, and make sure you’re fed, watered and rested too!
Doula visits break up long days after long nights, and the calm kindness and expert support offered by a doula shifts the energy of your home in a hugely beneficial way.
It’s sensible to load the support you’re planning to receive in these early months. Extra support in the early days can make a world of difference to your wellbeing, setting you up for success by providing reassurance and extra rest, helping you troubleshoot and signposting on to other experts where necessary.
“I cannot recommend Chloe’s post-natal doula support highly enough. Our whole family benefited from her calm and kind presence … from the non-judgemental listening to the delicious nourishing food, I really felt looked after and that we thrived in the fourth trimester. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Why work with me?
I am deeply passionate about mothers receiving the kind of care and support that helps them to thrive, not just survive. I make it my mission to help mothers feel more calm, rested and confident in these vital early days, and I find it an absolute joy and privilege to walk beside a new family in these early days.
I work collaboratively and intuitively, supporting you to work out exactly what need on any given day. I am a deeply practised listener (after years of professional work on counselling helplines as well as doula work, facilitating women’s circles and other group spaces). Sometimes all we need is reflection that what we’re feeling is totally normal. And sometimes we need someone to gently suggest another perspective or further support.
I have supported hundreds of mothers through my work as a postnatal doula and perinatal yoga teacher, meaning I’ve heard thousands of stories and held space for many emotions and refections over the years. I aim to support you to find the right way for YOU to parent (there’s no one right way!) Reassurance helps our confidence grow, and my role as supporter and cheerleader will help you cut out the noise and sharpen your focus on your instinct about how you want to parent. Even with second or third babies, I’ve found this kind of support is still hugely beneficial.
“Chloe is an incredibly warm person with a calming presence. She leads with empathy and understanding and is an all round wonderful human. I was so relieved when she so easily slotted in with our sometimes chaotic home and was continually amazed at her ability to go with the flow.”
The fourth trimester
The first twelve weeks of a baby’s life - and therefore the first twelve weeks of being a parent - is an intense time, one full of love and fears, joy at tiny baby feet, broken sleep and tears at all the emotion a new person in the world brings.
In every other culture, this is a time when new mothers are deeply supported to rest and feel nourished, when others in the community bring nutrient-rich food, take over household duties, provide bodywork to aid postpartum healing (like massages, steam baths or belly wraps) and care for baby while the new mum rests.
In the West, however, we expect women and birthing people to “bounce back” despite the great energetic and psychological shift they’ve made. The pressure to look like you’re up and about soon after birth moves the focus entirely away from the healing potential of these early days. With many of us living far away from family or disconnected from community, these early days are being lived out in a way that may not serve new mothers.
Type/duration of support
Lots of families like me to come twice a week, for slots of around three hours. This usually continues up until the end of the fourth trimester (12 weeks). There’s variation around that, so do contact me if you need something different. I also offer one-off calls and remote support for either emotional support or to talk through issues around feeding, sleeping and so on.
I tend to get booked up in advance, so get in touch as soon as you can if you’re pregnant and want to explore what I offer. If your baby is already here, that’s ok too - just get in touch to find out about my availability.
Prenatal support
I offer bespoke postnatal preparation sessions during pregnancy (either as an add-on to postnatal support or as a stand-alone session) which are an invaluable tool to help you focus on what you need to thrive in the early days after having your baby, and to help you consider questions and scenarios you might not have thought of. We can discuss expectations and put plans in place for practical and emotional support in the early days of becoming parents, to stand you in the best possible stead for what’s to come.
This is just as useful for second or third time parents, who can review what they want to do differently this time and check that they are on the same page. I can either come to your home for this session or we can talk online, then I send you your written plan for a rested, happy fourth trimester.
Rates/can I afford to invest?
After pregnancy and birth, all new families deserve the absolute best in support. Lots of us are not used to putting our needs first, but it shows great strength to be able to do so, and stands us in good stead for parenthood, when putting on our own oxygen mask is essential!
Investing in prenatal, birth and postnatal support will benefit you and your family repeatedly over the months and years of your baby’s life.
I hired a doula with my second baby and the difference in my experience was remarkable. I made the decision to be supported, rested and nourished during this time and this had a knock-on effects for everyone’s health and wellbeing within my family. Setting up a fund for friends and family to contribute, or asking people to fund a few hours of support, can a great way of covering costs.
I aim to make my rates reflective of the value of postpartum support. This work matters because how we treat mothers matters. Please contact me to discuss rates.
“Chloe is an incredible person and has been an amazing doula for our family. She has made a huge difference in the first months of our new family, making it calmer and more enjoyable. When our baby was born, she was there for all the anxieties and questions you have about a newborn. I don’t know how we would have coped without this support! Over time the emotional support we require has changed, and Chloe continues to support us with an open mind and an open heart, always with the best intentions of our family in mind. She is brilliant at providing guidance but not strict advice, support without judgement, and all in a balanced and kind way. She is very easy to talk to and I feel as if we’ve had great communication throughout. ”
Next steps
It’s really important that you feel totally at ease and comfortable with the doula you choose to work with. If you think we’d be a good team, get in touch via the button below and we can talk on the phone and/or meet to talk things through. Then, if you’d like to book me, I’ll ask you to fill in a form and pay a deposit.