Perth Hills Doula

Thank you Aurelia for your amazing support and calming nature you provided to Abby and I for the arrival of our little bundle of joy.As a bloke who has been conditioned to follow medical advice and traditional medical practises , I was originally suprised when my wife spoke to me about getting a doula. I was unsure of what my role would be. I was immediately sceptical as to the whole scene and then I felt completely overwhelmed when my wife also wanted to home birth.After meeting Aurelia the first time I was reassured that her role was not only to support my wife but to help me. The books and resources provided also helped both Abby and I normalise home birth concept with our 4 year old.On the night of arrival Aurelia helped me calm and support my wife, keep the water at right temp, and even sat with our very excited son who was eager to meet his little brother. Thank you Aurelia. I truly am grateful that I had you as part of our amazing birth team.

I have just sat down to write this and all of a sudden I feel overcome by so much emotion - anxiety my words could never do this woman justice, sadness that this symbolises the end phase of this part of my journey with her, raw joy thinking of the integral part she played in our birth... but most of all I feel the most immense gratitude imaginable, for having had Aurelia walk alongside me in my pregnancy, birth, and post partum period.To be fair, she hasn't just walked alongside me. She has held my daughter and husband closely too - ensuring all of our emotional needs were met, questions answered and souls well and truly nurtured. My husband has so much to say from his perspective that he would like to write his own review! So I will just speak for me. Aurelia created a beautiful life changing blessingway for us, helped us with so much information during pregnancy, birthed with us, fed us nourishing amazing food when I was recovering post birth - even took care of my older child when I needed rest - she went above and beyond in every way actually.Her mere presence is calming, loving and reassuring, though on top of those already rare traits - Aurelia is immensely knowledgable about all things birth, I never once had a queetion go unanswered by her and I asked millions! She is very open and honest - ensuring she presents all options to you without bias or judgement.Aurelia is a fierce advocate and believer in women - and this fierce belief in trusting our bodies innate ability to birth, gave me the strength to keep going when I genuinely felt I couldn't. Her words made all the difference in the most vulnerable moments of my life and of my sons birth. Our birth could have gone drastically differently had it not been for this womans intuition, professional knowledge, trust and words of pure wisdom and unconditional love.I am eternally grateful to her and cannot imagine birthing another baby without her by our sides. I have no doubt that anyone who chooses Aurelia to guide their family through pregnancy, birth and beyond will be grateful they made that decision for the rest of their lives. She will help you to uncover your deepest truths, instincts and strengths x

Aurelia was recommended to me as a doula by our hypnobirth teacher, as I was keen to use someone who was familiar with the techniques knowing I’d probably forget them in the middle of things! I knew she was the perfect fit for us before I had even met her - after one phone call I asked her to book us in to be our doula and for placenta encapsulation. Meeting with her several times before my due date confirmed my initial feelings - her kind and calm nature is contagious but behind that is an organised, informed, strong woman who will stand up for you if you need her to! Discussing our options at each stage of pregnancy, letting us know pros and cons, and always supporting whatever decision we made, Aurelia went above and beyond at every meeting, providing evidence based information by email.When I unfortunately developed preeclampsia just before 40 weeks, Aurelia was there for both my husband and I. Despite all the preparation we did for a natural hypnobirth, our journey was a very different one due to medical circumstances and Aurelia was there every step of the way over several days. From late night phone calls to talk over intervention options, to many hours of exercises, massage and support during the actual labour. After an unscheduled csection, she was the only one there for my husband - all hospital staff abandoned him and Aurelia was the one who tracked me down and let him know I was ok when he was with our baby in NICU.After that extremely long ordeal, she then went home, got some sleep and did my placenta encapsulation so she could get them back to me within 36 hours. I have heard of friends capsules taking a week to be returned to them so I was extremely grateful to have mine show up so quickly, when I needed them.Aurelia also visited several times after we returned home to debrief and check how we were going, especially emotionally. I have an amazing support network of friends and family, but because of Aurelia’s experience and knowledge of the birth world, she knew what to say, what to ask me, how to help me process everything that had happened.When my milk took longer than expected to come in & my baby was losing weight, she was there providing information and encouragement (& the most delicious postpartum pudding ever).9 days after the caesarian, bub and I were both doing well and I was back to walking several kilometers with friends, and I have no doubt the placenta capsules helped a lot with that fast postpartum recovery. I never got baby blues despite the less than ideal birth and that first week.Hiring Aurelia as our doula and placenta encapsulator was the best decision we ever made. My husband initially didn’t really understand why I wanted a doula but went along with it; afterwards he commented that “thank god Aurelia was there”.