The Doula Training Foundation
The Doula Training Foundation course offers you a unique opportunity to train with two experienced career doulas. Jemma, who trained as a midwife at one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the UK and has been a successful doula since 2016 and Anne-Marie who is a qualified “train the trainer” coach, mentor and has been doulaing since 2017. Between them they have supported hundreds of women and their families; from pre-conception and IVF to wild pregnancy and heavily managed, high-risk pregnancies to elective caesarean and free birth. Jemma and Anne-Marie have a huge knowledge base, tonnes of experience and most importantly, can communicate that in a fun and engaging manner. They are both incredibly passionate about supporting women and their families and they now love to share that passion and knowledge with newer doulas.
Their aim is to create a safe space for new doulas to delve deep into who they are, to unpackage and unburden their own experiences of pregnancy, birth and postpartum and to figure out the type of doula that they would like to become. The environment is warm and welcoming, the vibe is a mixture of calm and chilled with a big dollop of inspiration and empowerment. You will leave feeling excited, confident and fully prepared to start your doula journey.
And that's not all!
The Why...
It's actually quite simple...we LOVE what we do! And we want to share that passion with as many people as possible. The more doulas there are, the more women and families can be supported.
Birth and the early postpartum is a completely transformative experience, it can build you up, break you down, and smash you into a million tiny pieces. It can leave you feeling broken and traumatised or it can leave you feeling euphoric, empowered and like you can achieve anything. It is literally life changing and we want that to be in a positive way for as many people as possible.
We also know that birth trauma rates are incredibly high in the UK. Figures from The Birth Trauma Association show that 4-6% of women have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) as a direct result from their birth experience, that's about 30,000-37,000 new cases every year in the UK. And an estimated 30% experience some symptoms of PTSD, but not the full-blown condition.
More often than not, the trauma is caused by the way that women were treated in hospital rather than what physically happened. Having the support of a doula had been shown to improve outcomes, decrease interventions, increase overall levels of satisfaction and lower rates of postpartum depression.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says “Continuous companionship during labour and birth is recommended for improving women’s satisfaction with services” and that the benefits are enhanced when the birthing person had "continuous labour support from a doula, someone who was not a staff member at the hospital and who was not part of their social network."
Anne-Marie Jones
Anne-Marie works with women and their families supporting them antenatally, during birth and with their newborns. Support for new families has been somewhat lost in our modern society however, having a doula changes the journey to motherhood in the most positive way.
Anne-Marie has attended home births, free births, hospital births and caesarean births. She champions families, helping them ask the right questions so they can make birth their own, benefiting from the care they deserve, and challenging a system that can be inflexible. She also offers a night-time service, starting solids course and specialises in ‘mothering the mother’ on her journey in to matrescence.
Anne-Marie has a background in social housing, project management, human resources and business improvement. She is a qualified trainer and mentor, with over twenty years of experience.
She has been a doula since 2017, successfully building up her business to the point that this is now her sole job, which fills her soul. Anne-Marie is a doula mentor, trainer and co-founder of The Doula Training Foundation.
Jemma White
Birth and postnatal doula, doula mentor, area representative for Doula UK, doula trainer, hypnobirthing teacher and closing the bones facilitator. Co-founder of The Doula Training Foundation.
Jemma has been a doula for many years, during which time she has relocated from Northamptonshire to Cheshire and has created an extremely successful business from scratch...twice! She understands the unique factors that make setting up a business outside of London more complicated and will guide you through the process of doing this yourself.
Jemma has a background in midwifery and trained in some of the busiest hospitals in the UK. Whilst there were some aspects she loved, much of it left her feeling disheartened and disenchanted. She knew that she would never be able to practice in a way that truly put women front and centre so she decided to leave and re-train as a doula. She will tell you that it's the best decision she ever made.
Jemma's special interests are home birth, free birth, extremely "high risk" clients and those who have had traumatic experiences (PTSD) during their previous births. She loves seeing the transformation as women and their families go from being scared of birth to embracing it and looking forward to the day they get to welcome their baby earthside.
