The Whole Birth Journal

'I’d quite like a water birth. I'd rather not have any drugs. I’ll write a birth plan. You hope. Almost apologetic. As if wanting a physiological birth - a birth where your body works the way it was designed to, where you are mobile and present and meeting your baby on your own terms - is somehow asking too much.

Many people have heard of doulas supporting labour, but fewer realise how valuable a virtual doula can be during pregnancy.

Pregnancy is when many of the key decisions about birth begin to take shape. Conversations with midwives and doctors, discussions about induction, choices about where to give birth - all of these can influence how your birth unfolds. So why do it alone?

If you’ve found yourself searching ‘how to become a doula’ chances are something is stirring within you. This work calls you - often after a powerful birth, a difficult one, or with a fire in your belly at how birth and maternity care feels right now. But how do you actually become a doula in the UK?

A birthkeeper holds space for the unfolding of birth as a natural, physiological, and spiritual experience. Birthkeepers draw from ancient wisdom, intuition, and practical skills to provide holistic pregnancy and birth support that nurtures the whole person ; mind, body, and spirit, and offer a ‘wise woman’ presence during labour and birth.

In 1999, as a student midwife, I read two books that changed everything for me: Wise Woman Herbal  for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed, and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. Alongside these were the works of anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd who named the technocratic model of care in which I was learning and the holistic model that I strived to practice. These each created a foundation for the midwifery that resonated in my bones and their words gave shape to an approach that still anchors my work today: the Holistic Wise Woman model.

A midwife is a registered medical professional who monitors the wellbeing of women, birthing people and their babies during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. A doula is a non medical support who offers education and advocacy for those usually engaging with the medical system. And a birthkeeper is a non medical, holistic support, they often, but not always work with those choosing freebirth.

Over the past two decades, the landscape of childbirth in the UK has changed beyond recognition. From campaigns promoting physiological birth to scandals, safety inquiries, and a growing midwifery crisis, the role of the birthkeeper is now more vital than ever.