Wild Chestnut Birth Services

29/03/2022

So... The only constant in life is change...
Whereas I'd really grown attached to my beautiful Wild Chestnut logo and name, the past few days I have been welcoming a new me in my life; saying goodbye to an old one...

"Looks like your letting go of your spines," a doula colleague told me at the beginning of this process, and she's right: the new me is softer, more gentle, with herself and with others, she's more.. Me!

In any case, it means I'll be taking this page off-line, and will start using a new one: Amber Peters Doula, and also a new website: www.amberpeters.com.

Will be inviting all of you to like this one instead. Please feel welcome to join!

My name is Amber Peters. I am a doula, mother-of-three, and partner to Uruguayan guitarist Gerardo Meny Collette. Together with my family I live in Amsterdam-Noord.

17/05/2021

Last weekend I attended three days with Michel Odent, a famous french gynecologist who revolutionized our thinking about birth, and his Argentine partner Liliana Lammers, a great (maybe the best!) doula in London with about 20 years of experience, and lots and lots of knowledge.

At the age of 91 (!) Michel still travels around the world to share his vision and knowledge. Liliana accompanies him and has so many beautiful stories to tell...

I loved their simplicity, their authenticity, their freshness and sense of humour. The way they critically analyze facts on the one hand, and know how to get to the essence and instincts on the other hand...

They also clarified something that had long remained a mystery to me. That the word "doula" was actually chosen by mistake, by researchers of the phenomenon who thought that the word referred to someone who traditionally took care of birthing mothers, while it actually simply means "slave."

Liliana and Michel proposed the word "paramana" as an alternative: (someone who's) by (the side) of the mother. I really like it: it's what a doula, I mean, paramana does: just to be there, by the mother's side, laboring with her, as it were. And by her (knowledgeable) presence, irradiating calm and safety. Trust in birth.

02/04/2021

I always say that for me the greatest reward for doula work comes from the work itself…
But this beautiful letter from my equally beautiful clients, was, to me, so touching… And such a gift!
Sharing it with you with their permission.
Thank you so much!!!

26/02/2021

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210222-the-unusual-ways-western-parents-raise-children

From sleeping in separate beds to their children to transporting them in prams, Western parents have some unusual ideas about how to raise them

18/02/2021

Yesterday I made a last visit to my first doula client family, who had had a perfectly healthy, four-kilo-baby boy born in as unexpected a spot as the corridor of their house's second floor on as exceptional a date as Christmas day, during a labour that lasted not much longer than four hours...
I had - of course - been present at his birth (can't imagine a more beautiful Christmas gift!) and a few weeks after, I spent some hours at the family home, giving them postpartum support, preparing the mother lots of nurturing food, being by her side as she tenderly navigated through the challenges of recovering from birth and taking care of a newborn baby and a toddler during corona lock-down.
I am so proud of her. This mother had had a very medicalized first birth, about which she felt it had kind of just happened to her. When we tentatively set out preparing for her second, she went from relative indifference towards and maybe even disconnection from her pregnancy and birth, to really starting to own, taking charge, and eventually planning for her (home) birth with tools she herself felt could help her have that.
I feel that as a doula I went from the driver's seat, ("where would you like me to take you?") to the front (and sometimes back) passenger seat ("ah, so this is where we are going! Shall I rub your back in the meantime?"), which I think is great...
Creating some post partum bliss after our road trip was at least as nurturing to me, as I hope it was for her. There is so much wisdom in preparing food with love. There is so much receiving in the giving. We had a lovely, thick and slightly spicy, Mexican recipe hot chocolate yesterday. Her having a refill also filled my cup. From bottom to top.

15/12/2020

Being a doula, for me, is all about… presence. As a doula I am there for you, (if possible) starting during your pregnancy, throughout the birth, and afterwards, as you take your first steps into parenthood.
This is no small thing, it is everything! Of course there is the information the doula can help you find, so it becomes easier to prepare yourself, make your own choices and take ownership of your birth. And there is the knowledge she brings about physically beneficial birthing postures and techniques, the massages she can offer and other forms of touch that may help you relax.
But the essence is this: presence. By being present, a doula creates an intimate, safe and loving space, optimal for the natural process of birth. A place where balance is restored, when unexpected things happen and excitement occurs. As a doula, I become an ocean that absorbs the waves, and invite you to expand and flow alike.
A little bit about me and my views: I am a mother of three and passionate about birth, which I see as a beautiful and immense life event. Being present at somebody else’s birth, to me, is a great privilege and an opportunity to gain more wisdom, more knowledge about what that is: life, creation.
My approach is one that combines experience and maturity with a childlike openness and curiosity. One that departs from a deep sense of compassion and includes: not only you, your partner and your baby, but also your health care providers, family members, anyone involved.
Please, feel free to contact me if you think I might be the right doula for you. We can meet up for an informal coffee or tea and get to know each other better; see if we are a good match.