http://www.thedoulaeffect.co.za/

The Doula Effect, Cape Town (2025)

06/02/2025

💚 J.A.N.U.A.R.Y 💚

Subhanallah, my first and last FULL month of service for 2025 has left my heart absolutely bursting with gratitude;

For this vocation - from the most heatbreaking to the most exquisite parts of it

For my incredibly strong & inspirational clients who advocate for their right to be in charge of their bodies and their birth stories

For my friends & colleagues and how they show up for themselves & each other, the call for support & safe space never goes unanswered here

And ALWAYS for death & life and the teachings each one brings while reaffirming one golden piece of wisdom we all should hold onto whenever we are invited to share in this magical space...

Every single one is sacred.

02/01/2025

2025
First act of service
A sacred honour

This morning at 08h37 a beloved, gorgeous little baby boy was born sleeping at +/- 33 weeks gestation.

He had the most gorgeous curls, he was so tall and looked so much like his dad but definitely had his mamas nose and lots of birthday frosting.

This little boys parents. Wow...!
His mum is the definition of strength
His father embodies the definition of unwavering presence
Their grief will take them on a journey
It may shape them in new ways that they may not have expected but it will not break these two incredibly resilient souls.

Sweet baby Lithemba gave us all a valuble reminder to surrender & flow with the process because we plan & God plans & ultimately He is the best planner.

Little Lithemba also gave his parents STUNNING hand prints - which is such a rare treat- and ofcourse really cute foot prints to go with them.

This post would not be complete without making mention of this families truly wonderful Doctor, she holds her bereaved families with such compassion, grace and dignity as they navigate the most daunting waters. It's always an honour to work with her.

And ofcourse a shout out to the staff on duty at maternity ward today, especially a certain Sr who went above & beyond, thank you for welcoming me so warmly and for supporting this beautiful family with kindess & excellent care.

#2025

04/12/2024

*IMPORTANT NOTICE - 2025*

03/11/2024

☀OCTOBER☀

Just a small snippet into the beauty that was captured this month.
All my birth clients (including the ones supported virtually) were first time mothers. There was so much new wonder and delight, discoveries of their strengths and thresholds and ofcourse, reflections. So many reflections and insights.
Parents who birth their subsequent babies tend to compare and reflect in the aftermath. But, for first time parents, there is no comparison, so their reflections are pretty deep as some pre-conceived notions around labour & birth are either completely shattered, altered or solidified and you witness in real time how beliefs around birth are shaped for them. It's deeply fascinating.

A new first time dad & I reflected recently on how wild labour & birth was...
Like a 'familiar alien' we called it in the end. A mind blowing, other-worldly type of experience, yet not unnatural or foreign in feeling.

It was a converstaion that stuck with me, because birth and death processes, when respected and left alone can teach us all so much.. if we slow down enough, stay quiet enough and open enough to learn & receive the teachings & wisdoms in it.

02/10/2024

☘️SEPTEMBER☘️

A month largely dedicated to looking after myself, ofcourse I had a sprinkling of postpartum & preganacy sessions with existing clients as well as a commitment to feature as a guest speaker in a module on grief & loss. I also continued to make my herbal teas & blends for orders (which never feel like work.)

No booked births for anyone due in September.
No new postpartum undertakings.
No unscheduled online consultations
Just for one month...

And so I filled my cup by saying yes to the slow life, yes to coffees & suppers with friends, yes to all the opportunities to spend extra time in nature & hitting my step count targets and yes a quick weekend getaway with my family to breathe in the addictive, rain soaked mountain air!

Alhamdulillah, I feel ready to take on what is going to be the busiest quater of the year. Starting with the newborn tsunami thats been brewing & due to make landfall this October...

Bismillah. Let's do this!

02/09/2024

🍃AUGUST🍃

Chaos. The good kind. The bad kind.

There was an abundance of the good kind...

The weather was SO epic & insanely icy as the Cape of Storms lived up to her name. My winter loving soul thrived.
A beautiful, healthy, sweet rainbow baby came safely Earthside alhamdulillah.
Postpartum visits in the farmlands.
Open hearted, dynamic life conversations about intentional living, normalizing death, life changes, communication & boundaries.
Two special pregnancy announcements.
My first birth experience where I had to dash from elsewhere with no scrubs, no gear and no car to support a mother as her healthy baby born born at home on her bed.
Cheering on postpartum mothers as they find their feet & their own way of doing things.
Vee Steaming & Closing of the Bones for a special friend & client.
Friends who hold space.

It was an intense month, am intentionally slowing down this September Inshaa Allah because let me tell ya....October is gonna be WILD!

I dunno what was happening in January this year but between that and Valentines... theres a birth tsunami heading our way!

01/08/2024

♥️JULY♥️

A month that held so much for me both in a personal & professional capacity. So much much duality.

The largest amount of travelling done in a single month so far for 2024
No planned births, just facilitating holistic prenatal, bereavement & postpartum consultations with clients & peers.
Special dates like my anniversary & my daughters still-birthday.
Leaning on a good friend to help me with something thats been on my heart, while she held space for me to to fall apart.
The honour of being invited as guest speaker on Perinatal Grief in a really special space.
Learning new things & expanding offerings.
Making new connections & jumping into new spaces within my community.
Actioning long planned events to break taboos & start conversations out loud.
Greeting new pregnancies with old friends who I've walked with before.
Holding space from afar for a mother who lost her baby & did not get to meet that baby the way she wanted to either.
Holding space in person for a mother as we wait for her much loved rainbow baby.
Seeing a seasoned mum embrace life with a special baby.
Watching a new mother & new baby thrive.
Saying yes to taking more breaks.

Taking in all the rain, all the sunshine, embracing all the laughter & tears & remembering & reflecting on so much while enjoying every single moment of this beautiful season of the year & this beautiful time of life itself.

02/07/2024

💫 JUNE 💫

Undoubtedly a baby boom month, many birth workers will testify to just how crazy its been in South Africa.

For me it started off with a couple of postpartum clients, a Birthday Preparation workshops and usual client consultations. Then I attended a beautiful home birth for a first time mother who was so amazing, and we welcomed her baby in time.for breakfast. My month then peaked with supporting my badass friend for her 3rd VBAC - a footling breech birth ! The highlight of my year! Then it was onto being on call as back up for a colleague as she was in a birth tsunami of her own, as well as supporting more space postpartum as my client & her beautiful baby, who was born with a bilateral cleft lip rocked their breastfeeding journey with a little help from a local IBCLC. I still had a birth trauma debriefing for someone who didn't birth with me on the cards & then another postpartum client had her baby aswell!
All in all I have infused more herbal sitz baths preparations & brewed more nourishing postpartum teas & bathed more babies in June than any other month so far (and loved every minute of it!)

The month finished off beautifully with launching the Push Comes to Shove screening event with my colleague, something were bith very passionate about & finally supporting an amazing young woman who is pregnant with her first baby in her quest to change care provider and hospital to another that aligns better with the vision she has for her birth... At 37weeks! Love it!

13/06/2024

Services Offered at The Doula Effect

Services are offered in person & online, locally & internationally.

15/02/2024

Last night, I had the honour of serving a lovely and heart broken family who had to say goodbye to their gorgeous, treasured son at 18 weeks gestation. This beautiful baby boy gave me such stunning prints to gift his mum & dad.

Every story is heartbreaking - absolutely! But everyone involved felt for this little family & had their heartstrings tugged on even more so. This sweet couple were visiting South Africa from the United States on what was supposed to be their babymoon 💔 Mums waters released spontaneously and they came straight to the emegency room and a scan revelaed that their little ones heart had stopped and that he was a baby boy 🤍

Losing your baby is hard enough... Losing your baby so far away from home, in a foreign hospital, away from friends, family and community can add layers to this grief in such complex ways. I hope that they continue to be gently held with much compassion & tenderness.

Deeply grateful to their OB-Gyn who called me in so that they have a little keepsake set to hold on to as they journey back home. Also deeply grateful to the incredible souls who make up my wise & trusted support team whenever I go in to support families, you know who you are, thank you for always holding space & giving me a soft place to land.

31/10/2023

October - The Season of intentionally Holding & Waiting till the last day of Pregnancy & Infant Loss awareness month.

So many of you shared how touched you were by the words I wrote last year when I shared my 'why'.

All a bereaved parent has are their memories so I feel like its absolutely fitting to share that post, that memory, this year. Here it is:

✨✨✨
I feel like when October started, the first week was flooded with social media posts for Pregnancy & Baby Loss Awareness Month. Rightly so. But then there were less posts.

And less and less...

And I get it. Life goes on. It has to.

Its the last day of October & I intentionally held on to this post. It was hard to hold on to it. Waiting is never easy I've learned.

The Wait.

The dreaded wait...

The wait that every family has had to endure at some stage in their journey with losing a pregnancy or baby.

Waiting to for the longest 2 minutes in the world after peeing on a stick.
Waiting for blood results.
Waiting for cramps and blood to start.
Waiting to flush.
Waiting to hear the sonographer talk about what they can see on that scan.
Waiting to find the heartbeat.
Waiting for an appointment in a room with smiling people and their gorgeous healthy life-filled bellies and knowing your story is different from theirs.
Waiting to meet a healthy baby for months and then suddenly, that's no longer your reality.
Waiting what feels like forever to hear your baby cry after birth.
Waiting to say goodbye to a baby that you got to carry and meet but don't get to keep.
Waiting for the words... 'I'm sorry...'
Waiting to be reunited.

-Nadia Maheter

In honour of my own children who came but didn't stay, all of the bereaved parents I have served & their pregnancies and babies, and all the loved ones who have held us, and continue to hold us all through the long wait.
✨✨✨

📸
Baby B born at 20 weeks gestation getting his 👣 footprints taken

05/05/2023

Birth is magical by nature.

But have you ever sat at the edge of a new mothers bed to hold space as the maiden falls away so that the mother can come through?

Have you ever bore witness to a new mother claiming her new baby a little more every day, gaining confidence and & embracing her maternal instincts?
Maybe quietly or openly questioning them at first... I don't know if I'm doing this right? Is my baby doing okay? Is this normal?

Daily, she learns to trust that she knows her baby best, even if she doesn't know all the answers right away-it's okay.
She learns to leans into her wisdom & the wsidom of the women around her who have been on this journey before.

Have you ever seen how a new mother, surrounded by the right kind of support around her, blossoms & flourishes in her first weeks postpartum?!

It's pure awe-inspiring magnificence!

I love birth work
But I LOOOOVVVEE post-partum work!

The Doula Effect

06/02/2025

02/01/2025

04/12/2024

03/11/2024

02/10/2024

02/09/2024

01/08/2024

02/07/2024

13/06/2024

15/02/2024

31/10/2023

05/05/2023

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