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About Nurturing Birth
Nurturing Birth was set-up to give expectant women and families
a range of services to enhance their pregnancy, labour and postnatal
period. Valerie Goedkoop and her husband Peter run Nurturing Birth
together offering a range of courses to help women train and prepare
to work as doulas. Nurturing Birth has now trained over 400 women
all over the UK.
Valerie Goedkoop started being interested
in childbirth a few years ago when she saw friends and relatives
having babies in sometimes difficult or unfulfilling situations.
Then she had her first two children, both positive but very different
experiences.
After many years working for multi-national companies, Valerie
left her managerial job in London to stop all the commuting and
all the stresses of working for a blue chip company and decided
to focus on her passion: pregnancy, labour and early years. For
many reasons, becoming a doula seemed to be the perfect job for
her. She has supported over 70 families and continues to do so.
Training: Valerie has trained in the
UK as well as with DONA (Doulas
of North America). She was also very fortunate to be able to be
a volunteer doula in Pembury Hospital's labour ward, where she
gained a lot of insight and experience. She now runs her own course
for doulas throughout the country (she is a recognised trainer
with Doula UK). She regularely attends workshops, conferences
and study days on birth and breastfeeding.
Related skills: Valerie is a breastfeeding
counsellor. She is skilled in homeopathy, aromatherapy and massage
for childbirth. She used to teach antenatal yoga/active birth
classes privately (one to one or small groups). She has trained
with Francoise Freedman and is a certified teacher with Birthlight.
Check out her references.
In her spare time.... She has been a volunteer for Doula
UK (the UK association for doulas). She was their chairperson
for 2005. She is a lay representative on the Pembury and Maidstone
hospitals Maternity Services Liaison Committee in Kent. She is
also a governor at her children's school.
Our trainers:
Bushra Finch is an experienced doula, recognised
with Doula UK. She has been featured in baby and pregnancy magazines,
interviewed for several radio programmes as well as speaking on
pregnancy and birth at several conferences. She is also a Maya
Abdominal Massage practitioner, having trained with Rosita Arvigo
in America and does personalised antenatal sessions with prospective
parents. Bushra has also been involved in Doula UK at different
levels for the past 3 years.
Kicki Hansard, SNHS (Professional Relaxation
Therapy), is an experienced doula, recognised with Doula UK and
a Certified Doula with BOND. She took part in the documentary
about doulas called "Mum + One" which is currently being
shown on the Discovery Home & Health Channel. She occasionally
holds talks about doulas to student midwives and alternative health
practitioners and is currently studying for a degree in Social
Science.
Diane Walters is an experienced doula who has
spent many years guiding women and their partners through pregnancy
and birth into parenthood. She is recognized by Doula UK and is
one of their team of assessors for trainee doulas. She has a reflexology
practice where she specializes in maternity reflexology working
with both men and women to help enhance their fertility as well
as with women during their pregnancies. She is an EFT (Emotional
Freedom Techniques) practitioner and has a certificate in counselling
skills. She is the mother of two sons both born at home and sees
birth as a sacred and intimate rite of passage that needs to be
honoured and treasured.
Lulu Winfield is a birth doula, pregnancy reflexologist,
hypnobirthing practitioner and yogabirth teacher. She has attended
over 90 births in her role as a professional birth doula over
the last few years and offers one to one courses on "preparing
to be a birth partner" or birth preparation for couples.
She has been a member of Doula UK since its early days, she is
a recognized birth doula, mentor and assessor, working with trainees
towards achieving Doula UK recognition status. She is also involved
in the training co-ordination within Doula UK. Lulu teaches pre-natal
yoga and childbirth education as a certified yogabirth teacher.
She has been interviewed for various complementary health and
pregnancy magazines and lives in West London with her two daughters.
Sue Saunders has been specialising in breastfeeding,
lactation and human milk feeding since becoming an International
Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 1989, and she has a background
in breastfeeding counselling, midwifery and nursing. She qualifies
her varied experience in both hospital and community settings,
in Western Australia, West Africa and England as 'empowering and
challenging'. She has been teaching breastfeeding and lactation
to health care professionals and parents for the past 18 years
both by facilitating courses and running breastfeeding consultations.
Lyn Scazafabo has been Women and Children's Health
Nurse for 35 years and an International Board Certified Lactation
Consultant since 1994. She is the mother of 5 and grandmother
of 7. her clinical experience includes working in both the acute
care setting and the community. She founded the Breastfeeding
resource Center at the University for Medicine and Dentistry in
Camden, new Jersey (UMDNJ). After coming to England to research
her family history in 2000 she fell in love with the Kent countryside
and applied for a job as an infant Feeding Advisor with the NHS.
Lyn has worked in this role in both East and West Kent. In addition
to being a Registered Professional Nurse, Lactation Consultant
and Childbirth Education Instructor Lyn has organized breastfeeding
conferences for UMDNJ, developed and taught multidisciplinary
courses on lactation management to health care professionals and
offered breastfeeding classes to childbearing families both in
the USA and in England.
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