Natalie was inspired to train as an active birth teacher in 2003, following the birth of her first child. She became a doula two years later and has been supporting mothers during their pregnancy with yoga and in birth as a companion, ever since.

There are various ways a woman can build her confidence for birth, but experience has shown her that nothing empowers and prepares a mother’s body and mind quite as well as yoga for birth. She has seen mothering journeys transformed by that simple act of showing up every week. Stretching and breathing, setting aside time and space where there is nothing else to do but listen to their bodies. Confidence, strength, and ease increase in equal measure and that’s powerful. Natalie’s class is a community, gathering over tea and cake at the end, that coming-together is key. We talk, we share, we listen. It’s a circle of mothers, and women feel good inside it, a growing sense that they are part of something.

Natalie teaches birth preparation to couples and often provides doula phone support to women in her yoga class. It’s effective because she’s familiar to them.

She has three children: Constance who was born in a free-standing Edgware Birth Centre in 2001, Pearl at home in 2003 and Walter, also at home in 2006. Natalie is the author of two books, How to Have a Baby and Why Home Birth Matters and she runs the support site, www.tellmegoodbirthstory.com