About Me

I’m Ashleigh, a birth and postpartum doula supporting women and families across South East Queensland.

Alongside my work as a doula, I also work as a counsellor. Over the past decade, much of my work has been in mental health and pastoral care roles, supporting children and families through all kinds of seasons of life.

That experience shapes the way I support women. I’m interested in your story and what kind of support will actually feel supportive to you.

But it was my own experiences of pregnancy and birth that led me to this work.

With my first baby, I thought I was prepared. I attended antenatal classes and read all the books, but I was not prepared for how intense birth would feel, how long labour could go, or how much support I would need to sustain myself through it. After months of hyperemesis gravidarum, my trust in my body was worn down, and without the support I needed, things escalated quickly into a cascade of interventions.

With my second baby, it was a whole different story. I was planning a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC), and that required me to challenge many of the beliefs I had carried about birth.

I hired a doula and became much more intentional in how I prepared, physically and emotionally. I practised pregnancy yoga, breathwork, affirmations, and visualisation, and I regularly returned to reliable, evidence-based resources that helped me understand my options and rights.

I began to see birth as a process I could trust, and something my body knew how to do instinctively. I also knew that if things became more complex, I had the knowledge, support, and resilience to navigate those decisions with confidence, without feeling like I had to hand myself over to the system.

There’s so much information out there, and many approaches to birth preparation are wonderful. Yet what we continue to see in birth outcomes is that too many women enter the maternity system without the preparation, support and advocacy they deserve.

This is where doula support can make such a difference. Pregnancy and birth are so much more than medical appointments.

Doulas help fill the gap that the maternity system often cannot. We bring information, practical tools, emotional support, comfort measures, and continuity of care. We help women understand their options, prepare for conversations with care providers, work with their bodies, and feel less alone in the process.

Women have always gone through birth and postpartum with other women beside them, nurturing them and guiding them. That is what I wish I had during my first pregnancy, and it is one of the reasons I feel so honoured to offer this support to other women now.

Birth stays with women. I’ve spoken with grandmothers who can still remember the weather on the day they gave birth, what was said to them, who was in the room, and whether they felt cared for.

Wherever you’re at right now, excited, unsure, or feeling overwhelmed, you don’t have to do this alone. I’d love to support you. Connect with me to book a call and take the next step.