Doula Near Me
Meet the Team
Dedicated to doula-ing the doula
Our Story So Far...
A huge hello from us. We are Gráinne and Nicola, we are both doulas based in the UK. We met in 2021 and it was our shared passion to create a community open to all doulas that led to the birth of Doula Near Me!
We have both had different journeys to get to our doula careers but are aligned in our fundamental values and beliefs; all doulas should have access to business support, ongoing professional development and a community space where best practice and the latest research can be shared.
We are on a mission to spread the word to families and healthcare professionals, to support their understanding of what doulas offer and how they impact birth and postnatal experiences.
We are committed to being a voice for doulas and working to raise the profile of our profession. Our goal is that every person planning to have a baby knows what a doula is and how they can find one.
To help families find the perfect doula we have our Doula Near Me directory; scroll through and find your doula match. We offer a unique ‘message all’ feature, saving you the hassle of having to contact doulas individually to establish if they are available to potentially support you.
Hi, I'm Gráinne
Hi, I am Gráinne (pronounced Grawnya) and I am a full-time doula, who loves and enjoys doing what I do. I started my doula journey in 2018. I was going through redundancy at Waitrose and although I secured a position, my heart was not in it any more. It has always been important to me that I enjoy what I do and I had fallen out of love with Waitrose and retail. Asked by a colleague, what would my dream job be, I replied helping women in birth. He said to go and explore it. I said I think it will come back with a midwife and that’s not what I want to do. He persisted and encouraged me to go and explore and see what I could find. My interest was sparked by supporting my sister and watching my nephew being born. I thought it was such an amazing thing to be part of and so empowering to watch a woman in labour.
When I came across the word doula and found out about the role of a doula my heart was racing with excitement. This is exactly what I wanted to do! Within 6 weeks, I had spoken to a couple of doulas, completed my training and started to set up my business.
My commercial background in Waitrose has helped me understand communication, marketing, coaching and business development as a doula.
I love connecting, meeting and learning from different people. Whilst I get a lot of this from clients, I have also enjoyed meeting other business owners and doulas since training as a doula. There’s nothing more I like than meeting for coffee or a glass of wine and a good old doula chat. This has led me to become a doula mentor and support doulas through their initial first experiences as a doula and support doulas setting up their businesses.
I have used my various experiences of previously working for Waitrose for 28 years, holding down various commercial roles across the business to grow my business and help others. Collaborating, getting the best out of others and driving things forward is what I do best. One of my key strengths is recognising and identifying individual’s key skills.
I am ‘Mum’ to two teenage daughters, which can be challenging and at times, I think I need a doula who supports mums of teenagers! I love to play netball and I have been part of a league team since 2013. I am a perpetual couch to 5k runner……..as soon as I get to 5k I give up for a few months and then start all over again! Both my daughters play and coach netball and my youngest also plays football.
I have noticed since becoming a doula, there are a wide variety of doulas, mainly all fabulous at what they offer, but not always successful, as they struggle with imposter syndrome and the business side of things. Unable to communicate and market what they offer. I feel passionately that other doulas are not my competition, and the more people who have doula support, the better it is for us all. I love to tell anyone who will listen about what value doulas provide, so I can spread the word and doula love!
Hello! I'm Nicola
Hello! I’m Nicola and I work as a birth and postnatal doula, as well as a hypnobirthing teacher, and placenta remedies specialist. I am currently studying to be a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist and look forward to the day when I can specialise in supporting birth anxiety, birth trauma and infertility using my own hypnotherapy programmes.
I’m Mama Bear to one awesome neurodivergent nine-year-old little dude. I also live with my husband of 19 years and my 13-year-old black Labrador.
I experienced a difficult journey to start a family and found myself suddenly thrown into a world where I needed to understand much more about fertility, birth and postnatal recovery. As I worked to educate myself in these areas, I found myself unwilling to accept the standard (futile) pathways being offered by healthcare professionals. It was a journey that taught me the true meaning of self-advocacy and I frequently found myself asking questions and suggesting my own alternatives from the level playing field that I had created for myself, with no hint of imposter syndrome whilst talking to medical professional; I knew, with unshakable belief, that my ideas and input were at least as valuable as theirs.
It took approximately five years to achieve a successful pregnancy and, honestly, probably another three years to recover from the trauma of the journey. It was an experience that nearly broke me but thanks to the unwavering support of my husband and a close circle of people I can now feel true gratitude for the experience; it was what ignited the fire in me that brought me to where I am today.
Previously I had spent 20+ years working in the Civil Service, doing a variety of leadership roles. I always had staff, most of whom were based in the Nottingham and Derby area but as the roles progressed, I found myself (still based in the East Midlands) managing teams in Woking, Farnborough, London and Glasgow… it’s a good job I enjoy a train journey and a podcast!
My favourite role was leading a team of operational support staff who supported accident investigation teams. The role was varied and for the most part the people were fab. My least favourite role was my final one, where I had to work alongside Judges and Magistrates to manage their annual training programme. Let’s just say, the skills I had developed on my journey to motherhood were not well-received by individuals who were used to their minions being at their beck-and-call with no pushback! Even though I can still feel the visceral sensation when I recall a Judge telling me that I would “do as I was told” (I didn’t!), I can still feel the gratitude alongside it; it was this final role in the world of employment that confirmed that I was never going to be fulfilled by a Monday-Friday job, no matter how many promotions or perks such as sick pay, pensions, annual leave, flexible working, it was time to take the leap and follow my passion.
The cornerstone of my work is built on ensuring that people on a journey to parenthood have access to a range of information that is evidence-based and non-biased, so that they can confidently make informed decisions. Ensuring that people are in control of their journey and that it is not ‘done to them’ is a really important to me.
I’m not massively “woo-woo” but I am always led by my intuition and try to live in the present moment as much as possible. I (try to) meditate regularly, practice yoga (badly) and am always happy to shove a crystal in my bra if I feel like my energy is a bit wonky! I 100% believe the practice of mindfulness. I place great importance on understanding the mind/body connection and recognise that the majority of the population live in a ‘stress’ state, which is unhelpful for conception, pregnancy, birth and motherhood. For this reason, I tend to include practices such as hypnotherapy, mindfulness, breathwork and meditation when I’m supporting clients, which just adds to the job satisfaction and reaffirms that I am right where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what was intended for me.