welcome, mama!
welcoming you and the new gift of life you are nurturing with a full heart.
Let me take a moment to introduce myself, I’m Raya, mama to a mischievous and loving 2 ½ year old, Beau and live in South East London with my purple-everything-obsessed photographer partner of 8 years, Jason.
I am excited to share with you what I am offering for those who are seeking holistic, nurturing and soulful support throughout their pregnancies and journey into early motherhood.
Whether this is a first or an additional child, every conception, pregnancy and birth is a rite of passage, a powerful portal of transformation in which unfurls a deeper insight and wisdom.
Believe me when I say: it would be a profound honour to witness and hold you on this journey.
Creating spaces and experiences for people to come home to their deep inner knowing, into connection, trust and healing with their bodies has been central to my work supporting Women - I absolutely love to creatively weave together words of wisdom, meditative reflections, guided journeys, movement flows and rituals to create a space oozing with ceremony and a sprinkling of magic.
I am a huge foodie - creating delicious, nutritious and vibrant meals is a love language of mine. Being fed well is hugely important during the postnatal period for both recovery, ongoing sustenance of the body and breast milk production. The thought of nourishing you with yummy food fills me with delight!
To me, it is important that we return to honouring the Mother in every way, shape and form we can remember from within ourselves and summon from our ancestors. It is through returning to this devotional way of being that reminds us of the immense gifts the mother bestows, and how integral an embodied and grounded mother is to a functioning and healthy society.
When we hold this front and centre, this impacts the way we tend to ourselves and our communities and contributes to creating a culture and future where women are seen, believed, treated with utmost care and compassion and are encouraged to trust their intuition.
As your doula, I want you to feel that you are supported, loved and cared for throughout this pivotal time. I intend to share birth and motherhood wisdom, help and guide women to feel in connection with their power and nurture mothers so that they can find their feet as mothers for their families.
my journey to birth work so far
Conceiving and birthing Beau solidified a long time dream of becoming a doula and supporting mothers throughout the spectrum of conception, birth and motherhood. Ever since I had learned what a doula was, my heart has longed to hold and witness a woman through this momentous life shift. Supporting women through their conception journeys and postpartum has brought me even closer to this.
Whilst not necessary to becoming a birth-worker, somewhere in my bones I knew that I wanted to experience this journey for myself ahead of guiding others, so that I may keep my eyes wide open, be present with myself and my babe and begin to integrate the medicine of motherhood.
Beau was born wild and free at home with my partner by my side and the support of my beautiful friend and birth-keeper, Laura Swann. If you would like, you can read our birth story here. You might want to carve out 30 minutes and go make a cup of tea before getting stuck in!
There is much to share about how believe I got to the point where a birth like this was possible, but ultimately, I believe that the journey of healing and the gift of getting to know my womb and yoni intimately as a source of creativity, power and wisdom played a key role. I am a fierce advocate that every woman is capable of having a birth that is in deep alignment to her choices an values and vow to contribute to that for you too.
Being obsessed with birth and with a strong desire to inform myself, create my own prenatal care experience, and practice self-responsibility, I took care of my mind, body, spirit and community connection with the following courses and teachers, all of which hold an immense breadth of knowledge and experience:
The Complete Guide to Freebirth - Self-Led Course - Freebirth Society
Live Wild Birth Free - How to Have a Natural Birth 8 week course - Saima Kara
Yoga & Mindfulness for Pregnancy and Birth - 12 week course - Nadia Raafat
Empowered Birth with the Chakras - 8 week course - Nadia Raafat
Shamanic Dimensions of Pregnancy - Self Led Course - Jane Hardwick Collins
KGH Hypnobirthing - Self Led Course - Katharine Graves
Birth Power Hour Group Calls - Kemi Birth Joy Johnson
Since September of last year, I have worked at Birth Companions - an incredible charity that works to improve the lives of women and babies experiencing inequality and multiple disadvantages. This work spans maternity, criminal justice, social care and immigration systems through offering perinatal support services in the community, contributing to policy and system change. Within this role, I support administratively across the organisation and support at a weekly postnatal community group. This role keeps me engaged in how to advocate for the best possible outcomes for mothers and how to provide relevant, individualised and trauma-informed care. I am also regularly training in matters around safeguarding, anti racism, domestic abuse, human rights and more, which enables me to stay connected to the very real issues that create barriers to birthing women.
Most recently, I have trained with and continue to be mentored by Conscious Birthing’s Samsara Tanner (Grandmother Birthkeeper). She is an experienced doula, birthkeeper, antenatal educator and doula trainer of over 30 years and I feel very blessed to be inspired and guided by her wisdom, gleaned from the many women she has guided through birth and early motherhood.
And this is where we meet and take the next steps together. Here, take my hand -
