Nurturing Birth

Doula Courses | Education | Doula

…here to nurture, inform and empower doulas and families

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Video interview with Polly Hand, chiropractor

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Sophie chats to chiropractor and doula, Polly Hand, about her work with pregnant women, babies and families, especially when it comes to breech or malpositioned babies. She discusses how she uses the Webster Technique amongst others to help babies move into an optimal position.

For more information about Polly visit her website or follow on Instagram

Click here to watch Sophie’s interview with Aine Homer about baby reflux or click here to watch Sophie chatting with Hannah Wallace of Wear My Baby about baby wearing and the benefits for families.

If you are looking for a respected, quality doula then do visit the Nurturing Birth Directory

Why you should absolutely be blogging to promote your doula business (and how to get it right)

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Let’s talk blogging…

We know, you’ve probably heard this one before right? Blogging is an essential part of your marketing strategy. But when you’ve got a million and one things on your to-do list, is blogging really worth it?

As a doula, working within a limited geographical area and with a limited number of clients, do you really need to be blogging? Isn’t it just a mammoth waste of time?

Absolutely not! And here’s why… 

Four reasons you should absolutely be blogging to promote your doula business

1. Blogging showcases your professional knowledge

Writing a regular blog that addresses common problems or queries your potential clients may have makes you look super profesh and helps to reassure them that you really know your stuff. This can be crucial if a reader is comparing several potential doulas. Blogging regularly helps to boost the know, like and trust factor of your website, increasing the chances of a potential customer getting in touch.

To make sure you’re blogging about the right topics start a file of subjects that you see pregnant women asking about or discussing. Your emails, social media and newspapers and magazines can all be great sources of information.

At the end of each blog make sure it’s easy for the reader to take the next step and get in touch. You could provide a call to action along with contact details, for example…

Have you been affected by xxx during your pregnancy? Get in touch to find out how I could support you. Email me: sophie@totallyawesomedoula.com

2. Blogging helps to boost your SEO

SEO is incredibly important for small local businesses. Put simply, if someone types ‘doula in Tewkesbury’ into Google and your website comes top of the results then there’s a really good chance that person will click on the link to your website (where, of course, the fabulous blog you just posted is ready to wow them!) Posting and (importantly) promoting a regular blog help your website rank higher in local search results.

Google spiders regularly crawl your website. When they find a new page or post they add this to their index. The first part is done; the rest is up to you.

You see indexing and ranking are two different things. When a potential customer types a query into Google they are essentially asking Google to show them all the results in the index that match their query. Now as you might imagine there can be hundreds even thousands of results for each query and ranking is how Google sorts them. Their goal is to show the most relevant and useful content first.

To show Google that your content is worth ranking you need to get eyes on it. The more the better. Each time you post a blog, be sure to promote it widely and if the subject matter is evergreen, keep promoting it on a regular basis.

>> Want to know more about SEO? Read our blog: Search Engine Optimisation – A TOTAL beginners guide!

3. Blogging ensures that your website/business looks active

Having a website is super important, but the problem is that you can never really tell how old a website is, or how active. There are thousands of abandoned blogs and websites out there, so how can a customer tell if yours is up-to-date? Posting a regular blog is one way of letting potential customers know that you are actively promoting yourself. Find a blogging routine that suits your business lifestyle, even if it’s just once a month.

4. Blogging gives you much more to talk and post about on social media

Do you sometimes struggle with what to post on social media? You’re not alone. It can be super tough to think up fresh ideas for your social channels, but blogging provides a regular source of interesting content. It’s super simple to turn your blog into dozens of social media posts. Here’s how…

Let’s take this blog for example, we might…

  • Post a quick video letting our followers know we published a new blog and why we’ve chosen to cover this topic on Instagram.
  • Write a post with a quick intro and link to the blog on Facebook.
  • Create a series of memes, each one focusing on an individual tip and post them on Facebook and Instagram.
  • Pull out key sentences and use them as tweets.
  • Use the blog topic as a social conversation starter, and ask our doulas how often they blog and why.

So what do you say? Are you ready to start blogging to promote your doula biz? You can do it!

Video interview with Liz Stanford, The Calm Birth School

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Sophie caught up with Liz Stanford who recently took over The Calm Birth School from Suzy Ashworth. They chat about Hypnobirthing, the science behind it, the mind body connection and how empowering it is for women approaching birth. They also talk about how the term hypnobirthing can be off-putting for some and dispel some of the myths around it. Liz shares her experiences of using hypnobirthing for the birth of her three children.

To find out more about Liz and the Calm Birth School visit their website, Facebook Page, Instagram

Click here to watch Sophie’s interview with Alex Heath, Hypnotherapist about Birth Trauma recovery.

Video interview with comedian Rob Rouse and actress/writer Helen Rutter

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Having watched Rob and Helen’s new play, Funny in Real Life, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sophie caught up with the husband and wife team to chat about home birth and why it can be so difficult discussing joyful birth experiences with other women and families. Prepare for laughter, some chaos and occasional appearances by other members of the Rouse family!

Click here to find out more about Funny in Real Life, on at the Gilded Balloon Teviot at 11.15am until 18th August during the Edinburgh festival.

Follow Rob and Helen on Twitter

Rob and Helen talk about why birthing at home felt so safe and the right choice for them – in this blog Sophie talks about home birth and physiology – why it makes sense that we would feel relaxed in a familiar environment.

Click here to read comedian James Mullinger’s account of doula support at the birth of his children

Video Interview with The Baby Reflux Lady

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Nurturing Birth Director Sophie Brigstocke interviews Aine Homer about her work with families experiencing reflux, colic, silent reflux and allergies. It turns out reflux is most commonly a symptom of something else which Aine is ruthless about getting to the bottom of for each family. Former engineer and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner Aine has been investigating reflux since her own experiences with two children suffering took her into difficult territory personally. She’s on a mission to change the world and eradicate reflux forever. She has some thoughts about how doulas can help.

For more information go to The Baby Reflux Lady website, Instagram or Facebook page

Click here to watch Sophie’s interview with Lyndsey Hookway, Holistic Sleep Consultant about baby sleep patterns

Self-Care for Doulas – Taking care of you, so you can take care of them…

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It’s been a hectic few months here at Nurturing Birth HQ. Our busy little team have taught Doula Preparation Courses across the UK and Europe, mentored dozens of doulas, recorded several Facebook Live sessions, run a free- 5-day online course, scheduled in over 360 social media posts, added more doula preparation courses to our calendars, planned two retreats, attended dozens of conferences and events, raised teenagers, cooked meals, driven school runs, survived school holidays and moved homes.

Phew!

When you take into account the huge amount of tasks you have to fit into running a home, family and business it’s no surprise how little time we women have to look after ourselves? It’s easy to put self-care on the back-burner when everything else seems so urgent. Especially when you’re on call!

“Long births can really take it out of you. For me it often feels like jet lag – my body likes sleep and regularity, so doesn’t deal with lengthy births particularly well! After a long birth I need to be gentle with myself – often I don’t sleep well immediately, but the second night tends to be really good and deep. In the meantime I eat well, re-hydrate, take a bit of exercise (usually a good walk in the fresh air) and nurture myself with a long bath or a massage.” Sophie Brigstocke, Nurturing Birth

But you can’t give from an empty cup… So if you’re stuck in a bit of a rut when it comes to your health and your happiness, this months blog  is packed with wellbeing tips that are quick, easy and effective. Starting with what we consider to be two of the most important steps in leading a vibrant, healthy fulfilled life…

Firstly… Get moving!

People weren’t designed to sit still. Movement improves posture, increases oxygen to our brain and gets us out and about. Moving around also helps to get us thinking more clearly too so if you are feeling uninspired or stuck with a problem; take a walk.

Walk to work, run up the stairs, make phone calls standing up, play chase with the kids, play your favourite song and dance along, do a quick 10-minute yoga video on YouTube, walk the dog or meet friends for a walk rather than sit down for a coffee. When we are moving we are less likely to eat rubbish, spend hours watching things we don’t particularly want to watch anyway and put on weight. 

Regular movement has even been shown in studies to improve some kinds of depression.

Moving is free, easy and available to us all. So let’s try and do a little more of it.

Second, practice gratitude. Our brain is much like a computer in some ways; if we load it with a program which says ‘things will go badly, I never have any luck, I can’t find enough clients, life is awful’, then it often produces results that prove that program. It’s like some sort of negative self fulfillment!

So make sure you load your doula brain with a positive program. There may be some days when this feels impossible, but try to pay attention first of all to the things you take for granted; did you have enough food to eat today, are you healthy, do you have a client or two?  Also, you don’t just have to proud of yourself for big achievements; what about the way that you kept your cool when someone cut you up on the school run this morning, or the way that you manage to juggle so much and still have time for your friends and loved ones? 

The more we focus on what we appreciate and are grateful for, the more we will get to be grateful for, because our brain will notice more of those things and fewer of all the things we used to complain about.

We conducted a poll and asked our lovely Nurturing Birth doulas how they de-stress, relax and rejuvenate themselves… here’s what they had to say…