About

Amelie Cresswell
Birth and postpartum doula in South West London
Pregnancy & postnatal yoga teacher in Richmond & Kew
Baby massage and baby yoga teacher & trainer

Pregnancy, birth and early motherhood are SUCH unique times in a woman’s life.

Times that are not often honoured, valued and acknowledged in our modern life for what they truly are. Nor truly well supported.

A real rollercoaster, physically, emotionally, mentally. From the sickness, tiredness and anxiety of the first trimester, to the heaviness and impatience of the third. The big, daunting unknown of giving birth. The change, chaos, exhaustion and endless questioning of early postpartum… The moving forward, with our new bodies and growing babies.

It’s a lot. And how we approach it matters, a lot.

I get it, because I’ve been there myself and have supported hundreds of women on that journey since.

How I came to do what I do

It’s through my own journey of motherhood that I came to this path, 13 years ago.

After dabbling with yoga in my 20s (which didn’t really ‘click’ with me!), I gave it another go during my first pregnancy (like many women do) and it completely transformed my experience.

Week after week, when everything about pregnancy, my changing body and what lay ahead felt new and daunting, I discovered how to support and listen to my body, address these aches and pains, calm my anxieties (which I had never managed to tame before) and connect deeply with my baby… It enabled me to truly enjoy my pregnancy right up and past my ‘due date’, and feeling completely serene and empowered about my ability to give birth too! I knew then a plant had been seeded.

HOWEVER… despite doing what I felt at the time was thorough preparation (with a ‘classic’ local group antenatal course and my weekly pregnancy yoga), I came to experience a very tough, traumatic first birth, swiftly followed by a ‘crash landing’ into motherhood which I really struggled to navigate for months on end, and took me years to process.

At this very vulnerable time, it was postnatal yoga, and early mum & baby nurture practices that helped me heal my changed body, feel more rested when sleep was so scarce, connect with my little girl and trust my fragile mother’s instincts, and ultimately, gradually, feel like myself again.

And it was also hours and weeks spent researching birth, learning more about it, diving into what had happened in my birth to try to make sense of it, help me process it and build trust that I could have a different experience next time (which I did - a dream birth - which proved so healing and affirming).

But it was quite a journey to go on alone. And there isn’t a day I don’t wish I knew then what I learnt afterwards, and had the wise, caring support of a doula to walk this path with me. To help me understand what I didn’t and offer quiet guidance and reassurance.

This was when I knew I wanted to provide that support to women through this earth-shattering, transformational experience. To leave my diplomatic and corporate career behind, and train as a pregnancy and postnatal yoga teacher, baby massage & baby yoga teacher, active birth educator, and then finally as a birth & postpartum doula, once I felt my own children were a little less dependent on me.

To hold this very special space for you (and your baby), may it be in my yoga classes or as a doula in your birth space or in postpartum, and help you find calm, ease, deep understanding and trust in your body, baby, birth and yourself at these important thresholds of pregnancy, birth, early motherhood, and beyond. Just as it should be.