Recommend a local doula

[milkcookies]

Hi,

I live in Cambridge and I'm looking for a doula. Do you folks have any recommendations? I'd like someone that ideally can give breastfeeding support and has experience of hypnobirthing, and of course be super duper friendly :)

Thanks!

A friend of mine had Maddie McMahon as her doula quite recently and said she was utterly brilliant.

Thanks Becketts! :) I did come across her blog and was impressed but her price is a little outside my budget.

I would have recommended Maddie too. I have a feeling she trains local doulas too, so it may be worth contacting her to see if she can recommend a recently trained, less expensive doula?
Check if this is still the case, but Maddie and a couple of others run a breastfeeding drop in on Mondays 12.30-2.30 at the Homerton children's centre (for free). I tried all the drop ins when breastfeeding was going awry, and Maddie and team were the best of all of them, much better than the Health Visitor clinics. I've seen late-pregnancy ladies there too, getting advice in advance.

dinosaursdontwhine, thanks! I definitely need to go to that. I have some issues with breastfeeding, and it doesn't help that currently (4 months in) the area around my nipple is cracked and very very sore, and I just can't imagine letting a baby anywhere near it!

There's a really good LLL group in Cambridge too, they meet on Fridays and they can help via phone or email.

I'm sure you'd be welcome to go as soon as you want. Just give the children's centre a call to check the times.

Oh yes Becketts I had forgotten that - the LLL one has Rachel, who is also at the Homerton one. She's very good too.

Sorry whats a LLL group?? Excuse my ignorance, I'm new to all of this!

La Leche League? Never used them but do remember the name!

Yep, La Leche League (dinosaur- I know Rachel! She's lovely and very knowledgeable). The Cambridge group has a website here.

Sharon Budworth is fab, and runs a pregnancy yoga class in Chesterton if you wanted to pop in - yogabirthcambridge.co.uk/

One last thing from me (maybe, unless I think of anything else). When I was in a fog of newborn tiredness, I though the Homerton Children's Centre was at Homerton College and spent a fair while wandering around getting lost. It's not there - it's down a side street further south on Hills Road. Parking is a bit interesting round there - you may need to park further away and walk.

Thanks dinosaursdontwhine! I'll keep that in mind. I'm just wondering if I'll look like a weirdo if I go and I'm only 4 months into pregnancy?

Ijustwanttosay, thanks! Do you know of any yoga classes that are in central? A couple of years ago there used to be yoga classes at St Pauls Centre, but I don't think they are running anymore.

Becketts, thanks, I'll look into that. But I think Homerton one is closer to me.

Anna Young used to do pregnancy yoga, but now only seems to have baby yoga on her website. I loved her baby yoga classes, though her pregnancy yoga classes were more aimed at people who already did yoga (and were fairly strenuous, I felt). There's other classes run by Birthlight across the city in various sites - no personal experience of them myself.

Argh, all my advice is no use... did yoga with Anna Youngs (but she's just had a baby I think so might be off duty for a while) and had Maddie as doula twice, she was fantastic - once with a home birth, second time with a month-early hospital delivery. Definitely recommend the Homerton BF clinic, the ladies are just lovely.

Casey Scott near Huntingdon. Does post-natal as well as birth. Bloody wonderful she was, both for DS and DD. Is on the Doula UK website. (Sorry, can't easily link from my phone!)

Thank you ladies :)