Practitioner Profiles
Directors
Louise Bennett
Co-founder and director of Relaxed Birth and Parenting, Louise is an Active Birth Teacher, Aromatherapist, Breastfeeding Counsellor and Breastfeeding Peer Support Coordinator within Wallsall Primary Care Trust. She is a champion of women-centred healthcare services and works privately and in the NHS, as well as for community projects and also runs a sensory Baby Palace at the New Art Gallery in Walsall. In the past she has worked on such projects as Sanpad, a South Asian project in which music and relaxation were used to help mothers connect with their unborn babies. Louise is the mother of two children.
Dominique Sakoilsky
Co-founder and director of Relaxed Birth and Parenting, Dominique is an Active Birth Teacher, Yoga Teacher, Couple Therapist and Craniosacral Therapist. She originally trained with Janet Balaskas at the Active Birth Centre in London and spent five years working for the Holistic Birth Trust Foundation training doulas and birth educators. Recently, she also qualified as a 7 Words practitioner, which has enriched all aspects of her work. Dominique is a mother of three, has a thirst for learning and loves the way that birth touches do many different aspects of humanity.
Practitioners
Jessica Eveleigh
Jessica graduated from the first Relaxed Birth and Parenting Training in 2008. A Health and Fitness Journalist and Author, she was inspired to join Relaxed Birth and Parenting after attending antenatal classes with Dominique Sakoilsky during her first pregnancy and experiencing the benefits for the birth of her son, who was born in water. Jessica was touched by the power of pregnancy, birth and parenting as a transformative life stage in which we are really challenged to connect with our truth and to learn to trust our instinct and inner wisdom. She now teaches weekly antenatal classes and weekend birth workshops and is training as a Scaravelli-influenced yoga teacher.
Tamsyn Grant
Tamsyn trained as a Relaxed Birth and Parenting Birth Educator and Breastfeeding Peer Supporter in 2008 after being inspired by the positive impact that good support can have on a woman's experience of birth and parenting. She is passionate about helping women to relax and move in pregnancy, and prepare emotionally and physically for a joyful birth. Tamsyn runs weekly pregnancy classes and couple's birth preparation days in Portishead, co-chairs MAMMA, a group offering breastfeeding support to new mums, and works with the local Children's Centre to support families in birth and early parenting.
Sarah Lambert
Sarah qualified as a Reflexologist 13 years ago after appreciating its benefits throughout her own pregnancy. She went onto qualify as a shiatsu practitioner and has since treated many pregnant women helping them to experience health and vitality through a time of great change. Sarah trained as a Relaxed Birth and Parenting practitioner in 2008 and now provides doula support, as well as teaching weekly antenatal classes and birth preparation workshops, empowering women to birth in a relaxed and joyful way. Sarah also teaches baby and toddler reflexology classes for parents and carers.
Rhiannon Norman
Rhiannon is the mother of three children, but it was not until after the birth of her third child that she realised she had been missing the information and support she needed to have a more empowered experience of birth. Her desire to support women through pregnancy and birth, led her to qualify as an aromatherapist, specialising in pregnancy and labour massage, and also as a baby massage therapist. Rhiannon then qualified as a Relaxed Birth and Parenting practitioner and now offers classes and workshops in South Wales, as well as a range of a holistic therapies.
Catherine Waters
Catherine feels that pregnancy and birth should be seen as a normal part of life, albeit an 'everyday miracle'. Inspired by her own mother, who gave birth to her daughters at home, Catherine has had two home-births and one hospital birth. She is intrigued by the fact that birth is a great leveller, by its universality. She is also aware that things do not always go to plan, and is keen to help mothers who are coming to terms with a traumatic birth experience. Catherine is working as a doula and is also running birth preparation workshops with her Relaxed Birth and Parenting colleague and friend, Emilie Rowell.
Emilie Rowell
Emilie trained with Dominique and Louise following her positive experiences with Dominique’s classes during her pregnancy. She firmly believes in birth as a natural process and that, with the right information and support, women can have empowering birth experiences. Her ethos is to help expectant parents find the approach in birth and parenting that is right for them. Emilie works as a doula and antenatal teacher, sometimes teaching alongside Catherine Waters.
Laura Sarton
Laura is a Relaxed Birth and Parenting teacher within her community of South Bristol. After having her first child in hospital with much intervention, she opted for a home birth with her second child. From these experiences she felt passionate about the birthing process, both physiologically and emotionally. She volunteers for the Bristol Homebirth Group and runs weekly postnatal and antenatal classes. In her classes, Laura creates a space in which women can trust and let go, and build their confidence within birth and parenting. Laura feel that birth shows up in so many ways, and that our breath and relaxation is the key to a relaxed birth and parenting.
More Relaxed Birth and Parenting practitioner profiles coming soon.