Tutors

Dominique Sakoilsky

Dominique trained as an active brth teacher 18 years ago at the Active Birth Centre in London with Janet Balaskas, Lolly Stirk and Yvonne Moore. She has been running classes and workshops ever since, both within the NHS and privately, and attending many births. Dominiqe has a thirst for learning, and loves the way that birth touches so many different aspects of humanity.

Dominique then trained with Sophy Hoare and John Stirk in yoga and later studied as a Craniosacral Therapist, qualifying in 1997. She also trained with Relate, first as a Couple Therapist, then as a Family Counsellor and Systemic Practitioner. Dominique works both privately and at Relate with couples and families, also running a private practice in Craniosacral Therapy.

Dominique spent five years working for the Holistic Birth Trust Foundation training Doulas and Childbirth Educators. More recently she became a certified 7 Words Practitioner. The 7 Words is a system of authentic communication that enable us to gain greater clarity in our lives.

She is a mother of three. Two sons aged 20 and 17, and a 13-year-old daughter, their births have all deepened her journey, love and understanding of birth. She has had a premature labour in hospital, an unattended homebirth (he was in a hurry!) and a water birth at home.

Louise Bennett

Louise Bennett is an active birth teacher, aromatherapist and mother. Over the past 16 years she has worked independently and within the NHS, as well as for community projects. Louise is currently creating training packages utilising her expertise in the antenatal/postnatal field within the Walsall and West Midlands area.

Louise initially became inspired to teach English while travelling in Asia in her early twenties. She found her passion for birth through a challenging birth experience on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Her second son was born in water and benefitted from all she had learnt on the Active Birth Teacher Training Course with Janet Balaskas.

Louise has co-written Best Buddies, a breastfeeding peer support course and has worked within the NHS developing innovative approaches to antenatal care. She has worked in partnership with diverse communities developing women-centred antenatal approaches, including the Sanpad South Asian Project in which music and relaxation were used as tools to help mothers and their unborn babies connect and bond. This has resulted in a CD of music for use in pregnancy, birth and beyond.

She also runs a Baby Palace at the New Art Gallery Walsall, which is a sensory project that invites mothers and babies to explore touch, sound and communication through a loving and relaxed way of being. Louise has been described as a 'champion of women', and her commitment to a woman-centred approach is always at the heart of her work.

Jenni Meyer

Jenni started her career as a nurse and then trained as a midwife. She worked as a midwife for 17 years mainly in the community. She worked for several years in a team specialising in midwifery for women with mental health problems and women wanting home births, where she helped to signifcantly increase the home birth rate.

Jenni has always been interested in Holistic health and so has studied various aspects of natural medicine, massage, naturopthy and yoga. Jenni is also trained as an Okido yoga teacher (Japanese Zen tradition). Jenni has a BSc. Hons. in human biology and is a qualified Craniosacral Therapist. At present Jenni works full time as a Craniosacral Therapist and sees many pregnant women, mothers and babies and families in her practice.

Rachel Wheeler

Rachel has been working as a health professional for the past 17 years, mainly focusing on women's health. She started attending her friends' and clients' labours to provide them with support. After the pregnancy and birth of her first son she realised that her calling and particular interest in women's health was in and around the childbearing year, and this was where her future and continuing career lay.

Rachel trained for two years with the Active Birth Teacher's Association under Lolly Stirk, Yvonne Moore and Janet Balaskas. She continues to expand and update her knowledge through professional development and membership of Yoga Birth and Active Bith Associations. She attends regular study days for midwives and other health professionals and continues her own personal yoga development through regular practice and attending classes with other teachers. She works closely with other antenatal teachers, yoga teachers, midwives, physiotherapists, health visitors, doctors and complementary therapists.

Rachel has been teaching in Bath since 1997, and as her children have grown older she has been able to get increasingly involved with her own practice and expanding what she can offer to the extent of now taking on an apprentice. She is passionately committed to what she does and continues to enjoy and feel honoured to share in such a special time in women's lives.

In 2005 Rachel embarked on her long term ambition of midwifery training, and has now recently qualified. She is really excited about and happy to be able to combine midwifery with the work she loves.

Eva Fernandes

Eva's passion for natural parenting led her to establish her first retail shop Born in 2000 when she became frustrated at the lack of availability of natural baby products on the high street. "I wanted to use washable nappies and carry Maya in a sling but the only place I could find those products were from mail order companies. I am passionate about the environment so I gave talks on using washable nappies and set up the real nappy campaign in Bristol, which is now run by the council. The problem was we created a lot of demand for nappies but like me, mums wanted to see and feel what they were buying before they bought, so my sister Georgina and I set up Born to fulfill that demand." The Bristol shop soon became very successful and by 2004 the sisters were able to open a second shop in Bath. This was followed by a third shop in Stoke Newington North London in 2005.

The success of Born is largely due to the fact that it is regarded so highly amongst healthcare professionals. "We wanted to offer more than just a place to buy organic baby clothes or chemical free toiletries; we believe that new mothers need support from other mothers and professionals such as antenatal yoga teachers, complimentary therapists and breastfeeding counselors. We keep all this information in our stores and on Born Together and get to know who is doing what in the field of pregnancy and birth around our shops. We want to transform birth and parenting instilling unconditional love into families and where a mothers need's and her babies needs are met by the whole community." To help make this dream a reality Eva is also involved in the Relaxed Birth and Parenting training with Dominique Sakoilsky: "Our goal is to have a Relaxed Birth and Parenting teacher in every neighbourhood to bring back into the community the mother-to-mother support that our society desperately needs."

As well as Directing the Born retail business, Eva also assists Alison Baum, founder of Best Beginnings and the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition. As part of this support Eva set up the Precious Drops Fundraising Campaign to raise funds to set up a Human Milk bank at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. "I believe passionately in the physical and emotional benefits of human breast milk for human babies, my own children were long-term breastfed and I want to contribute to making breastfeeding the norm in our culture."

Amanda Rayment

Amanda works as a herbalist in the field of pregnancy, birth and childhood. She is also co-founder and principal tutor at the Holistic Birth Trust Foundation and owner of the herbal tea company Welcome World, which produces the popular pregnancy wellbeing and breastfeeding support tea, among others. At the heart of all Amanda's work is the intention and desire to communicate that we can raise our children with the awareness that happiness is our shared true nature. Amanda is delighted at the opportunity to participate on the Relaxed Birth and Parenting trainings.