More About Jane

@RobynFrances

She/Her

I am a mother, nana, daughter, sister, auntie, friend and a strong advocate of community and have an ‘overstanding’ of how it takes a village to raise a child.

I have lived a vegetarian way of life for 37 years, also brought up my children as vegetarians and, in recent years, a more plant-based way of living. I love cooking and enjoy using herbs, herbal teas and recipes that nourish and care for my family and friends, as well as the families I support. I use holistic remedies, traditional and cultural practices in my birth work and give full cultural acknowledgement and appreciation to the cultures where they originate.

I enjoy a variety of music genres, especially hip hop and reggae and can often be found dancing to loud music in the kitchen whilst preparing food. Another passion is gardening, I am very fortunate to have an urban garden where I have a small vegetable patch…..the garden is my happy place!

I advocate for all birthing people to understand their rights and options. I aim to hold, nurture and love the families I work with however they look and for them to have a calm, loving and smooth transition into parenthood. I aim to bridge the gap, of disparity in birth culture today, with a culturally safe practice particularly, for marginalised birthing people.

I felt birth work was my vocation for many years so, when I reached the wise age of 50 and, my children were older, I decided it was now my time to follow my heart. Gradually one step at a time, my journey into birth work began. I became a breastfeeding peer supporter for Barnardo’s and, completed a Foundation Degree in Birth and Beyond at Worcester University. Furthered my training with Dr Michel Odent MD and Liliana Lammers of Paramana Doulas and Mars Lord of Abuela Doulas the first Black-owned, UK doula course, where you can find me on the Abuela Doula Directory

I bring my lived experience of birthing my children into my work with families and including singletons, identical twins, home and hospital births, caesarean birth and a successful (VBAC) vaginal birth after caesarean (HBAC) home birth after caesarean. Along the way, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou

Before becoming a doula and birth educator, I was a 1-2-1 SEN teaching assistant elevating learning and personal development of children with individual complex needs and disabilities for St. Paul’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre. Building trust and close relationships with the children and their families I worked with was important to me. I found my expertise transferable in birth work, being flexible, patient and having the foresight to anticipate what may be coming next as birth can change its entire course in an instant. I provide personalised care, always ready to be present with the birthing family with kindness, creativity, intuition, an understanding of birth and most importantly at the heart of everything I do…… BRING LOVE.

I have since supported families planning varieties of births from the comfort of their own home, midwife lead unit and hospital settings. My experience has included vaginal birth (VBAC) and (HBAC) parents expecting multiples, single parents, support through induction and birthing people with previous birth trauma and other traumas.

I am a volunteer Mothers Companion for Project Mama a Bristol based charity supporting pregnant refugees, asylum-seekers, survivors of modern slavery, human trafficking and other displaced women.

I am also currently undertaking the Traditional Postpartum Doula training with Nicola Goodall, Red Tent Doulas. Loving the Multiples with Abuela Doulas and Antenatal Teaching and Doula training with Dominque Sakoilsky and Amanda Rayment.

Constantly learning “One Love, One Heart, One Destiny” – Bob Marley

BLESS