Birth Story Listening Is:
Evidence-based
Debriefing after a birth experience has been shown to impact how people hold onto their stories and whether they experience trauma symptoms. Having a healthy baby is not the only important part of birth. Your experience and feelings matter.
Full of possibility
You cannot go back and change how your birth unfolded. Birth story listening guides you through telling your birth or postpartum story to explore why your experience continues to burden you and what meaning may be attached to it. Change is possible.
Birth story listening isn’t just for those who experienced birth trauma or changes in birth plans.
You can be left with unexpected and nagging feelings from a birth experience that appears uncomplicated from the outside.
You could benefit from a birth story listening session if you:
➢ Are struggling with feelings of grief, inadequacy, shame, loneliness, disappointment or anger
➢ Find yourself ruminating over certain aspects of your birth
➢ Are struggling to “get over it”
➢ Have never felt validated in your experience
➢ Feel like something is unresolved from your experience
➢ Don’t want to hear other people’s positive birth stories
➢ Are afraid to have another baby
➢ Want another birth to have a redo of the experience
Who can benefit from birth story listening?
I support people in processing what they experienced or witnessed at a birth or in the postpartum period.
This could be the birth giver: the parents, mothers, fathers. As well as partners, fathers, parents and family members in attendance.
This also includes professionals at the birth:
➢ Birth workers such as doulas
➢ Medical care providers (midwives, midwife assistants, doctors, nurses)
Witnessing a traumatic or challenging birth can have a tremendous impact, and while some are inclined to minimise their experience “I wasn’t the one who experienced it”, the truth is your feelings are real and you could be holding onto some pretty big stuff.
What does a birth story listening session look like?
Sessions are done virtually (in-person in Montreal, Canada may be possible). You need 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted time, which means childcare for your baby/child(ren) MUST be arranged during our time together.
One session is often enough to get you going on a new path.
No preparation is needed, I will guide you through a process that helps get to the core of the issue.
Sessions are currently $50 CAD +tax
What People Are Saying
“Heather guided me through my birth story and helped me transform my negative, disempowering feelings into ones of love and courage. I immediately felt a shift in my body, and it wasn’t till after the session that I realized how much this incomplete feeling was unconsciously impacting other areas of my life. I am so happy I did the session. I now recall my birth as a truly joyful, empowering experience.”
Who is Heather?
I am a birth & postpartum doula and childbirth educator in Montreal, Canada and have supported families through births of all kinds. I have seen the ways in which birth impacts parenthood and self-worth. This led me to explore how to support people with integrating their birth experiences.
I trained as a birth story listener in 2021 with Birth Story Medicine. This work has greatly informed how I teach and support families.
