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Hello!

I'm Cathy, Chilled Mama.

Let me tell you a little about me.

 I run retreats and wellbeing sessions for parents, particularly mums, irrespective of how old their children are. We are not just parents, we are people. 

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I am interested in helping each family relax and find their own way through the baffling overwhelm of information and opinion.

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To feel confident to follow their intuition to nurture and respond to their child and their situation.

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To be connected to themselves, their inner wisdom, and to a community of other parents.​

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To simplify life, to care for the planet, and feel connected to nature.

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To value ourselves, our mental and physical health, and create community. 

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To be the chilled mamas, papas, parents we want to be.

I have five children (aged 12-27 years old). Three of my children are autistic (PDA) and I have ADHD (the inattentive kind, which means my brain is hyperactive, rather than my body). I love the sea, the woods, reading, and the smell of woodsmoke. And tea. Lots of tea!

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I have been a perinatal educator, and now trainer, a parenting practitioner, doula, teacher, for over two decades. 

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When I started the internet was in its infancy, and my work was about giving parents the information they needed on their options and choices. Now parents are inundated with information. It is overwhelming.

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It is great that you have this information, particularly when so much of the latest research backs up parental instinct, but you also just need reassurance that you are doing a great job. And actually we are all winging it, working out what works for us and our family, and we are all making mistakes, every day. 

 

I know that your mental health as parent is so important, but fragile, due to lack of sleep, constant worries, changing needs as they grow up, and isolation. Our society doesn't care for children or value them as it should, and it doesn't value those who care for them either. 

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I have experienced significant challenges in my life as well. I know how tough it can be. I have used relaxation techniques all my life to help me relax and to sleep. When I had my first and my mental health suffered I turned to the woods, and discovered the power of forest bathing, though I didn't know it had a name. Labyrinths have helped to heal my grief after the death of my husband when he was 49, and our youngest was just six. 

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I want to help you be the chilled mama/papa/parent you want to be. 

I'm no longer a birth doula, but all my experience and training has led me here, to support and guide you. To 'doula' you through parenting life.

To 'doula' means to hold space for you to find and follow your path, relax and let go of what you don't need to worry about, and keep hold of what is important to you. 

Training and experience

  • Labyrinth facilitator Veriditas (May 2023)

  • Labyrinth workshop Veriditas (January 2023)

  • Water birth training with Dianne Garland (April 2021)

  • Closing the bones (Cerada) with Roccio Alacron (November 2018)

  • Shinrin Yoku practitioner training with Nature & Therapy UK (June 2018)

  • Post term pregnancy training with Sara Wickham (March 2017)

  • Human rights in childbirth study day with Birthrights UK (February 2017)

  • Doula training, Red Tent Doulas (completed October 2016)

  • Baby sign teacher, Touch Learn (April 2016)

  • Loving the Multiple Mama, Mars Lord (June 2016)

  • Closing the bones with Nicola Goodall (March 2015)

  • Antenatal teacher, Mother & Baby International (March 2015)

  • Consultant facilitator (ad hoc), Best Beginnings, (June 2016 - 2020)

  • Wrote & delivered facilitator training for postnatal course, Baby Days  (a postnatal course for Sure Start Children's Centres in Central Bedfordshire) (June-October 2015)

  • Baby wearing adviser, Touch Learn (September 2014)

  • Baby massage teacher, Touch Learn (Sept 2011). 

  • Protective Behaviours parenting programme (May 2011)

  • Breastfeeding support at children's centre (Nov 2009-Oct 2015)

  • Management and support of breastfeeding, NHS (Nov 2009)

  • One Stop Parent Shop (March 2009) parenting programme.

  • Oral health & nutrition for under fives, NHS (Oct 2008)

  • Parent programme leader, The Nurturing Programme (aka Parent Puzzle), Family Links (2008)

  • Manager, Sure Start children's centre in Bedfordshire (Nov 2007 - Oct 2015)

  • Volunteer for Dunstable NCT 2002-2007 (Chair, Bumps & babies group leader, MSLC rep)

  • Primary school teacher (early years teacher 1993-1997, supply teacher YR-Y6 1998-2004)

  • Various conferences

Publications:

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Waterbirth after a 4th degree tear? The Practising Midwife magazine, co-written with Dianne Garland, and my doula client, Emma Fisher. (November 2021)

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'Never safer: never more afraid: women's voices', chapter for 'Understanding anxiety, worry and fear in childbearing', edited by Kathryn Gutteridge (November 2019)

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Birth Cave, article in The Green Parent magazine (October 2018)

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A doula for dads, article in The Green Parent online magazine (October  2016)

 

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