Alex Schirn
Doula Alex
Supporting you through pregnancy, birth and beyond. I believe everyone should be given the chance to have the birth they want, however that looks for them.
The area I cover
I cover Surrey, Berkshire & Sussex, within an hour of KT15.
Getting in touch
More about me
I support families through pregnancy, helping to educate and empower you to make the choices that work for you and helping to create a birth plan to help support these choices. I also offer hypnobirth and birth education courses for which I give a discount to my clients. I am trained in biomechanics for birth and can work with you to suggest techniques during pregnancy to help avoid labour dystocia.
I provide 90 minute ’empower’ sessions where we can meet for a walk or at your house to discuss anything you’d like about pregnancy and birth. If you don’t feel you need a full hypnobirth or birth package this is a great option if you’d just like to talk things through!
During birth I am there to ensure the birth space is calm, safe and protected. Supporting both the birthing person and birth partners helping to advocate for your choices. I am also trained in biomechanics for birth and so can help with techniques to support a physiological birth if baby’s positioning is affecting birth.
Postnatally I support families during the precious 4th trimester. Having a baby can be a time when lots of friends and family like to offer ‘helpful’ advice, having someone who is impartial and non-judgemental can mean you’re getting evidence based information as well as the support and experience of a professional. I offer a postnatal planning session before you have your baby to ensure you’ve planned for your postpartum time and have things in place to help achieve the things most important to you. Rest is so important in the early weeks after giving birth, there’s so many ways I can help make sure you get the rest you need. Some of these ways are, cooking meals and preparing healthy snacks, taking baby for a walk so you can rest, have a bath, sleep (or whatever you need), light household chores. I also offer feeding support, be that breast or bottle!
I also run monthly pregnancy relaxation evenings in Weybridge for pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy. These are a chance to take some time to relax, focus on your baby and have a safe space to talk through anything you may need to with other pregnant women. We start with time to talk, drink tea and connect. We’ll then focus on a different top each week around pregnancy or birth and then we end with a guided relaxation. You can find out more here.
Key Interests:
- Hypnobirth & birth education using The Wise Hippo programme. This course teaches you not only skills for birth but skills for life as well as educating you on how physiological birth works and what you can do to support it. You can read more about hypnobirthing with my prices feedback & birth stories from previous clients here and find out more information on The Wise Hippo here.
- Biomechanics for Birth. I have trained with Molly O’Brien to better understand how techniques and positions can help with labour dystocia and supporting physiological birth. More information can be found here .
- Pregnancy after loss. I have completed a research project around pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period after previous baby loss. I feel passionately that families need so much more understanding and support around this and the additional emotions and needs involved. Read my blog post here .
- Breastfeeding & tongue tie. Having fed 3 babies, 2 of which had very severe tongue ties I feel passionate about supporting and educating families in breastfeeding and tongue tie issues as well as the additional issues this can sometimes cause such as reflux. I have a good relationship with local specialists who I can signpost you to if more help is needed.
I live in Surrey with my husband and our 3 children. Henry is 12, Florence is 9 and Louis is 4. Giving birth to Henry was one of the most life changing experiences I’ve ever been through. When I was pregnant with Florence I genuinely looked forward to giving birth again it was such a positive experience for me. Both births were very different and I realised that being in control was the main thing that made my first birth so powerful. When I was pregnant for the third time I wanted to make sure I had that control again and feel empowered in my birth. I believe in birth and the ability we have to give birth, it’s what we were made to do!
