About

About You

Pregnant folks who contact me want to be empowered and respected through their pregnancy and birth journey, but aren’t sure where to start. They want a better experience than the mainstream medical model. They want their unique wishes understood and followed, respectful treatment by birth attendants, information to make actual informed choices (rather than the coercion we see too often). Partners want to learn how to advocate if needed and know how to be a helpful birth-partner while calmly going through their own journey.

They want to start life with their new baby as a healthy family. But often, from what I’ve seen in over 400 births, for many people a “healthy baby and healthy mother” merely means both have a pulse and are relatively intact. In my opinion, that’s nowhere near good enough.

You have every right to expect better for you and your child than to ‘survive’ your birthing experience. Ideally, you and your baby will be healthy and even thriving physically, mentally and emotionally. In my mind, this requires five things from you, the expecting parent(s)…. 

  1. Thoughtful preparation for birth and life with your new baby;
  2. Knowing your options going into labour;
  3. Knowing how to make informed choices and how to get those choices; 
  4. Continuous and personalized birth support;
  5. Being an active participant in your birth.

It also requires that you are honoured and treated respectfully at all stages throughout the process. When all of that happens, your new family is usually spring-boarded into more successful breastfeeding (if that’s your choice), closer bonding and you being better able to trust your instincts moving forward.    

My clients include people from different backgrounds and with all kinds of plans, situations and circumstances, including… 

  • solo parents, co-parents, couples 
  • healthy pregnancies 
  • complicated pregnancies
  • Hypnobirthing and other systems such as Birthing From Within
  • natural birth
  • medicated birth
  • caesarean birth (planned and unplanned)
  • previous trauma
  • VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) 
  • water-birth 
  • pre-existing physical conditions
  • pre-existing mental health conditions 
  • mobility issues
  • breech-birth 
  • twins 

About Birth Culture

In our culture, there’s so much fear around birth. Stress and fear have a significant impact on the birth process. Part of my job is to help minimize fear and maximize support and well-being.

Pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum days are vulnerable times for many. Common fears include: 

  • being surrounded by strangers 
  • not knowing what to do and when 
  • pain
  • having no say in what happens to you 
  • having unnecessary and sometimes invasive interventions 
  • something bad happening to the birth-mother and/or baby 
  • being disrespected, misinformed and mistreated  

And some people have extra layers of fear based on past experiences or individual health issues.  

About Birth Support

In my experience, people need an experienced guide to help them navigate all the choices they have to make and give them their best chance of the birth they want with a healthy and smooth transition to life as a family. They need reassurance and accurate information.  

But it’s not just my experience: There’s a mountain of research showing that when a doula attends a birth, it’s shorter, fewer interventions are used, there are significantly fewer requests for pain medication and caesarean rates are halved. New parents are more empowered for their family-journey ahead and breastfeeding rates are higher.    

Studies demonstrate that doula presence correlates with:

  • 50% reduction in overall caesarean rate
  • 25% decrease in length of labour
  • 40% reduction in oxytocin use
  • 60% fewer requests for epidural
  • Less painful labor and delivery

I help create a safe cocoon within which you can labour and give birth through building a trusting relationship together, ensuring you’re informed about your options and helping you learn how to get what you want. If there are fears or concerns to address, then we do our best to clear those up before you’re in labour. I’ll become familiar with you, your specific preferences, needs, and wishes.

About Me

My role as a doula is to prepare you for the birth you want and support you through your pregnancy, labour and birth. My most sincere wish is that you look back on your birth with fond memories and feelings of satisfaction and that your new baby’s birthday is a wonderful, empowering event!  

I help my clients prepare for birth and postpartum. For example, which classes to take, books or sites to read, and what they need for life with a baby. I provide accurate real-life info, presented in a clear manner that instills confidence and understanding. I ensure they know what decisions they may have to make and what their options are.

And so, you might want to know a bit about me…

In the past 18 years I have attended over 400 births with a vast number of different medical care providers in six different hospitals and birth-centres, and many homes. Also, I love teaching! My prenatal classes have helped thousands of new and new-again parents-to-be prepare for birth over the past 15 years and I’ve been training doulas and other birth professionals for almost 10 years. 

My extensive education and experience, listed below, allow me to help guide you with many practical tips, tools, gold-nuggets and evidence-based information and experienced advice to share with my clients. 

People consider me to be a “trilingual” doula, fully fluent in and equally comfortable with the languages of medicine/science, holistic health care, and spiritual care; and turning those into everyday language people can understand. When you have an issue, I can provide you with a variety of options to handle it. I can “meet you where you’re at”, with words that make sense to you and options with which you’ll feel comfortable.  

I am a geek 🙂 with equal passions for ancient wisdom and modern science, and an avid researcher and writer. My article Neonatal Resuscitation with Intact Umbilical Cord was published in Midwifery Today (2012) and received positive feedback from around the world. I’ve co-authored 2 (big!) manuals and 2 workbooks for training doulas. In addition to birth work, I’ve worked professionally in the field of holistic health for over 20 years.

This is one of the highest professional compliments I’ve received:

You’ve got the soul of a healer and the heart of a guide. You’re the go-to for mamas who want their births to feel sacred, empowered, and natural. You mix wisdom with warmth and some fierce mama bear energy, offering remedies that are as earthy as they are effective — like your castor oil cocktails for when I needed a “ready-to-pop” moment. You don’t just teach about birth; you midwife transformation with every class and client.

You’re where intuition meets expertise, and where ancient knowledge gets a modern, nurturing twist.

Classes I’ve created include: the popular How to Ease Labour Pain workshop, the Birth Essentials series of prenatal classes, Childbirth Prep for Men (a one evening session just for dads-to-be), Postpartum Survival, Healthy Babies Naturally, Holistic First Aid for Home & Travel, and Fertility Awareness Method.

Find me and my content on SM:
FB: Angie the Doula Birth Education
IG: @angiethedoula
YT: @angiethedoulabirtheducation

Degrees, Certifications and Professional Associations

In a nutshell, I’ve attended over 400 births, taught prenatal classes to  thousands of expectant parents, trained hundreds of doulas, and processed hundreds of placentas. My education and creds are listed below.

  • BScH – Honors Bachelor of Science, Premed; Queen’s University
  • MH – Master Herbalist; Wild Rose College of Natural Healing (Thesis: Prenatal Health & Nutrition). Includes homeopathy and holistic nutrition.
  • Three years study toward a Bachelor of Science, Midwifery; Midwives College of Utah
  • Master Doula – over 400 births
  • Certified Prenatal Educator
  • Trained as a Gilligan’s Guide Birth Professional
  • Certified Doula Trainer (Birth and Postpartum Doulas)
  • Co-Founder, Birth Ways International (training for birth professionals)
  • OSHA Certified Placenta Encapsulator and Trainer
  • RNPA – Registered Nutritional Products Advisor; Alive Academy
  • Certified Aromatherapist; Blaine Andrusek Phytopharmaceuticals
  • Co-Founder, Bow Valley Doula Collective
  • Past-President (5 terms) of Doulas of Regina, the local professional doula association. Current VP.
  • Member, Regina General Hospital Perinatal Services Committee
  • Regina Chapter Leader, ICAN.org (International Caesarean Awareness Network)

Training Birth Professionals

Karen Herriot (BA, CDT, CBE) and I co-founded Birth Ways International in 2025, training new doulas and experienced birth professionals. BWI offers workshops for birth doulas, postpartum doulas, advanced doula training, placenta encapsulation and childbirth education. We were invited to do sessions at the Regina General Hospital to teach birth support to nursing students doing their first obstetrical practicums.

More Info & Next Steps