More About Grace Hall
Gracefully Wholesome
Congratulations on your pregnancy and birth!
I am an experienced birth and postnatal doula and I provide tailored support to parents during antenatal, birth and postpartum through practical assistance and evidence-based knowledge to enable informed choices.
Working with families to facilitate beautiful journeys has been a calling of many years for me. The first time I supported a family during labour and birth was in 2004 and since then it has been my passion to educate, facilitate and share solutions to enable positive outcomes for births and postpartum.
As a KGH Hypnobirthing Teacher, I will support you with hypnobirthing sessions and provide you with evidence based research so you are empowered to make informed choices for your best birth.
As a trained trauma informed doula and certified 3 Step Rewind Practitioner (a gentle and proven tool to effectively detach feelings from any traumatic memory of a previous birth or postnatal that has had a negative outcome on the parents), my trauma informed practice holds space for you to make sense of past experiences, heal and rebirth too.
I am a strong believer in supporting my clients preferences and I am an avid advocate for birth rights and work as a volunteer for AIMS – Association for Improvement of Maternity Services.
Natural birth is most likely to be achieved when you are well informed and supported with the right tools to prepare physically, mentally and emotionally to allow your body and baby to work in synergy for a swift positive outcome.
One of the ways I support my clients to be birth fit is through Creative Healing therapy. I was trained by Obstetrician Dr Marie Gowri Motha, childbirth pioneer and creator of Gentle Birth Method, as a Creative Healing Practitioner.
I use aromatherapy, acupressure massage and rebozo (a Mexican rocking massage) techniques to support a calm, comfortable and special labour.
I have two lovely children, and I saw the difference in the way I birthed each one of them when I used hypnobirthing as a way to connect to my baby and partner in addition to empowering me to trust my body and the process of birthing regardless which type of birth I had.
The experience of my second birth has transformed the way how I offer support to my clients. Hypnobirthing enabled me to have a calm and serene home birth, without any analgesia and the antenatal sessions with a Doula gave me the knowledge to have a very positive birth. Due to seeing it first hand the impact that birthing tools and a Doula can have to prevent and heal from a traumatic birth I have decided to dedicate my lifework to help parents to birth better.
Originally born in Brazil, I studied Communications (I am an adept of Marshall Rosenberg Nonviolent Communications’ approach) and I have a degree in Business Studies with Spanish. I am trilingual in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Being very warm and caring, my main aim is that you have a positive and empowering outcome to your birth as well as the start of parenting journey and I will do everything I am able to support you to have just that.
I have supported VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarian), breech, hospital and home births. For postpartum I have supported diverse families including infant twins.
Contact me for a non-obligatory initial consultation. I am based in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
My antenatal package includes:
- 1 x introductory meeting
- 3 x antenatal visits including an introduction to Hypnobirthing, if required
- Personalised Birth Preferences document and exploration of options
- Option to attend consultant/midwife appointments with you
- Support during your labour and birth
- Emotional and practical support through pregnancy, birth and the early postnatal period
- On-call 24/7 from 10 days prior to your due date till two weeks after it.
- 1 x Postnatal session including debrief, problem solving and closing the energy of birth session.
POSTPARTUM – Mothering the mother.
During the period following the birth of your baby you will need nurturing and cocooning to recover and initiate your parenting journey the best way. Whether learning the new dynamics with your new baby or feeling the need to have an additional support, I am here to help you start your new journey in the most positive way.
I offer Yoni Steaming and a traditional Latin American ritual of closing the birth energy which involves the use of a traditional shawl called a “Manta” or a “Rebozo”, to rock and articulate the mother’s body and then wrap her to bring her energy back to her centre, after the expansion it has gone through during pregnancy, labour and birth. This treatment brings your body anatomy and physiology back to its axis and back to working as a non-pregnant body should be.
The Cerrada or Closing the Bones is a ceremony to honour your rite of passage in becoming a mother (or becoming a mother of a bigger family with subsequent births). This ritual is an acknowledgment of your transition, efforts and recognition of you as source of power and pride to your children.
During the Closing the Bones ritual I offer you a warming ceremonial drink and opportunity to debrief.
It involves four steps:
1) Massage – Whole body with hot stones.
2) Herbal Bath – or foot bath / yoni steaming
3) Sweating – Detoxifying through warming drink of pure cacao and resting.
4) Closing the Bones – Ceremony done by rocking and wrapping rebozos to return the birth energy to your body.