Birth Preparation & Birth Debriefing
Birth is a profound experience that we carry throughout our lives and our children's lives. Whether you're preparing for the journey ahead or processing what has already unfolded, these sessions offer a safe & compassionate space to be truly heard and held.
Birth Preparation
A birth preparation session is an opportunity to step into your birth feeling informed and prepared. We create a safe space to explore what lies ahead with curiosity rather than fear.
This session is for anyone wanting to feel more confident in the lead up to meeting their baby, whether you’re preparing for a physiological birth or a planned caesarean.
What to Expect
Your 90-minute session begins with time and space to share freely where you are in your pregnancy, what you're feeling, and what you're hoping to explore. From there we can address emotional as well as physical preparation for birth.
Together, we take time to map out the various pathways birth can take, so that whatever unfolds on the day, you feel oriented, grounded and prepared.
This includes:
Understanding what is happening in your body and mind throughout labour and birth
Connecting with what you need to feel truly ready
Exploring the landscape of birth together, weaving in breath and visualisation techniques to help you connect with a sense of calm, trust and readiness in your body
Where it feels safe to do so, you'll be gently guided to explore any worries, fears or preferences, not just gathering information from the mind, but truly listening inward to what you need most.
Physical Preparation might include:
Learning perineal massage
Learning pushing preparation
Pelvic mobility to optimise space for labour and birth
Pelvic floor assessment and support
We can draw on somatic (body and breath) and systemic (role play and visualisation) tools to help uncover what may be underlying any anxiety or uncertainty you hold about birth, and to resource you with practical, embodied tools to carry with you into the experience.
For some, starting with practical questions and information feels right. For others, we begin with what's sitting heaviest on your heart.
Meet Laura, your Reconnected Birthing Practitioner
Laura is a Physiotherapist with over 8 years of clinical experience. She has a passion for Women’s Health, and noticed that often in her consults women were struggling with processing, accepting and knowing how to move forwards following their births.
This drove Laura to undertake a 10 month mentorship with Core&Floor to become a Reconnected Birthing Practitioner, giving her the skills and knowledge to guide and support women through preparing for their births and also processing their births.
She has a unique and skilful ability in being able to create a space where women can be free to feel any emotion that arises without shame or judgement. She gently guides women to connect with their bodies and their stories, helping them find peace and acceptance to move forward in their lives.
“It’s always an honour to be trusted to hold your story. It’s a privilege to witness the shifts that can happen when you have the space to be truly heard and the opportunity to meet with what your body is holding.”
Birth Debrief
How You Feel About Your Birth Experience Matters.
Whether you are navigating the impacts of birth trauma, or simply find yourself wishing things had been different, those feelings can have a real impact on your daily wellbeing, your mothering, and how you connect with your family.
What to Expect
Your 90-minute session begins with time and space to speak freely, to share your story from wherever feels right for you. For some, starting from the beginning feels natural. For others, we begin with how you're feeling right now.
You don't need to have all the details, notes, or remember everything. This is about sharing what is alive in your system.
You will be given the opportunity to be fully heard and held in relation to:
Your journey to conception
Pregnancy
Labour
Birth
The postpartum period
Together, we take time to understand what happened in your body and mind throughout the process, and to connect with what you need to move forward and live well.
A birth debrief bridges the physical and emotional impacts of your birth experience. Where it feels safe to do so, you'll be gently guided to connect more deeply with what your body is holding, not just retelling the facts from the mind.
We can draw on somatic (body and breath) and systemic (role play and visualisation) tools to help uncover what may be underlying the way you feel about your birth, and to resource you to shift those feelings.
Women leave their birth debrief with:
A clearer understanding of what happened and why their body has been responding the way it has
Feeling connected with what your body is holding
Increased capacity to co-regulate with your baby
Feeling safe to connect with your partner
Feeling safe and confident to perhaps one day grow your family further.
This is an investment in yourself that ripples outward into how you show up for your baby, your partner, and your family.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime.
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Anytime during your pregnancy, though many people find it most helpful in the third trimester when birth feels closer and more real. That said, if you're feeling anxious or have questions early on, there's no need to wait. Meeting your fears and curiosity sooner can make for a more settled pregnancy.
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Absolutely. Whether you're planning a vaginal birth, a caesarean, or simply don't know yet, this session is for you. We can explore any worries or unknowns about the caesarean pathway, so that you can go into that birth experience fully prepared.
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Not at all. You don't need to arrive with any plans, decisions or research prepared. The session is designed to help you work through what you want and need, a birth plan may be something that naturally emerges from our time together, but it's never a requirement.
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Yes.
While antenatal classes offer valuable general information, this session is entirely tailored to you. We go beyond the facts to explore your individual fears, preferences and emotional readiness, drawing on somatic and systemic tools to help you feel grounded and prepared in both body and mind.
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This is one of the most common reasons people come to a birth preparation session. If a previous birth is sitting with you — whether it was difficult, traumatic, or simply not what you hoped for — we can gently make space for that alongside preparing for this birth. Sometimes a little of both preparation and processing is exactly what's needed.
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You can have a birth debrief any time, it doesn't matter if it’s been months or years since your baby was born. You might be struggling in early postpartum and need extra support, or you might come back to it later when there’s more capacity or you’re preparing for another birth.
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Your 90 minute birth debrief allows time for you to share your story in full and connect with the pieces that come up, you might like to take one session for each birth, starting with whichever feels best for you.
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Ss a Reconnected Birthing Practitioner, the way I hold birth debriefs is different to a medical birth debrief. The goal of our session is to have you feeling fully heard, allowing you time and space to connect with your story and using somatic tools to gently guide you to shift into a more balanced state. We can help to understand the events of how your birth unfolded, focusing more on your experience than the medical details.
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As a Physiotherapist, my role in birth debriefs is to offer a safe, supportive space where we can explore your birth experience through the lens of the body. My primary focus is connecting with the physical experience - the sensations, tensions, and patterns held in the body, and using evidence-based therapeutic tools to support both physical and emotional recovery.
While this work can be deeply meaningful and healing, it sits within my scope of practice as a Physiotherapist rather than psychology or counselling. I'm not a psychologist or mental health clinician, and I want to be upfront about that so you always feel informed about the care you're receiving.
If at any point it feels like dedicated mental health or counselling support would better serve you, whether that's alongside our work together or as a next step, I'll always refer you on and help connect you with the right people.