About Me
Welcome to Back to Birth
I am Allison, mum to 3 gorgeous boys and I am a
birth and bereavement doula and a childbirth
educator. I co facilitate the Positive Birth
Movement Group Edinburgh & the Lothians and
am a member of the Lothian NHS Maternity
Services Liaison Committee. I volunteer as a
buddy with Bliss Scotland and work closely to
support bereaved families with SANDS Lothians
The experience of my own births (a pre-term natural birth at 32 weeks in
Newcastle, UK, an induced birth at 38 weeks in Dublin, Ireland and natural home
birth at 38 weeks in Midlothian, Scotland) as well as informally supporting friends through their birthing journeys, have all formed
the foundation and ethos of Back to Birth and have shaped the services I aspire to offer women, their partners/families and
ultimately their babies. I bring with me a passion for working with families, an understanding and strong insight into the
challenges of working within a stretched institution (and ultimately how this affects maternity care and services offered to
women) and a passion for education and teaching. My own births highlighted the fundamental importance of birth rights,
informed choice and the vital need for information but they also affirmed to me, the power of women and the incredible nature of
physiological birth - simple, yet so potentially complex when interfered with unnecessarily.
So what are my key reflections, beliefs and birth aspirations? For me personally, as a mum, wife, daughter, and sister, I have
experienced and been fundamentally changed by the strength, power and wisdom of women. Over the decades, birth as a
normal physiological (and evolutionary) process and one that should be respected and celebrated has, and continues to lose its
way amongst society, technology and the ever growing world of medicine. In the face of this reality, Back to Birth recognises and
respects every woman's birthing journey as a unique, transformational experience which has a significant impact on her and her
baby for the rest of their lives. My skills and training enable me to support women through birth in any outcome and in any
trimester.
The support and services offered by Back to Birth celebrate and recognise birth as a physical, emotional and spiritual experience
and by empowering women through access to information, nurturing their innate wisdom and inner strength to make their own
informed choices about their pregnancy, birth and early parenting (without fear of judgement, bias or misinformation) birth is
rightly owned by each mother. Ultimately, information is knowledge and knowledge is power, but we can only know what we
know - without access to evidence based, credible information, how can a birthing mother make an informed choice or own her
birth? Although the way in which a woman gives birth is of significant importance to both herself and her baby, the way in which
a woman FEELS about her birth is of equal, if not greater significance. If the way in which a woman gives birth is not significant,
why then do women’s birth stories resonate that birth has the power to make, break or heal her soul? Birth matters now and in
the future - birth should be honoured, celebrated, cherished and respected.
My subsequent desire to help "return birth back to its grassroots" lies at the ethos of Back to Birth - birth is sacred, precious and
life changing, the impact of which should not be underestimated.
Website designed and maintained by Jim Dick
“Birth is all encompassing, physical, emotional and spiritual - it imprints on a woman's
soul and from the moment it occurs, a woman is forever changed” (Back to Birth)