Liana van Zyl
Passionate Birth and Postnatal doula, Placenta Remedy Specialist and Mindful Mamma Hypnobirthing Practitioner
Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, my husband is Catalan and my daughter was born in Bangkok. I used to teach in Bangkok and studied a Bachelor of Arts in English before. I haven’t returned to teaching after maternity leave and we have since relocated to the UK in August 2016.
During my pregnancy in Bangkok, I struggled to find good information and birth workers who had my best interests at heart. While discovering that there is no such thing as a midwife in Thailand, I stumbled upon a lovely and supportive group of doulas.
Seeing and experiencing the changes they made in women’s lives in Bangkok, was one of the key motivations in me becoming a doula.
I’ve been mesmerised by pregnancy and birth from an early age. As a child, I watched in awe when animals gave birth to their babies, fascinated by how they always crawled into a dark, hidden spot in the middle of the night. As I grew older, my interest in birth grew immensely. The first birth I attended was in 2009, I was still young and unaware of what was really happening to the woman in labour. My intuition told me to make her feel safe and cared for. I then realised that birth is such a unique moment in a woman’s life.
Supporting you to feel safe and understood
Feeling safe and understood was very important to me when giving birth to my daughter. So I want to be there for other woman in this special, mystical, magical time in their lives. At every birth or with every woman I work with, I always have one moment where I realise why I love this work so much. It all comes down to the miracle of life, the body, the mind and how it all works in harmony when given just the right ingredients.
To support my own passion for this topic and widen my learning, I have undertaken a great deal of training to enhance the care and support I can provide to my mothers and their families:
- Mum since February 2016
- Childbirth International since June 2016
- Conscious Birthing Doula Certification March 2017
- Doula UK Mentorship since April 2017
- Closing The Bones Rebozo Workshop May 2017
- Placenta Remedy Specialist with IPEN June 2017
- Mindful Mamma Hypnobirthing Practitioner July 2017
- Spinning Babies Workshop with Jennifer Walker July 2017
- Recognised Birth Doula with Doula UK March 2018
- Paramana Doula training with Dr Michel Odent & Liliana Lammers March 2018
