You know something is off, but you dunno what....

I reckon you've read the headlines, maybe scrolled by quickly, you've heard the word Ockenden. You've sat in a midwife appointment and left feeling more confused than when you arrived, or maybe worse, like your questions were an inconvenience someone had to tolerate before moving on to the next person in the mega full waiting room 🥴

And yet here you are. Preggo, (or planning to be). And you know you're not willing to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Awesome because that instinct, that refusal to just go along with it, is the most protective thing you have right now🔥

Eurgh, I hate to pop anyone's bubble, right but the NHS maternity system is not designed to centre you. This is not a conspiracy theory. It's an Ockenden report. It's a Birth Trauma Inquiry. It's thousands of people coming out the other side of their maternity experience asking the same question: why didn't anyone tell me I had a choice? 🤷🏾

It's thousands of overstretched midwives doing their best inside a structure that makes genuine, person-centred care almost impossible to deliver consistently. It's a shitty culture that has historically rewarded compliance over questions, that still uses language like "failed induction" and "refused" in clinical notes, that measures a good birth outcome in whether everyone came out alive rather than whether everyone came out ok 🚩

I reckon you can feel it. The disconnect between what you're told you're getting and what you're actually experiencing. The appointments that run to twenty minutes if you're lucky. The sense that the information you need is somewhere, you just can't quite access it and nobody seems to have time to help you find it. This is not your fault ⭕

Those who go into birth informed, genuinely informed, not just NHS class ticky boxed, do have better experiences. Not always easier. Not always what they planned. But better. They do ask different questions. They make decisions that feel like their decisions. They come out the other side, whether it was straightforward or complicated, vaginal or caesarean, at home or in theatre, without that particular hollow feeling of I wish I'd known....🌀

Birth trauma is real, it is common and a lot of it is rooted not in what happened, but in how it happened. In whether anyone explained what was going on..? In whether anyone asked...? In whether you felt like a person or a patient (spoiler in pregnancy you're not ill)...?👈🏾

Antenatal classes, proper education, not a two-hour hospital tour/pre-recorded link changes that. The evidence prves it. I've watched it happen, over and over🎉

I'm Sam 👋🏾, I'm a midwife and I run The Moon and Lotus Birth Prep, antenatal education for those who want more than the system has to offer💫

I'm not here to frighten you,radicalise you or send you into your birth convinced that everyone in scrubs is out to get you. That's not the goal and TBH it's not helpful. What I am here to do is make sure you understand your options. All of them. The evidence behind them. The questions worth asking. The language that shifts a clinical encounter from something that happens to you into something you're genuinely part of😘

I don't have pom poms to cheerlead you. I'm your prep🎊

I run small group workshops, masterclasses and 1-2-1 sessions covering everything from what actually happens in labour and why, to elective caesarean preparation, to how to advocate for yourself in a system that doesn't always make that easy. Everything I teach is evidence-based, up to date and delivered without the fluff or the fear.  I'll share with you what the research actually says. I'll share with you what your rights actually are. We can discuss the questions that nobody thinks to ask until it's too late and we'll make sure you know them before you ever need them 💞

You walk into your midwife appointments and you know what you want to discuss. You understand what's being offered, why and you know how to ask what happens if you say no. You don't leave wondering what just happened🤯

You're in labour and something unexpected comes up, a change of plan, a recommendation you weren't expecting, and instead of freezing, you know what questions to ask. You feel like the driver, not the passenger💥

You come out the other side, however your birth went and when you look back, you know you were as prepared as it was possible to be. You made choices that were yours. You weren't just carried along by the current in that 'go with the flow' shiz 🌊

That's what this work does. Not a guarantee of a perfect birth, nobody can give you that, but a legit shot at coming out with a story that feels like it belongs to you ❤‍🔥

You want to feel prepared, not just reassured. You want information, not just support⚡

Whether you're 8 weeks or 38 weeks, whether you're planning a home birth or a planned caesarean or you haven't the foggiest, there's something here for you💖 Come and work with me 👈🏾