I am Michelle Perkins, a Melbourne-born HypnoBirthing Practitioner based in Jurien Bay, Western Australia.
In order to achieve births with innate wisdom and power, women need knowledge, support, courage, information and love. It is a time when women and families must balance what they are capable of, what their health requires, and what the birthing industry dictates. Having a Doula to help you navigate these areas, whilst providing nurturing and loving individual support is something that every women and her partner deserves.
My birthworker journey began indirectly after the birth of my 1st son in hospital. I was a young mum and was not aware of my choices, but when I became a mother for the second time, I had a kind of transformative experience because I began to understand the innate knowledge and power we have to birth our children.
When I began to research my birthing options I realised how women can be undermined by some parts of the birthing industry. I sensed the strength in me with my first birth, but did not have the information and knowledge at that time to own it. I went on to have my second and third children (my son, and then daughter) in calm and empowering homebirths.
While my professional education and career has been centred around community development, this fit perfectly with my desire to work with birthing women. The style of community development in my work both here in Australia and in Solomon Islands is of assisting communities to achieve goals they set for themselves, in ways that are transformative and contextual for them. This ‘trust’ in our ability to know what to do, translated perfectly to birth.
I trained as a Doula in 2011 with Australian Doulas after I completed my Masters in Community Development. My passion for gender work and working beside women in communities and during birth, when they can be at their most powerful, continues to inspire me.
After witnessing many hospital births, I realised that by training as an HypnoBirthing practitioner, I could enable families to fully understand the process of birth, their bodies, and the hospital system and birth in the most gentle way possible. This is my wish for every woman, baby and family.
Continuing Education:
2011 – Master of Arts in Community Development from Murdoch University
2011 – Birth Doula Course from Australian Doulas
2014 – Aromatherapy for Doulas (DoTerra) with Midwife Faye Read
2014 – How to Manage Pain Effectively & Naturally for an Empowering Birth teleseminar with Acubirth
2014 – Ancient postpartum tools and techniques for birth workers with Newborn Mothers
2014 – Hypnobirthing Practitioner’s Certification course from Hypnobirthing Institute
Memberships and Associations:
Certified Gold Seal HypnoBirthing Practitioner by HypnoBirthing: Mongan Method
Recognised as a ‘Size-friendly Doula’ by Plus Size Birth
For HypnoBirthing in Jurien Bay and the Turquoise Coast/Northern Wheatbelt