My name is Katelyn Commerford and I am based in Penrith, NSW.
I’m a woman who has given birth by caesarean twice and left one of those births scrambling and the other confident and strong.
I went through a huge educational journey between my births that led me to plan a homebirth after caesarean with my second baby, and when that pregnancy also culminated in a surgery that I didn’t want, I knew one thing for certain:
I wouldn’t have done anything differently.
I stood by every decision and every choice I had made, and I would have done it all again – exactly the same.
These experiences of birth and my subsequent education, both personally and formally through training with Vicki Hobbs’ Doula Training Academy, have given me a unique understanding of what impacts a birth and a very firm belief that birth is about so much more than delivering a baby.
Birth is a transformation that not only brings a baby into the world but creates a mother in the process. This is true whether you are having your first or tenth baby. Each time, a new version of mother is created as you birth a new soul.
As mothers, our experience of this process of pregnancy, birth and postpartum, is tethered to our feelings of safety and trust at every turn.
As a doula and a next birth after caesarean guide, I want you to understand that you are the decider of what happens to you in this journey. I want you to feel confident in making choices that are right for you and your family, not what it is convenient or comfortable for anyone else. I want you to know that your intuition, your values, and your experiences are all relevant in your decision making.
I want you to enter motherhood feeling strong, secure and capable, because you are!
My experiences of birth both changed me in completely different ways. I know the difference in how I felt as a mother between having a birth where I was supported and trusted to make decisions along the way and one where I had decisions made for me, despite my protests.
Each woman’s circumstances are unique when it comes to pregnancy, birth and postpartum. It is so important for us to be seen beyond a set of criteria and treated as the individual people that we are, and that is what empowers us in our journey.
I want every single woman to enter motherhood with that same sense of empowerment and strength that I did, and to have the support they need to rest, recover, and transition into the role of a mother – whether for the first time, or the tenth.
I am here for you – your journey, and your needs, however that looks.
My name is Katelyn Commerford and I am a doula and next birth after caesarean guide who has completed comprehensive doula education at Vicki Hobbs’ Doula Training Academy. If you want to know more about what I do and how I can help you, please visit my website where you can get your free cheat sheet of my favourite VBAC resources or find me on Instagram where I answer commonly asked questions about planning the next birth after caesarean and share loads pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting content.