ABOUT DIANA

 Hi, I’m Diana,

I was born into a Russian family in Latvia and moved to the UK when I was 12 years old. Now I am based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (England), with my beloved Indian-South African-Kiwi hubby Yakeen, and two gorgeous souls that came here through us.

It all started with Yakeen proposing to me in 2019. His proposal was very spontaneous and happened during life coaching weekend, so we went ring shopping and on the next day, I was showing off my engagement ring and announcing to everyone that we were going to start a family! We were so excited, one of the women in our team said “Congratulations, but don’t be stupid, don’t be one of those crazy women that birth at home” and I said “Of course not! I will be in the hospital strapped to every machine that they have” and now I giggle thinking about it, but then I generally meant it. All my knowledge about birth was made up of movies and horror stories. Now, my daughter was born in 2022, so from the time of our engagement until now (just realised that I haven’t stopped learning about birth and probably never will) I kept on studying and studying about women’s history, women’s health, physiology of birth, our hormones and so much more. Here is a timeline from 2019 of my birth work education:

• 2020 Took a doula training with Birth Bliss academy
• 2020 Holistic sleeping with Lyndsey Hookway
• 2021 Bach flower therapy
• 2021 Hypnobirthing
• 2021 Hipping with Dr Rocio Alarcon
• 2022 Psycho-neuro-endocrine physiology in childbirth with Anna Maria Rossetti
• 2022 Homebirthed my daughter
• 2023 Studied to become a yoga instructor - but haven’t finished
• 2024 Solo/Freebirthed my son
• 2024 Radical Birth Keeper school- with Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris Clark ( Freebirth Society)

Ever since I started preparing for my pregnancy, I have realised that birth work is my passion. That’s why I enrolled on a Doula course. I met the most amazing women there and it was the beginning of an awesome journey of connecting to my sacred feminine and discovering my power. As you can probably notice from the timeline, I didn’t get pregnant straight away. It wasn’t because we wanted to wait but it was simply not happening. I actively worked on my mental and physical health. It wasn’t happening as easily as I imagined and there were a lot of emotions attached to it. Before getting pregnant, I attended one medicalised homebirth, but not as a primary doula. Which ended up as a transfer, reflecting on what I know about birth physiology it is very obvious why it was a transfer. And one hospital birth. Which was the most brutal abuse that I have ever witnessed. I was crying for two days after that birth, it was especially painful because it was my dear friend, a solo mum and I felt like I had failed her(I no longer feel like I was in power to change anything). But the thing that shocked me the most was that my experienced doula friends all said that this is just what hospital birth looks like. I got really angry and enrolled myself in the courses that you can see. I thought I needed to know more, be more, to protect women from possible abuse. I now realise that it’s a rookie mistake, thinking that I can beat the system. The timeline shows my path of realisation that the only way to win the system is not to engage with it. I engaged in the system with my first pregnancy but knew that I would not be giving birth in the hospital, I must say I did win a lottery midwife that time. She was the head of the homebirth team who believed that it is a mother who knows best how to give birth to her baby. During my second pregnancy, we moved from South East London to Kent, and I’ve changed midwife. My new midwives were different. They were lying and coercive, which led me to leave the NHS maternity system. This was an incredibly good decision for me that opened many more doors, through which many more wise & wild women walked into my life. 

Training with Freebirth Society forever shifted my views on birthwork, It gave me tools for life. It was almost like I'd been waiting for something/someone to allow me to be my authentic self when it comes to working with other women.  I am no longer a doula. I simply can’t treat women and such work as business. I also can’t pretend to be non-biased, when I have a very strong bias. I walk with women on the journey of deprogramming and unlearning. I am honest and raw, I ask uncomfortable questions and hold space while women identify and work through fears. 

Being a mother is a huge part of my identity. And I love it so much. I feel incredibly grateful that my children chose me as their guide in this world. As they grow, I grow.