How to Be a Positive & Supportive Presence in the Birth Space

 In a world where birth is too often managed in sterile hospital settings, filled with medical interventions instead of deep support, love, and presence, women are left feeling unheard, disempowered, and even traumatized with 1 in 3 women reporting having a traumatic birth and 1 in 20 developing PTSD from their births. 

I believe with the right support it doesn't have to be this way.

As a former midwife, I have seen this firsthand, and it has ignited a deep calling within me—to both embody The Sacred Birth Advocate & Space Holder for the Rite of Passage of Birth myself, and to also educate and mentor those who wish to do and embody the same.

This blog post explores how you can be a protector of a woman’s, her baby's and her family's birth experience and how to offer positive support during this transformational and pivotal moment in life.

Holding Sacred Spaces

Being a Sacred Birth Advocate & Space Holder isn’t just about understanding the physiology of natural birth — it’s about embodying a safe and grounded presence that becomes a positive influence on the birthing mother and the birth space.

A birthing woman is incredibly sensitive to everything and everyone around her.

She can sense fear, stress and doubt in the room as well as become regulated by anothers calm nervous system.

This means that who she invites into her birth space has a direct impact on her birth experience and can potentially effect her labour process.

As birth workers, doulas, midwives and partners and support people, we must ask ourselves:

Will I be a positive or negative presence in her birth space?

To be a calm, grounding presence, we must engage in regular inner work, including reflection, mindfulness, and self-awareness practices.

This involves exploring just to name a few:

• Our own birth experiences and how they shape our perspectives
• Our relationship with our bodies and cyclical nature
• How we view rites of passages, including our first menstruation, birth and menopause.
• Any discomfort with sexuality, nudity, or primal expression during birth  

Why does this matter?

Because what we carry within us—our beliefs, fears, and subconscious conditioning—enters the birth room with us.

If we haven’t done the work to address our own discomforts, woundings, unprocessed traumas, biases and unhealthy belief systems, we may unintentionally disrupt the birthing mother’s process by bringing that baggage into the birth space.

For example, if someone struggles with nudity and sexuality, they might unconsciously react when a woman moans or moves freely in labor. This can subtly communicate discomfort to the labouring woman, pulling her out of her embodied experience and into becoming self conscious.. She might stop sounding or feel embarrassed —disrupting the physiology of birth.

Being a space holder for birth means being a clear channel —free of distractions, fully present, and attuned to the mother’s needs. It is through deep self-work that we become the protectors of the birth portal and what birthing women truly needs.

Being Her Protector

In today’s over-medicalized maternity system, standing beside a woman in birth requires courage and a strong voice. As partner and support people but especially as birth workers.

Many birth workers feel deeply connected to the women they support, yet hesitate to speak up, especially in the hospital setting.

To advocate effectively as Birth Workers, we must understand:

• The history of midwifery, obstetrics, and medicalized birth
• The impact of hospital policies on physiological birth
• Human rights, informed consent, and patient advocacy
• Your own relationship to authority, and your witch wound and sisterhood wound.

We must also confront the fear of speaking up—a fear deeply ingrained in women’s collective history.

Many of us carry the wounds of the "good girl" conditioning or the witch wound, the fear of being judged, ridiculed, or even persecuted for standing in our truth.

If we do not heal this within ourselves, we may freeze in the birth room when our voices are most needed.

A woman in labor needs so feel safe and secure on all levels.

Emotionally, Spiritually as well as Physically.

She needs protection, not passivity. 

Without strong advocacy, she may experience unnecessary interventions that derail her birth.

If we remain silent when she needs us to stand firm, we become part of the problem.

Understanding the system, its limitations, and how to navigate hospital birth settings with wisdom allows us to offer real, tangible support without becoming consumed by fear.

This is the kind of work we explore deeply in the Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship.

The Ripple Effect of Sacred Birth Work

A positive birth experience doesn’t just positively impact the mother—it impacts her family, her baby, and future generations.

When a woman emerges from birth feeling heard, respected, and connected to her power, it creates a ripple effect of healing.

These sacred births re-write the birth stories of families, shifting the collective experience of birth from trauma to transformation and power.

This is why we must do this work.

This is why birth work is sacred.

The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship

For those who feel the calling to become a Sacred Birth Advocate & Space Holder, I offer an in-depth mentorship program to guide you on this path.

This is not just a course on birth physiology.

It is a transformational journey that integrates:

• Deep self-exploration and personal healing
• The art of sacred space-holding and birth advocacy
• Midwifery level of conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum knowledge
• Navigating the maternity system with wisdom and strength
• Embodiment practices to become a clear, grounded presence in birth

This is for those who, like me, see that the current birth culture is failing women and babies—and who feel called to be part of the change.

This is a year-long mentorship, divided into six months of deep learning and six months of guided implementation to help you bring this work into your life and community in an aligned, sustainable way.

If you feel the call, I invite you to step forward.

The world needs more birth workers who are ready to hold space, protect, and honor birth as the sacred rite of passage it was always meant to be.

For more details and to apply, visit:
The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship.

You are needed now more than ever.

With love,
Anna