Over 10 years ago I left France with my husband and arrived in Melbourne to continue our careers in fine dining and hospitality. Six years later, the surprise but welcome arrival of our baby girl marked a very new stage in our lives. 

While Australia is now our home of choice, at that time we had no idea just how hard it could be to raise a family without your own nearby to offer critical support and reassurance. Just a few months after our baby was born, we faced a significant additional challenge when my husband was seriously injured in a road accident followed by numerous operations and long months of rehabilitation in hospital. 

With limited English, I suddenly found myself alone with a very young baby and overwhelmed by anxiety, doubts, chronic lack of sleep and nutritious food so that depression and stress became my daily routine. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to me, my husband was well enough to come back home.  My family was reunited, healthy and eventually happy. To celebrate this wonderful second chance we’d been given, we decided to grow our family with baby number two.

After my second childbirth, I realized the hardship I had endured was in fact my greatest gift. My experiences had provided a revelation for a new direction in my life. From now on, my goal is to do everything in my power to help new parents by offering them guidance and support to build confidence in themselves, so they can embrace and enjoy their role as parents, which is a job for life. For this reason, I have now completed training as a postpartum doula