'I’d quite like a water birth. I'd rather not have any drugs. I know, I’ll write a birth plan. You hope. Almost apologetic. As if wanting a physiological birth - a birth where your body works the way it was designed to, where you are mobile and present and meeting your baby on your own terms - is somehow asking too much.

Many people have heard of doulas supporting labour, but fewer realise how valuable a virtual doula can be during pregnancy.

Pregnancy is when many of the key decisions about birth begin to take shape. Conversations with midwives and doctors, discussions about induction, choices about where to give birth - all of these can influence how your birth unfolds. So why do it alone?

If you’ve found yourself searching ‘how to become a doula’ chances are something is stirring within you. This work calls you - often after a powerful birth, a difficult one, or with a fire in your belly at how birth and maternity care feels right now. But how do you actually become a doula in the UK?