ABOUT
Hi, I’m Samantha and I’m so glad you’re here
I am an integrative therapist and founder of Who Holds The Mamas, specialising in birth trauma and maternal mental health.
Following the birth of my first child, I struggled to find the specialist support I needed and to process what had happened. Through my own experience I came to recognise the profound emotional, physical and psychological impact a traumatic birth can have on mothers and their families, and how little dedicated trauma work exists in this area.
As a trauma practitioner, I then chose to focus my work on birth trauma and set up Who Holds The Mamas, a practice dedicated to providing specialist support and trauma therapy.
Drawing on my background in cognitive science, trauma-informed therapies, and trauma processing techniques, I support women to make sense of their experiences, process birth related trauma, and move towards healing.
Birth trauma is not simply something to turn away from or "get over" - it is trauma, and it deserves specialist trauma therapy.
MY STORY
Why Who Holds The Mamas was created
Who Holds The Mamas was born from a need I both saw, and deeply felt, for dedicated, compassionate, specialist trauma care for mothers navigating birth trauma.
My experience of birth trauma
My first daughter was born following an induction and a long labour. During the final stages of my labour, significant medical mismanagement resulted in life-changing injuries for both her and for myself.
My daughter experienced a prolonged lack of oxygen, requiring an emergency forceps delivery and significant resuscitation. She experienced neurological damage as a result, and had to be transferred to a specialist neonatal intensive care unit in a different hospital for brain cooling treatment to try and help reduce the impact of the neurological injury she had sustained.
I had gone from expecting to bring my baby home, to becoming a NICU mum watching my daughter sedated in intensive care, surrounded by wires and feeding tubes, unable to hold her in those first newborn days or even know if she was gong to be okay.
Alongside this, I was also becoming increasingly unwell. Some weeks later it was discovered that I had sustained a fourth-degree tear during birth, which had somehow gone unnoticed. By now it had developed into a serious internal infection and was causing irreparable damage. I required emergency admission and major surgery to repair what they could, which left me with considerable scarring, and significant and life altering physical injuries.
The impact of that birth reached every part of my life. Physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
The impact of trauma
For me, it was just completely overwhelming. I was a new mum, scared, vulnerable, traumatised, beyond anxious and struggling to make sense of what the hell had happened. More than anything though, I felt like no-one could understand what I’d been through. To be honest, for a long while I couldn’t even talk about it at all. I felt very broken and alone.
I spent a long time wondering why I was finding it so hard to move past what had happened, unable to process my experiences despite having sought various types of therapy on offer. I really thought that there must be a problem with me, rather than realising it was the therapy that wasn’t right.
What I eventually came to realise was that I needed a therapist who understood trauma.
Accessing a therapist who was trauma-informed was when I finally started to feel understood. My experiences began to make sense. I felt seen, and most importantly, held. I was able to start processing what had happened and why I was feeling and reacting the way that I was. I was able to start to heal.
Birth trauma is real trauma
I share my story not for shock value or sympathy, but to try and shed a little light on the silence and shame that can surround talking about birth trauma, and how many women go through it. Silence about what actually happened, shame that you may be finding it hard to get past or cope with.
So many mamas are left carrying the weight of traumatic births without access to the specialist support they need. Birth trauma is often treated as something women should just accept and get over, but the reality is that trauma requires skilled, trauma-informed care.
It was through my own experience, my professional training, and seeing just how little dedicated trauma support there is for birth trauma, that I created Who Holds The Mamas.
Birth trauma deserves to be regarded as real trauma. Birth trauma requires trauma therapy.
MY APPROACH
Clients can often come to therapy knowing what happened to them, but are struggling to deal with the impact those experiences continue to have.
trauma is neurological
Trauma can fragment the way the brain is able to process and store memories when traumatic events occur. This disconnect can play a critical role in the ability to be able to process what happened and move on.
I am trained in trauma processing - specialist targeted techniques designed for deep neurological processing.
These techniques actively rewire the brain and allow for re-processing of distressing memories so they feel like past events instead of present threats.
therapy with compassion
Who Holds The Mamas offers therapy which goes beyond the narrative to address how the brain and body store and react to distressing memories. It is therapy grounded in evidence and offered with true compassion.
Utilising these techniques and other trauma informed therapies, we can move towards reconnecting emotions. memories and awareness, allowing integration to happen and real healing to occur.
Time and again, I’ve seen this approach gently but powerfully support women through anxiety, trauma, and emotional exhaustion. It’s transformative.
This is the light in the dark i needed but couldn’t find
Birth trauma deserves attention and compassion.
Birth trauma requires dedicated trauma therapy.
It is my honour and privilege to be able to do this work and hold these mamas.
With love, Samantha x