Naomi Pemberton
My name is Naomi Pemberton a mother to a 2 year old boy, a community doula, and pregnancy yoga teacher.
I became really passionate around birth and pregnancy whilst assisting friends and family with their births, championing them along and witnessing the highs and lows of the birth experience. It wasn’t until when I later became pregnant I decided I wanted to know as much as I possibly could to prepare myself for my experience and began my journey to training as a doula.
This course was a huge turning point for me as I realised the importance of birth education and support during this delicate transitional time in a women’s life and the impacts of the lack of it. During my pregnancy I lost 2 very important women, my mother and auntie, and wasn’t able to seek the type of support I needed during this pivotal time.
I was able to have a positive birthing experience, at home with family and I’m very passionate in helping as much women have the birth they deserve. As we know birth can be as unpredictable as Manchester’s weather, but the more informed we are, the more confident we can become.
Myself and colleague, founded Holding Her Space, which is a local non for profit doula organisation aimed at providing holistic emotional, educational and practical support to women and families within Manchester.
It has been an amazing and truly inspiring journey, now being that support for others and ‘holding space’ for them through their pregnancies and postnatally. I am currently working with Manchester City Councils, First 1000 days program running doula support for women from Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities with the mission to create, better experiences, better access and better outcomes.
A huge part of my role is providing an open ear, a safe space and even open arms where necessary and I felt that the role of the MVP as a whole, similarly reflected these same ideals.
I decided to go for the MVP Chair role, as I constantly receive feedback regarding maternity services, from the women we serve and feel this sharing is so important to the developments of positive change within local maternity services and the voices and stories of diverse local women will be paramount in this process.
During my own pregnancy I sought for an MVP meeting and quickly realised there wasn’t one in my area. So now we have one, I am grateful that I can be a part of this transformational journey.
