It was her day-to-day experiences as a midwife that highlighted to Tanya Wardle the need for proper emotional care and support that couldn’t be filled within the constraints of the maternity system. With her background in counselling and therapeutic studies, followed by her training to become a Birth Trauma Resolution (BTR) practitioner, she launched Maternity Holistic’s offering midwifery care that prioritises a woman’s complete wellbeing. Tanya believes that maternity care should support emotional and mental wellbeing through pregnancy, birth and parenthood. She offers trauma recovery, anxiety and stress reduction, birth preparation and one-off or ongoing midwifery support sessions, all of which grow a woman’s confidence, providing her with knowledge and practical skills for birth and early parenthood, as well as therapeutic treatments that promote emotional health. Here, Tanya talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind Maternity Holistic’s, how she balances work and family, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Hi there, thanks for taking the time to read a little bit about my story! I’m a mum of two boys 5 and 9, a midwife in the UK since 2015 and the founder of an emotional wellbeing and healing service called… Maternity Holistic’s. The inspiration for this really came from my day-to-day experience as a midwife and seeing the need for emotional care that couldn’t be filled within the constraints of the system. Unfortunately, so much of maternity care is about physical functionality, appointments with limited scope and time – and preparing women to fit neatly within the system. I was also noticing women making decisions based on fear and past trauma. The ripple effect of emotional wounds from a traumatic pregnancy, birth or postnatal period was so evident in the lives of women and families.
I decided to invest in further training to become a Birth Trauma Resolution (BTR) practitioner through Jenny Mullen, a Human Givens Psychotherapist. This was a real turning point in my understanding of trauma and most importantly, how to help women, birth partners and healthcare staff to quickly and safely reprocess the trauma memory and overcome debilitating symptoms. I guess you could say the inspiration for Maternity Holistic’s was really about seeing a need and creating a space or vehicle through which that need could be filled. Before training to become a midwife, my background was in counselling and therapeutic studies, so it felt quite a natural full circle to combine midwifery with emotional healing.
The Launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
And so, Maternity Holistic’s was born at the end of 2020. I offer trauma recovery, anxiety and stress reduction, birth preparation and one-off or ongoing midwifery support sessions. Sometimes women aren’t sure what they need but they know they’re seeking greater support and emotional wellbeing – I’m all about listening to their situation and experience, seeing the need and meeting that need with the right support.
The innovation: what was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I really started very local, physical appointments for emotional healing from miscarriages, caesarean and vaginal birth as well as difficult postnatal periods. It really was and still is wonderful to see the emotional burden of trauma lift off like a cloud. I am humbled by these wonderful women.
I began to be approached to provide birth trauma resolution therapy and online support sessions across the United Kingdom and I suppose the success of these online sessions really opened my eyes. It wasn’t so much about the exponential growth of Maternity Holistic’s, but more that I broke the limitations of geography. And so here I am, standing in what I could describe as a revelation that just as pregnancy, birth and parenting are more than physical events, so too is Maternity Holistic’s more than a physical space, but rather a vessel for being ‘with woman’ in support and emotional healing wherever they may be.
