With the birth of Clowance’s first baby, she found herself transformed by the process of becoming a mother. Years later, after the birth of her second child, that early experience of unmet postpartum needs would shape the business she built from it. Today, she is a Holistic Postpartum Doula serving Christchurch and Canterbury, offering in-home postpartum support for families navigating the fourth trimester. Her Planning for the Fourth Trimester classes, run both in person and online, walk parents through the five essential elements of postpartum healing, blending the physiological needs of mothers and babies with the very practical question of how to build support around yourself before the baby arrives. She’s also currently developing a small postpartum care line grounded in the idea of warmth, including a Golden Milk Elixir and a Calendula and Black Sesame Body Oil. We sat down with Clowance to hear more about her journey.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
I know first hand what postpartum depletion feels like. I’ve had to retrospectively heal from my own births. That’s why I chose to build a business around supporting mothers and their babies.
During my time teaching, I witnessed a lot of dysregulation in our kids – across the board, regardless of socioeconomic bracket. I believe this is largely due to the way children are predominantly brought into the world into a culture that’s set up to separate babies from their parents. Parents need to work to pay the bills, and while we are lucky compared to many countries to have maternity and paternity leave, my business exists to help families use that time to deeply replenish and resource themselves, so that they can meet the needs of their babies in a way that isn’t depleting.
A focus on postpartum care is relatively new in New Zealand. We’re building a bridge toward a place where outsourcing and paying for support during this time is normal. I’ve taken up the challenge of normalising it, because families need it. We’re in a maternal mental health crisis globally. Growing a baby with your body and then continuing to grow that baby with your body is a huge donation of life force energy – women are owed rest and nourishment after that. I have a solid blueprint for how to replenish bodies that have given birth, what babies and mothers require in the early postpartum and how to gather the support you need.
My work helps families avoid having to heal retrospectively and instead replenish themselves at the time. Parenting is much more enjoyable when you have energy to meet your baby’s needs.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
My second postpartum experience was very challenging. I came across my doula teacher and started her doula training when my youngest was around nine months old. I spent 18 months in training and am still integrating what I learned into my own healing. It took years of consistent practice before I could bring this work forward without burning out again.
But I never stopped talking about my vision – postpartum care woven back into the way we live. Eventually I published the website with a couple of clients on board. It’s been refinement ever since and honestly, I love it.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I had a big breakthrough when I learned how to care for a woman’s physiology after birth. It was so profound, and so heartbreaking. This is how we were always meant to be cared for. This is how we age well. So why weren’t we shown this? We’ve been robbed.
My teacher used to say this work is ‘inside/out’ work – you apply the teachings to your own life first, so you have the capacity to show up for others whole and grounded. Starting this business has been the same principle in action: speaking publicly about what I believe matters, backing my own expertise and staying with it even without much support in return. It’s big work but I believe in it, and I will keep going until mothers are properly resourced.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
This is the whole point, really. I needed to make money, while having the flexibility to take care of my family – this work is values-centred, and doulas have to walk the talk. We can’t ask a client to deeply rest and nourish herself when we’re not doing the same ourselves. The birth space is a very potent frequency to work in; we enter it to bring coherence back into the field, and if we show up stressed, rushed or not present, we add to the distortion instead. It’s an honour to be with families in that vulnerable post-birth window. To give them the best care, I need to give myself the best care, too.
A business built to flex with naturally fluctuating capacity is what lets me show up in full integrity.
Nervous system regulation is basically my currency. I run my business in a way that nourishes my creativity, my body and my relationships, so that I have the capacity to anchor that for other people too.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
Visibility has been and continues to be the biggest challenge. I was so resistant to building this business through social media, but I’ve come to understand it’s a necessary arm of my business – it’s literally how clients find me. My work requires a lot of trust, and sometimes it feels like I’m trying to build trust via a cold call… and that’s OK. It can be uncomfortable being this passionate about something people don’t always have a reference point for. But it boggles my mind why not – why wouldn’t you look after the mothers in your community that have just given birth? That cultural disconnect is a challenge, but I’m up for it.
The doula/birth-work space isn’t saturated yet, though more people are entering it – even if it still feels emerging in New Zealand. Learning to talk about something as big and multifaceted as postpartum care in a way that lands for people has been its own education. Working through the discomfort of posting something that isn’t perfect, isn’t fully ready, and doing it anyway – quickly – is the nuts and bolts of getting the word out there.
Underneath all of it, the real thing I have had to overcome is trusting that this is the right thing. Supported mothers. Sticking with something that is challenging, without immediate reward, means learning to trust the bigger vision even though it hasn’t happened yet.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
Honestly: no cons. It’s hard when things aren’t met with the enthusiasm you had hoped for and the work isn’t recognised as something of value. Some people don’t understand why I would charge for something that has always been done for free – community care, back when we had an intact social system. I could take that personally, but I don’t have time. I feel real urgency about this work and I don’t want mothers missing out on care just because some people don’t get it yet.
Marketing, building websites, networking -none of that is my core business, but I have to do it to get to the part that is. I’d love to reach a stage where it’s mostly care work, but right now I am in a building phase. There are podcast interviews coming out, courses, curriculum, content and a postpartum care product range I’m genuinely proud of. There’s a lot to be excited about. Watch this space or jump in for the journey – my socials are below.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
More and more of all of the things! I just want to keep challenging myself and enjoy the journey – I know that sounds trite, but it’s true… The shift from chasing the goal to loving the process has been revolutionary for me. I think about this work happily all day every day. It’s vocational for me, so really I have no choice but to keep going and enjoy it.
It’s the same continuum as menarche. When we bleed, we rest, eat well and let ourselves be cared for. Motherhood asks the same from us -deep recuperation sets us up for a smoother transition through peri/menopause later, and into elderhood where we are still strong enough to take care of our communities. That’s the design.
Visit modernmothership.com to find out more about the services Clowance offers, and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.
