Marie and Stephanie-
Your Course Facilitators
Your course will be facilitated jointly by Stephanie Lowe and Marie Vijendran. We are both former certified HypnoBirthing practitioners and have conducted courses for more than 150 couples both in the UK and the Netherlands. We are both experienced adult educators and enjoy facilitating courses as a means of helping more couples have calm birth experiences. We are not certified as Mindfulness instructors we simply have a passion for this way of 'being'. Both Stephanie and Marie have completed Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 8 week self study program. We consider ourselves colleagues, friends and mentors of each other.
With her years of midwifery and nursing experience from around the world Stephanie is able to explain in detail the physiological advantage that Mindful Birth offers you and answer your questions on how best to work with your care providers on the day of your labour.
Marie is both an experienced adult educator and a recent Mum. She used a combination of mindful techniques during her birth preparation and shares with you footage of the intimate moments of her daughter's birth. She brings the techniques imparted during the course to life by explaining first hand how herself and others have used them. Marie is also a graduate of the Hoffman Process.
Between us we believe we offer you the most effective way of preparing for a natural birth in The Netherlands.
More about us:Stephanie
Stephanie is a registered midwife with over 15 years of midwifery experience (and also a registered nurse with previous nursing experience). Having trained and worked as a midwife in England, she also spent 8 years working in the Netherlands as a midwife and 4 years in Ghana as a nurse and midwife.
Stephanie has practised midwifery in different types of systems, settings and cultures from home births to birth centres as well as District Hospitals and University Teaching Hospitals.
Stephanie works part time in Den Haag as a midwife. Aswell as Mindful Birth classes Stephanie also organises Aquanatal classes in Scheveningen and a monthly 'gentle stroll' for bumps and babies in Den Haag.
Marie
Marie is a Chemical Engineer and worked as a Management Consultant for ten years in the UK before moving to The Netherlands in 2009. This professional experience has allowed her many opportunities to facilitate adult learning. She has designed and led numerous management training courses and workshops bespoke to client needs in a number of specialist areas.
In 2004 Marie's first child was conceived and she was fortunate that a relative, a trained practitioner, introduced her to the concept of Hypnobirthing. At first she was sceptical. With an analytical background, although she wanted a natural birth, she would readily have handed over control of her baby's birth to doctors and midwives. However, the more she discovered about being mindful the more she realised that to maximise her chances of a natural birth she needed to trust her body first and foremost.
She learnt to condition her mind to help her body relax by repeating affirmations, practising breathing techniques and learning self-relaxation. She combined this with her regular yoga practise and found she developed a deep connection with her body and its birthing ability.
Marie's husband, a scientist, was also sceptical to begin with but soon understood the importance of his support to the birth.
Their son Leo was born in June 2005 in the Midwifery-led Birth Unit at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. Marie found no need for drugs. In fact the midwife could tell she was in complete control and didn't examine her until just before the baby was born.
In 2006 when she found out she was pregnant for a second time she surprised herself by feeling complete excitement about birthing again. She felt a deep connection and trust with her body. She trained as a HypnoBirthing practitioner and with continued yoga practise she started to facilitate courses for other couples in parallel with her own personal preparation for birth.
Chiara was born in March 2007. This time Marie remained at home and the familiar environment, use of a pool and even greater self confidence meant she not only had a comfortable birth experience but received the baby into her own arms.