About
Founder of Fearless Birthing. Originator of the Reproductive Anxiety Disorder framework. Author, method developer, and trainer working in perinatal fear and anxiety for sixteen years.
If you're a woman who'd like to work with me, a professional considering training with me, referring a client to me, or inviting me to speak – this is where you can dig into who I am, what I've built, and what I've published. Everything you'd want to know before working together is here.
The story
I was tokophobic. Severely. The kind of fear of pregnancy and birth that shapes life choices long before any pregnancy actually happens – relationship choices, career choices, what you'll let yourself want.
I didn't know the word tokophobia existed when I was carrying it. I thought I was the only one. I thought I was a weird, crazy person.
In 2008 I fell pregnant by accident with my long-term partner, and in doing so I fell into a dark pit of terror. I also didn't know if my partner wanted kids. A few weeks into my pregnancy I lost the baby. The first thing I felt was relief. That's when I knew something was wrong. What kind of woman feels relief at a miscarriage. I put it down to really bad anxiety. I wasn't that far off.
A year later I fell pregnant again. I spent the first trimester wondering if I really could have a c-section and be knocked out cold on drugs. I tried everything to allay my fears. Nothing worked. I decided I would have to sort this out myself. In my second trimester, I cleared my phobia. Properly cleared it. Using a DIY method I built out of necessity. By month 7 I ditched my give-me-all-the-drugs c-section plan for a home birth.
I gave birth to my first daughter at home and had the most incredible birth experience. Four years later I got the chance to test my method again, and my second daughter was born the same way. At home. And both times I was fearless.
That method became Head Trash Clearance. The application of it to perinatal contexts became Fearless Birthing.
I started teaching it because the same pattern I'd carried – the silent terror of pregnancy and birth, the years of avoidance, the assumption that I was just weird – turned out to be a recognised clinical condition. Tokophobia. Severe in up to 16.5% of women globally, per the most recent peer-reviewed meta-analysis. And mostly invisible to the professional systems supposed to support women (as I had discovered).
Sixteen years later, I'm still doing the work. The method has matured into something a lot bigger than its origin story. But the origin is what it is: I built this because I needed it, and then I kept building because so many other women needed it too.
Frameworks
The fear-clearance method is now a complete methodology with three aspects:
HTC is what every Fearless Birthing training teaches. It's also what powers the broader Head Trash work outside the perinatal context.
A framework I coined to name a pattern the clinical literature wasn't naming. RAD captures the lifespan-wide spectrum of fear and anxiety women carry around pregnancy, birth, motherhood, reproductive identity, and the body's reproductive function – across TTC, antenatal, postnatal, postnatal complexity, perimenopause, and the spaces in between.
Before RAD, there was tokophobia (a recognised but narrow term) and there was generic perinatal anxiety. And yet, this didn't help us to explain what women were experiencing. RAD does.
The six-stage progression model showing how unprocessed reproductive fear escalates from latent to entrenched. Used as the clinical lens in the RAD white paper and across the Fearless Birthing training programmes.
The dual-spiral model showing how RAD compounds – and how healing reverses the compounding. Visual frameworks used in the white papers and the practitioner training.
The 12-category, 11-profile assessment tool that translates RAD awareness into structured client work. Two versions exist: Birth Readiness Profile (consumer-facing, starts at £47) and Perinatal Inner Readiness Profile (includes clinical version, available to buy in bundles). The Blueprint is the tool that takes a practitioner from "I think I see RAD patterns here" to "here's exactly where the work needs to happen."
Publications
2025
The science of severe perinatal fear and anxiety, and how to clear it.
This is not a book about pregnancy or birth. Or motherhood. It's about womanhood itself – about the invisible fear that keeps women small, silent, stuck and self-doubting, and the radical process of reclaiming power from it.
Read more
2014
How to clear your fears for a positive birth.
The original book. The personal story plus the early method. Still in print, still working as an entry point for women finding the work for the first time.
Read more2025
The peer-style argument for naming Reproductive Anxiety Disorder as a structural clinical pattern, with the framework, prevalence data, and clinical implications. Free download.
Read the white paper2024
A critique of how the perinatal industry has commodified fear – and what changes when fear-clearance becomes the work, not the warning. Free download.
Read the white paperSpeaking & media
Podcasts I host
Notable interviews and press
Speaking topics
I take a limited number of speaking and media bookings each year. Quality over quantity. If you're considering an invitation, the contact details are at the bottom of this page.
Training
4-month certification training for birth workers – doulas, midwives, hypnobirthing practitioners, antenatal educators, childbirth educators. Reactive fear clearance integrated into the work you already do.
Learn more8-month training for therapists, counsellors, pregnancy and birth coaches, and perinatal mental health professionals. Programmatic clearance – structured multi-session healing and coaching programmes.
Learn more£495 CPD-style training for any practitioner working with women. How to spot tokophobia and RAD patterns, when to refer, how to hold the conversation.
Learn moreIf you're trying to work out which training fits your professional context, the comparison page lays it all out side by side.
Compare pathwaysContact
If you're considering one of the trainings and want to discuss fit before applying, I run brief discovery conversations for high-intent practitioners. Use the link below to request one.
Request a discovery conversationPress, podcast guesting, conference speaking, keynote invitations – all enquiries through the press contact below.
Press and speaking contactGeneral enquiries, partnership conversations, professional referrals – direct contact form below.
General contact