The pregnancy journey for NDIS participants, highlighting key appointments, tests, and planning stages.

Author

As a doula with years of experience supporting families from all walks of life, I am passionate about providing inclusive, person-centred care during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. I have had the privilege of working with individuals navigating different abilities.  My goal is to create a safe, nurturing, and accessible environment for every client, helping you to feel seen, heard, and supported throughout your journey.

​I can't express enough gratitude for our doula, Kelly from Elemental Beginnings. She was our unicorn, and anyone fortunate enough to have her will experience a better pregnancy and birth.

From pregnancy to postpartum, her support has been incredible. As a first-time mumma, with limited family support and our own ideas of what we wanted out of the experience, Kelly made me feel confident and prepared, easing my excitement, nerves and fears. She is kind, loving, knowledgeable and a strong presence that truly made a difference in my birth experience.

During labor, Kelly was like magic, providing reassurance and strength even when our plans changed. After our daughter was born, her home visits were invaluable, helping me start motherhood feeling powerful and supported.

If you need a doula, I can't recommend Kelly enough. She's amazing, and I know I'll want her for any future pregnancies. Thank you for such a positive experience! Xx

Practising labour positions and coping strategies during a prenatal session with Kelly

A Doula Testimonial

About Kelly

Kelly is a dedicated birth and postnatal doula based in South Australia, also specialising in family sleep education and placenta encapsulation. With a passion for supporting parents through knowledge and compassion, Kelly has helped numerous families calmly navigate the beautiful yet sometimes challenging journey of childbirth and early parenthood.  

​If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Kelly can support your birth experience, book your free call below:

A little feedback from some
​birth doula clients

Working with Kelly offered my husband and I a fully supported prenatal planning, labour, and postnatal experience. Kelly made herself available for us with minimal notice through several unexpected hurdles of our journey. During labour, she followed our requests of offering ideas that empowered my husband to support me throughout the experience and even staying afterwards to spoon feed me a meal while I did my first breastfeed.

When my husband went back to work and I started to really struggle from minimal sleep, Kelly brought over groceries and allowed me to go take a shower and a nap while she strapped my baby to her chest, cooked us a meal, and did our laundry! The postnatal visits helped breathe a bit of life back into an exhausted mama!

We would recommend Kelly for her calming presence through a wild experience! 

Thank you for being apart of our crazy ride! 
Ashleigh & Anthony, Klemzig

About Kelly

Kelly Harper has been a dedicated doula in Adelaide since 2012, offering steadfast support and compassion to families during one of life's most significant transitions. Motivated by a desire to provide guidance and companionship throughout the journey of pregnancy, labour, and postpartum, Kelly embarked on her doula journey with a heartfelt commitment to stand by families every step of the way.

With a philosophy grounded in the belief that every client possesses inherent wisdom and autonomy to make informed decisions about their experience, Kelly approaches her role as a doula with deep respect for each family's unique journey. She prioritises providing not only practical assistance but also emotional reassurance and a consistent presence, recognising the transformative potential of personalised support in navigating the complexities of childbirth.

Kelly's dedication to her clients extends beyond the birthing room, as she remains a steadfast source of support during the postpartum period, ensuring families have the resources and encouragement they need to navigate the joys and challenges of early parenthood.

As a doula, Kelly strives to embody the values of compassion, empathy, and respect in her work, understanding the profound impact that personalised support can have on the birthing experience. With each family she serves, Kelly is honoured to be entrusted with the sacred journey of childbirth, offering her expertise, guidance, and unwavering presence as families welcome new life into the world.

Meg's Birth Story

​When I first found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to soak in as much information as possible. I'm a control freak by nature and from what little I already knew, pregnancy and birth were so unpredictable.

My partner and I decided to hire Kelly as our doula to help me with the pregnancy and birth and make the experience as positive and rewarding as possible. Early pregnancy was filled with intense morning sickness for me. I had a hard time dealing with it, especially while working full time.

During the first trimester, Kelly worked with us to create a mind map of what preconceptions we had about pregnancy and birth and what I hoped to achieve from our sessions and ultimately, my birth.

At first, I was very inclined to take a "do what I'm told and take all pain relief offered" approach. However, Kelly helped build up my confidence to where I felt I was a strong enough woman to try an unmedicated birth, which had always seemed impossible for me.

During my pregnancy, Covid-19 hit the world. This really threw a spanner in the works for me. Anxious by nature already, coronavirus made things much more intense. All of our hospital classes were cancelled with no online alternative offered, and the number of support people allowed at my birth was rapidly declining.  Kelly was a godsend during this time. We dedicated our sessions to practising advocating for what we truly wanted out of our hospital visits and care.

In my third trimester, I started presenting with high blood pressure during my hospital appointments. I had always been very anxious during them and coronavirus had only increased my anxiety levels.

The first time it happened, the midwife said, "last time this happened, the lady had to be induced immediately." Talk about stressful!
This appointment was the first time we experienced what it was like to be given a worst-case scenario straight away.

In the end, I think I had a total of 5 four-hour day stays to monitor my blood pressure. All of my test results were normal and my baby was completely healthy but the doctors were only concerned with what "could happen".

It "could" get worse
It "could" develop into pre-eclampsia
My baby "could" die.

The idea that I might kill my baby became somewhat of a common threat from the doctors, which was so difficult to deal with. One particular doctor noted in my files, "she believes she is not causing harm to her child." It was infuriating. I tried my best to stay calm and advocate for myself. With Kelly's guidance, I became better and better at it. I was speaking up, asking for clarification and demanding test results be given with evidence. I won't lie. It was the hardest thing I've ever been through. Once you start making decisions that are "against medical advice", you become the enemy, and we noticed an immediate change in the level of care we received.

I am forever grateful to Kelly for arming me with the tools to advocate for myself and speak up with confidence. In the end, I didn't develop pre-eclampsia, my baby was healthy, and I went into spontaneous labour at 39 weeks. I had a very quick labour and gave birth with no pain relief. It was the most intense experience of my life.
I am in awe of what my body did. My birth experience was amazing and the team of midwives were incredible. They were understanding and respectful of my birth plan. It was exactly what I needed after so many negative experiences.

I am so proud of myself because I worked so hard to have the birth I did.
I listened to my body and it rewarded me with the natural birth I'd always dreamed of.

I cannot thank Kelly enough for every bit of support and advice we received. I couldn't have done it without her.