Farola is a mom of three awesome kids and married her brothers best friend who lived down the road growing up. It took him moving abroad and moving back before they got together though. Their friends and family are spread across the world and they love traveling out to meet them. They are currently moving close to the beach at Kijkduin, den Hague. Farola’s friends say she’s warm hearted and patient (though her kids wholeheartedly dissagree when it’s time to eat their veggies!). Sunloving as she is, she loves swimming and long walks on the beach and summer spent with her friends as.. wait for it.. a Roman at Archeon. When it rains however she still loves the beach or putting on wellies and going to the sea with the kids. Fall and winter-evenings are best spent with a good book and hot cocao in front of the fireplace. As a mother from 26 with little to no friends with kids, she feels passionate about supporting mothers in preparation of and after birth, so no mom needs to feel lonely in this special time of her life!

Motivation
As dramatherapeut I used to work with teenagers and families, but wanted to really make a difference in peoples lives. Reading the medical files, I found out a lot of parents had experienced a lack of support in the early days and years after birth. Post natal depression, the baby in the hospital for prolonged times or the child experiencing an insecure attachment led to a lot of the problems I was trying to work through with them. The feeling like my support was coming to late was creeping in. Once I learned about the doula, I immediately felt this was where I could make a difference, early on in life, preventing trauma or supporting through hard times. This feeling was fired up by the combination of what I had seen in my professional life so far, combined with my personal experience of motherhood. The contradictory advice, losing friends for staying home with the baby and not feeling confident to take the baby at times. This combined with a husband working abroad for longer stretches of time really had me felt lost and lonely at times. And what better motivation then to know what it can be like for others and support them throughout!

This is how I found out about the doula:
The day after the birth of my first child, I found a two page spread article about the doula in a magazine that landed on my doorstep. It read that an experienced woman could provide invaluable support through pregnancy and birth. Besides thinking how an extra support person would’ve been nice that night before, it was also like they were describing me. With my background in coaching and support, this would be such great use of my skills! Life with a baby and then two under two delayed my journey a bit, but come 2010 my journey as a doula really began.

Full speed ahead:
Chaiperson at the Dutch doula association (2011-2014). Having had two years of experience in a commitee as a chairperson, I volunteered and have helped to put up new branding, a new website, more monitoring and regulations for doula trainings. Teacher at Doula Opleiding Utrecht (2012-2015). With teaching experience and a lot of knowledge on communication, I helped set up a new website, with two collegues we wrote a new up to date curriculum and incorporated more experience from the workfield into the training.
Student at prenatal yoga teacher training (2013). Adding some extra skills to my knowledge.
Became mother for the third time (2013)
Photography course, started to add birth Photography to my services.
Founded doula training In Bloom (2016). Together with my collegues from the previous doula training we felt it was time to really put all of our knowledge into our own training, teaching new doula’s the ropes.
Mama and baby teaching course (2017)
Lomi Lomi massage training (2017)
Post natal doula training at Pro doula (diploma in 2019)

In Short:
So my coaching skills, passion to support new parents in preparation, during and the first year after birth, all come together to provide the best possible service to my clients. I love massaging, take just that right picture to capture the love and connection surrounding birth and just being there to talk to and listen to your wishes.