About Me

Birth should not be taken out of the context of Life. Birth is like a hologram, it reflects everything that happened in a woman’s life. It reflects her cultural background, her family history, her relationships with others, with the world in general and with herself.

Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova

Anna Cocks

I was born and grew up in Perth. I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UWA in 2008 and then moved to Hobart and completed my Honours at the Tasmanian School of Art in 2010. I have had multiple solo exhibitions and group shows.

I trained with Vicki Hobbs at the Doula Training Academy at the end of 2020 and also with Debra Pascali Bonaro (founder of Orgasmic Birth) and Ibu Robin Lim (founder of Bumi Sehat birthing centre in Bali) as part of their Eat Pray Doula training in 2021. I have also trained with Nicole Lloyd from Sound 4 Life to become a ‘sound birth’ doula.

Why a Doula?

In 2018 I discovered the work of Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova and her method Birth into Being. That same year I travelled to Germany to complete an intensive in-person training with her and experience the method first hand. This work blew my mind and accutely drew my attention to the importance of ‘people making’- how our earliest experiences imprint our nervous system and greatly influence how we ‘see’ the world and our relationship to ourself and others. The possibility of bringing more awareness to this fact and having an impact on the way babies enter the world and mothers experience pregnancy, birth and Motherhood gave me hope for the future and humanity and is what brought me to birth work. 

I truly believe how babies and mothers experience conception, gestation and birth has long lasting impacts and I believe if we can bring humans into the world gently and in love, with the new beings not being disconnected from Source (by traumatic, harsh or unloving experience) then our whole system, society and how we live interdependently with each other and other species will change. 

The society we live in and humans have lived in for hundreds of years has systematically denigrated, dismissed, denied and suppressed the Feminine. There are deep layers of trauma that are individual, collective and ancestral. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to unravel and dismantle what it means to be a human in the world today, in relationship to ourself, others and the planet we call home. 

But as with all things it starts with us, with each individual on this planet, through our choosing, owning and consciously creating what we want for our ‘world’. 

And doing this in relationship with others is so important, as the wounds we have all suffered, overtly, covertly, inadvertingly, have been in relationship and to heal is to experience the opposite. Taking the responsibility of getting your needs met, being held and nurtured, receiving support, choosing your way, are all empowering ways of reclaiming our right to connection and emotional intimacy. This is what I stand for and want to create and foster as your doula. Are you ready? 

Vision.

To see a revolution in our maternity system, returning it to the hands of women and the art of being WITH woman.

To see all women in their POWER.

Mission.

To bring awareness, safety and joy to pregnancy and birth through listening, care and presence.

To be an agent for change on this planet one birth at a time.

My Tool Kit

Resources

You will be provided with reliable, evidence based resources to make informed choices. I have also trained with Catherine Bell in ‘Birth Mapping’ so we can look at all the pathways and consider all the potentials.

Relaxation

I have learnt techniques for stretching, releasing and relaxation and acupressure points to help induce labour and for pain relief. These tools can help to create alignment, release tension and open up the pelvis.

Sound

The vibration of the sound bowl is grounding and soothing. You can tone with the sound and feel more confident to use your voice. The benefits of toning include, releasing endorphins and oxytocin, reducing blood pressure and heart rate, and shifting the brain into a slower (alpha) state.

My Philosophy

My business name and philosophy is ‘creative magic’ which means that I truly believe we have the capacity to create the life we want, to make our life a beautiful experience and that this is the space (creative and magic) that we need to be in to give birth so as to have the best experience possible. 

I believe in our ability to use our imagination to envision what we want to see in the world and to take those steps in our own life to creating that, to feel our power to influence and change the world around us and our experience of it and to step into a space of free will. 

And also, to know that that quality of magic- to be beautiful and delightful- can be a part of our everyday life if we choose it be.