Who we are and where we're from.

In short, we are two South Africans in Canada... But more than that we are a married couple who met in South Africa while studying Human Biology at Stellenbosch University in 2009. We have since moved to Canada following paths we never saw coming, to find ourselves in the world of birth, babies, yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Since graduating in 2011 Neil started coming to Canada every summer to plants trees for reforestation and then heading back to South Africa when the weather turns, enjoying three years of double summers before settling in Calgary in 2014. At the same time, I (Yolande) travelled to Brazil to teach English in the predominantly Portuguese-speaking country. After some months and a stint travelling South America together, Neil and I returned to South Africa where I spent the next few years teaching English to tourists and other non-English speakers. In 2014 we got married and some months later I made my way to Canada to start our Great Big Northern Adventure.

In 2015 things changed when we got pregnant and later welcomed our amazing daughter Florence into the world. After I had Florence I found that there is a large societal disconnect from our roots in tribes and villages where there was a large support system for mothers and wanted to be part of bringing this back to my community. Neil was already studying to become a Doctor of TCM and Acupuncture and I felt drawn to the world of babies and birth and decided I would become a doula to help new families through an incredible time in their lives and get that village feeling back.

Since then we have done all our different training, through some local organisations as well as internationally. Neil is a postpartum placenta specialist certifying with ProDoula while I am doing postpartum doula cross-certification also with ProDoula. I am a member of the Calgary Doula Association and will be doing my birth doula certification through DONA. Having a varied background allows us to utilise many resources and draw from various wells of inspiration to match our values.