Sophie Messager

Sophie left her native France in 1997 to pursue postdoctoral studies as a biology research scientist, in Aberdeen, where she met her Hong Kong-born husband, Chi. They moved to Cambridge in 2001, got married, and had two children, Sebastien and Chalotte. Their births (both very positive experiences supported by a doula) changed her professional interest completely, and she retrained to be a doula, antenatal teacher and babywearing instructor.

Sophie is a birth geek and knowledge junkie but has a more spiritual side too, so she also trained as a Reiki drum healer and teacher. Training and personal practice have led her to master a wide range of labour and postnatal comfort measures and skills, such as massage, rebozo, birth and postnatal healing rituals that blend physical and energy healing. Sophie teaches these skills to parents and birthworkers in one-to-one, workshop and online settings. Her work is a blend of traditional knowledge and scientific evidence. She blogs about birth and postnatal topics at www.sophiemessager.com. She has a PhD in Physiology of Reproduction.