Nikita Akilapa Birth Services

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Reviews

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  Maya Bell Kohli

  We worked with Nikita through pregnancy to learn hypnobirthing and prepare for birth and she was our doula at birth time. This work with Nikita was nothing short of transformational. With tenderness, humour and careful listening she was able to connect with both my partner and I so we were able to grow in confidence through the hypnobirthing course. She has a deep knowledge of everything pregnancy, birth and post partum and she knows how to share the perfect amount of new knowledge so that you feel you take steps forward in your understanding at a manageable pace. She does this with warmth and laughter that makes her instantly part of your team. Labour came and when Nikita knocked on the door at 5am it was like the party really started, making what could have been an uncertain time into one of the funniest, most exciting experiences of my life. During my labour she helped me get more comfortable and find positions that brought baby down more quickly. Her assurance and calm was contagious and her presence fortified me and my husband. Having her by my side helped me tap into something magical that made labour a powerful portal. Even when some things didn’t go as planned she stayed steady, reinforced my wishes and kept me feeling safe. Her gentle generosity and the deep love she brings to her work made an incredible impression on me, showing me what it truly means when someone has found their calling. After birth, she stayed connected with us in a way that made the newness of the early days less lonely and helped me begin to trust in myself as a mum. I’m beyond grateful that we found Nikita. If you’re uncertain about whether having a doula is for you, know that having someone fight alongside you, give you challenge, give you love in the ways that Nikita does can transform your journey and make birth what you hope it could be. I’m so glad we met Nikita because it was the cornerstone in building a brilliant start to life as parents. Also, she took some incredible photos during labour that we’ll always treasure!

  20-05-2023
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  Rebekah Gougeon

  Nikita Akilapa is truly amazing and was a gentle force throughout my entire pregnancy and birth. We decided to opt for a doula pretty late on in my pregnancy and after reviewing several doulas and their services, we chose Nikita. She provided myself and my husband with invaluable support, guidance and experience from the preparatory stage right through to the postpartum period. She is knowledgeable, patient and unflappable - a true rock. I also really enjoyed the much needed 1:1 pregnancy yoga sessions! This pregnancy was far from straight forward compared to my first as I was referred for additional scans for various ‘complications’ and also needed to transfer my care between Trusts in order to facilitate my home birth. Nikita was my oasis of calm and sanity amid moments of stress and feeling pretty overwhelmed. She provided unwavering emotional and practical support and guidance, helping to focus me when I had my wobbles. She showed me how to advocate for myself and navigate a maternity system that unfortunately is often over medicalised and not woman-centred. During the labour and delivery itself, she was my anchor and held me up in more ways than one - I gave birth to my baby standing up, all of my weight hanging from her neck! Although I was decided on a home birth, Nikita is also familiar with my local Trusts and has experience of supporting women in hospital settings too which was important to me, in the event I changed my mind about home birth or transferred to hospital. It was quite literally a life changing decision to opt for a doula and we are glad we chose Nikita.

  27-11-2022
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  Katherine Clair-Kulkarni

  My husband and I have been lucky enough to work with Nikita throughout our pregnancy and beyond. We first met at our Hypnobirthing course. Being our first baby, we had a lot to learn about birth and Nikita welcomed all of our questions - no matter how small. We left the course feeling more confident in how we prepared for future midwife appointments. The course also gave us a shared vocabulary so we both felt like we had a common understanding when talking about what we wanted with our birth. As our due date approached, we decided to ask Nikita to be our postpartum doula. We knew those first few weeks would be overwhelming and her calming spirit would be a welcomed addition to our frantic household. Again, Nikita answered our questions no matter how small and consistently reassured us that we were doing a good job. It was a much needed support at a really vulnerable time !! Additionally, the amount of resources and connections that Nikita had came in handy when we had breastfeeding concerns or other issues !

  27-10-2022
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  Natasha Taneka

  I would highly recommend Nikita as a doula and instructor for birthing classes. The way she provided external sources and research to support all options I was considering was amazing. The classes had the right amount of information for each session and great self work opportunities. I felt very confident and my husband felt very knowledgeable after the sessions. Making the decision to have Nikita as our Doula came east as she had already been going above and beyond linking me with the right people for any pregnancy related issues I was experiencing. She truly responded to my texts and voice messages with the same level of concern and it made me feel like I wasn’t bothering her. She really and truly cares and expresses it. When it came to the later stages of my pregnancy, she was great at being my soundboard. It was amazing to be able to ground myself as she also does yoga classes. Seeing her bright smile and warm hug was exactly what my at times weary body needed. During contractions she softly whispered in my ear and when requested supported my body to get up or down. She would gracefully disappear and reappear and stand close but not too close. Her presence gave me even more confidence in my own capability. While she clearly communicated her limits as a doula and not a medical professional, her experience and knowledge of birth helped me feel safer and calm at all stages of labour. She continued to be available when I needed her during my fourth trimester. The post partum home visits were like a lovely family reunion.

  27-06-2022
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  A Frost

  When my wife first mentioned hypnobirthing to me, it brought up images of arcane and controversial ideas about health and childbirth. How wrong I was in my ignorance! The moment I met Nikita I knew this person was only interested in my wife and child's wellbeing. Through her innovative online course I came to understand so much about the birth process, the science and contemporary practice around it, and how we could improve and complement it. Moreover, for someone who had never spoken with or met a doula, she opened my eyes to the crucial role they can play in a couple's emotional support during pregnancy and birthing, something that is sadly generally neglected generally, and especially in the cases of couples or mothers of colour. Throughout what was a very difficult birth process Nikita supported us in making our own decisions and charting our own path. Whether that was our decision to have homebirth when some voices argued against it, to give us the strength to carry on when no midwives were available to come to us on the day, or to seek a managed 3rd stage of birth when the situation called for it. She is attentive, caring and extremely knowledgeable, and also pragmatic and safety conscious - all qualities I would look for now in a Doula. For facilitating the beautiful gift of watching a son born to a wife safe and confident in her choices and millieu, I would have no hesitation in recommending her to any other couple. After this experience I feel like she is part of the family.

  27-06-2022
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  Stephanie Hudson

  Nikita was my doula for my second son and I cannot recommend her more. Where do I start? We had significant difficulty convincing our local hospital to allow us to undertake a home birth and Nikita supported us substantially as we tried to navigate that roadblock. While we ultimately ended up with a hospital birth due to shortage of nurses, Nikita helped us advocate for a low risk birth environment, when the hospital pushed for us to be high risk unnecessarily. Nikita did a wonderful job educating us and giving us the support and courage to advocate for ourselves. Even though this was my second birth, I was still nervous about giving birth and Nikita was a calming force that brought us great comfort. During our delivery, Nikita was there every step of the way - it was almost as if she could read my mind about what I needed during the process. She immediately took charge of the room without being a roadblock to the midwives and helped to keep calm during a shift change when a particularly difficult midwife came on shift while I was in labor. She was such a great supporter and source of encouragement during the birth, making me feel confident in listening to my body and what our baby was needing from me. She was an excellent support after the baby was born and in the weeks after I gave birth. She gave unconditional and genuine love and support and I could not recommend her more. 5 stars, easy. I wish I could give more. If you're wondering if she's worth it, she is.

  27-05-2022
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  Emily Mary Barnett

  I can’t say enough good things about Nikita, and the support and I knowledge she provided us. Since our first telephone consultation- I felt fully comfortable, held and unjudged. My partner and I had been discussing the option of elective section (after weighing up pros and cons of all types of birth). We felt judged by quite a few people (including another doula we spoke to), but Nikita was completely respectful of my thinking and made me feel fully reassured that she would be able to help make our journey to birth and parenthood more informed, more relaxed and more confident, even with a non-physiological birth. Nikita made it clear that she would support and help us prepare for all birth eventualities, as we weren’t 100% sure which path we would take. I felt fully informed, and Nikita’s guidance was actively unbiased towards any particular path, so I felt able to consider all the information given without influence or pressure. Having been through the whole process with Nikita - and now 5 weeks post partum (having eventually elected for a section), I can confirm that she has been everything I had hoped for and more. ::)) Her hypnobirthing and breastfeeding sessions were so well devised and delivered (better than my NCT course), so many great mindful meditations, a very thoughtful (and hugely useful) care package, personalised yoga sessions were excellent- lots of 1-1 ad-hoc support and checking in on me the whole way through. The meditations, yoga and mindfulness, developing anchors, enabled me to relax up to the date of my section. Had baby arrived early, I felt confident I would manage if I decided to have an early section or equally if I had decided to run with physiological labour. Nikita is very instinctive, intuitive and sensitive- naturally tailoring her service to our needs and attention to our level, always flexible, always there when I needed her - just a very warm, human and considerate approach, and absolutely pro communicator… …I could probably waffle about Nikita for days. 😂 Safe to say my partner and I felt very held the whole way through (from around month 4 til now) - Thankyou Nikita! 🙏🏻

  27-05-2022
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  Temi Ogunyoku

  We recommend Nikita without reservation and simply cannot say enough to praise her for the important work she is doing. Nikita is a knowledgeable, resourceful, empathetic and calming presence and channels every bit of that into her work as a doula. My family and I recently relocated to the UK while pregnant with our second child. We hired Nikita for the following reasons 1) we wanted someone to educate us on—and assist us with navigating—the NHS system, 2) we wanted to address the past trauma and fears from our first child birthing experience and 3) we wanted a strong advocate that would help us apply our birth preferences. Nikita not only delivered on these things, but went above and beyond in every single regard to care for our family and create a safe, strong environment to welcome our new daughter into the world. She was able to identify specific traumas from my previous experience and guide us towards solutions; she was always available to help understand the sometimes conflicting signals we were receiving from our care through the NHS; and finally, Nikita was able to preemptively identify needs during labour and adapt as our energy changed throughout the process. With Nikita’s help, we had the tools and knowledge to have a beautiful and calm birthing experience with our second child. Hiring Nikita—for her work as our doula and to guide us through hypnobirthing practices—was the single best investment we’ve made around births. Again, we highly recommend her services.

  27-05-2022
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  Chloé Briggs

  My husband and I interviewed many doula’s via zoom but we instantly connected with Nikita. She has a wonderful energy. Managing to be effortlessly informative, holistic & empowering, all with a wonderful warm smile :) I was at the tail end of my friends having babies and so knew their pregnancy & birth stories well. There seemed to be a theme of long labours that led to c-sections. I had a fear of tearing and guess had held onto the worst of their stories. Nikita tackled these fears and helped me to get to head space where I actually was looking forward to the birth itself. Something I would never have thought possible! Nikita and I did pregnancy yoga which was fabulous. My husband was sceptical of the hypnobirthing course but we both found this indispensable. Nikita guided us through an abundance of information and helped us to have the most wonderful birth experience. Far from what I originally had intended, but as my knowledge and understanding grew she supported and enabled me to feel confident and educated in my decisions. We are overwhelmed and in awe of her knowledge, kindness, support and empowerment she has showered and imparted on us. Nikita has proved to be a rock in our pregnancy and our hero during the birth.

  27-05-2022
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  Jack Coats

  I had my reservations about a doula and hypnobirthing, purely out of a misunderstanding / complete nonunderstanding as to their role, and the meaning of hypnobirthing. Nikita came along and changed every preconceived misconception I had. She is patient, caring, knowledgeable and gave us all the time in the world - every characteristic you could possibly need and want when going through the whole pregnancy / birth experience, especially speaking from a father's prospective. The birth of our daughter didn't quite go to plan, namely due to our private midwife not being present (that's another story), but Nikita stepped in and was simply magical. She has given us both so much support, from the antenatal sessions, to making us our first meal as we came out of hospital, to just popping in for a cup of tea and checking in on us. If you're considering a doula, please don't look any further, she is the best person for the job and will make your whole experience a million times better! We could not be more thankful for all she has done for us so far, and will without doubt be friends for life! X

  27-05-2022