About Kindling Birth Coaching
Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m Verena. I’m a physician (MD), a public health researcher (PhD) and a mom of three, and I created Kindling to help you prepare for a birth you can look back on with joy.
Why I started Kindling
My children’s births were deeply meaningful and changed me in ways I never imagined. I look back on them with joy and pride, and I’d truly love that for you, too.
Those experiences weren’t just luck. They came from preparation that went well beyond information: learning to work with my mind and emotions, and understanding my body and the maternity care system well enough to feel supported in it.
For a long time, I held the same assumptions many of us do. I believed childbirth was dangerous and overwhelmingly painful. As a physician, I had seen complicated births, and like most people I had heard far more difficult stories than hopeful ones. Add the way birth is shown in movies and on TV, and it’s easy to come to see birth as something to fear and endure.
What changed my view of birth
That shifted during my first pregnancy. I realized I had a choice: to walk into birth with fear, just hoping for the best, or to prepare in a way that made room for calm and trust. So I did what I do as a scientist and turned to the evidence. What I found was both reassuring and sobering. Modern maternity care is rightly focused on safety, but it often pays little attention to how people experience birth or how prepared they feel going in, and that gap can cause harm nobody intends.
The evidence is also clear that how you experience birth matters, and that mental and emotional preparation makes a real difference. Skills like mindfulness, cognitive reframing and deep relaxation can change how birth feels. Together with a good understanding of physiological birth, common interventions and how the maternity care system works, they help people feel more confident and less overwhelmed, even in systems that don’t always listen well.
What Kindling is all about
My work helps you prepare your mind and body and find your way through the maternity care system with more confidence and calm. It isn’t about a “perfect” or “right” way to give birth. It’s about preparing you so that, whatever unfolds, your birth can feel meaningful and, in its own way, beautiful.
If this resonates with you, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you as you prepare for your baby’s birth.
Warmly,
Verena
Is Kindling right for you?
People usually find their way to my work because something about the usual messages around birth doesn’t quite sit right.
You may have noticed how little space there is for the experience of birth — how it feels in your body, how it affects you emotionally, and how it’s remembered afterward.
You may sense that being well informed isn’t the same as feeling ready.
Or you may be carrying worries about pain, losing control, or what might happen if birth becomes too intense or takes an unexpected turn.
My work is for people who want to approach birth feeling confident in their choices, even as things unfold moment by moment. It’s for those who want practical ways to meet the intensity of labour without panicking, and to stay oriented and engaged when decisions need to be made in a system that can feel fast or directive.
Preparation here goes beyond learning facts and focuses on building mental and emotional skills that help you cope with intensity, stay focused, and adapt as birth unfolds.
Many of the people I work with are hoping for a physiological or low-intervention birth, which often takes active preparation, especially in hospital. Others are planning a Caesarean birth or navigating a higher-risk pregnancy, where preparation matters just as much. What they share isn’t a particular plan, but a wish to feel respected, involved and supported, whatever unfolds.
Partners and support people are an important part of this work too (more on that below).
What we focus on
My work focuses on mental, emotional, and practical skills shown to shape how birth is experienced — from coping with intensity to understanding options and participating in decisions.
Insight
I help you understand what happens in your body and within the maternity care system and how this connects to mental and emotional preparation for birth. We look at how stress, expectation, and a sense of safety influence labour, alongside a clear understanding of physiological birth, common interventions, and how decisions are typically made. The goal is to help you feel oriented and able to participate in your care with confidence as an active participant, not a passive patient.
Mindset
Birth is shaped not only by what happens physically, but by how we interpret and respond to it. We work with fears, assumptions, and internal narratives that can increase tension or doubt, using evidence-based mental coaching approaches that support steadiness and self-trust.
Deep relaxation
You will learn practical ways to help your nervous system settle during pregnancy and labour. Techniques such as guided relaxation can support comfort, focus, and a sense of safety, even during intensity.
Breath
Breath is a simple and reliable anchor during labour. I show you how to use it intentionally through different phases of birth.
For partners and support people
Partners and other support people are warmly welcome, and I really encourage them to join in.
Supporting someone through birth can be meaningful, but it can also bring up uncertainty, worry, and a sense of not knowing how to help — especially when labour becomes intense or unpredictable. Many support people carry their own fears into birth, yet are rarely given space to acknowledge or work with them.
I help partners and support people understand what to expect, stay grounded themselves, and offer support in ways that are genuinely helpful. That includes supporting relaxation and breathing, communicating with care providers when needed, and staying connected with the birthing person.
Just as importantly, birth will stay with support people too. Preparing together can help you both look back on it as a shared experience rather than something to simply get through.
Practice, timing, and commitment
This kind of preparation takes time and practice. Many of the tools we work with — such as relaxation, breath, and mental focus — are skills rather than information. Research shows these skills are most useful under stress when they are familiar, not new. This is one of the key ways Kindling differs from typical prenatal classes: it asks for engagement over time so what you learn is available when you need it.
I encourage people to reach out as early in pregnancy as they like. These tools can be helpful well before labour, particularly for easing anxiety and building steadiness during pregnancy. Starting later can still be worthwhile; having at least six weeks before birth often allows enough time to practice and integrate the skills without feeling rushed.
If you’re further along, you’re not too late — we’ll simply focus on what will be most useful right now.
What matters to me
If you’re drawn to evidence-based guidance and care that is deeply human, you’ll likely feel at home here. I care deeply about the people I work with, and I see it as an honour to support you through such a meaningful time.
I don’t encourage rigid plans or avoidance of medical care. Coaching works alongside your midwife or doctor, never in place of them. What I care about most is how birth is experienced, emotionally and psychologically, and how that experience stays with people long after the birth itself.
My work is grounded in research and in my own clinical and personal experience. I don’t use fear-based messaging, and I don’t position care providers as adversaries. Instead, I help you prepare to engage with the maternity care system in a way that supports agency, even when plans change.
Above all, this work is personal. Whether we work together one-on-one, in a group setting or online, I tailor our work to your questions, values, and circumstances, with the goal of helping you approach birth in a way that feels right for you.
