Birthready ▶ Meet Us
Meet Us

Meet Erika and the team

Birthready helps empower and enable people to create their best transition into life as a parent.  To do that well I work with a team of allied health professionals for peer support, collaboration, learning, referrals and as a back up when needed.

They are a passionate team of women with a mix of skills to support their practice.  Eg: Birth educators, yoga instructors, dancing for birth facilitators, massage, life coaching, relationship wellness, placenta encapsulation and post natal doula.  They have my back as I have yours! 

The benefits of working with my team are:

  • Having a doula who has agreed and is committed to the Birthready code of ethics
  • Having a central place to find a qualified doula who suits your needs
  • Getting support and assistance if you have any grievances with your doula
  • Having the peace of mind of a professionally managed backup doula system
  • Working with a reputable doula with cross checked testimonials & and a positive working history
  • Partnering with women who care to create a sustainable and ecological business model

The Birthready team are a reliable, caring and empowering group of women.  Talk to me and explore your support options.

Erika Munton
// Doula / Educator / Mind/Body Coach / Facilitator

Erika Munton is the owner and director of Birthready and its support programs. She is one of the most experienced birth workers in Melbourne today.  Attending 400 births over 20 years as a doula she has supported hundreds of women and men through the perinatal time.

Her inspiring positivity, boundless energy and wealth of knowledge help to guide, educate and inspire people to achieve empowering births and transition more confidently into life as parents. She is a volunteer at Birth for HumanKIND and works with people from a diverse range of cultures, lifestyles, family dynamics and values. She is passionate about increasing expectant parents confidence and ability for better birthing, deepening their connection to each other and helping people create positive changes in their personal, professional and parenting life.

Erika is a mother of 2 now young men and personally experienced both labour with a breech baby resulting in a caesarean birth, her second a water birth, at a free standing birth centre with one-to-one midwifery care. Her birth journeys allow her to understand the intricacy of birth, specifically VBAC, and motivate her to continually learn more.

Jo Watson 
// Midwife, Sexological Bodyworker and mindfulness facilitator

Jo is a private midwife of 18 years experience and work in hospital and the home.  She offer holistic midwifery care through pregnancy, birth and post natally.  Her midwifery care includes midwifery bodywork, somatic movement, sexual empowerment and consent tools.  She runs Thrive for post natal mothers and facilitates a mindfulness meditation for expectant mothers.

Birth and parenting is a rite of passage and she sees her role is to be a witness, companion and facilitator during this significant life transition.

Aladdin Jones
// Educator / Facilitator

Aladdin is a professional counsellor, facilitator, supervisor and adult educator with over 15 years experience in working with families and with men. He is a father of two teenage daughters and is an active co-parent. Aladdin worked for 7 years as a family therapist with children and parents particularly in the area of childhood trauma and family violence.

He has worked as psychotherapist, counsellor and groupwork facilitator with men (ongoing), youth worker, men’s health, prevention of family violence and gender equality. He is a member of the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium, Australian Counsellors Association (ACA) and Victorian Association Restorative Justice (VARJ). He is a teacher, nationally and internationally, training quality skilled therapists with the Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy Institute.

Aladdin holds a masters in education with a research focus on transformative education & ecopsychology. He currently has a private practice in Melbourne and the Yarra Valley. He has recently initiated an inter-generational group based in the Yarra Valley called: Sharing Worlds: Sharing stories of fatherhood – this provides celebration and support for new and expectant fathers, as well as supporting eldership for grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Stephanie Norquay
// Doula & Infant Massage Practitioner

Stephanie is a doula, infant massage practitioner and a mother, who has been supporting women and their families for over a decade. With a background in massage and alternative therapies, she has a wealth of experience working with people in the areas of physical/emotional health and well-being. Stephanie has a strong commitment to supporting women during this incredible, transformative stage of their lives, assisting early bonding between mother and baby, and helping them to feel confident and capable in their parenting.

Stephanie’s personal and professional experiences have enriched her understanding and insights, and are what facilitates her calm presence in the birth space and the balanced and intuitive style with which she works… With an ongoing commitment to further training and development, and with her experience and training in prenatal, postnatal and infant massage, Stephanie is able to provide a comprehensive range of support services to women and their families throughout the entire pregnancy, labour and postnatal period.

Bethany Meakins
// Birth and postnatal doula

Bethany has many years experience working in the home environment of new parents and growing families, both in Australia and abroad. She has built the confidence of many new mums with her ability to sit and listen whilst gently guiding women to trust their natural mothering instincts. She supports women in all birth setting and for all birth options. More recently supporting women to VBAC. Bethany’s joy radiates as she shares her knowledge of birth hypnosis, deep relaxation and mindfulness with her birthing couples to achieve a more connected and positive birth experience.

‘I am thankful for my corporate background. The years of experience have put me in a great position to help drive Birthworks forward, and enabled me to travel much of the world with my husband of 12 years to some 30+ countries. However; birth, babies, and motherhood inspires me most, it simply fills me up. I feel deeply connected to birth and am excited by my recent discovery of reiki & meditation and hope to share this energy with women soon’.

Claire Wyborn
// Birth and postnatal doula

Claire Wyborn is a Melbourne Doula providing memorable, fulfilling and rewarding experience for both Parents, supporting the mother, to trust in herself, in her bodies ability to give birth, and in the birth process itself. Claire is a mother of 3 beautiful, now adult children, and is passionate about empowering women through the experience of childbirth to becoming a mother. She has personally experienced 2 incredible, amazing wonderful home births, sadly, a still born, and by choice a hospital birth, resulting in a cesarean.

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Birth Stories

Welcome Kiddo – a powerful birth by induction

(Written by the birthing mother) Part One: Waiting Thursday 19 July 2018 It’s the middle of winter, and now four days past my due date. The cat is underneath the doona, curled up next to my huge swollen belly, purring as I feel that swooshing live fish flop of the...

Reflections of doula support

Reflections on a couples journey from pregnancy to parenting. ***** 1. What are you proud of with regards to your birth preparation and birth experience? I’m proud of myself for taking the initiative to do the work for a natural birth. I had not even considered that...

A dads birth story, shared from the heart

Discussing, understanding and documenting what sort of birth Jess and I wanted was critical in helping me prepare for potential unknowns. Imagining the birth process from start to finish also helped- and actually practicing things like active birth exercises in our...

Birthing with bi-polar and epilepsy

Dear Erika, At the beginning of 2009 we spoke to my psychiatrist about the possibility of me having a child. After he outlined all the complications due to my bi-polar, epilepsy and medications I had as good as accepted I’d never be a mother. When I discovered in...

An empowering induction birth

Erika was called and arrived at a critical point; Alex and her support team were exhausted and the institution was starting to move closer and closer to taking complete control of the birth. After months of research and excited planning for the complete unknown of the...

The internal journey of a long labour

The birth of Marlene After a long labour Marlene was born naturally at 1.45am on the 7th of March at Angliss Family Birth Centre, Upper Ferntree Gully. I was surrounded by a magnificent birthing team that supported me throughout the labour, which comprised of my...

Homebirth after a caesarean

I gave birth to our little boy at home, with no interventions, no drugs, no stress. I laboured the way that felt right for me, and birthed in the position that came naturally. My husband caught his own son, and it is an experience that we will never forget in a...

Two births – a marathon and a sprint

My contractions were getting stronger. Erika rang the hospital and then drove me in her car. I chose the back seat. About half way to the hospital my waters broke (fortunately I was sitting on a towel). When I told her, Erika said just what I needed to hear: that’s...

Proactive birth preparation with hypnosis

I'm so proud of the steps we took, including hiring our wonderful doula Erika, and the preparation we put in which helped create the most intense, incredible, memorable, rewarding and magical 24 hours of our lives. Our Birth Story Going into this, we didn't even know...

A great home birth experience

Effie - "When I found out I was pregnant, my biggest fear was having to go into hospital to give birth. Hospitals gave me fierce anxiety as my pastexperiences of them had always been negative. I wasn'tconvinced that hospital was my only option, so I took to Dr Google...

Creative childbirth education with a toddler

“Erika helped prepare us for the birth of our son in a very short period of time, and with our 3 year old ‘helping out’ with costumes too!! This delightful couple were happy to have their daughter join in on some birth preparations massage techniques I was showing the...

Miranda’s vaginal birth after a caesarean

Not only were Erika's teachings and advice a useful tool during labour and birth, I was able to apply a lot of them to my life in general (as well as the relationship with my husband and son), and it allowed me to enjoy my little family and appreciate what I had all...