Instagram story viewer> @loturahaven> Posts

Zoe || Postpartum Doula • Geelong

@loturahaven

263

followers

385

following

꩜ Whatever this season feels like, you don't have to hold it alone
𖥸In-home nourishment, presence & rest for the fourth trimester 📍Geelong & Surrounds

POSTS STORIES REELS

Hi, I’m Zoë — the heart behind Lotura Haven 🤍
Mother of three. Creative. Postpartum doula. Someone who has lived every season I now hold space for.

I started this work because I know what it feels like to move through those early weeks unsupported — and I know the difference even a small amount of genuine care makes. Not just in the moment, but in the years that follow.

🪷 The calling to create this space was ignited during my first pregnancy 6 years ago when I received doula support, I then birthed our baby at home.
That birth transformed my entire life in so many ways but I knew then that I would one day walk beside women as they journeyed through the realm of birth & postpartum.

I have since had two more homebirths..Each experience changed me yet again, but it was the after that transformed me the most. The effects of those early weeks and how they moulded the following months.

That tender, unseen time where a mother rebuilds herself - body, mind, and spirit. The chapter that so many of us go into underprepared (mentally as well as physically) and undersupported.

My approach draws from Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine postpartum traditions, mentorship, my own natural approach to health and a lot of lived-it-myself wisdom.

We live by the sea in Victoria, where slow mornings and barefoot days shape our rhythm. Our eldest is 6 so we have stepped into our homeschool journey and I am rarely without a warm drink or craft project in hand while I run after our two boys or take things slow with our daughter. The polarity of personalities!
My husband & I both work for ourselves & are proud to have crafted a life away from the 9-5.
We have a few businesses between us which you may see pop up here from time to time; especially our new founded early childhood physical at-home education program.

If you are expecting, newly postpartum, or just found your way here — I’m so glad you are here. Truly, Thankyou.
This page is a space for the parts of motherhood that don’t get talked about enough as well as building connection.

When I say I am here for you, I mean it xo
Welcome to Lotura Haven where connection meets sanctuary 🤍 by @loturahaven

My work aims to create a nourished, steady foundation in those early weeks..so the waters of motherhood feel softer to step into.

Because when a mother’s cup is filled — ideally overflowing — that nourishment naturally spills into her children.

And that is the quiet power of a supported postpartum✨

~
I support 2 families at a time / per month across Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast (occasionally Melbourne).

🪷 I limit my availability because I am on call for your baby’s arrival for our first visit, reducing my schedule around your due window so I can come to you as soon as postpartum begins.

Caring for only a few families at a time allows me to offer steady, deeply present support.

Most families choose the 6-visit “Landing” package which carries you through the first 40 days (if we do weekly visits, or the first 3 weeks with 2 visits a week) — though the “Begin” offering is a gentle (& uniquely shorter) way to experience postpartum care.

If you are preparing for birth or newly postpartum and feel drawn to this kind of support, my inbox is open.

You deserve to be held in this season 🤍

#loturahaven #postpartumcaregeelong #postpartumdoulamelbourne #geelong #bellarinepeninsula by @loturahaven

I asked a mama I had the privilege of supporting if she’d share a few words about her experience.

Reading it back still makes my heart full ❤️
So much of what she felt is how I felt supporting her.

Every client will always hold a special place in my heart.

This work really is a privilege and honor.

~

If you’re growing a baby or standing beside someone who is — my inbox is always open xo

#loturahaven #postpartum #postpartumdoula #newborn #geelongsmallbusiness by @loturahaven

It is most commonly known as co-regulation but I find it to be deeper than that.

Co-regulation — the process by which an infant’s underdeveloped nervous system borrows from the mother’s to find its baseline for what “safe” feels like.

It is one of the most well-researched areas of infant neuroscience and one of the least talked about in postpartum conversations it most definitely has a valid standing in this space.

However, there is co-regulation between mother and baby and then there is witnessing and acknowledging the primal connection of a baby reading it’s mother…not just regulating. A baby reads who is in the room, it reads the energy of the space, it responds to the things the mother hasn’t even consciously processed yet.
That's not co-regulation. That's something closer to: a baby is the most sensitive instrument in the room. 🪷

I think about this in every visit. Not just what I’m doing for the mother — but what her regulated, rested, held state is doing for her baby at the same time.

Supporting the mother was never just about her.

.

.

.

#postpartumsupport #coregulation #infantcare #newbornbubble #postpartumawareness by @loturahaven

A baby reads energy long before they have words for it. They feel the nervous system their mother is living inside. They absorb her state — her tension, her depletion, her calm.

This is why postpartum support was never just about her.

When a mother comes through those early weeks feeling genuinely held — nourished, rested, seen — she pours something different into her mothering. Something steadier. Something that ripples into who her child becomes.
That’s not a small thing. That is everything. 🤍

.

.

.

#postpartumdoula #postpartum #loturahaven #postpartumsupport #postpartumprep by @loturahaven

Emotional stakes. Unspoken expectations. Someone else’s feelings about the new baby taking up space in the room.

When the people who love you most show up in those early weeks, they bring themselves with them. Their history with you. Their relief when you seem okay — which quietly teaches you to seem okay.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of women are blessed to have aligned support but so far in my 6 years of motherhood and now as a doula I have found this to be a minority.

Support without an emotional agenda is rarer than anyone admits. And it’s exactly what changes everything and is why I stepped forward into my doula calling. 🤍

.

.

.

#postpartum #postpartumjourney #postpartumdoula #doulasupport #loturahaven by @loturahaven

As a postpartum doula this is why I do what I do. Protecting a mother’s postpartum space isn’t precious. It’s physiological. What she feels, her baby feels. What surrounds her, surrounds them both. I experienced my baby reflecting the adults around them which helped my confidence in creating boundaries when I gave birth to our next baby.

🪷This is why postpartum support is not a luxury. 🤍

.

.

.

#postpartumdoula #loturahaven #postpartum #postpartumsupport #geelongbusiness by @loturahaven

Here’s something I’ve noticed — the majority of mothers I speak to have people around them. Dedicated partners. Family who show up. Someone who means well.
But when I ask how that support actually feels — so many of them pause.

Because the baby is taken from her arms when all she wanted was a load of washing put on or a warm meal. The advice comes when she needed quiet. The visit happens on someone else’s timeline.
The support is given — but it’s given on everyone else’s terms. And she receives it gratefully, because she doesn’t want to seem ungrateful. Because she’s been conditioned to make herself small enough to fit whatever’s on offer.

Very few mothers move through postpartum with support that actually hears them. Support that asks what she needs — and then does that. Support with no emotional agenda attached to it.

That’s what doula care is. Not a replacement for the people who love her. Something entirely different.

🌸 And here is something I always remind my friends and clients of - this isn’t just about her. A baby reads energy long before they speak. They feel the state their mother is in. They absorb the nervous system she’s living inside. And when a mother comes through postpartum feeling genuinely held — truly nourished and seen — she pours something different into her mothering. Something that ripples.

That’s not a small thing. That’s everything. 🤍

.

.

.

#postpartum #firstfortydays #newbornlife #pregnancyprep #postpartumdoula
Postpartum doula | Geelong small Business | Bellarine peninsula | Doula support Geelong by @loturahaven

Birth prep. Birth plans, packed bags for the hospital or home-birth setup, carefully curated playlists, birth tools..the list goes on.
We have built an entire industry around preparing for the birth itself which is so beneficial but when that baby arrives — when the most physically and emotionally demanding stretch of a mother’s life actually begins — the preparation just stops.

The irony is that everything she prepared for lasts hours. What comes after lasts months. Years. In some cases, decades.

Planning for postpartum is the most practical, loving thing a pregnant woman can do for her future self.

If you’re expecting and you haven’t thought about what support looks like after the birth — this is your nudge. 🤍

📍 Bellarine Peninsula, Geelong & Surrounds — DM me anytime xo

#postpartum #postpartumdoula #geelongsmallbusiness #mothersupport by @loturahaven

Somewhere in the evolution of modern motherhood, receiving care became something to earn.
Something you qualified for by being sick enough, struggling enough, visibly broken enough.

But care isn’t a reward for falling apart. It was always meant to be the infrastructure — the thing that was already there, before she had to ask, before she had to prove she needed it.

If you are in those early weeks right now and someone offers to help and they are an aligned support - let them.
Not the performing-gracious version of letting them. Actually let them. Put the cup down. Lie down. Let your body believe, even briefly, that it doesn’t have to carry all of this alone.

That’s not weakness. That’s the wisest thing you could do for yourself and your baby right now. 🤍

#postpartum #loturahaven #postpartumdoula #newmum #postpartumsupport by @loturahaven

Nobody needs another list of things to buy for the fourth trimester. What actually makes the difference in those early weeks is almost never a product.

These are the things I come back to again and again — in my own experience across three postpartums, and in every home I’ve sat with a mother in.

🌸 Eat before the baby eats. Even something small. You cannot pour from an empty vessel and you cannot remember to fill it when you’re running on nothing. My top tip is to have a thermos of warm food by your bed!

🌸In for 4, out for 8. Whenever you feel the walls closing in. It talks directly to your nervous system in a way your thoughts can’t.

🌸 Ask one person for one specific thing. Not a nod if they say ‘let me know if you need anything.’ Tell them exactly what you need. A meal Tuesday. Company Thursday morning. Someone to watch the baby for an hour so you can shower.

🌸 Skin to skin — for you as much as for the baby. Your nervous systems regulate each other. You probably needed that moment more than the baby did. It is also beneficial all the way through to toddlerhood so don’t forget to come back to it!

🌸 Go outside. Even for sixty seconds. Barefoot if you can. Your body needs to remember the world is still there.

They are simple. They are free. And on the hardest days, they’re genuinely enough to bring you back into your body long enough to take the next small step. Because sometimes that’s all you are going to be able to focus on.

If they resonated Save for later and share with a friend 🤍

#postpartumdoula #postpartumsupport #recomendation #newbornbubble #geelongbusiness by @loturahaven

The belief most mothers carry into postpartum: I just need to get through the newborn stage and I’ll feel like myself again.
It’s such an understandable thing to hold onto.
The familiar self feels so close — like if you could just sleep, just heal, just get through this next hard stretch, she will be waiting on the other side.
But here’s what I’ve come to understand — through my own three postpartums and through sitting with mothers in those early weeks: the woman you were before isn’t gone. She’s dissolving. Reforming. Unfurling.
Becoming something more evolved and more complex than she was before.

Matrescence — the identity transformation of becoming a mother — isn’t a detour from your real self. It is the becoming of her.

You’re not lost. You are mid-arrival. 🤍
Save this for the day you need it most. Or send it to a mother who’s still waiting to feel like herself again.

#postpartum #matrescence #motherhood #postpartumdoula #modernmotherhood by @loturahaven