Birth, pregnancy, fertility, postpartum, and parenthood can feel different for everyone in every moment. Magical, intense, scary, confronting, unexpected, beautiful, raw.Lou Read (she/her) provides loving, inclusive care and support for families of all kinds in the perinatal period — demystifying the process to create more peaceful inner and outer environments for your family expansion. Witnessing the unique essence of this chapter of your story.Most will think of Lou as a birth doula, but there are so many forms her work takes. She is intuitive, loving, kind, calm, energizing, and truthful.Flexibility is everything in birth (and life, tbh). With compassion and wisdom Lou aims to embody the essence of adaptability. She supports all types of births in all types of locations. As a trained meditation teacher Lou works with clients to prepare mindfully and with perspective. She balances practical and spiritual guidance leaning toward wholistic and somatic therapies, and a ‘less is more’ approach to parenthood.Families who are on a non-linear path to becoming parents often resonate with Lou as her own unexpectedly complex fertility experience is, in many ways, what led her to become a doula in the first place. She gets it. Lou is now a parent herself and was fortunate to experience a low intervention home birth supported by her own doula and a certified midwife. Doulas are proven to be beneficial for hospital inductions, cesarean, and epidural-supported births, too. Helping to reduce the risk of unnecessary interventions and increase parent satisfaction. Want to feel good about your birth, no matter how it unfolds? Connect with Lou.
Current availability:
January to April 2026 — weekly or fortnightly pregnancy, life and career coaching
February + March 2026 due dates — Birth Doula services, including film photography in Sydney, Australia
February + March 2026 — Brooklyn, New York birth doula mentorship with a focus on somatic practices for birth workers and your clients
September to December 2026 — Birth doula services, including film photography in Sydney, Australia
August 2026 onwards — weekly or fortnightly pregnancy, life and career coaching
Birth Support
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Film Photography
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Nourishment
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Spiritual Guidance
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Birth Support • Film Photography • Nourishment • Spiritual Guidance •
Training + Certifications
Birth Doula Training — Carriage House Birth, July 2022 (includes postpartum basics)Film Photography Mentorship — Rachel Koszka // Moody Doula + The Analog Birth, 2025-26Transformed by Birth Doula Apprenticeship — Britta Bushnell, PhD, 2023-24Advanced Lactation Training — Australiasian Lactation Courses, 2023-24The Pelvic Floor: A Workshop for Doulas and Birthworkers — Sonia Reiter OTR/L, August 2023Comforting Touch for Doulas — Yiska Obadia, May 2023 Lactation Basics for Doulas — Carriage House Birth, January 2023Home Cook, Postpartum Nutrition & Recipe Testing (First Forty Days) — 2022 - 2023Infant Safety and CPR — Common Sense CPR, January 2023Calling In Workshop — Loretta J Ross (co-founder of the Reproductive Justice movement), October 2022Life Coach Training Program — Handel Group, 2020-2022Personal Assistant — NYC-based family during pregnancy and early postpartum, 2018-2019Continuing education on lactation, reproductive justice, healing modalities — Ongoing, Forever