Client 2 - Testimonial

"My story is that I am from Albania, I fell in love with someone who I thought would look after me but he ended up being a dangerous man who beat me, threatened my family and passed me around to his friends.

I was used by many violent men and I was moved from city to city. I ended up in the back of a lorry and when they stopped at a petrol station they left the door open and I escaped. Somehow I had ended up in London. After being taken to a police station, the Home Office moved me to a house in Birmingham. I didn't know that I was pregnant at that time.

When I was 6 months pregnant with my son, my Community Midwife asked ifshe could refer me to a charity thatsupported pregnant women like me. Thisis when I met my doula,she arranged to meet me at my home and she bought me some food and we got to know each other overthe next few weeks. She told me thatshe could come with me to the hospital when I had my baby,she bought all of the itemsthat I needed for my hospitalstay and forthe baby.

I was scared about people touching me when I wasin labour but my doula showed me that I had choices and could say what I wanted,she called it my "Birth Preferences". It was a greatrelief to me to have someone come alongside me at thistime. Knowing that I had someone to call when it came time to have my baby boy was a relief to me. My doula stayed with me all through my labour right up until they took me to the postnatal ward. I ended up having a c/section and I wasso exhausted I just wanted to sleep but my doula stayed and held my baby boy whilst Irested.

My doula has come to see me at home since I had my baby and we are going to go to a group in the church over the road so that I can make new friends. I am so grateful to the charity for all that they do and I didn't know that people could be that kind."