About Birth Reflections Jersey
Welcome to Birth Reflections Jersey, where I offer a perinatal debrief service. This can include talking about your fertility, pregnancy, and parenthood journey, discussion of options for subsequent births, breaking down medical jargon into easy to understand language, answering questions about your experience, and so much more. Each session is shaped entirely around what you want to get from it.
Birth Reflections was created from my passion of providing support and guidance to help you navigate through the emotional challenges you may be feeling. I understand that every experience is unique, and I am here to help you start to process your feelings and learn how to co-exist with your experience in a healthier way.
With a focus on creating a safe, supportive, and non-judgemental environment for you to explore your emotions and concerns, my goal is to help you reframe your experience, ease your burden, and begin to process your journey.
I am dedicated to continuous learning and improvement to better serve mothers and their families. I value your feedback and I am always looking for ways to enhance my services. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or to schedule a consultation. I am here to support you every step of the way.
About Me - The Person Behind Birth Reflections
My name is Kate Melyn, and I have been a registered midwife since 2013. Since I qualified, I have worked across our local HCJ maternity service doing community, antenatal clinic, and inpatient maternity care, with my main passions being home births, advocating for informed choice, and providing emotional support. I left the local maternity service in 2022 to move into a Digital Health role.
I started Birth Reflections as a way to continue my passion of supporting mothers, parents, and families. Whilst there is a hospital-based debrief service, I believe it is valuable for islanders to have the choice to experience their debrief with a trained practitioner outside of the HCJ framework. I can spend time with you outside of the clinical environment at your home, on weekends and in evenings, and offer a supportive space for your debrief without any obligation to justify or defend the actions of the service, but still with an insider's perspective of it.
BRJ is my the opportunity to 'give back' to our island by offering perinatal debriefs, with a focus on listening to how you tell your story. My main aim is to support you in beginning to process your experience in a healthy way.
To ensure I maintain the best possible skills and tools to support you, I take every opportunity to develop my skills by undertaking further training opportunities. Although this is not necessary for me to provide the service as I am already qualified to do so, I am a firm believer that we should never stop learning and improving, and will always seek to develop my skills wherever possible. I have been very lucky to be able to learn from several incredible people in the perinatal space, including:
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A breastfeeding trauma and grief workshop with Dr Jenna Brough
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A trauma and debrief masterclass with Illiyin Morrison
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and Make Birth Better's "Birth Trauma Training Programme"
Finally, I would like to reassure everyone that Birth Reflections Jersey is a safe, supportive space for you no matter who you are. I wish this could go without saying, but with a lot of the world facing a reduction in safe, inclusive spaces at the moment, I feel it's best to let you know in advance that you are always welcome here.