I'm Penny, Mum of a teen and a tween, lover of all things wild, foraging, fermenting, and since I was a kid have been fascinated by the healing power of Placenta remedies to heal from birth.  

Pre-motherhood, I was a fasted paced workaholic fashion and handbag designer in the Manhattan's fashion district which is where I met my husband and became a mother to our two funny, creative children.

 

My work focuses now around honoring birth, advocating for my clients, educating them antenatally and giving them support after their birth too.

 

My personal approach to birth, I feel most comfortable like any animal who birthing privacy, undisturbed and without pressure to perform.  I have know the safe feeling to be left to labour alone in peace and comfort of home.  Unfortunately to complete my first birth I had to complete my birth in a hospital to satisfy my American health insurance providers and in those brief twenty minutes I was in the hospital I learned first hand how many women and birthing-people are deprived of privacy and dignity and often harmed at the hands of their Obstetricians and OB nurses.  Doula training has made me aware how physiological birth is not studied in detail by our medical professionals and informed consent is blurred.  

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Due to these injuries sustained in the moments I entered the hospital I developed severe post natal depression and anxiety.  I am an adult-diagnosed neurodivergent and studies now show how people on the ADHD and Autism spectrum are six time more likely to develop a form of mental illness as a result of birth or hospital trauma and go onto to develop antenatal mental health issues for subsquent pregnancies.   I have first hand experience on how beneficial placentophagy was for me for my second birth recovery and how much better I felt which really aided my breastfeeding the second time around with placenta capsules.  I have been providing placenta remedied to clients and repeat clients for the passed six years.  They too have experienced a really positive outcome postnatally.

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REIKI

In 2019 I founded Balance & Root Healing focusing on providing clients with Placenta remedies and Reiki II level Healing.  Reiki can be so helpful to gently quiet anxiety before birth or if you are feeling the isolating effects that can come with waiting for your baby to come in their own time without chasing a labour to come about sooner via induction.  Reiki can be for some people profoundly moving and can offer occasionally a message needed to be heard.  The grounding and peaceful effects might be just what's needed to align body, baby and mind needed for birth. 

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PLACENTA HEALING

Then comes the placenta.  It's always troubled me how the placenta has lacked the gentle reverence it deserves and there is a whole history as to why we have come to the default of discarding it as biohazard waste.  It is part of your baby.  It deserves, like your baby to be born quietly and peacefully so I like to inform clients about physiological third stage/placenta birth as well as your baby's birth.  

 

Through my own amazing experience preparing and gradually taking placenta capsules, I found my spirit far more buoyant, energy increased and mind felt more settled and content which was so wonderful whilst looking after my newborn and four year old.  I was directly affected by severe post natal depression following the birth of my first child in New York 2008. I struggled to overcome such a heavy feeling that I somehow was broken, detached from my husband and baby and having to bounce back to a highly charged career in the New York fashion industry without maternity leave or any family nearby I was diagnosed with postpartum depression and my ability to mask to get by and perform in my day to day seemed to fall apart.  I believe now that was due to two contributing factors, poor treatment in the labour and delivery ward during birth and being denied the hormones I needed to recover through my placenta put me in this vulnerable state.

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My family and I now live in a much gentler, greener part of the world in the Cambridgeshire countryside UK.  Life is slower paced and I feel more at ease pursuing my interests, being closer to nature and watching my babies grow. I trained on how to professionally produce all sorts of placenta remedies in 2018 with IPEN (The Indepent Placenta Encapsulation Network) and eventually founded Balance & Root Healing a year later after adding Reiki to the toolkit.  My work has sent me far and wide collecting amazing placentas and offering reiki support in birth and postpartum and I am so proud of my amazing client feedback from the families I serve.  I am recommended mostly through word of mouth and have a small network of supportive private midwives, doulas, nutritionists and birth educators who refer clients over to me.

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DOULA

I am excited for 2024!  I have started amazing six month training to become a Doula with The Original Birth Connection founded by Alexandra Burner so lots more support coming to families in Cambridge and the surrounding area.​