Hi! I’m Nessa, the owner of Radical Mother Wellness, a Doula and Clinical Herbalist based in Peterborough, Ontario. I work with women and families during pregnancy to help them understand their options, navigate the systems surrounding birth, and prepare for the physical, emotional, and deeply transformative experience of becoming a parent. I offer thoughtful, strategic support that helps women find their voices, trust their instincts, and make informed choices while staying connected to their bodies and their vision for birth. When I’m not working, and even when I am, you can find me in my garden, or at home with my two dogs, two cats, and two kiddos.

My Story

Personally, I started this work as a mother with the birth of my son in hospital, traumatic and medicalized, and then my daughter, 18 months later, beautiful, simple, healthy at home. Professionally, I started this work as a photographer, and then studied as a Maternal Support Practitioner, Child Birth Educator, Reiki (levels 1, and 2), and Clinical Herbalist. My passion and my work has taken me down a lot of different roads. I’ve worked with clients through hospital births, home births, freebirths, breech births, inductions, transfers, cesareans, and births that went completely sideways from what everyone thought was going to happen. I’ve photographed births, taught birth education, facilitated workshops and postpartum mother-and-baby groups, and I’ve experienced surrogacy as a surrogate myself.

My approach to birth work really deepened during lockdowns in what we not-so affectionately call “Covid times”. I walked away from birth work in order to focus on life as a newly single mother, and I went deep into Clinical Herbalism and plant medicine, which, alongside my awakening, completely changed and expanded the way I think about and how I approach my work in women’s health.

My Philosophy

I believe we are perfectly designed for this. I believe women are capable of pregnancy, birth, feeding our babies, and becoming mothers in ways that we have largely forgotten how to trust. There is an intelligence in the body that deserves to be listened to, protected, and respected. I also believe the healthcare system has an important place in birth. It can save lives when there is an emergency, and it can offer guidance, expertise and support when you choose to work within it. But it is still a system, and systems come with their own protocols, priorities, limitations and risks. I don’t think we need to reject it, and I don’t think we need to surrender to it either. I want women to understand what they are stepping into, what the system can offer them, what its limitations are, and where they still have choices. I want them to be able to use the system as a tool when they need it without forgetting that their body, their baby and their experience belong to them.

For me, that is where the radical part comes in. Radical means getting back to the root. Before the protocols, before the checklists, before the fear, before someone else tells you what your birth should look like, there is a woman, a baby, a body, a relationship and a threshold. I want women to prepare for birth itself, not just prepare for a particular location or outcome. The woman is the constant. The setting can change. The plan can change. The people in the room can change. The birth can change. So we work on the things that actually travel with you: understanding physiology, knowing what supports it, knowing your options, figuring out what matters to you, finding your yes, knowing your no, and staying anchored when things get messy. I want women to know enough to ask better questions, recognize when there is time to think, understand when there isn’t, and participate meaningfully in decisions when circumstances change.

And I don’t believe we are meant to do any of this alone. Support is abundance. Your doula, your midwife or doctor, your partner, your family, your community, your knowledge, your plants, your medicine, your own instincts and all the other tools available to you can exist together. I especially believe in the importance of the person standing beside the woman. A partner is not a spectator at birth. He is becoming a father. He needs to understand what is happening, be present, be involved, and know how to help create the conditions where the woman feels safe enough to do what birth asks of her. He can be part of the safety container. He can protect the space, help her stay anchored, ask questions, slow things down when there is time, and remind her who she is when the room gets loud.

Ultimately, Radical Mother is about self-sovereignty. Not doing everything yourself. Not rejecting help. Not having the “perfect” birth. And not proving anything to anyone. It is about remembering that you were not fundamentally broken when you became pregnant, that your body is not a problem to be managed, and that becoming a mother does not require you to hand yourself over to someone else. Sometimes that means fiercely protecting an undisturbed physiological birth. Sometimes it means changing course. Sometimes it means saying no. Sometimes it means saying yes to something you never imagined you would choose. None of those things make you more or less of a mother. What matters to me is that you understand what is happening, that your voice is part of the conversation, and that you don’t lose yourself at the exact moment your life is changing forever. That is the work I want to do.

Who I Work With

I work with families across Canada and beyond through virtual support, while offering in-person 1:1 Doula services to families throughout Peterborough, the Kawarthas, Durham Region, and the GTA.

My Story

My Philosophy

Who I Work With

Holistic guidance for women reclaiming their motherhood.

Serving families in Peterborough, Cobourg, Port Hope, Northumberland County, Durham Region, the Kawarthas, and surrounding communities.