meet Anna Verwaal

Birth and Pregnancy Education

Anna Verwaal, RN, CLE, is a Maternal-Child Health Nurse, Birth Consultant, Midwifery & Doula Instructor, Primal Period Educator, UCLA Certified Lactation Educator and birth photographer.

In 1984 she received her nursing degree in Holland where she was born and raised. Anna has lived, worked and traveled as a registered nurse in cultures as diverse as Holland, Israel, Norway, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Fiji, Uganda, India and the United States.
In 1990 she settled in Los Angeles and worked for many years as a labor and delivery, post-partum, newborn nursery nurse and in the high-risk antenatal department and obstetrical operating rooms. For three years Anna was employed by a Maternal-Child Home-Health Agency providing prenatal and postpartum mother-baby & pediatric nursing care and lactation support.
In 1998 Anna started her own private birth consulting, doula and lactation service, educating and encouraging couples to make informed decisions regarding their birth options and choices. Her services included helping clients deal with fertility challenges, heal from prenatal or birth related imprints and trauma and preparing them for a conscious conception, pregnancy and birth experience.
From 2000 until 2006 she studied and apprenticed with Hohepa Delamere also known as Papa Joe, the well known and respected indigenous Maori “Tohunga” and renowned healer and midwife from New Zealand. Together they treated many clients for fertility, pregnancy and birth related issues in New Zealand, Holland and the United States. They also taught workshops to birth professionals, therapists and body workers about the traditional Maori approach to conception, pregnancy and birth and various indigenous healing techniques.

During her 22-year career as an obstetrical nurse, conscious conception and birth educator and labor & post partum doula Anna has dealt with a variety of clients that included Arabian princesses, teenagers, homeless women, same sex couples, the wives of notorious gang members and famous Hollywood stars. She worked along side perinatologists, obstetricians and (indigenous) midwives and has been at hundreds of high-risk hospital deliveries and natural births at home.
Since 2004 Anna’s focus has shifted to education and she is frequently invited to speak at international conferences or facilitate talks, lectures and workshops.

Topics include; fetal and newborn consciousness, the long-term affects of the conception and birth experience on our lives, the prevention and healing of prenatal, birth & bonding trauma, the hormonal physiology of childbirth, the psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects of birth and how to provide babies with an optimum start in life.

Anna is also an outspoken birth advocate and long term member of APPPAH, the Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health, (www.birthpsychology.com).
Combining their latest research and findings with a wealth of international experience, professional knowledge, indigenous wisdom and sensitive photography, she is on a passionate quest to help transform the future of childbirth and the way babies are welcomed into the world.
Anna’s website is: http://www.fromwombtoworld.com/

learn with anna