Meet Danae…

Danae is an accomplished birth professional based in Sydney, Australia. She has built expertise working with more than 650 women and families through pregnancy, birth and postpartum with a blend of emotional, physical and evidence based support. Her experience includes working in hospitals, home-birth and private midwifery settings with a wide range of births including VBAC, vaginal twins after 2 caesarean sections, breech and twin homebirth.

Danae’s deep understanding of movement, breath, and peak performance, shape her distinctive prenatal yoga style. Her experience confirms pregnancy, birth and postpartum outcomes improve radically when your body and mind feel prepared, familiar, capable, confident and ready for flow state.

At the core of Danae’s work is a deep respect for physiological birth combined with practical, evidence-based preparation. She is Sydney’s first Optimal Maternal Positioning (OMP) Educator, a specialised approach that focuses on pelvic biomechanics, fetal positioning and maternal movement to support labour progress and reduce unnecessary intervention. This reflects Danae’s ability to translate complex birth mechanics into clear, empowering guidance for parents.

She supports women in their own unique journey to meet their baby, with more than a decade of experience teaching instinctive birth movements, breath-led movement, self regulation techniques, nervous system imprinting, working through the tendency of your mind and how to focus it.

Alongside her work supporting families and women to birth, Danae is an accomplished educator and mentor. She regularly delivers sold-out workshops for expectant parents and birth professionals, and is the creator of Doula Mastery, workshops and training program designed to support emerging and experienced doulas in developing confidence, skill, and professional sustainability.

A passion for Homebirth Model of Care with Private Practice Midwives inspired interviews with Sydney Homebirth Midwives called ‘Midwife at your door’. Click here to watch the series >>

Danae is also a long-standing prenatal yoga teacher with over 15 years of teaching experience. She has delivered more than 1000 online yoga and birth-preparation classes, integrating movement, breath work, mindset training and embodied awareness to prepare women physically and emotionally for birth.

Through her workshops, mentoring, yoga programs and hands-on birth support, Danae has built a reputation for calm authority, depth of knowledge and compassionate care — supporting women not just to give birth, but to feel informed, capable and deeply supported throughout the process.

Why choose Danae? 

I am a full time birth doula. This is my passion and my purpose.

Over the past 15 years I have supported over 650 families in preparation and birth in Australia and overseas.

My approach and expertise in pregnancy and the birthing experience is unique. This is demonstrated through my extensive education and experience (experience with births like twin and breech home birth), combined with a thorough understanding and passion for Optimal Maternal Positioning practices, evidence based education, yoga practice, meditation and breathing exercises.

I work best with active women who; already have a strong desire for a physiological birth, have a positive mindset towards working with themselves and pain, will commit to participating in my Yoga / Birth Prep classes and want to integrate peak nutritional health and overall wellbeing into their birth preparation.

My personal style and experience has enabled me to develop excellent working relationships with home birth midwives, midwives in private and public hospitals and obstetricians . I am able to create synergy between clinical care providers and a woman’s birthing wishes, which enables me to be a strong advocate for women particularly when they feel most vulnerable. I take pride in bringing the whole birthing support team together to help achieve the best possible outcome for the mother (her partner) and baby.

I support women that choose to Homebirth with a Private Practice Midwife, Royal North Shore Public Hospital / Northern Beaches Public Hospital and at The Mater with Dr Andrew Pickering (I have an exclusive arrangement with Dr Pickering and do not work with any other OB’s).

After the experience of supporting well over 650 births, my passion and overwhelming preference is to support Homebirth with a private practice home birth midwife. 

My goal is to work with mothers to prepare their body and mind for “peak state” – the ultimate human experience of giving birth.

I do not support planned freebirth.

My testimonials speak for themselves.

OMP and Live Workshops

I am Sydney’s first, and only, OMP birth educator running live workshops.

My journey to become a birth educator and Optimal Maternal Positioning (OMP) specialist came from an interest in understanding how babies move through the pelvis and how that facilitates or stalls the progression of the labour.

OMP is not just about me having this amazing knowledge, its about teaching women and partners to have a depth of understanding of the mechanics of birth, a birthing woman’s body, the journey your baby takes and how to be hands on to really make a difference to Birth outcomes in any environment.

More information about optimal maternal positioning and other live workshops, including Doula Mastery »

Prenatal Yoga Classes

Pregnancy yoga + Birth Education

Online (live on zoom) Sunday morning Yoga Classes OR yogatobirth.com subscription platform. I welcome women from 12 weeks pregnant and take them through to birth (sometimes women in early latent labour join in class, so beautiful).

My prenatal yoga classes incorporate:

  • 10 minute education discussion
  • physical, traditional breath centered and creative yoga practice
  • specialised meditation
  • pregnancy and birth affirmations, hypnobirthing practice
  • self regulation and mindset training
  • breathing techniques for pregnancy and any birth
  • movements that relieve common aches and pains
  • instinctive active birthing positions

More information about prenatal yoga classes » 
Book your free pregnancy yoga class »

Birth Training + Birth Rehearsal

Birth Training

Danae’s Birth Training provides women with more than an online birth class, which may have little meaning as the intensity of labour progresses.

Birth Training is built on a simple yet often overlooked truth that the body responds best to practice, repetition, nervous-system conditioning, and rehearsal. You are not waiting for labour to happen to you. You are training to meet it.

Birth Rehearsal

Preparing for birth is not about reading what to do on the day, learning about birth on podcasts or going to a workshop. It is practicing regularly what to do on the day.

Rehearsal is powerful because the body remembers experiences, practice, muscle memory, nervous system imprinting and repetition.

“I can do anything for one minute” becomes more than a mantra,  it becomes a nervous system skill.

Danae’s Birth Training and Birth Rehearsal »

Danae’s Qualifications

Yoga Institute of Australia 

  • Diploma of Yoga Teacher Training – 1500hrs
  • Post Graduate Pre & Post Natal Yoga Teacher Training – 50hrs (completed whilst pregnant)
  • Leslie Kaminoff – Bandah’s & Breathing Practices – 20hrs
  • Leslie Kaminoff – Yoga Anatomy – 20hrs

Australian Doula College

  • Diploma of Birth & Post Natal Doula Training

4 Trimesters Singapore

  • Optimal Maternal Positioning Ambassador Training – Ginny Phang
  • Optimal Maternal Positioning Educator Training – Ginny Phang

Spinning Babies USA

  • Spinning Babies Ambassador Training – Gail Tully

iRest Meditation 

  • Diploma of iRest Meditation Practitioner Training

Gut Health and Microbiome

  • Diploma graduating with Distinction – Stanford Center for Health Education

Ketogenic Nutrition

  • Diploma graduating with Distinction 

Carnivore Nutrition

  • Diploma graduating with Distinction

Why Induction Matters

  • Workshop for understanding impacts and PHD researching on the impact of Induction on Australian birthing culture

Pain Power and Physiology

  • Rea Dempsey

Indra Mohan

  • Pranayama (Breathing Practices) Practitioner Training

Media

Below are links to podcasts and vodcasts Danae has appeared. 
If you would like me to present or speak at your organisation or community group, please get in touch.

birth doula podcast
birth doula podcast
birth doula podcast