Meet Haley
Certified Birth & Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula · Reiki Master · Breathwork Practitioner · Maternal Mental Health Advocate
Inclusive support for first-time parents, fertility journeys, LGBTQ+ families, and plus-size births
Hi, I’m Haley Foulkes, I’m a wife, mother, birth worker, and the heart behind Earthen Light. My approach to birth and postpartum care is deeply personal. Grounded in evidence, shaped by lived experience, and centered around helping families feel safe, seen, supported, and genuinely cared for.Before birth work, I spent years at sea as a merchant mariner and navigation officer. It was a demanding, physical career that taught me strength, endurance, adaptability, and how to remain calm when circumstances change. Motherhood gave those qualities an entirely new purpose.
Why This Work Became Personal
Becoming a mother changed me in ways I never expected. My own pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey showed me how deeply transformative this season can be — physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.It also showed me how quickly the mother can become an afterthought once the baby arrives.During my own postpartum transition, I needed more nourishment, more rest, more emotional support, more community, and more care directed toward me as a newly born mother.That experience changed the direction of my life.I stepped away from a six-figure career at sea and followed the work I felt deeply called toward. I became passionate about offering families the kind of birth and postpartum care I once longed for myself.
💜 The Families I Hold Space For
I welcome families of ALL backgrounds while holding a special place in my practice for first-time parents, fertility and IVF journeys, LGBTQ+ families, single parents, plus-size birthing people, and families seeking a more connected approach to birth and postpartum care. First-time parenthood can feel like stepping into an entirely new world. You do not need to have everything figured out before labor begins. For families who have experienced fertility challenges or IVF, pregnancy can hold so many emotions at once — joy, gratitude, fear, protectiveness, anxiety, and hope. My practice is intentionally welcoming to LGBTQ+ families and family structures that may not fit into a traditional mold. There is no version of yourself you need to become before you belong here.
Size-Inclusive Birth Support 🩷
As a plus-size woman myself, supporting plus-size birthing people is especially meaningful to me. You deserve to feel powerful, capable, comfortable, and respected in your body throughout pregnancy and birth. I bring physically capable, hands-on support for movement, position changes, getting in and out of a birth tub, counter-pressure, hip squeezes, rebozo work, and finding comfort throughout labor. Your body is not something that needs to be apologized for or treated like a limitation. My role is to support the body you are already in.
Care That Feels Personal
I don’t believe doula care should feel one-size-fits-all. Every family is different. Every labor is different. Every person has their own way of coping, communicating, receiving touch, processing fear, and feeling safe. Some clients want me beside them for every contraction. Some want quiet and low lighting. Some love breathwork, Reiki, grounding, affirmations, and spiritual support. Others want practical guidance, strong counter-pressure, movement, humor, or simply someone who can keep the room calm. I pay attention to the person in front of me. My care blends evidence-based birth support with hands-on comfort measures, breathwork, Reiki, maternal mental health awareness, Ayurvedic postpartum care, nourishment, restorative touch, and spiritual care for families who feel drawn to it.
Birth Belongs to You
I have a special love for home birth, physiologic birth, and the incredible instinct of the human body. But I do not believe there is only one beautiful way to give birth. Home or hospital. Unmedicated or epidural. Spontaneous labor or induction. Vaginal birth or Cesarean. My role is never to create my ideal birth through you. My role is to help you understand your options, stay connected to your voice, and feel supported as your birth unfolds. To me, a positive birth is one where you leave feeling respected, informed, heard, safe, and cared for.
Your Partner Is Part of My Care
I don’t enter a birth space to replace the person who loves you. I help them feel more confident in their role. I guide partners through counter-pressure, hip squeezes, positioning, breathing, comfort measures, and ways to offer meaningful emotional support. I also help partners understand when it is okay to eat, rest, step away for a moment, or simply be your partner instead of feeling responsible for knowing everything about birth. And sometimes the best way I can support your partner is by stepping back. There are moments when you simply need each other. Your partner knows you in a way I never will. I know birth in a way they may not. Together, we become a team.
Mental Health Matters Here
You never have to perform motherhood around me. Pregnancy, fertility treatment, birth, and postpartum can hold joy and fear, gratitude and anxiety, confidence and vulnerability — sometimes all at once. Mental and emotional health are an important part of the way I care for families. You do not have to pretend everything is perfect. While I never replace licensed mental health or medical providers, I can offer grounding, protect your rest, listen without judgment, support your partner in understanding what you need, and help connect you with additional professional support when appropriate. I care about the whole person — not simply the pregnancy, the birth, or the baby.
Postpartum Is Not an Afterthought
I don’t see birth as the finish line. A baby has been born, but so has a new mother or parent. My Ayurvedic postpartum care brings warmth, nourishment, rest, and intentional care back to the center of recovery. Support may include warming foods and teas, restorative touch, Reiki, mother warming, belly care, newborn support, feeding support, light household care, and creating space for you to truly rest. Sometimes that means preparing something warm to eat while you feed your baby. Sometimes it means washing bottles or folding laundry while you sleep. Sometimes it means Reiki or restorative touch while your nervous system finally has a chance to settle. And sometimes it is simply asking: How are you doing? Not just the baby. You.
Where Evidence + Spirituality Meet
My care lives comfortably between the practical and the sacred. I value evidence-based education, informed decision-making, and collaborative relationships with medical providers. I also believe there are parts of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum that reach beyond the clinical. For families who feel drawn to it, breathwork, Reiki, grounding, intention, energy work, and ceremony can be gently woven into care. You never have to share my spiritual beliefs to work with me. There is simply room here for birth to be both physiological and sacred.
What I Bring Into the Room
My years at sea taught me steadiness. Motherhood taught me softness. Birth work taught me how beautifully the two can exist together. I can be strong when you need strength. Quiet when you need space. Hands-on when you need physical support. Grounding when everything around you feels intense. I will laugh with you, sit quietly with you, get down on the floor beside you, support your partner, protect the energy of your space, and remind you of your own strength when you need to borrow a little of mine. I’m not interested in being the loudest person in your birth room. I’m interested in being someone you trust.
Come Exactly As You Are
You do not have to look a certain way. Love a certain way. Build your family a certain way. Believe the same things I do. Or want a particular kind of birth. There is space for you here. My role is to lift you up, guide you with love, and help protect the sacred space around your birth and postpartum journey.
