Meet our Founders

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Sami & Jocie

After meeting in Lewes in 2021 they quickly discovered a mutual passion for supporting women & birthing people on their parenting journeys. After many, many excited chats - along with other passionate birth professionals - over endless cake and coffee, they began to formulate the basis for what is now the Lewes Birth Collective. They are thrilled to be able share this passion together through education, signposting and above all - community.

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Sami Howard

“Becoming a mother highlighted to me just how much we need community to manage this huge transition, and that most of us aren’t getting enough support to feel strong and confident as we begin life as parents.

Although I felt ready for birth I didn’t really understand the choices I would be faced with. I had challenges with breastfeeding and was totally unaware of what my postpartum recovery needs might be. I now realise that culturally we have lost much of the traditional wisdom that guided and nourished us through birth and motherhood.

My drive to work antenatally and postnatally with families comes from a passion to help ensure more mothers begin life with a new baby feeling nurtured and powerful. 

I have worked with children and families for over fifteen years, as a family support service manager, trainer and inclusive play specialist, particularly in the areas of SEND and Early Years. We have seen years of budget cuts to family services meaning many of us don’t have the support we need in our child’s early years and I personally found moving to Lewes with a toddler in 2019 really challenging.

I struggled to find information and community groups and for a long time felt quite isolated and lonely. In 2021 I started running local community play groups which was so joyful and soon I was also meeting other local women dedicated to working with children and parents”.

Jocie Cox

“As with many women, I found my first pregnancy, birth & transition to motherhood a truly revelatory rite of passage. When my son was 5 weeks old I embarked on a hugely comprehensive 18 month prenatal yoga training (not sure I would do that again so early postpartum!) and despite being a challenging time studying with a young baby, it opened the floodgates for a continued thirst for education around the pregnancy-birth-motherhood continuum.

Since then I have completed numerous qualifications including a Hypnobirthing Diploma, Pelvic Floor Physiology CPDs, Advanced Birth Biomechanics and a Birth Trauma CPD.

With a background primarily in somatics and yoga, I love to guide prenatal & postnatal classes that are both empowering and fun - focusing more on what people CAN do rather that what they can’t!

I care deeply about preparing women & families for the journey of birth & matrescence and believe that giving them the gift of remembering their own wisdom is the the greatest privilege of all”