Welcome to the Heart of the Village
The Heart of the Village is the place where families, parents and professionals come together to build a supportive, connected community.
Whether you’re preparing for birth, navigating early parenthood, looking for specialist support or simply searching for community, our aim is to help you find the right people at the right time.
Alongside our growing directory, we provide education, workshops, affiliates, community spaces and resources, designed to empower families. Because no one should have to navigate parenthood alone.
What You’ll Find Here
Pregnancy & Birth
Find experienced birth doulas, antenatal educators, birth photographers, home birth support, birth trauma specialists and more.
Babies & Children
Discover lactation consultants, babywearing consultants, sleep support, infant feeding specialists, sensory practitioners and more.
Holistic Wellbeing
Connect with therapists, counsellors, massage therapists, reflexologists, holistic practitioners and more.
Our Vision
The world has come a long way from the village our grandparents grew up in; today life is harder and lonelier than ever before. Through our little corner of the internet, we’re trying to rebuild some of the support network that has been lost.
We want people to know exactly where they can turn when they need to find specialist support, vent about a hard day and not be judged for doing so, get help with parenting, learn how to navigate the birthworld, connect with people and services during hard times, shout loud from the rooftops about an injustice they’ve experienced or celebrate together about their greatest achievements. The idea is that within ‘the village’ there will be everything that someone needs in a world that is becoming increasingly disconnected.
Meet the Founder
Hi, my name is Lauren Marsh. I started this journey in 2020, when I gave birth to my first son in the middle of COVID, and wasn’t that a shock to the system!
Not only was I a new mother, trying to understand how my birth had gone so wrong, attempting to get to grips with breastfeeding, surviving on no sleep and extra strong coffee, we were also in lockdown.
My husband, classed as a key worker, was forced to return to work on the same day I came home from the hospital. Family and friends were terrified of passing COVID to a newborn baby. Support services were trying to set up as virtual, so when I was in floods of tears, unsure of what to do or who to turn to, I was offered a 30-minute Zoom…
I went in search of a village, and I found it in birth groups and breastfeeding groups on Facebook. Over the next few years, this would turn into me becoming a doula, moving into a van and becoming the travelling doula around the UK, training in breastfeeding, Down syndrome support, baby loss support, birth advocacy, birth trauma, homebirth, freebirth, wild pregnancy and soooo much more.
Supporting women and their families throughout their pregnancy, birth and postpartum showed me how vital advocacy was. That when people were at their most vulnerable, they needed someone in their corner to fight for them, and this became my passion. I became a birth rights consultant and ran courses and workshops to teach others what their rights in pregnancy, birth and postpartum were, and how to use them.
This naturally progressed into supporting women postpartum, who were being bullied by services designed to support them. This opened another door into domestic abuse, and how women were being silenced, their abusers in plain sight. So naturally, alongside my doula work, in 2022 I began working as a legal consultant, supporting women going through divorce, child arrangements, non-molestation orders, occupation orders and other aspects of family law.
In 2025, the two founding Facebook groups were launched to give families a place to come together and get the support they desperately needed in one safe space, just as I had once needed. This has miraculously blossomed into the company you see today, thousands of women supporting each other, a directory, affiliates, birth stories, activism and charity.
It was incredibly important that the community we have built could give back. At Christmas, we run a voucher giveaway for members who are struggling to get a multi-shop voucher. We have held collections for women fleeing domestic abuse, children who are temporarily living with someone else, families that are struggling, providing food, clothes, vouchers and basic appliances.
This is the ethos Heart of the Village is built on. The idea that you can pop to your neighbour and ask to borrow a cup of sugar, and next week they’ll ask you if they can borrow a couple of eggs. Giving without expecting to receive, knowing that when you need it one day, the village will also be there for you.