About Me
My name is Vanessa Manni and I am a midwife and the founder of Womb Wisdom.
After I completed my bachelor degree in midwifery in Italy in 2014 I spent 4 months volunteering in a small rural hospital in south Bangladesh.
Whilst in Asia I learned more about dealing with unexpected scenarios with very minimal equipment. It was a very challenging time, especially for a young midwife straight out of University. It was confronting, a very different clinical setting and very different set of beliefs in both the population and medical professionals. I will always be grateful for the experience and personal growth that came from it.
In 2015 I joined the NHS and practiced in a variety of settings. My first job as a band 5 midwife was in a city near Birmingham and as a preceptorship midwife I worked on a rotation between Labour Suite, Antenatal&Postnatal wards and their Midwifery Led Unit (a stand-alone unit about 5 minutes away from the main hospital).
In 2017 I moved to London and joined the Postnatal& Transitional care team as a band 6 midwife. There I gained lots of experience looking after late preterm babies (from 34 to 36 weeks gestation) and their mothers but London was not the right setting for my personal life, therefore I moved to Edinburgh in the autumn.
In Edinburgh I experienced working in the biggest, busiest hospital yet. I rotated between Postnatal and Labour ward and gained even more experience in perinatal care and infant feeding.
In 2019 me and my husband moved to Bath as we were about to become parents for the first time and wanted to be close to family and in the spring we welcomed our baby boy at home (well, my in laws’ home).
His birth was transformational. I there and then started the hard path of unpacking lots of vicarious trauma I experienced whilst working and I was faced with truths I didn’t even contemplate before.
In 2020 I started working in Bristol as a rotational band 6 midwife and worked between their Antenatal ward, Induction Suite, Postnatal ward, Labour Suite and Midwifery Led Unit. This only reinforced my passion for providing holistic care and for giving unbiased information to families for them to know their options.
In 2021 I birthed my second son at home. His birth completely unravelled me and strengthened me. It was another planned home birth within the system but midwives were busy and could not join me until the very thick of my transitional phase of labour. Thanks to this I felt my true power, intuition and trust in my body and my baby.
I truly believe his birth is the reason I started researching more and more about birthing outside the medical maternity system.
Earlier this year I made the decision to leave the NHS and start my own practice to finally provide personalised care and help families achieve an empowering birth and the best start to early parenthood.
Have a look at the services I provide by clicking on services. I always provide a free initial consultation to see if you feel comfortable with me and would like to access further support.
