Ezelda Odendaal 

midwife, mother, motivator,

supporter of natural births and natural parenting

Babies were part of my world since my mother gave birth to my baby sister when I was 6 years old. I fell in love with my newborn baby sister and was fascinated when my mother breastfed her. My purpose was sealed from that day on to work with newborn babies and by default with their mothers.

I decided to be a midwife, before I even knew what it meant. My great granny was the district midwife and her daughter, my granny on my mother's side, a lay herbalist. Maybe genes and DNA played a bigger role in what I believe today about natural births and non chemical medicine than I realized, as both grannies died long before I could discuss homebirths or medical plants with them. 

My journey in Greece to support homebirths with no intervention or unnecessary use of chemical medicines started in 2000 with the attendance of a disastrous birth of my friend in a hospital in Greece. Her painful and traumatic birth inspired my determination never to birth my child(dren) in a Greek hospital. Many things became more positive and women can have lovely, natural births in Greek hospitals today 13 years later......but it will still not be my choice for myself, and I will keep on advocating for homebirths in Greece until I leave from here.

Being a modern trained hospital midwife for 17 years with the heart (genes?) of a traditional homebirth midwife, took the last 13 years in Greece to develop (and still learning with every birth). With the help of wonderful women and professional partners in homebirths, my own fantastic homebirths and the amazing women and babies that made me part of their pregnancy and birth journey, I learn to absolutely love and trust the female body and unborn babies to know the way and to complete the journey safely and joyfully.
I am one of BirthVoice's core members.

Interested in self sustainable communities where friends and I started Bartering bazaars and vegetable gardens in our immediate local community. Talks on natural remedies from our kitchens, recycle, reduce, and reuse projects, plants from nature as a first aid, natural parenting, coping in crisis times with less, by living with less money through an interdependent community on the basis of free economy where sharing is caring, and doing things just for the love of it without expecting payment or rewards.