
I\I
Hi, I'm Sari Szasz
holistic infant sleep coach. doula. herbalist.

Birth and Sleep deserve to be sacred times that are supported by compassionate and skilled people whose approach is rooted in biology, driven by connection and respectful of each family's unique journey.

I've been a doula for 5 years, walking beside families as they cross the threshold into parenthood and a herbalist for even longer. In the winter of 2024, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy at home. The power of birth to transform and create metamorphosis in our lives now resides as embodied wisdom in my bones. Motherhood has unraveled and remade me. In beautiful and unexpected ways.
I've spent the last year nurturing a highly sensitive, bright baby and learning much along the way. Motherhood is like that, right? We give birth and are immediately initiated into a new role that requires everything we have, with often very little good guidance along the way. And SO much noise that is constantly trying to diminish our instincts and intuition. Disconnect the dyad. Severe attachment. That "she'll be right" attitude which perpetuates generations of mental health challenges and a broken world.
During my pregnancy, my beautiful father passed ~ his mental health struggles and addiction took him. Holding my fresh and perfect baby in my arms and becoming a parent while losing my own, has broken and widened my heart. It has reorientated my path. Death feeds life in a painful and profound way.
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The relationships between infant + maternal mental health, nurtured parenting and raising resilience have become my guiding lights. How we support our babies during the first three years of life is how we build mental health. It’s how we mend the world. Love is really that powerful. Nurtured and present mothering is revolutionary work. Infant sleep is the intersection where neuroscience, attachment and developmental psychology converge to prove that responsive mothering, day AND night - is the foundation for the peaceful and caring world we yearn for. As a new mother I was shown how conventional discourse and cultural constructs are constantly telling parents that life would be easier if we put our babies in a cot, placed them down 'drowsy but awake' or didn't let them nap on our warm bodies. The old paradigm of sleep training preys on us at our most vulnerable and tired. The system fails families. It’s heartbreaking and it’s why I am so passionate about providing parents with heart-centered and evidence informed care during pregnancy and in navigating and nurturing their babies' sleep. For the last year I have been training as a Nurtured Neuroscience Practitioner and Pediatric Sleep and Development Specialist to provide families with 1:1 tailored coaching on infant sleep. I educate on biologically normal infant sleep and help parents support their baby's development through optimizing rest. Not in the ‘sleeping through the night is the goal’ way but in the ‘building secure lifelong attachment and nurturing mental health’ kind of way. In a genuinely gentle, responsive kind of way. The way that science is showing is THE way. ​My work involves supporting pregnant parents with doula services that are rooted in love and compassionate care. I tend to postpartum mothers with traditional practices for a regenerative journey into parenthood. I coach and work with families navigating infant sleep and wanting support that is informed by developmental psychology, anthropology, neuroscience and attachment ​​I offer in person services in Bellingen, Coffs Habour and surrounds + Online Services around the world, and work in a trauma-informed, inclusive and culturally humble way.

Training & Education
Over the years I have participated in both institutional and community education, and I am grateful and privileged to have learnt from many wise and advanced teachers in their fields such as Dr Greer Kirshenbaum, Dr Rocio Zunini, Dr Helen Ball and Louise Herbert. My herbal training has involved learning from a wide array of teachers in Australia and the USA.
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+ Birth and Postpartum Doula, Australia Doula College
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+ Cert IV Doula Support Services, Womb to Tomb Foundation
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+ Childbirth Educator and Mentor, Birthing from Within
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+ Advanced Diploma of Clinical Western Herbalism, NCC (training)
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+ Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner Certification w. Dr Greer Kirshenbaum & Dr Rocio Zunini (training)
+ Pediatric Sleep and Development Specialist, Mother Nourish Nurture
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+ Community & Family Herbalist Training, Commonwealth School of Holistic Herbalism
+ Nurtured Infant Sleep Workshop w. Dr Greer Kirshenbaum
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+ Infant Mental Health Workshop w. Louise Herbert
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+ Childbirth Physiology Course w. Dr Rachel Reed
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+ Childbirth Collective w. Dr Rachel Reed
+ Birth Trauma Training, Make Birth Better
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+ Moxibustion for Pelvic Health, Red Tent Wellness
+ Herbs for Birth Workers Training, Commonwealth School of Holistic Herbalism
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+ Tibetan Massage Training, Dharamsala
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+ Belly Binding Masterclass w. Sarah Smit Midwife
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+ Childbearing Herbal Training w. Tessa Micaela Landreau-Grasmuck Midwife​
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+ First Aid & CPR Trained & WWCC
My Story & Values
I'm a migrant from Hungary; I was born in Budapest and my folks moved to the iconic Bondi Beach when I was five years old. Raised by creative, intellectual and progressive parents - early life helped shape me into a woman who values community, social justice, earth-based spirituality, creativity and care/healing work. During my late teens I had an ecological & animist remembering and have spent the 10+ years since learning and practicing agroecology, eco-spirituality, grounded ecofeminism and traditional skills including textile weaving + herbal medicine. I've worked alongside women in healing spaces, alongside Indigenous and Peasant women in food justice and UN policy spaces and women + gender diverse folks across the reproductive continuum to transform the way our culture treats and approaches this sacred rite of passage. ​ Living in-tune with the land, place-based and trying to live regeneratively have been big parts of my adult life. My connection to herbs and plants weaves through my life. They remind me of our interconnectedness and the restorative potential in our gardens and ecosystems. I've been deeply immersed in herbal learning for over a decade and grow and craft my own herbal remedies alongside training to be a clinical herbalist with a desire to bring plant medicines to underserved communities. ​ I have woven my Earth-based passion and orientation into a rich tapestry for supporting parents, mothers and babies through birth work + infant sleep care that supports the intersections of reproductive, climate and ecological justice. The way we are born, the way parents experience their rite of passage and how we nurture the early years is foundational to raising a wise human culture that will belong to the Earth, have the internal resources + creativity to contribute to co-liberation and will know how to be compassionate community members and leaders. Honoring ecological diversity necessitates we honor family structures of all kinds, fluid and diverse forms of gender and sexuality; I work in a way that respects and values non-heteronormative ways of being. As a cis-white woman I am self-reflective of my power + privilege and will always strive to be a safe and culturally sensitive ally to everyone I work with. I love feedback and honesty. I'm a science nerd and learning about maternal and infant mental health development through neuroscience and attachment grounds my intuitive sense that repairing broader human/earth relations begins at conception and is further shaped by nurture during the early years. I relish the privilege of education and wear many hats. I'm a systems thinker and am always seeing patterns between disciplines - hence my long and varied list of training + education. As a clinical herbalist I balance science, mutual aid and awe in my approach with plants and people. ​ My work with the land infuses everything I do and my ongoing decolonial journey shapes the way I approach birth work and infant sleep support. There are many threads of connection between the way our culture treats the perinatal time, infant sleep and the shaping of these by capitalism & colonization, the latter two which have severed us from our instincts, community and created homogenization at the expense of biodiversity and equity. In all facets of my life, I aspire to remedy our connection to Earth and each other. ​ ​​ Another significant life event that I am still digesting is my father dying during pregnancy. Growing up with a parent who struggled with substance use that ultimately killed him and witnessing his sensitivity, compassionate heart and challenges, has made me passionate about remedying mental health challenges. I don't shy away from darkness and know there is much healing in sitting with suffering, grief and the whole spectrum of experiences that make us human. Nurtured parenting and nurtured infant sleep has the profound, evidence-based ability to build brains towards greater life-long wellbeing, including mental health. I am trying to honor my dad's legacy through this work. I value inclusivity, being trauma-informed and respecting everyone's unique struggles + journey + resilience. ​ I live in the wild forest on Unceded Gumbaynggirr Country and have a medicinal market garden where I grow food and healing plants for my community. I live with my husband, son and dog on unceded Gumbaynggirr Country. We practice reciprocity with the land and our First Nations Traditional Owners (imperfectly of course!). You can learn more about our farming enterprise here.​​