Meet the face behind the 2, 3_ breathe life
Hey, I’m Elmain
I’m 37 years young, Live in Johannesburg, SA and I share my life with my three favorite humans, my partner, Nico and my two little humans, Jaden and Nova. Check out my blog for topics that lie close to my heart, snippets into my life as a mom and doula and everything in between!
Blog
The philosophy behind the 2,3_breathe life
I created the 2, 3_breathe life in 2020 to share my journey from corporate career woman to now a stay-at-home mom. A few months after departing from the corporate world I felt a need to stimulate my creativity and started looking into designing merchandise, which turned into building a small business and ultimately a brand. It took a while for things to come together but as my world changed, the vision of the 2, 3_breathe life became clear: to share my knowledge and support parents during pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond. And to create relevant, educational, and inspiring content and merchandise for couples, parents and guardians who feel overwhelmed in an ever-changing world. I want to motivate and uplift others through authentic virtual content by talking about important topics from personal experience in my own life and those around me.
We sometimes lose ourselves and our personal identity in people, jobs, life events and just the business of life around us. It’s my strong belief that to find YOUR complete confident and comfortable SELF, through YOURSELF, you need to STOP.
Pause, breathe, choose…
Choose to be grateful.
Choose to be kind.
Choose to love yourself and every breath you take.
And choose to live a life you love.
When we can reconnect with ourselves – mind, body and soul – we can once again open a flow of tenderness and delight WITHIN ourselves and FOR everyone in the world surrounding us.
This is the 2, 3_ breathe life way and together we can change the world!
Who am I?
Well… that is a complicated question but here are a few things you might not know about me.
→ I am mostly an introvert but adapt easily to the situations I find myself in.
→ I grew up on a farm before moving to a small town when I was 13.
→ I am the eldest of three children.
→ I finished high school in 2005 after which I studied Jewellery design and manufacture for 3 years.
→ I worked in the Jewellery industry designing, training and guiding fellow talented designers.
→ After getting married, I struggled with PCOS and infertility for five years.
→ I got my Doula qualification in 2016 in which time I was also undergoing fertility treatment.
→ I travelled to East Asia in 2017 after giving up on having a baby of my own.
→ When I arrived in Vietnam on my solo adventure, I got ill but continued to enjoy my travels as much as I could while feeling sick all the way.
→ Arrived in Bali and out of pure desperation tried the last thing I thought could possibly make me feel so sick – A POSITIVE PREGNANCY TEST!
→ After a wonderful pregnancy, we welcomed Mr J into our world in 2018. Unfortunately, the birth did not go as planned and looking back now I realise what followed was severe Postpartum depression.
→ In 2019. After twelve years of building a career and reputation in the Jewellery Industry, I decided to leave it behind to have a more balanced life and spend more quality time with my son.
→ In 2020 I started the 2, 3_ breathe life and a few months after it was launched I fell pregnant with our last borne, Mr N.
→ My doula and placenta services merged with the original blog and community in 2023.
→ The 2, 3_ breathe life has been a slow and ever-evolving journey. I have learned a lot of lessons along the way and even though the business has grown, the philosophy it was founded on has always remained the same.