We had our second son and had hired Callie to support us through the sleep teaching/training of our…read morefirst son three years ago. We were toying around with the idea of hiring Callie for our second child, and she took a last minute phone call, and answered all of my questions for my second without charge. She got into the specifics of my second son very quickly and provided direction for how to adapt sleep teaching for him given his needs. I know if the training doesn't go as planned, she will be there for us and if it does go well, we have her to thank!

Callie has helped me gain confidence when it comes to getting both of my children on the right path…read morewith sleep from the get go! She has affirmed what I'm comfortable with as far as "sleep training" and been such an encouragement through the tougher sleepless weeks. She truly feels like a part of our family. Her advice and consistency through newborn/toddler sleep struggles in my mind makes her the single most important piece to the functioning of our family, as everyone knows sleep is paramount! Thank you thank you thank you Callie, we love you!

We have reached out to Adele twice now, once when our boy was about 1.5 years, and once more…read morerecently when he was 2 - both at times when he was going through some kind of sleep regression. Adele was such a great listener and support to us sleep-deprived and desperate parents, and both times she felt we were on the right track (she was right) and very kindly did not charge or offer her services as she did not think we needed them. She has great integrity and truly cares about helping people rather than trying to force a program. We will be keeping her in mind in the future should we face other sleep issues - she's great!

I cannot recommend Adele enough! From the very beginning, she was incredibly understanding and…read moreflexible, tailoring her approach to fit our family's comfort level. Sleep training can be such a difficult and emotional process, especially when hearing your baby cry, but Adele's gentle and supportive method made all the difference. Unlike other consultants I looked into, who were strict in their "cry-it-out" approach, Adele was caring, patient, and truly invested in our success. From night one, my baby was sleeping through the night! We only had to give a few bottles before he naturally weaned himself, and as a huge bonus, we also managed to say goodbye to the binky! Thanks to Adele's method, which worked perfectly for us, he is now an amazing sleeper--and in turn, our whole family is finally getting the rest we desperately needed. We are all so much happier! What I loved most about working with Adele was how attentive and responsive she was. She truly understood how much we were struggling, and it was clear that she genuinely wanted to help. She was always quick to answer emails, calls, and texts, making us feel supported every step of the way. Each sleep plan she provided was well-organized, easy to follow, and set us up for long-term success. Even now, I feel confident handling any future sleep challenges because of everything she taught us. I've already recommended Adele to several friends and will recommend her to anyone else who finds themselves in a situation where they need a sleep consultant. Adele completely transformed our little guy's sleep, and I know so many other families could benefit from her expertise. Adele saved our sanity and gave us our lives back. Now, instead of taking shifts for naps, we can actually enjoy our days together as a family. If you're struggling with sleep, don't hesitate--Adele is the best!"

I can't thank Margo enough for her help as a night doula and sleep trainer. My son had very…read moredysregulated sleep at 6 months old, often waking up every 20-30 minutes after 2 am. She rescued us from several months of severe sleep deprivation. I was hesitant to do sleep training, but she created an approach that worked for us. She has an extremely intuitive sense of what different babies need and she tweaked our approach (how we went in to soothe, and how often) as we went, based on my baby's reaction. She also gave us a very clear plan and next steps to take on our own. By the second night, my baby slept soundly and only woke up once. Also: Before we did the sleep training, she supported us as a night doula while my son was going through some GI challenges. I thought he would react negatively to a night doula at his age and with his tummy issues, but he was completely calm and soothed by Margo's presence. She also helped me up my milk supply. She is amazing!

Margo was our night doula and lactation consultant, and we came back to her for sleep training too!…read moreTLDR - she's great! She was with our newborn right after we were discharged from the hospital, extremely caring and tender, super helpful to me as a first-time mom, and taught us everything about the baby, so we were confident that we had it covered. Her help was integral in upping my milk supply; she would help me with breast massages at night pumps, create schedules and suggestions on how to further increase it, and, needless to say, I developed an incredible milk supply that could feed two (!) babies (no joke, as my milk stash is huge). When we hit the four-month regression, we came back to her for advice on sleep training. She guided us through daytime schedule changes, and our baby started sleeping and increasing sleep time right away. She definitely knows what she is doing, and I highly recommend her services to all, especially first-time parents. Thank you, Margo, for your care with our baby, Winston!

Agree that I could have tried working with TND before public Yelp humiliation. But we had such a…read morerough night with TND, by 2am (halfway through) I really wanted to throw her out, but stuck with it til the morning. As a new mom, I apologize for not having the patience to work through these issues privately. But that's as much compunction as I can muster. Here's my response to the TND response. Incidentally, my initial email to TND referencing my earlier review was prefaced with the following: "It is with great pain and sadness that I am writing this email. I'm not sure if there is anyone who leads the TND group and manages constructive criticism or feedback on behalf of the organization, but if there is, I wanted to let you know about our recent experience with TND. It is posted in a Yelp review. I made best effort to respect privacy, to be objective, and to be fair. The content of my review is copied below." --Response to Anna M.-- Re: unrealistic expectations with a 4-day old, I don't fault TND for my baby's cluster feeding night habit. I do fault TND for sitting around doing nothing while I fed him for a total of 4 hours over the course of the evening. Re: breach of contract response, I believe it's breach of contract on the part of our TND, and not us, when she did not perform a large majority of the tasks marketed on your website, reiterated during the "meet the doula's" session my hubby attended two months before the birth of our baby, and that our specific TND assured us she would do during the 1 hr interview in advance of hiring her. Re: extra bonding time, perhaps you should put that information on your website so you don't mislead parents who think a TND will be helpful during the first few days with a newborn. Re: taxes, I'm not an accountant, but I'm pretty sure under-reporting income is illegal. Our TND admitted during the first night that the reason she wouldn't provide her SS# is to under-report income. Post-partum doulas can be paid for using DCAP, and DCAP requires SS#. The only reason to not provide it is to evade taxes. If your policy is to not make DCAP payments possible, this information should be provided on the website as well. You are not cheating "the system" - you are directly taking more money out of your customers' pockets by shielding your own tax liability while increasing ours. Unhelpful and unsympathetic response from Anna M. came after what was intended to be constructive criticism and a chance for them to make right. Unrealistic expectations? I only expected the doula to provide the services as advertised. If only she did one of the many things she was supposed to...

I would like to recommend our night doula, Emma. She was basically a Godsend. She came and watched…read moreour baby the night I had to go back into the hospital for complications. As a brand new mother, although I had read a lot and attended classes, I was basically clueless. Emma gave us the practical knowledge and information we needed during the critical initial weeks home. Watching Emma bath and swaddle the baby was the best class I ever took. She taught us things about sleep and feeding that we would never have figured out on our own. To this day, our baby sleeps through the night, and as soon as she was over 11 lbs! Our friends told us that it was the best money they ever spent, and although it wasn't cheap, they were right. I had major issues with breastfeeding/latching, so our baby had to be fed formula initially. Emma helped implement the lactation consultants' advice. I couldn't have done it without her. The beauty with Emma was that she was completely supportive and reponsive to our wishes. Even now, once in awhile I have questions. Emma is always a text or email away. We could have done it without her, but boy we would have had a far far far harder time. She's an Irish blessing:)

Baby whisperer..Mary Poppins...Sleep angel…read more I've been in denial, because writing this review means Olive is actually gone :( As all of her other reviews say, HIRE HER....look no further...you have found Mary Poppins. Hire her for as long as you can...and then some...you will not regret it. She is the BEST! Our little kiddo was actually pretty well behaved and problem free...but having Olive come, gave us peace of mind and assurance that everything was normal. Being able to wake up and feed, then go right back to bed was so helpful in feeling rested (well...as rested as a new parent can feel), and getting all sorts of tips and advice from Olive was so wonderful. She is extremely knowledgeable and competent when it comes to babies, but she also knows how to care for parents...there were nights when we really needed someone to tell us we were doing a good job...just a little encouragement goes a long way for first time parents- Olive's advice, personality and sense of humor are priceless, and just what the doctor ordered. While we lucked out and the kiddo wasn't colic or any of the other terrors new parents fear, I have no doubt that Olive would have handled any issue with a smile...I secretly believe just having her prevented any problem issues the kiddo would have had. While we are nowhere near having our second child, hiring Olive to care for the future kiddo is already on the checklist - that is how much we love and could not have done it without her. Things that will cross your mind once you've hired Olive: 1. How can we keep Olive for the next 12 months....every night 2. Is there any way we can bribe her to work during the day 3. Will she adopt us into her adorable family? 4. Is there an Olive fan club? ...there should be

If I were to give one piece of advice to any parent-to-be, it's hire Olive! It is impossible for…read moreme to do justice to how helpful she's been, from being a reassuring influence in those frenzied first weeks, to an infinite well of baby tips and wisdom. And to top it off: she sleep trained our baby! Everyone we've spoken to is amazed that our little guy can sleep through the night so soon and it was all thanks to the loving and guiding hand of Auntie Olive. If you value your sanity or your sleep, call her now!

I just took a sleep school class from Sara at Tulip Grove in Oakland. Even though my daughter is…read moreonly 3 weeks old, I want to avoid all of the common pitfalls that new parents face when transitioning my little girl from a co-sleeper next to my bed into her own room in her crib. Sara outlined all of the best techniques I can implement before she starts going through separation anxiety to reach my sleeping goals. Also high on my list is to get my husband off of the couch and back into our bedroom. All this seems possible after talking with Sara. If I run into ant snags, Sara is always available by phone, text, e-mail, or home visit. A great resource to have!

We seeked Sara's help for sleep issues of our child. The initial "consultation" went ok and she…read moregave us a couple of suggestions which we felt helped steer us in the right direction.We still stick with those suggestions and think they work well. However, the phone support she claims to provide seriously lacks interest/concern on her part. After the first week or so I used to be hesitant to even call her and for the amount of money we paid her; that was not a good thing.

We're delighted to recommend Fernanda Mafra as a postpartum doula for any family who's considering…read morethe extra help. Choosing Fernanda to help overnight with our first baby was the best decision we made, and looking back, we truly don't think we could've done it without her. We even interviewed 5 other doulas and Fernanda clearly stood out because of her professional, calm, and knowledgeable demeanor. Leading up to the birth, she checked in weekly and sent across helpful resources so that I could mentally and physically prepare for the birth and we could prepare the nursery with all the essentials. When our baby arrived a whole month early and I texted Fernanda from the hospital, she immediately and kindly arranged for an amazing backup doula to help us during those weeks - she didn't need to do this, but this is a perfect example of how Fernanda goes above and beyond to care for her families. Fernanda always arrived early each night, checked in on us and the baby to see how our day had been, and shared suggestions that helped us establish a routine in the first month that most families only dream of in the first year. The uniquely helpful thing about Fernanda is that she happily collaborated with us on every topic (feeding, swaddling, pacifiers, etc.), so it felt like a true partnership and we never felt judged as first time parents. We learned so much from her that we could've never learned from books or other resources. She was a wise angel when I was stressed about breastfeeding and helped suggest a pumping schedule to increase my milk supply, and also created a weaning plan for me when I was done. Her communication is impeccable and she wrote detailed notes each day to summarize the night for us so we could stay informed. You can tell that she genuinely cares about her families, and even by the end of our short time with Fernanda, our son was sleeping from 8pm to 6am with a single dream feed! She even gave us a documented transition plan to help us continue the sleep conditioning in a gradual, soothing way. In short, no matter how our day had gone, I'd always feel relaxed and happy when Fernanda would arrive, knowing that our baby was in great hands. We cannot say enough good things about Fernanda and will definitely hire her again for our second baby!

I can't say enough good things about Fernanda. She was exactly what our family needed after…read morebringing home baby #2. From the very first night, she brought a calm, confident presence into our home--and it was immediately clear just how much she knows- she understood him. She moved with such assurance and gentleness, reading his cues, getting him into a healthy sleep routine, and helping him settle in ways that made us feel completely at ease. What stood out most, though, was how gracefully she adapted to our family's dynamic. She offered thoughtful updates each morning, checked in on how I was doing, and was a constant, nonjudgmental sounding board as I processed everything from feeding choices to sibling transitions. Even when I didn't feel sure of myself, she never pushed--she just provided insight and space, and always supported whatever direction I chose. She showed up early every single shift, organized and prepared, which meant the world during those chaotic early weeks. She even helped with the nitty-gritty details like invoices and documentation for our employer benefit reimbursement--something that felt completely overwhelming in my foggy postpartum state. This was our second child, and I went in thinking I wouldn't need much help. I was wrong. I learned so much more this time--things I wish I'd known the first time around--and Fernanda was at the center of that. She also helped guide us through toddler regression and the emotional shifts that came with our older child adjusting to a new sibling which I hadn't expected. Fernanda is warm, professional, deeply experienced, and just a truly special human to have by your side during such a tender time. We're so grateful we found her.

Tina was a life saver as a night doula. Reliable, caring, experienced. All you can ask for!read more

If you are looking for a reliable and knowledgeable postpartum doula, look no further! Tina is THE…read moreGAL to assist your family in bringing baby home! Tina worked with our family this spring after we had our first baby. She was with us 4 nights a week for 10 weeks and was truly the best money we have spent. She has a calm, steady energy and is a wealth of knowledge on all things newborn. She helped calm my new momma nerves and taught my husband and I so much about proper care for a baby. Without her, I think I would have been a wreck. I looked forward to the nights she was with us, not only because it meant I got some extra sleep, but also because I knew that I could talk to her about any concerns I had parenting and otherwise (breastfeeding, diaper rash, returning to work, etc). A typical night looked like: Tina arrive at 10, check in about the day, momma go to bed, Tina take over. Tina wake me for the first feeding, I go to the living room and feed while chatting to Tina about whatever baby related topic I was thinking about, Tina change the baby and burp her, hold her to sleep, momma go back to bed, repeat. Tina leave at 6am. After 10 weeks she left us with a baby who sleeps well, only feeds 2x at night, and most importantly the confidence to do it on our own. She was so special to me that I cried on her last night. I know when we have our next baby we will be using Tina again!