This was our first baby -- not knowing what we didn't know, Colleen provided a regular and much…read moreneeded blend of factual and emotional support. Sometimes that was making sure I had coffee or that my partner got to go to the gym, and other times was about the theory and science of various parenting practices. She came to watch us at home and support what we truly needed and pushed us to try things to optimize our parenting behaviors. In addition, her local contacts put me on a solid breastfeeding plan when I was not producing milk and thought the situation was hopeless. We were with Colleen for two weeks and I truly believe that without this time and what we learned, it would have taken us months to get on solid footing. Colleen was a godsend and genuinely celebrated with us as we became better parents each day. I couldn't recommend her enough and do not think anyone should do this without her!

Colleen took care of our son from age 3 months - 9 months, which gave my husband and I a break and…read morealso allowed me to get back to some part-time work as a business owner. As first time parents, it was really important to us that the person taking care of our baby when we were working or out of the house was specifically experienced in working with tiny babies. Colleen was amazing. She was always super patient and kind. In addition to taking care of him, she gave us tips in areas like sleep, activities, and eating as he grew. We are grateful that she was the first person outside of our family to spend significant time with our son!

We had such a wonderful experience with this service. The HFA team was incredibly responsive and…read moreproactive in connecting us with those who may be on our night nurse team which allowed for me to chat with each one ahead of time. It was our first time working with a night nurse and the whole experience made us feel at ease and in very good hands. Our night nurse, Janette, was wonderful and made us feel so confident that our newborn was in good hands that we could get some sleep back! Definitely recommend!

Worth EVERY penny we paid, and then some. We had HFA doulas with us starting from the night we…read morebrought each of my children home from the hospital (2021, 2023) until each was about three months old. I literally and metaphorically slept better with the HFA team there. As first-time parents -- it's so comforting to have expertise and support at every moment as you're navigating life as a parent for the first time. When you have no idea what's going on, you're healing and tired and hormonal, your doula is a rock. As second-time parents -- LIFE-SAVING to have someone there to let me sleep as much as possible so that I could be semi-human for my toddler in the morning, and gave my husband and I some much-needed normalcy in the evenings. Everyone I've ever interacted with at HFA (Devon, Sara, Kate, Tiffany, Latoya, Norah, Erika ... the list goes on) was courteous, professional, kind, hyper-responsive and I never had any doubts that we all were in great hands. Give yourself the gift of sleep and peace of mind. I did and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I cannot emphasize what a crucial part of my pregnancy and daughter's birth Stephanie was for us…read more Stephanie provided the exact support we needed; from the moment we hired her to the days leading up to my labor to the birth of our daughter to the days after and everything in between. Any question, request, guidance needed - Stephanie was there. She made us feel no shame in asking the smallest questions. She was clear about when something was evidence-based vs her intuition/experience. She never pushed us to do anything and was always supportive of decisions we made. It was important to me and my husband to have a natural birth, which was my main motivation to hire a doula. Truly could not have delivered this baby without Stephanie (I mean, I would have, of course - but likely after much more pain and decisions I would later regret). She was with us on the phone (my husband, mostly) as soon as my water broke and she was with us in person by the time contractions got heavy to get us through the later stages of labor and the pushing/delivery process. Stephanie worked so in sync with the midwife and nurse on my delivery team - it took a village! In addition to Stephanie supporting me, she was also an amazing guide and support to my husband - equipping him with reading materials before delivery and coaching him on best ways to support me throughout labor and delivery. In the days after our baby was born, we talked to Stephanie every day. She visited us to make sure baby was latching properly, showed me some other tips and tricks for feeding, and has continued to provide us with guidance on feeding and pumping and all feeding things! When I become pregnant with baby #2, Stephanie will be among the first to know - could not imagine doing a totally natural birth again without her!

Hiring Stephanie as our doula was one of the best decisions we made while preparing for the birth…read moreof our first child. When my partner and I started looking into childbirth education, we quickly realized how much we didn't know and how overwhelming it could be to research everything on our own. From our very first meeting with Stephanie, it was clear how knowledgeable she is. She focuses heavily on evidence-based information, which was exactly how we wanted to approach decisions around birth. I became interested in attempting an unmedicated birth, although I was only about 60% confident I could actually do it. Stephanie never doubted me. From that point on, all of our preparation and meetings were geared toward helping me achieve that goal. She was always quick to respond to texts and emails and provided detailed, thoughtful information whenever we had questions. Stephanie also did an incredible job coaching my partner ahead of time so he knew how to support me during labor. In our prep meetings, she walked him through different techniques and ways he could help when things became intense. Because of that preparation, he was able to really play an active role during labor. Even during labor itself, Stephanie continued guiding him on how to support me in ways that were actually helpful in the moment. When things were very intense, she would gently coach him on what to do, whether that was how to help with breathing, positioning, or encouragement. If he wasn't sure whether something he was doing was helping, she gave him feedback and reassurance so he could keep supporting me confidently. That support for both of us made a huge difference. When my labor started, I was able to text Stephanie updates and questions and she was always quick to respond and help ease my worries. At one point she had another client in labor (which we knew was a possibility), but her backup doula came to my house and provided wonderful support until we went to the hospital. Stephanie met us there and immediately helped me focus on breathing and staying calm. The moment I'll always remember most was during the pushing phase. I was exhausted having been awake for nearly 36 hours, but Stephanie's coaching and encouragement made such a difference. Her reminders to breathe for the baby and "blow out the birthday candles for the baby," along with her steady counting and encouragement, helped me push through and ultimately deliver my baby the way I had hoped. One unexpected benefit of working with Stephanie is that she is also a lactation consultant. She helped us prepare for breastfeeding, explained how pumping works, and helped us troubleshoot breastfeeding our baby a few days after coming home. I didn't expect that level of support, but it ended up being incredibly helpful. Stephanie is incredibly knowledgeable and very honest. She gives you the information and may offer a recommendation, but she never pressures you if you decide differently. She's straightforward, fact-driven, and clearly very dedicated to her clients. Working with her truly showed me how valuable doulas can be. Stephanie was wonderful to work with, and I would not want to have another child without her by my side.

We worked with Lisa, and while she is nice, she is not a good communicator. My husband and I had a…read moresession scheduled for 1:1 prenatal birth classes, and 5 minutes before the session, she messaged and said she wasn't coming because a client was in labor. Ok, that is fine. I understand that. We rescheduled for the next night. 15 min past the hour, I messaged her and asked if she was coming since she still wasn't at our apartment. She messaged back 45 min later, "No, not tonight." What! not tonight?? What does that even mean? I have never had a professional message me something with such a laissez-faire attitude. That may not seem like a big deal by rescheduling one appointment last minute and then not showing up to another. However, I would not want that from my doula. What if I was in labor and couldn't get in touch with her, or she just dropped the ball because she was tired from previous labor and didn't attend? I think it's important to communicate and even overly communicate with prenatal and especially clients later in their pregnancy. I want to be clear that we didn't hire Lisa as a doula for labor, only for prenatal sessions. However, we strongly considered hiring her as our labor doula and are very disappointed with this outcome. Also, my feedback for the prenatal 1:1 sessions is that they are not customized for your birth. We wanted to focus on when the baby comes home, and we did two x2 hour-long sessions and never touched on that. Lisa also moves slowly through the material. There is wasted time rather than moving through the material in a structured manner. I found myself getting frustrated by the amount of time we spent on side conversations rather than the material at hand. At times it felt awkward. I wish our experience with TBC was different.

Lisa was an invaluable support during the first few weeks of having a newborn. She was kind,…read morehelpful, and knowledgeable about every aspect of postpartum care. After a very difficult birth, she was exactly what we needed to gain our footing as new parents. She helped with breastfeeding, bonding, and took care of the baby so we could get a few extra hours of sleep. We will be forever grateful to Lisa!

I am so grateful to have had Rachel in my trusted circle throughout my pregnancy, birth and…read morepostpartum experience. As a second-time mom, I knew I wanted a doula but was looking for someone a bit more hands-on than my first, who really was only there for the birth and not really reachable before or after. After interviewing a few doulas, I was so impressed with Rachel's knowledge and serene demeanor that I booked her and her partner at the time for both birth and postpartum care. As a birth doula, Rachel provided calm and insightful virtual and in-person support to me and my husband. I really appreciated how accessible she was, and the frequent check-ins put us at ease. Throughout my pregnancy, she provided evidence-based resources and thoughtful advice for my 10 million what-if questions about having an unmedicated hospital birth, managing my toddler while having a baby and exclusive breastfeeding. When some early contractions seemed to have stalled out, Rachel popped over to my house to check the baby's alignment and walk me through some exercises that ended up leading to a quick and uncomplicated delivery a few days later. (Note that Rachel's doula partner at the time ended up attending our birth, but we were in frequent contact with Rachel throughout the delivery.) As a postpartum doula, Rachel whipped up veggie broths and sitz bath soaks from her garden, provided guidance to get babywearing and breastfeeding started on the right foot and spent hours playing games with and reading stories to my toddler. She improvised a chamomile bath soak for my baby's first bath, stocked my fridge with turmeric quinoa egg bites and oatmeal balls for healthy breakfasts and stepped in wherever was needed to help me and my new family of four get back on our feet. As I felt stronger, she helped me go on outings to the playground with both kids, taking turns connecting and playing with each of them so I could do the same. Five months later, we are all happy, healthy and thriving - I can't thank Rachel enough for being such a calm, supportive and special presence throughout this journey.

It was so wonderful having Rachel as our doula for my daughter's birth. At every turn - prenatal,…read morelabor, immediate postpartum, and even months into postpartum - we have often thought about Rachel as a stable rock that has steadied the often overwhelming waves that come along with bringing a person into the world, especially as first-time parents. Our prenatal appointments were virtual due to Covid, but I was pleasantly surprised at the depth we reached each time and the level of preparedness both my husband and I felt as our daughter's birth neared. Rachel took the time to really listen to our questions and concerns and gave us great prompts to think about surrounding how we were each feeling about the upcoming birth. This allowed us to have conversations we wouldn't have otherwise had and feel aligned and ready to support each other when I did go into labor. During early labor we called Rachel multiple times for her thoughts and encouragement about how things were progressing. I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible and having her to reach out to gave my husband confidence to support me until we were ready to head to the hospital. Rachel met us at our home for the car ride to the hospital and I really can't imagine making it through those 40 minutes without her in the backseat with me helping me move into different positions and providing counterpressure as I was really starting to feel the intensity of my contractions. At the hospital, Rachel made our labor and delivery room dark and put on background music to help keep me calm. I don't even think I was fully aware, but she completely focused the mood of the room and made sure that my comfort and wishes were taken seriously at every turn. This allowed me to continue to labor unmedicated as I had hoped. She was so physically supportive as I wanted to move around the bed and try different positions. But it was her calm, quiet emotional support that amazed me the most. Throughout the rest of my labor and the hour and half that I pushed, my medical team offered various perspectives on how things were progressing and Rachel, without judgment or contradiction, whispered into my ear the physiological perspective and repeatedly made sure that I understood what I was being told and what was happening. She allowed me to feel safe trusting my body and my baby. A last minute complication meant that I needed more attention immediately after my daughter was born than I had anticipated. I was able to do skin to skin for a short time, but quickly needed her to be held by my husband while doctors tended to me. I knew I would need Rachel during labor, but I was so grateful to have her specifically in those moments. She was able to hold my hand and be my comfort while my husband spent his first moments with our daughter. In our immediate days postpartum, Rachel came to our home and helped with everything. She taught me new, more comfortable feeding positions, how to use my pump, and how to take care of my nipples so I could continue to breastfeed. She pet and loved on our sweet dog. She taught us baby burping tricks and gas relief tips. She gave me pelvic floor specialist recommendations and made sure I was aware of my body's healing process. She listened to my husband and I as we asked lots of questions about our new family member and made us feel confident in our new role as parents. I am so grateful that she continued to be a sounding board for breastfeeding questions throughout the first few postpartum months and I credit my ability to continue to breastfeed for my daughter's first year of life (as I had hoped) to her guidance and support. One year later, I look back on my daughter's birth and I am able to see it as such an amazing experience in my life, in large part because of Rachel. I am so thankful for her continued support of our family. I highly recommend Rachel as a birth and postpartum doula - her support is truly life changing.

I delivered both my babies with Maternal. The kind of care and attention you get here is unlike any…read moreother. The doctors are all phenomenal. Dr Abdelhak is a high risk pregnancy doctor, and I felt at ease under his care. Dr Ratzerdorfer delivered my first and he's truly gifted at what he does. Complicated delivery with so much ease and confidence, that I trusted the process and his decisions comfortably. Dr Resnikoff delivered my second, and she made the whole experience so smooth. She was very calm and approachable throughout the pregnancy and delivery. Highly recommend this practice.

Great doctors, staff and setup. Had two high risk pregnancies and births go very well.read more

Lisa is a gifted educator on all things childbirth and we're SO happy to have attended her 3 day…read moreintensive in-person classes a few months prior to our due date. I was immediately impressed by Lisa's care and high-touch approach when I saw her thoughtful response to my intake form at the time we registered for the program. And throughout the course, Lisa's wealth of knowledge, passion, and genuine desire to help really carried through. She's also a bright ray of sunshine and we really appreciated her warmth and hospitality in what could feel like a long three day class otherwise. We had snacks and drinks, were able to move around freely, sit on the floor, sit on the yoga ball, there are squatty potties in each bathroom, I mean she literally thought of everything in trying to make this experience as comfortable and smooth for us as possible. With each class, we felt more and more confident and well equipped to welcome our baby and of course the added bonus in this being in-person is that we also loved connecting with other couples that we will continue to stay in touch with. I would highly recommend to any couple who's expecting no matter the kind of birth experience you envision for yourseleves.

We absolutely loved our classes with Lisa! The class was informative, supportive, and incredibly…read moreempowering. The classes are extremely comprehensive without feeling overwhelming. We came into class feeling excited but very nervous about this next chapter and left feeling so much more confident and prepared for both birth and the newborn stage. We loved Lisa's thoughtful approach - blending evidence-based information with compassionate, personalized support in a way that felt holistic, reassuring, and never fear-based. 10/10 - Highly recommend to any expecting parents looking for a childbirth class that feels both realistic and deeply supportive! Thank you, Lisa!

I am a black man in an interracial marriage. Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Prospect Heights…read moreTribeca Pediatrics in Brooklyn, NY, for the Infant CPR and safety. As the only black man and the only interracial couple in the class, I believe Geoff Gohacki gave me disparate treatment. My wife could not do the CPR on the floor because her belly made her uncomfortable to do so. The instructor told her to do CPR on the chair. I decided to be next to her because she is my wife, and I did not want her to be alone and feel inadequate. The instructor told me to get on the floor because my wife is pregnant, and I am not pregnant. That was very insensitive, rude, and uncalled for. I don't care if you were joking. You cannot make that kind of statement. My wife and I are adults and are not in high school or the military. I always tell people that my wife and I are pregnant. We are pregnant because we are doing this together. Lastly, if my wife and I are paying for the class, we don't have to look at how other people are doing it so that we can do the CPR. We could have stayed home and watched everything on YouTube. I was doing the infant CPR. I was not doing the chest compressions up to the instructor's standards. Instead of redirecting me, the instructor told me to look at the other people in the class. So you don't have a mouth to speak or are impatient to give me feedback on what I am doing wrong. My wife and I are not here to look at other people. After we left the class and walked toward our apartment, my wife started to cry about the unfortunate treatment this instructor put me through. It was distress we didn't deserve. Therefore, I would not recommend this instructor to a black man in an interracial couple.

If I could leave a 0-star review I would. I applied to be a birth doula with this service. I…read morereceived repeated requests to fill out the same video interviews. I should have stopped the process then but alas I persisted in hope this would work out. Then I I have to go through repeated rescheduled onboarding interviews with Jada because she kept having "schedule conflicts" and no respect for my time. When we met it was awkward and the discussion mostly focused on other doulas who don't want to meet with their client until they are way into active labor and then Boober worries about refunds. I do not operate in a way that would entail these risks happening. I spent a lot of time on the application and intake process for boober yet I continued to get leads for potential clients way outside of my geographic area of service. I got clients that were not serious about hiring a doula or I was one of many doulas who would meet with clients. I responded to some potential leads and sometimes wasn't followed up with, other times was matched with clients along with several other doulas or I was sent redundant messages about client requirements which I had already met. As a newer doula (with about a year of experience) I felt I couldn't compete with being matched with clients who were also introduced to several other doulas. I invested a lot of time and effort into my Boober application and profile and saw NO returns for it. I would get no responses, clients would hire other doulas or no doulas or no one from boober would follow up with me for the leads I was actually interested in. At some point I can no longer tolerate such disrespect for my time. While I believe in providing strong customer service our time as birth workers and service providers also needs to be respected and it's just not at Boober. I'm sorry I every signed up for the service. Also there are different commission structures based on race which I'm pretty sure is illegal. I'm all for birth equity but I'm not looking to be disrespected over and over again.

After my last review, Jada, the founder of Birth Day Presence, reached out to me for an honest and…read moreopen conversation about what she could do to improve not only my experience but classes there in general. Being a yoga teacher with pre/post natal experience I went into their classes already very knowledgeable so they weren't as informative as I would have liked but I think they are probably life saving for people who don't care to/don't have the time to do their own learning and research. Birth day presence and boober provide not only child birth and newborn care classes, but match clients with (and train) doulas, lactation consultants etc Most importantly though, and I got this sense from the beginning but really felt it after talking to Jada, they genuinely care about providing quality information and services to new families. They also understand that the birthing industry (because it is an industry) is far from perfect and they want to empower families and help them navigate it. I feel very grateful to Jada and Birth Day Presence and although I originally walked away feeling there was more to be desired I now feel like I couldn't recommend them more to anyone seeking childbirth/childcare education or training. Oh, and all their classes are conveniently online now due to covid.

My husband and I purchased weekend intensive childbirth education classes and we attended when I…read morewas 27 weeks pregnant with our first child at Birth Day Presence. We came here with an open mind and hoping to learn the important basics of childbirth. Needless to say, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We didn't feel prepared and we were hoping this class would make us feel more comfortable of what's to come. The classes we chose were on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am until 3:30 pm. Jen Buice was our instructor and she was very informative and knew her stuff. We also got to mingle with other couples who were due at around the same time as us. We got to share our experiences with each other, which I think my husband and I wouldn't have gotten a chance to do otherwise if it wasn't for this class. We watched some childbirth videos, learned about different stages of labor, pain management, labor exercises with and without the ball, a little about lactation, etc. We also went around the room and did some activities so it could be more interactive and social. Bring some snacks because the classes might seem a little long at times! We did get a short lunch break. One slight complaint I have is that I got a little antsy and didn't feel that comfortable with their seating arrangements. I felt a little claustrophobic. Overall, I think we feel better and a little bit more prepared about being parents. I would recommend this class if you have a chance to take it. It's located in a beautiful part of Park Slope in a beautiful brownstone. Price is a little steep at $395 but I think it's worth it. You can't put a price on your future bundle of joy.

I highly recommend Rachel and Sherraine! Rachel attended our birth but it was lovely meeting…read moreSherraine beforehand. Writing this review almost 6 months after giving birth so I had time to process everything. Rachel has this calming yet confident presence. She helped me tremendously during labor and worked well with my husband. It felt like she knew exactly what I needed without me saying much. She also knew when to hive us the time to be by ourselves and helped with food and drinks (birthing center). I am grateful she was part of this special day and she also took amazing pictures

I'm very disappointed with my experience with Sierra. We hired her to be our postpartum doula in…read moreDecember. We had our first baby, knew nothing about babies and had no support in the area. After the initial call and prenatal appointment, my husband and I felt that we were in good hands. She claimed to be a support for me and my baby and to be knowledgeable about all things newborns. Unfortunately that was not the case. The pros: - she taught us how to give our baby his first bath - she was communicative in the beginning via text and phone - she ended up acting as a very expensive babysitter for our last four visits The cons: - having a newborn is hard and I had a lot of questions she didn't know the answers to. Instead of finding the answers and calling me or offering to come over, she sent lengthy articles with links to other articles. When you are trying to figure out a problem with your infant in your arms, you don't have an hour to read an article that may or may not help - she knew nothing about breastfeeding, period. She gave me advice when she shouldn't of(she told me not to move my breast a bit away from my baby's nose because he would pull off if he was suffocating- this was corrected by two different lactation counselors) - 90% of her answers were "I don't know, I'll have to look that up" - in the end she was not communicative and it felt like she just wanted our sessions to be over - we were so uncomfortable having her in our home when we were around we asked her to just babysit our already sleeping newborn after he was in bed for the night This service is clearly dependent on who you get. Sierra was part of a lower, less trained tier of doulas. Regardless of the tier, it was a bad experience at a vulnerable time in our lives as new parents.