My first birth I had hoped for an unmedicated experience, but an induction led to things getting out of my control. The only thing I knew I wanted to do different the next time was hire a doula. My second pregnancy, we hired Megan. I had a lot of caveats, and she was willing to step up to the plate. Our free visits and phone conversations prior to the birth allowed her to understand the family dynamic, and offer reassurance that she would be there to help me advocate for myself during the birth, and that she understood all my desires. The second birth started unexpectedly, 6 days before her due date. My partner was working quite far away when my water broke, so I called Megan who came over right away to drive me to the hospital. I was nonchalantly eating a bowl of soup and not even packed for the hospital, but she was monitoring my contractions and calmly pushing me to head to the hospital and for my partner to meet us there. Once there, the contractions were so intense I couldn't talk. Every time the nurses came in to do something to me that I didn't want - but I couldn't communicate it through the intensity of the contractions... She calmly stated that she knew I didn't want that, and asked if that was accurate - to which I could nod my head to confirm. Without overstepping, she was able to be my voice when things were too intense to talk. After only 3.5 hours of labor my baby girl was born naturally as I had hoped. Megan stayed awhile to make sure we were well taken care of, and got settled into our recovery room. In the weeks afterwards she followed up with us, and even came over one day to wear my baby as I got a massage. She has become a dear friend through this experience, and I know that things wouldn't have been the same if she hadn't have been there to her my voice when I had no words. With such a short labor, we had not much time for pain relief measures, yoga balls, massage, or what have you. But the experience of having someone there to be my voice when I had none, to communicate my preferences when I couldn't, to be calm when my partner and I weren't... That is a piece of mind that money can't buy. I'm so happy we chose to have Megan on board. read more

Megan was such a great help with the birth of our son. She has a sweet disposition with just the right amount of "take no shit" attitude that you need to deal with pushy nurses in a hospital setting. She was a trooper, she spent 15 hours at the hospital with us durning my active labor, didn't sleep, and hardly took a break. She was a strong advocate, helping us stick to our birth plan and not letting us get coerced into unnecessary interventions. Eventually I did end up getting an epidural because my son was posterior and diagonal and I was having back labor and he needed to be turned internally, but Megan helped me make it very far into my labor with hopes that he would turn on his own, unfortunately that didn't happen and I did not have the natural birth that I planned but I definitely wouldn't have been able to try so hard if it weren't for Megan's support. She was also great at our prenatal meetings. She's super informative and brings tons of great stuff in her labor care packages to help you before, during and after labor! The best thing of all being the tens unit, I swear that little device could have gotten me through natural childbirth if only my son weren't malpositioned! We also had her do my placenta incapsulation. She makes a beautiful print with the placenta, umbilical cord keepsake, and a tincture. I feel the placenta capsules really helped me feel better. Shes a wonderful doula and sweet person. I highly recommend her, especially if it's your first baby or if you have a nervous husband! We will hire her again in a heartbeat if we have another baby! read more

Doula Meg - Placenta print, umbilical cord keepsake, placenta tincture, and placenta capsules. - Doulas Near Me - San Jose, California

Megan was a tremendous support to us during the birth of our son. I went into labor 5 days early, and it turned out that on that day, our primary doula had to be at a birth of another client. When it became clear that it was true labor, she introduced me to her backup doula, Megan, who was at our house within 30 minutes. Megan was an absolute pro, and jumped right in, supporting and coaching me through contractions, massaging my back, holding my hair back as I was sick(!), and helping us prepare for the next few hours. When it was time to go to the hospital, she followed us and was there to help in a multitude of ways. Things were moving quickly and I quickly abandoned my natural birth plan due to the intensity of contractions. Megan continued to be extremely supportive, walking me through what to expect in the pushing phase, taking (amazing!) photos throughout, and just being there to support us in any way we needed it. This included having been firm with my physician in a previous birth she attended regarding his intense coaching style during the pushing phase. He was calm as can be with me, which I attribute to Megan's influence! :-) After the birth of my son - which thankfully went extremely smoothly, Megan continued to check in with us, spending a few hours in our home with our primary doula the week after our son was born, advising on post-partum recovery, breastfeeding, caring for our newborn, etc. She also came for a session a few weeks after my son was born, and in a few short minutes, taught me a number of extremely effective tips to improve breastfeeding comfort, and watched my son so I could get out of the house for a couple of hours. It was wonderful having someone I knew I could trust with my son, who had been with us during his birth, there to watch him, and to support me. Megan has a huge heart, and love for babies and the birth process. She's also an absolute pro, does whatever it takes to create a positive experience, and just makes you feel completely cared for. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to work with Megan! read more

Megan made the entire placenta encapsulation process VERY simple. She handled all the logistics from pickup to delivery, we never even stepped outside once and the turnaround time was fast. Thank you! read more

My husband and I highly recommend Megan!!! She is an awesome doula and expert in placenta encapsulation. Megan was referred to me by another doula. She is very knowledgable in prenatal and postnatal care. She provide great feedback on our birth plan in order to make sure we cover everything that was important to us. She made sure the birth plan was executed based on our wishes. I had a last minute c-section and Megan discussed all of the options with us to make sure it was the right choice for me and the baby. She asked the hospital staff for more time in order for me to make the right decisions. She was with us for 16 hours of my labor. Megan truly cares for my family. She care to visit us in the hospital and at home multiple times to see if we had any questions and to see how our family was adjusting. Megan brought my placenta capsules to the hospital within 48 hours so I could start taking them asap. Megan still checks in with us and my baby is almost 8 months old. She is more than a doula she is a trustworthy friend. read more

Although I haven't officially worked with Meg - I did chew her ear off for a whole hour yesterday LOL! I'm a first time mom with very limited knowledge and resources. Meg was incredible helpful, patient, and answered all of my questions. I am definitely going to utilize her services in the future - she made me feel safe and heard me out. And during pregnancy that's a feeling that has been rare. Thank you Meg! read more

Let me start by saying that no amount of words can describe how important Megan was during the labor and post-partum, my wife had 24 hours long labor . Me and my wife were a first time parent and were eager to have a all natural hospital birth. At 32 week our OBGYN said that AFI count was low (6.5) and we might need to induce the baby at 37, we realized that we needed someone experience who could be on "OUR" team and help us with making a Informed Decision. We met few times with Megan before the labor where she gave us confidence in the mothers ability to birth naturally! My wife's water broke at 3:00 in the morning at 39W1D and Megan was constantly on phone trying to guide us through the initial few hours till she arrived at 11:00 and we went to the hospital where Megan allowed us to get settled first and after couple of hours she got into action! For the next 12-13 hours Megan continuously observed Swati and used all her tricks from her bag be it using rebozo to make sure baby's head is positioned right, or aroma therapy to help mother relax or various exercises to minimize the pain of contraction! But more important than all these bag of tricks was her calm and soothing voice constantly reassuring the mother that she can do this! I can continue going on and on talking about how awesome Megan was but I will end this review by saying "If you are expecting parent and not sure about using a doula, take the leap of faith and hire a doula" and it becomes even more important if the hospital where you are delivering is not in alignment with the natural birth philosophy which happened in our case! read more

I saw Meg's profile on Yelp, read her reviews and texted her today (Saturday) AM. The text was prompted by the fact that we needed some help with breastfeeding and lactation. Shortly thereafter we got a call from Meg and she spoke to both me and my wife and shared a whole lot of info on lactation. The info she shared was very helpful to make us feel better and we are implementing some of the practical suggestions she made to us. She followed up her call with sending us several online reference sources and more ideas on what we could do. Meg is a natural at what she does and we could tell she has a passion and dedication to her profession. 5 stars, hands down! read more

I'm so grateful I found Megan! I was looking for someone I could trust to turn my placenta into pills I could take after giving birth. I did a fair amount of research and found that Megan was affordable, came highly rated, and additionally did the placenta art (which is so so cool)! We had our baby boy at Alta Bates Hospital and Megan was more than happy to come from Fremont to pick up the placenta, turn it into pills and a tincture, and bring it back to our home in Oakland. Though we didn't use her as a doula (I had a kidney stone while pregnant which sucked up our extra cash), I know she must be wonderful. She continually checked in on me while I was pregnant and has continued to do so six months after. She always offered an ear if we needed one, and it was nice to know I had someone so caring in my life around that extraordinary time. If you are looking for placenta pill services, I can't recommend Megan highly enough. She made everything effortless, which is just what you need with a newborn! read more

So for our first child, we winged it - after all, we were young and did all the research, had no issues during pregnancy, etc - and it turned into a 35 hour, fully dilated labor ending with a C section. Hey, everything turned out alright, but the whole process really took a lot out of my wife. Never again. In preparation for our second, Megan's website popped up as we were looking for someone who could do placenta encapsulation - she met with us and we ended up hiring her as our doula. My wife was adamant about wanting to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) - a slight increased risk due to the possibility of tearing the now-healed C-section scar. In several sessions prior to labor, Megan came to our house to make sure we had everything ready, brought equipment and natural supplements, and helped my wife through exercises that would help her complete a vaginal birth. Everything she did definitely helped, but what really stood out to me was her calm confidence - it really helped support my wife as there was still some lingering fear of the pain and lack of control from our first go-around. Labor started, and Megan showed up shortly after. She laid out the yoga mat, brought out the oils, and helped my wife through some movements. She also had this little gadget that sent electric pulses (meant to reduce contraction pain) which really helped. After the time between contractions were short enough, we sped off to the hospital - Megan continued to support my wife there while not getting in the way of the nurses (it's clear she's been through this more than a couple times). Two hours later - with absolutely no pain meds / epidural / induction - baby came out pink and healthy. The doctors and nurses mentioned that to pull off a VBAC was already a big deal, but to do it completely unmedicated was a sight to behold. Megan was a critical part of this process in both physically and mentally preparing my wife, and then supporting her through to delivery. We are fortunate to have found Megan and couldn't be happier with her work in giving our family the best possible start to this new stage of our lives. read more

--Pain medication-free, very positive birth experience at Good Sam during holiday season-- Meg is fantastic. The above comes nowhere near covering the reasons why I'm so grateful we had Meg as our doula, but I wanted to put the outcome highlights up front. We did the "Basics" package and Meg cared for us so well during my pregnancy, the birth, and postpartum. Meg is calm, encouraging, confident, and strong as hell when appropriate, thoughtful and knowledgeable when that's what you need, personable, and a total kick ass advocate for you in a diplomatic but strong way at the hospital. She's got you covered. She listens well and does not have her own agenda - she's there for YOU so that you can show up and focus on birth with the support you need. Choosing Meg: I was due right around the winter holidays and apparently finding a doula for a due date between ~Thanksgiving and New Years can be tricky. I also had fears around birth related to some pre-existing conditions. I wanted a doula that would listen carefully to my birth preferences and support them without inserting their own agenda. I wanted to try a no pain medication birth, but if I had a flareup of my condition, I might want to try an epidural anyway and didn't want to be discouraged from that if I asked because I wanted to feel empowered by my confidence in my pain tolerance because it was the only thing I initially felt confident about approaching the birth. Meg listened deeply during our interview consult, and articulated my wishes back to me in her own words, which made it very clear she totally got it and would support me in the way I asked for support, which wasn't the case with some of the doulas we interviewed. It's also good to get a feel for how many clients a doula takes on per month too. Meg is good about limiting how many she'll take on and staggering smartly around due dates (though of course, due dates are good guesses at best!). Be sure to ask about this when you're interviewing doulas. For the birth, Meg is familiar with Good Samaritan Hospital, and she worked so well with the other nurses. Two shifts of nurses covered my labor, both shifts had very different approaches and personalities, and Meg worked really well with everyone. My baby was in an odd position, and my hip was kind of frozen/stuck in a not-great-for-birth position, but Meg had tricks and maneuvers up her sleeve, and she got the nurses to help her move me and support me in different positions to move the baby and to loosen my hip. She also anticipated things incredibly: by the time my labor hit the "Oh crap, it's getting intense, I need something to ease this RIGHT NOW" phase, she'd already drawn a bath, dimmed lights in the bathroom and set out tea lights. Without Meg's support and ingenuity, I think my partner would have freaked out, and I would have had a C Section that could have been avoided. Postpartum, Meg checked in on us at our home more than once, and has continued to be supportive several months after our daughter's birth via text or phone. I had trouble with mastitis, and she was there to help support me and provide advice. She checked in on my partner postpartum too, which was wonderful because becoming a parent can also be tough for the non-birthing parent and he was having a bit of a tough time so I was grateful to have her check on him because I was too overwhelmed myself and we had no other support. A few other notes: Meg was incredibly generous with her time and resources. Meg listened and answered all my questions and went above and beyond many times. I also wanted a doula who was inclusive. Meg makes it clear on her site that she strives for inclusivity, working with all types of families and also states that she believes everyone deserves access to the expertise of a doula, so she tries to accommodate low fee families or barter when she is able. In an area of tremendous wealth disparity, she works to support the whole community with her skills, not just heteronormative rich white folks, and that is something I strongly support. read more

I had my placenta encapsulated with my first born and found it to be extremely beneficial for me, specifically with my mood. So for my second son I knew I wanted to do it again. I found Doula Meg from another doula who retired and I liked what she offered so I gave her a try. I am so glad I went with her because I feel she went above and beyond. For this time around I have a placenta print and part of the umbilical cord in the shape of a heart. I am using the placenta pills again and I ordered a tincture to help with menopause. She was extremely quick with pick up and delivery and took time to sit with me after and talk. If we decide to have a third child I will definitely us her services again. I also would recommend anyone considering a doula to hire Meg. A most positive experience I had. read more

Megan has been such an amazing blessing throughout both of my pregnancies, I was introduced to her from my doula during my first pregnancy as I wanted to find someone who could encapsulate my placenta professionally and affordable. I was amazed by her service, she picked up everything at the hospital and had it ready for me the next day just when I needed it. The capsules were made with love and were such a huge blessing in helping me recover, her service was outstanding and she was so sweet and helpful with answering any and all questions regarding all things pregnancy during my 9 months both times. read more

We found Megan on referral from another doula. I learned she was in Fremont area and only 10 minutes from me. Being a Deaf mama, I was nervous about hiring a hearing doula who did not know any American Sign Language because communication is important to me. I brought this issue up to her when we corresponded via email--many emails at that! I appreciated her upfront honesty and her can-do attitude that she believes that she can read a mama's body language during labor for support and if needed be, we would find a way to communicate. She answered all my questions and more. Megan is a caring human being who seemed to truly care about me and my family. I told her about my birth plan and how essential oils were important to use during labor and birth. To my happy surprise, she is also an avid essential oils user! We immediately connected through that and I felt relieved that I did not have to thoroughly explain how and what oils to use. I even wanted to encourage her to offer the use of oils for her other clients! Truly helps a lot! When it was time to go to the hospital, she was there just before us, ready with a wheelchair and her bag. I did not need the wheelchair at the point as I felt better walking but I appreciated her thinking ahead. During the labor and birth itself, she helped me to get the birth I really wanted and supported my husband in supporting me as well. She used oils on my feet, back, and tummy during different parts. She never left my side--although there was one time labor was slowing down and she suggested she would go get some refreshments. Perhaps she was just saying that to psychologically or on some deep level tell my baby to get moving because just two minutes after she said that, my water broke on its own! Megan also advocated for me in the hospital as she was familiar with my birth plan and seemed a step ahead over the nurses at times. She kept encouraging me and never left my side when I was in active labor until the baby was born. We also hired her for placenta services. This was my first time since I didn't do with my firstborn. She brought over the finished capsules and some keepsakes. LOVED them! The placenta encapsulations helped me tremendously with energy and feeling more stable--compared to my firstborn where I was up and down emotionally. Megan and I still keep in touch. She came to visit a few weeks after the birth to hold the baby, bring me some support items, and gave me a shoulder massage. I highly recommend Megan to you--but of course, do meet with her in person to see if you connect. We are all different souls, and Megan has a beautiful one. Thank you Megan for being there in that time where we needed you. :-) Thank you Megan for being there for us read more

Thanks much for all the emotional support you gave me thru my end of pregnancy with my little girl! It was a really hard pregnancy emotional wise and I was at my wits end to get this labor going and feel comfortable in my own mind and body again. You helped me calm down and just roll with it. Gave me the tools I needed and a few goodies to help the process and eased my mind! For that I am forever thankful. Ready to do it all over again! Thanks so much! read more

This is my first Yelp posting ever and I am posting it because I feel obligated to share our experience with Megan so that others can avoid what happened to us - Megan abandoned my wife and I two hours before my wife went in for a c section delivery of our second son. Megan was supposed to help with the delivery of our son and be our night doula for the following 4 nights. Per the plan we established, Megan was supposed to meet us at the hospital at the agreed upon time - but she didn't show. We called her many, many times from the hospital, growing more and more frantic as the minutes passed - but she didn't answer. When my wife was literally being wheeled in for surgery, Megan finally answered the phone and said that she decided she no longer wanted to help us because "it no longer felt right" - or something like that. My wife went in to surgery in tears because of Megan's actions - I'll never get that vision out of my mind. These are not the qualities of a kind or considerate person, much less a doula you want at your side during one of the most beautiful and memorable experiences of your life. My wife and Megan had grown close during their conversations leading up to the delivery and the birthing plan they had developed together over the previous weeks/months and for Megan to abandon my wife in her time of need and ultimate vulnerability and without giving us any notification so that we could possibly come up with a "plan b" is inexcusable. As a husband and father I feel obligated to get this story out so that others don't fall prey to the same mistake we made. Our second son was born that day and thankfully everything went well but there will forever be a cloud over our birthing experience because of Megan's selfish and inconsiderate actions. My wife and I highly recommend against hiring Megan as your doula. read more

Megan did such an amazing job. She came and picked up my placenta and dropped them off as soon as they were ready. Her package includes: placenta prints, umbilical chord drying (into any shape you want depending on how long it is), tincture and pills. I loved her final package presentation. She included a sweet not and CHOCOLATE! Oh so good and I remember thinking "I totally need this right now!". I was showing off the prints to everyone who visited, they turned out beautiful. Very happy I found her (last minute too!!). read more

I didn't meet Meghan until the second day that I was already in labor at the hospital. I didn't have a doula and Meghan was actually suppose to just drop off some oils to my sister in law. Instead Meghan stayed the entire day. She was amazing. She made me feel comfortable and I had just met her. She was very knowledgable and had a lot of ways to help me cope with the pain. She kept telling me how great of a job I was doing and how strong I was being. She truly went above and beyond. She didn't have to be there but she stayed and I'm so grateful to have had her there. If you're considering on hiring a doula, I strongly recommend Meghan. She is truly amazing! read more

Megan is a truly amazing doula! She is nurturing, kind, and has a wealth of knowledge and experience surrounding natural childbirth. If you are even hoping to deliver without medications I highly recommend you reserve Megan at your doula! You will not regret it! read more

I used Megan Meta's services following the birth of my first child. I was completely unaware of the challenges a new baby would bring and the impact of sleep deprivation. I initially requested Megan's services to help me get adjusted to being a new mom and I greatly appreciated the non-judgmental advice and support she would give me. What I didn't expect was how much she'd help support me when my husband was called on a business trip 3 weeks postpartum. I was very sleep deprived and nervous to be alone. Megan rearranged her schedule to help me on the spot. She stayed with me through the night for a few hours to help me get some sleep. It was truly a life-saver for me and I'm not sure how I would have gotten through it without her. She then continued to help me for several weeks after that. Megan can be of assistance in so many ways. She helped provide me with sound advice, she helped me research products and techniques to overcome my daughter's colic symptoms, she helped remind me when I needed to sleep and take care of myself (an easily overlooked task) and most of all she was a friend and companion in a rather intimidating time in my life. Megan's services were some of the best investment we made. I highly recommend her. read more

I cannot stress just how much we appreciated working with Megan as we prepared to welcome our first child last year. I hadn't given much thought to my labor experience until late into my pregnancy. The birth prep classes we took through Kaiser freaked me out more than helping, so we decided that we needed a doula - luckily, Megan was available. Megan met with us twice before birth, the second time was just days before our son was born, our meetings made me feel a bit more empowered about the labor process, though I was still not quite mentally prepared for it -- I thought that I still had several weeks to "get ready." The funny thing was that our son was much more ready than me - he came into the world at 37 weeks and two days. Megan came to our house within 10 minutes of getting my husband's frantic call at 11PM (we live in Fremont as well). My labor was so fast (our baby was born about hour after we arrived at the hospital, we pretty much skipped triage!) that I didn't have time for any pain intervention, luckily Megan was there to talk me through the breathing exercises and helped my husband to help me with the pain. Megan also checked on me and our baby after we came home, and I really appreciated having all the breastfeeding guidance and support from Megan. Hope this review helps those soon-to-be moms and dads who are thinking about hiring a doula. You will enjoy working with Megan! read more

This review has been long overdue. Megan was of tremendous help especially with our postpartum needs after the birth of our daughter. She was very helpful in getting our daughter latched on to me and provided great advice every step of the way. She even came late night to the hospital when I was having difficulty breastfeeding my daughter the day after her birth. Megan is a great birth and postpartum doula, and I would definitely recommend her to everyone I know. Thanks for all your help Megan! read more

Megan was such an awesome, sweet and responsible doula. I always knew that I wanted to try to have a natural drug free birth and wanted someone to help me through the journey. Megan was the perfect person for that job. I had prodromal labor for a week and she came over several times that week to help keep me comfortable. She showed my husband and my mom how to keep me comfortable as well. She was a great listener; someone I could voice my fears and opinions too. She was also super helpful when it came time to write my birth plan and what information was important to include in it. My birth was a bit more complicated than I had hoped and Megan supported us through it. Whether it was massaging my feet or rubbing essential oils on my pressure points. She was there to make me feel great. She was also super supportive of my husband and made sure our mom's were updated so that they would not worry. After 1 week of labor and 4 hours of active pushing, a vacuum had to be used to assist in the birth of our baby girl and Megan was there the whole time cheering me on. She told me not to feel guilty or sad that my birth plan didn't fully actualize. Megan also honestly took some of the most beautiful and powerful photos of our daughter entering this world; photos that I will cherish forever. And not to be forgotten; Megan made sure after my long labor that I had something to eat before she left the hospital with my placenta. Placenta encapsulation was a plus as well since most doulas I researched didn't encapsulate placentas. I credit placenta capsules for making me feel energetic and so healthy. I also think that it helped with my milk supply and I was able to not only feed my daughter but feed other babies as well. My daughter is 16 months old and I am still lactating. I totally recommend Megan and hope that she will be my doula when we have a second baby. She was amazing and not only was our doula but is now also a friend. read more

Megan was my wife's Doula for our first son. She was amazing with her and my wife can tell more about that. I am writing this review for the partners. You will need Megan more than you think. She helped me be a better/more supportive partner during my wife's pregnancy, taught me a bunch of exercises to help my wife with back pain, and to help placing the baby in the best position for labor in the last few weeks. She made me feel like I had a truly important role to play to put my wife in the best conditions for labor. She spent a few hours with us in the week leading to labor. Those prenatal visits were really important for me to realize my role in labor, much more so that the classes/workshops we took with Kaiser. She was amazing during labor too. My wife had a really quick labor (~5hours), and it was so quick that I barely had the time to put myself in the psychological mindset that I was going to be a father. She was amazing at re-assuring us that everything was fine and really helped us interact with the medical staff. If you don't have family in the area or even if you do, Megan is the person to work with. She will put you in the best conditions to welcome your baby, will help the mum cope with pain if you decide to have a natural birth, and will keep you, the partner, together during the entire time. Her role goes well beyond labor. She was kind enough to look after our dog while we were at the hospital, came back regularly to check on my wife and our son, and had invaluable advice on breastfeeding. She really has become someone we go to anytime we have a question, and frankly a good friend. Hire her, you will not regret it! read more

Megan came to help me after I gave birth to my son and was struggling with postpartum anxiety and the transition of becoming a mom. I would say she pulled me out of a major dark place and helped me realize that I could make it as a mom without having to be perfect or loving every minute of it. Not only that, she was the first and only person to immediately say, upon hearing my colic-y baby, that something was wrong and I needed to take him to the doctor. It turned out he had acid reflux and was immediately medicated and became a changed baby with much less crying and hurting. Everyone else said, oh babies cry, even though I was often in tears myself because I thought how can babies cry this much? Megan just knew. She was so reassuring and no-nonsense. She would always be doing something around the house, washing the dishes, etc, if I was with the baby or if he was sleeping. And she gave me a copy of The Baby Book, which turned out to be one of my most used books when I had an infant. I can't recommend her enough. read more