After reading Shannon's beautiful and transformative book Born Far From Home, I felt so drawn to…read morehaving a homebirth. I loved reading about Shannon's journey to Islam and birth work, and how her faith and spirituality intertwined with her midwifery care. I also enjoyed reading the compelling birth stories and the beautiful way in which she writes about birth. I especially felt connected to her book as a Muslim woman who was curious about homebirth, but wasn't sure if it was for me. Once I finished the book and had my first appointment with Shannon I felt confident, reassured, and excited about having a homebirth for my first baby. Since the start of my prenatal care with Shannon, I felt so comforted by the amount of time and personalized care she dedicated to us by listening to our concerns, answering our many questions, and providing the guidance we needed during this special time in our life. Her level of knowledge and expertise combined with her warm and comforting presence brought us ease during such a delicate time. I also have the same great things to say about Tara who was the second midwife to be present at the birth and meet with us for the postpartum appointments. Tara also has such a warm, beautiful, and comforting spirit and has been such a pleasure to meet with. When expressing the troubles I have with breast feeding, she has been so sweet and reassuring and I really appreciate the level of care she not only provides for our baby, but to me. I feel so fortunate and blessed to have had a successful and empowering homebirth with the utmost care and support from Shannon and Tara and I highly recommend them. I am so grateful to have been in their care.

I don't have enough good things to say about Shannon and her business. She was absolutely…read moreincredible from start to finish. From the very first phone call I felt so comfortable and genuinely heard. She took the time to answer every question and listen to my previous birth story and never made me feel rushed. She listened with understanding and compassion and for the first time I truly felt like a care provider was really listening to me. For my first birth, I had a typical hospital birth with a typical OB. Although I did not have a traumatic experience, I wanted something different for my second time around. I found Shannon and it truly was a blessing. The level of care and attention to detail was above and beyond anything I had experienced before. When the day came to give birth, having her there made me feel so safe supported and empowered. If I was ever to do this again, I would not hesitate to use Shannon and her team and have another home birth. It truly was a defining experience and something that I believe that all women should be able to experience. If you're looking for a quality Midwife service that treats you like family and truly listens to you look no further. I cannot recommend Shannon enough!

Yelp seems like a weird place to find a midwife but these reviews gave me the confidence to choose…read moreJinny and now I'd like to pass on the favor. Jinny is an incredible midwife that I'd recommend to anyone in a heartbeat. The least you can do is get in touch with her and see if you like her style. The Jinny we met at our first meeting was the same Jinny that showed up at every appointment, every diagnoses, and most importantly - at the birth. She is a knowledgeable professional that is supportive of your decisions. And the level of calmness she presents in the most intense situations is remarkable. Jinny provided thorough care from pregnancy to postpartum. Communication was easy and consistent. She heard my concerns about the birth and showed up 100% to help mitigate them as best as she could during the birth. I'm forever grateful to Jinny for giving me the home birth experience I had hoped for.

Jinny Pagle is an outstanding midwife who does both home births and can do pre- and postnatal care…read moreif you want a hospital birth. After several days of labor at home, she supported me at the hospital in making sure to remind me to remind staff about my wishes for how I wanted the birth to go, which enabled me to very narrowly avoid a C-section! She has a great roster of related experts in her network too including an acupuncturist who came to my house during labor and really helped a lot with the process. It was also really wonderful to be able to have her come to my house to check on me and the baby in the first few weeks after the birth. She offers her clients choices of a spectrum of options from alternative wellness resources to standard medical practice depending on your inclinations. Her attitude is very empowering! It was also super convenient for her to be able to do bloodwork at my house and save me time going somewhere else for that. She also does placenta encapsulation. If you're considering a homebirth, or if you want a hospital birth but want to have 60+ minutes per appointment and not the 10 min you get at an OB's office for pre/postnatal care, contact Jinny.

This was a wonderful experience for me and I have to give these caring midwives praise. Lael and…read moreShannon are a wonderful team. The hospital was always busy and giving birth during COVID 19 sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. We opted for the home birth and my midwife through lifelong submitted the approval to have a home birth. When it was time to give birth, it felt good being in your own home, that you know is clean and sanitized. I didn't need too much assistance since this was my second birth but I'd recommend the whole package. I met Lael to discuss the plan for the homebirth. I had so much going on and I truly appreciate Lael and her consistency with me. I would call or text any questions or concerns and Lael and Shannon were very patient. Delivery Day: Lael showed up and I was able to do things my way, if I wanted to do a cartwheel I could. I started in the pool and it was as comfortable as possible, it's childbirth lol. After maybe an hour or two, I asked if I could find do a different position and Lael and Shannon said it was fine. It is honestly the best feeling to do things your way especially bringing a baby into the world. After delivery, Lael and Shannon helped me and my little one start the breastfeeding process (Fast forward she's still exclusively breastfed, woohoo!). This was tricky during my first pregnancy so I was amazed at how the baby latched on, it also was a relief for them to debunk a lot of theories on how newborns are hungry. Also, they clarified what steps to take next concerning my health. They completed post-partum check-ins and even sent me lunch which was so helpful. It was an amaZing experience for myself and my family, a lot of relatives were interested in a homebirth after that. Lael and Shannon, me and my family are grateful for your services.

If you are reading this as a newly expecting couple, looking for the best midwives around, this…read moreletter is for you. In my review, I'd like to highlight everything I have found to be absolutely delightful about the midwives from Midwives Bay Area that my wife and I have worked with (Lael & Shannon). I want to share this with you as an aid for any families that desire to discover a diamond in the rough when it comes to everything related to Midwifery in the Bay Area. 4 children later, all delivered by these masterful women, and we have nothing but the best to share from our personal experiences! Dear Aspiring Family, When my wife and I were first looking for a midwife, we had various concerns about trust, expertise and care. After an extensive search through various different people and organizations, we were blessed to finally meet Lael. In this first meeting, we could tell that she was not only someone that could be trusted, she was full of experience, and she gave my wife a sense of care that we hadn't witnessed anywhere else. After leaving that meeting, we knew our search had come to an end, and we were so excited to embark on this journey with an such an amazing advocate. **Let me remind you that neither my wife nor myself had any prior exposure to home births at this point, and were completely new to the scene.** TRUST: I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I trust Lael and Shannon with my entire family, because without them, we wouldn't have the same confidence in parenting that we currently have. See, the thing about home births is that they empower the entire family unit to be connected and helpful to one another - starting with husband and wife. Collaboration has always been encouraged, and I am forever grateful for Lael and Shannon's ability to listen to the husband as well as the wife as a team unit. EXPERTISE: We have had 4 home births with Midwives Bay Area, and each birth comes with a beautiful story that I will share for the rest of my life. Their professionalism has extended beyond anything a hospital has ever been willing to offer us, and even more than this we have life-long advocates for our family that continue to impact us to this day! Both Lael & Shannon have countless home birth stories they could share like ours (in addition to their very own family stories), however what is most amazing to me is that I continue to discover areas they specilalize in. These are some of the most authentic and hard-working midwives I have ever met, and we feel so priviledged to call them when we discover we are expecting another little one :) CARE: Whether it be text messages with slight concerns, or phone calls late into the night, we feel as though Lael and Shannon are family due to the depth of care they continually provide. It's truly hard to put into words how much this means to my family, it's really the "X Factor" in searching for a midwife. Finding someone you can trust is huge, knowing that your midwives are beyond capable to give you premium support thanks to their vast expertise is priceless, but meeting someone who cares for your family as a mother cares for her children is as I said inexplicably critical. Seeing the level of care that we have experienced the past 5 years and counting ties together all the trust and expertise, to make a perfect masterpiece of a midwifery team. If it means anything to you, who are reading this as a complete stranger, we love our midwives, and have no doubt that you will too. God Bless you and your beautiful family! ...& a very big THANK YOU from the bottom of my family's heart to Lael, Shannon and the whole Midwives Bay Area team for the opportunity we have had to witness something so undeniably special from you all.

I hired Susana as my midwife during my first pregnancy in 2021, during the height of COVID. I chose…read moreher because I wanted an unmedicated home birth, and at the beginning everything felt consistent and supportive. My prenatal home appointments were regular, and initially I felt comfortable with my decision. Toward the end of my pregnancy, however, I became increasingly fearful and ultimately ended up being induced at the hospital. What followed was a very traumatic experience that resulted in a five-day hospital stay and an unexpected C-section. During this time, Susana was only partially present, as she was dealing with serious health issues involving her husband. After my C-section, she did come to check on me at home and advised me to remain mostly bedridden and not move much. I followed this advice. Two weeks later, I was rushed to the emergency room with a blood clot. Based on what I later learned, I believe that early movement and walking could have helped prevent this, and I was physically capable of doing so at the time. Overall, my experience was deeply traumatic and left lasting emotional and mental scars that I am still healing from. Looking back, I believe things could have unfolded very differently had I received more comprehensive support and guidance during such a critical and vulnerable time. I'm sharing my experience in hopes that it provides insight for others as they make decisions about their care.

I had my baby with Susanna November of 2025 and started working with her in April of 2025. Susanna…read moreis extremely knowledgeable and was very supportive throughout my prenatal and postnatal care. She respected my decisions during pregnancy and guided me when I didn't know enough about certain tests and she never judged me or my husband. When it came time to give birth, she showed up promptly and extremely prepared. Her and Tiffany (her amazing birth assistant) monitored the baby's heartbeat during labor and knew what positions to guide me into to help the baby's heartbeat and position. My entire labor and delivery was so calm and peaceful- if I had another baby I would choose Susanna again and again.

I'm currently 7 weeks postpartum and I miss our visits with Michelle and her team so very much. My…read morepartner and I were undecided about where we'd give birth. We had an uncomplicated home birth with my daughter and another midwife 4 years before. Now, at the age of 43, I felt it might make more sense to have our second child in a hospital. I feared I'd have more complications. After sitting with it for some time, my chiropractor gave me the referral for Michelle Borok's midwifery services. When I met Michelle I went from being unsure about where we'd give birth to an absolute whole body yes to a home birth. My husband felt the same. We're so glad we chose Michelle as our midwife. I've worked in health care throughout the Bay Area for over 15 years, Michelle is a unique blend of warmth and professionalism. She is direct, transparent, honest, clear, wise, and knowledgeable. She's truly a gem! We would work with Michelle again if we were ever to have another child. Michelle was a grounding force that guided me through my fears. Every prenatal appointment we left her home feeling secure, loving, and afloat on that pink pregnancy cloud every person and partnership deserves to tap in to. Thank you from the depths of our hearts, Michelle, for ushering our sweet child Earth side.

I received prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care from Michelle for my homebirth…read moreexperience in 2014. I continue to see her for annual exams because she'll come to my home and I can wear my own clothes. This provides me a whole other level of comfort that I didn't get during my anxiety-inducing check-ups at traditional medical offices. I had a hospital experience with my first child that was without complications, but wasn't the culture or environment that I truly wanted. My second pregnancy was low-risk and I was much more confident about birth that I sought out a midwife. Michelle taught me so much about pregnancy, my body, nutrition, and beyond. She helped me make better, more authentic decisions for myself and new baby. I still benefit from her lessons to this day. She is warm, takes her time, and considers my whole self (holistically) when giving advice. I cannot recommend her enough. She's someone you'll want on your team for the rest of your life.

Nova was recommended to me for a home birth VBAC (already had one successful one). After finding…read moreout I was a woman of plus size, I was denied service with them. Their claim was that their VBACs need to be "pristine" because of liability reasons. My being plus size is not evidence based and is in fact, the same kind of shaming that I would expect from a typical medical doctor and not someone who practices midwifery. This was deeply disappointing. I'm grateful they can offer home birth options for women but if you don't fit their mold, you won't be accepted. Huh.. I went on to have a successful unmedicated 2nd VBAC.

We found nova midwifery through a friend... we were interested in having a home birth but weren't…read moresure, so we reached out to a friend to learn about their experience. They recommended Mason at Nova, so we called for an initial consult. Our son was delivered in 2015 at kaiser without intervention, and we liked the experience... except for all the medical stuff like wearing a heart monitor and sleeping in a hospital and all the worry that seems to come along with being in a hospital. For our second birth, we wanted a natural birth, but maybe a little more comfortable. We ended up hiring Mason and Melissa at Nova for our prenatal care, delivery, and recovery, and had a really nice experience. First, they're both 5 star people. Good bedside manner, good sense of humor, a nice wealth of knowledge. They are very good at quelling your fears and questions that come along with pregnancy and delivery, and appointments are typically really positive (you got this girl!). I would say from the husband side that a homebirth was WAY more enjoyable for me. My own bed, my own home, my own food, and I got to catch my daughter as my wife leaned over the ottoman. What an experience! I'll never look at that ottoman the same. I feel like these women checked all the boxes, professional, fun, empathetic, and knowledgeable. I hear they have new space in Walnut Creek, but one of the nicest things for us is they did some home visits for prenatal care since they had other clients in our area. Towards the end, we saw them in the office, and it was always a tranquil environment, very different from the kaiser waiting room. I think the recovery is the biggest advantage to the homebirth. These ladies support you through the first few weeks, and being home with your newborn is sooooo nice in the first few hours of life. I don't think I would have been comfortable with my first child at home, but now that I know what I'm doing, homebirths and nova are the only way I would go for an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery.

Words cannot adequately express how grateful we are for Amanda. She cared for me throughout my…read moreentire pregnancy and her calming, grounded demeanor helped both my husband and me feel completely comfortable and safe choosing a home birth. Seeing how naturally she connected with our family made us feel so held and supported every step of the way. During the birth itself, Amanda's guidance was invaluable. She made me feel entirely confident in my body and my ability to birth my baby safely, and she even helped me avoid tearing, which had been a huge fear of mine going into it. The entire experience from bump to birth was empowering and peaceful. We couldn't have asked for a better team, and I truly can't wait to do it all over again with Amanda for our next baby!

Amanda was our midwife for our second child and we had a better experience than we could have…read moreimagined. We used east bay midwives for prenatal care, home birth and post natal care. Amanda brought both experienced midwifery care (our son was her 314th birth!) and a strong level of personal care. She is a birth worker that truly loves what she does, is incredibly skilled in her work, and has a deep sense of care for the mothers, families, and babies she works with. We were so impressed by how supported we felt during the entire pregnancy, birth, and post partum period. I truly wish every mother could receive midwifery care as exceptional as east bay midwives. We also had excellent experience with Grace and Sophia- the team that Amanda works with are also amazing birth workers. I highly recommend east bay midwives to someone that wants a safe, supported home birth with experienced and loving help!

Update I thought I would update my review since it's been 3…read moreyears. Since then we have been blessed to have Charlee as our midwife two more times. In total she has been our midwife for three of our births! Which is honestly amazing! As you can imagine I cannot speak more highly of Charlee! She is the best at what she does! Every birth I have had her in she has been so wonderful and so supportive! My pregnancies are always something I look forward to and one of the big reasons is because of her care. I always look forward to my kids being included into our appointments. They get so excited every time she comes over she is practically family at this point! charlee is so patient with my kids and includes them into the experience, allowing them to help with hearing the baby's heart and checking my blood pressure. It truly has made my pregnancies all the more sweet getting to experience it in this intimate way with my kids and having all these memories with them. I have had hospital care before and to me this is totally different! In the best possible way! It's so individual and includes my family into the process. The appointments are longer allowing ample time to ask questions and go over any concerns. She gets to see how the pregnancy is progressing. I love the fact that she lets me make true informed decisions for me and my baby. She always goes over everything and if I understand the risks and benefits of any decision that I make. I always feel heard and seen. During my labors I've always felt so taken care of. I rely so much on her experience and knowledge and trust she is looking out for my best interest as well as the baby. There have been so many times she has seen things that I hadn't really thought of. Whether that be taking things and doing things to ease pregnancy symptoms to things to do during birth. Postpartum care is just top notch! The fact that she comes to check on me and the baby. I don't have to get out of my bed or leave the comfort of my home. I get to just snuggle my baby and be in newborn bliss while she checks us over. I'm just so thankful for her loving care! If I am blessed to get pregnant again no doubt I will again ask her to be my midwife. No one I trust more and couldn't imagine doing it without her!

I chose to hire Charlee as my midwife for my first pregnancy because when I spoke with her she said…read moreshe had over 10 years of experience and has done 200 births. As a first-time mom, those credentials gave me confidence that I was putting myself and my baby in experienced hands. During one of our visits, she was prepping me for delivery day. She not to reach out to her in the middle of the night unless my contractions were at a 3-1-1 pattern because she wanted to be rested for me during the day. The day came for baby to arrive. Around 9pm on a Saturday I started having contractions. At 2am on Sunday, my contractions became very intense contractions. They were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting 6-8 minutes long, my husband and I were tracking them with a contraction app. The contractions felt pretty intense. We sent Charlee screenshots of the contraction patterns and reached out for guidance, but a she told us I was not ready yet because I was not at a "3-1-1" pattern, but that if I think the baby is coming, to let her know. How do I know if the baby is coming in not? I've never had a baby before. As a first-time mom, I had no way of knowing whether my labor was progressing normally and it was going to get more intense than what it was, or whether my baby was coming. That's exactly why I hired an experienced midwife to help me make those decisions. I was alone in my living room for hours, my water broke and gushing out (it definitely was not a trickle like they say it would be), feeling like I was on a rollercoaster. By around 6:30 that morning, my doula arrived, saw the amount of pain I was in, looked at my contraction pattern, and immediately called Charlee, telling her "you need to get here now". Charlee arrived about an hour later. By then, my contractions had already slowed down considerably. During the day Charlee commented that she wondered why my contractions had slowed down, which surprised me because I expected someone with her level of experience to have insight into what was happening. While I was laboring in the birthing pool, I also overheard Charlee talking with my doula about wanting to pivot careers into being a motivational coach instead of continuing to attend births. Whether or not she ultimately chooses another career is her decision, but hearing that conversation while I was in active labor made me worry because in my field of business, that is what people say when they aren't getting much business. This was not something I expected or wanted to hear during one of the most vulnerable moments of my life. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of an experience that ultimately left me feeling unsupported and questioning the care I received. The baby was stuck in my canal the whole day. We could feel her head. At 6:30pm, I got transfer to the hospital. We ultimately had to do an emergency vacuum delivery. My body was not contracting, and it was not ready for a baby to come out. I ended up with a permanent spine injury, along with other injuries post delivery that were still having trouble diagnosing. I had to go back to the ER by ambulance 2 days after come home from the hospital. I was in a wheelchair for 2-3 weeks, graduated to a walker, then cain, and now I have on going treatment 9 months post delivery. Which all could have been prevented, if my baby came out when I my body was contracting at 2am in the morning. Charlee charges you $9,500 for her services, but split it up in four sections. She said because I delivered at the hospital, she would not submit me for reimbursement for the delivery costs, since I did not deliver at home. If Charlee could not do her job and deliver my baby, then why can't I get refunded for her not doing her job? I don't know how you can take someone's money like that and sleep at night. I do not recommend Charlee as a good choice for a midwife, do not trust this person with your life!

It's 8pm on a Saturday night and I am relaxing on my couch having a glass of wine. My little man…read morehas been sleeping in his crib since he fell asleep there, ON HIS OWN, SEVEN minutes after we put him down - without a peep. You read that right. Since I have such ample time, this review will be a long one. I gave you fair warning. I'm not so rigid to think or expect that every night will unfold like tonight. There will be teeth! walking! talking! more regressions to come. However, a month after starting this process, it has become a reasonable reality for me to expect that on more days/nights rather than not (meaning NAPS and bedtime), he will go to sleep. It is a work in progress, but Dahlia guided us through it with the confidence and clarify we ourselves needed to provide to our son for the process to work. The backstory: At 11 weeks old, my son morphed from our lovely sleeping newborn waking twice a night to waking EVERY HOUR, needing to be soothed back to sleep...while sleeping in our bed. As the weeks dragged on, it became clear he was not going to outgrow this hiccup in an amount of time that would preserve my sanity (or marriage lol), and things were snowballing from bad to dreadful (more on that below). He eventually settled on a pattern of waking 4-7 times per night; however, he started having negative sleep associations to most every soothing trick in the book. I won't waste time listing such strategies or the gimmicks I bought on Amazon. Well-meaning folks always shared their soothing strategies. Well, if you can envision it, we tried it. Don't start to tell me about white noise and black out shades. Eventually, NOTHING WORKED except the boob. So sleep - meaning all naps and bedtime plus the night wake ups - became an hour long battle with raging, screaming, kicking, tears. All of which did not guarantee an outcome of sleep in the end! This was a vicious cycle on repeat at least 4 times daily which went on for almost two months (give or take some days where baby was so exhausted he slept well for a night or two). On top of this, I had impending abdominal and oral surgeries. Just icing on the cake. We knew we had to sleep train. After pouring through blogs and books about the various sleep training techniques and studies, I still had reservations (and extreme anxiety subjecting my baby to this), and needed someone to lead me through its ups and downs. Alright I'll be honest - sleep training is mostly down. It is painful. Gutwrenchingly PTSD painful if your baby is anything like mine. Enter Dahlia. She is honest, positive, supportive, respectful, and above all, will use her knowledge to SEE YOU THROUGH IT. She makes herself available and genuinely wants to help you. I cannot thank her enough and I definitely promise you will not get that from a blog. So dread. I used to DREAD naps and bedtime. The clock would hit 5:30pm and my heart would sink a little. My soul would wail a sad song. Now, I think about the time I can spend writing long reviews and blogging while he's sleeping. And the biggest plus? The little man wakes up RELAXED and RESTED and happy to see me. THANK YOU DAHLIA!

Dahlia is the BEST! We hired her for 3 months of postpartum work, which is no small task with…read moretwins! She was so caring, nurturing, and gentle with our babies, her experience was only outweighed by her sweetness and profound gift for "twinning". I feel so lucky to have had her work with us, she taught us (first-time parents) so much, from swaddling to bathing to infant massage! Every morning when Dahila arrived it was a ray of sunshine and positive energy, my babies responded so well to her songs, her feeding techniques, and her cuddles. We were so sad to say goodbye to her when it was time, and are almost jealous of the next family that gets to work with her! :) :)