When faced with the heaps of information out there about giving birth, it can feel pretty…read moreoverwhelming. I read lots of websites, books, and even attended two births myself. I knew I needed more to be fully prepared and ready to partake in this life changing and sacred event. Susan's class filled that void and thensome! Books (& hospital courses) can only get you so far. The Birth Journey course gave me plenty of opportunities to look deeper into my fears, expectations, hopes, and appreciation of the birth process. The course helped me get in touch with the psychological, emotional, and spiritual sides of birth --that are sadly so often ignored. It also gave me practical tools to use while birthing...dealing with pain and the awareness of what my body and baby were going through. I highly recommend this experience. It was also very valuable to interact with and hear from the other participants. Susan managed to jam-pack those 9 sessions with lots of useful information. She is a gifted, highly experienced, teacher. We had a wonderful home birth and I know this course and Susan's guidance helped us do so.

I took this course in the summer of 2010. It was an ideal natural birth course. All 8 students in…read morethe course left happy. The course goes far beyond the basic physiology of birth, and works on a psycho-emotional level to connect the parents with the birth process and their unborn child. While alternative, at no point did the instructor disparage traditional medicine. As for the negative reviewer below: Admittedly, the course is not designed for someone who is seeking to only learn how to undergo "modern techniques" such as pain killers and C-section. As that reviewer recommends: those are taught in his ascribed "hospital based" courses. I also encourage readers discouraged by that negative review to read his other reviews...which are mostly 1 stars of local business. I sense a troll looking for make-it-right handouts and refunds...

My husband and I had a wonderful experience working with Alana Corrin through Healthy Mamas,…read moreHealthy Babies. First, learning about the services and speaking with Amber was great. She is highly organized and very responsive. I also loved the online mom support groups with different topics covered each week - these were so helpful! For the doula services, Alana was wonderful. She is very laid back and easy to talk to while also being super knowledgable and attentive. I wasn't sure if I was going to try to have a natural birth or get an epidural and I felt like Alana was ready to support me no matter what option I wound up choosing. Also, my husband tends to be very anxious around any medical or hospital setting so we weren't sure if he would be able to be with me for all of labor and delivery. Our meeting before birth was great because Alana was able to listen to his concerns and talk him through what L&D would be like so he wouldn't be so nervous. We only wound up being able to have one pre-birth meeting because my baby decided to show up 6.5 weeks early! Thankfully, Alana was able to meet us at the hospital within an hour of my husband calling her (around 3am??). My labor proceeded very quickly and we were both overwhelmed because we had not anticipated having our baby that early. Alana remained a calm and consistent presence throughout my labor and for a while after delivery after they took my baby to the NICU. She was also able to ask the nurses and doctors questions we had completely forgotten to ask and kept us up to date with everything that was happening. My husband wound up being able to stay for most of L&D and I think a lot of that has to do with Alana being there - we both felt fully supported the entire time. We had three post-partum sessions with Alana and they were also incredibly helpful. I would definitely recommend her to others and would love to work with her again if we wind up having another baby (hopefully closer to my due date next time, hehe)!

Ok, I gave 4 stars to highlight the comment. I'm honestly not sure what the right number of stars…read moreis. We consulted and ended up NOT hiring her (we had 1 video appointment). She seems to know things well, no concerns there, but we were a bit put off by the very commercial set up, ie, the initial consultation had a charge while all the other doulas were ok to do a free into over video. Then we got cut off because the initial intro appointment was so time limited (I think it was 15 minutes if I recall). Her regular emails are helpful, but we ended up not hiring her just because it seemed so money driven (her prices are on the high end, which looking at the reviews does seem to be somewhat justified).

Did a prenatal massage with Gracie and she's wonderful! The room is nice, she had all the comfort…read morepillows and really listened to where I noted any aches or pains to address. She also included some breathing techniques which was nice. Afterwords she also offered drinks and snacks from the studio lounge which being pregnant is always appreciated. Loved my massage here.

I reached out to Brilliant Births to find a birth doula. They offer a matching service and…read moreconnected me to 3 doulas who work independently (not employees of BB). We were really fortunate to find our birth doula (who we love!), but the other 2 candidates were not very impressive. The first doula missed our appointment with no follow-up communication. We were initially confused and thought she was the coordinator for BB, because she only communicated by text. The actual meeting was just by telephone so there was no face-to-face interaction, which felt strange. We could've easily FaceTimed or Zoomed. So communication and reliability were not great. The second doula abruptly canceled our half-hour appointment when we were 10 minutes late for a 30-minute appointment due to my husband wrapping up a Zoom meeting. During our appointment time, she was responding to my emails (in which I apologized for being late), but insisted she could no longer meet with us. I thought this was a really bad sign about what she would be like to work with - labor and delivery is rarely precisely timed and some flexibility is needed. In addition, her email said that she lives in Portola Valley, but we live Berkeley (also where Brilliant Births is located). This also struck me as strange, because it would take 1.5 hours for her to arrive to meet us at the hospital, which is not ideal.

During the pandemic sitting on hours of zoom calls and working from home on the computer left my…read moreback tweaky. Marci was able to give me some suggestions and exercises to help relieve my symptoms. Since I am an active person, this was much appreciated and my symptoms resolved quickly. Recently, I had a knee issue and saw her associate Natalie Shobeiri and discovered I have been running incorrectly and that was causing my knee issue. With some new running shoe recommendations (I was formerly a fan of Big 5 shoes ;), correct alignment, and some ongoing exercises to strengthen my areas of weakness, I have been able to continue my active lifestyle. I am so appreciative of the practitioners in this practice and highly recommend them!!

I met with the owner, Marci Silverberg for physical therapy having been referred by my Dr's…read moreassistant as I wanted to focus on core work as well as muscle strengthening. The session went well and I found Marci to be a very knowledgable hands-on PT who was also empathic! The caveat is that when I went to pay for the session she informed me that they don't take United Healthcare Medicare PPO Insurance. I was taken aback as I had spoken to Katlyn the Operations Manager and she had assured me that they would take my Insurance but that I would need to send in the "super bills" directly to them and would get reimbursed. She had the form I had emailed in with all my personal info but neglected to tell me that they don't take Medicare which for me was a big omission. Her bio on the website states that she " ensures every visit is a smooth and supportive experience" and a "seamless" one however, it was not for me as I was put in the uncomfortable position of having to pay $ 249. out of pocket. After sitting with the discomfort of feeling misled by Katlyn whom I felt did not do her job properly by inquiring about my Medicare and informing me before the visit. I sent an email to Marci about my feeling misled by Katlyn and what I described as a lack of integrity but heard nothing back as to her and Katlyn taking more responsibility for the situation I was put in. which is why I decided to write this mixed review which is highly uncommon for me. As I noted, I appreciated Marci's PT expertise but I am left feeling disheartened and taken advantage of in paying for the visit that I had no choice about and cost way more than anticipated !

My husband and I attended Tori's childbirth preparation and newborn essentials class a few weeks…read moreago, as we prepare for the arrival of our baby in February. The class came highly recommended from our OB and I was happy to take any more resources that didn't involve too much doom scrolling. The entire class was very informative and it's clear that Tori is a very experienced nurse (my aunt also happens to be a L&D nurse as well). I found it very helpful that she went through all of the options in a very clinical way and it helped reaffirm what choices I had available to me. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that everyone will agree with all aspects of the class (especially when it comes to baby products), but it brought me a lot of comfort and understanding that I didn't have before.

Tori's class is fantastic. She is incredibly experienced and deeply knows the material she's…read moreteaching. The way she broke down every part of the labor and delivery experience helped ease my nerves and made everything feel more approachable. When I ultimately went into labor, I had Tori's materials right by my side to track how I was progressing. And even before then, my baby rotated into a breech position - I called Tori and she walked me through recommendations on how to encourage him to flip and what to expect with interventions from the doctor if those became necessary. Tori really cares about the people in her class and puts her whole heart into what she does. I feel lucky to have taken her class and have had her in my corner as we navigated the last few weeks of pregnancy. I highly recommend PillowTalk to any expecting family!

Absolutely amazing class! Had so much fun learning and taking this class. Left feeling less…read moreanxious, reassured and with a birth plan! Would 100% recommend for first time moms, such a great experience.

Felicia is absolutely the best. This class is very informative! I'd say the best part is Felicia is…read morealso my birth doula, which I'm extremely grateful to have her. She helped with me the best birth experience I can ask for. I'd strongly recommend every expecting mama to take this class AND hire Felicia as your birth doula if you are considering a doula!

We had an outstanding experience with DOULAS by the BAY. They matched us with Mary Ann Cherie…read moreWolowski, who was with our family for the first eight weeks after our baby was born. She started right on the day after delivery while we were still at the hospital. This was incredibly helpful because it allowed my partner to focus on caring for our toddler while I recovered from my C-section and bonded with our newborn. Mary Ann was exceptional in every aspect of newborn and postpartum care. With her background as RN and an experienced nanny, she confidently took charge from day one. She handled everything--from swaddling and keeping the baby on a feeding schedule to making sure I stayed on track with pumping. She always had my pump parts cleaned, sterilized, and ready to use, which made those early weeks so much easier. She also gave me invaluable breastfeeding support. Thanks to her guidance, I established a full milk supply within just three days of my C-section, and I'm still successfully breastfeeding. She also referred us to an amazing lactation consultant who was an absolute game changer. Mary Ann was meticulous about everything baby-related and followed best practices in every detail. Her logging and tracking were incredibly thorough, giving us complete peace of mind. She was professional, respectful, organized, and kept everything spotless. The greatest gift she gave our family was rest. There were moments when it almost felt unreal how much recovery time my partner and I were able to get because we trusted her completely. She would even bring me a glass of iced water wherever I was--a small act of kindness that made a huge difference in my recovery. Because she took care of so much, I was able to focus on postpartum healing and even carve out time for simple self-care, like getting a haircut. Although her primary responsibility was caring for our newborn, she also formed a wonderful bond with our toddler and always made him feel included. She consistently went above and beyond by helping keep our home clean, making countless trips up and down the stairs without ever complaining, and never leaving before everything was tidied up--even if it meant staying a little past the end of her shift. We're incredibly grateful to Doulas by the Bay for matching us with someone who fit our family so perfectly. The agency made the process smooth, and Mary Ann exceeded every expectation we had. We wholeheartedly recommend Doulas by the Bay to any family looking for expert postpartum support. They gave us the gift of rest, confidence, and a much smoother transition into life as a family of four.

I reached out to find a birth doula and the initial meeting giving an overview of how they work was…read moreclear and straightforward. Doulas through this company are employees (not independent providers) and they stress that this is really good for always having a backup. We were then matched with 2 doula candidates and the scheduling process was easy and professional. However, we ultimately felt that these candidates were not properly trained or vetted. We never received any materials such as CVs for the doulas. The first doula said right away that she had never been a birth doula before and we would be her first birth. Her only experience was that she had been a night doula before. I was shocked that she had never even shadowed another birth doula as part of her training as a company employee. Bless her heart for being honest, but I did not want to pay to be her guinea pig. After this, I requested an additional candidate, but I was told the other one should be great. The second doula was also not a good fit. She kept emphasizing that at previous births hospital staff did not believe she was a birth doula (and thought she was just a family friend). It became clear why. I asked about her qualifications and she said she's working on her bachelor's degree even though she already has a master's degree. I thought this was strange and asked some follow up questions and ultimately could not determine what degree she had (maybe an associate's degree) or didn't have (definitely did not already have a master's). I also asked some basic medical questions about pain control and epidurals and she was not able to answer them. Ultimately we were able to find a wonderful birth doula through another matching company - experienced and with a real master's degree (in public health).