I am so incredibly happy that Becca was our doula for our hospital birth. This was my first baby,…read moreand I knew that all I wanted was for the baby to be healthy and to avoid an emergency C-section if I could. We met with Becca and knew right away that she was the perfect person to help us in preparing for and giving birth. She immediately set us at ease by assuring us that the hospital we chose had an excellent Labor and Delivery team. She was 100% right about that, and everything else. She helped me trust myself and my body. I never thought I would have such an amazing and thoroughly happy birth experience. Becca really cares. It meant a lot to us that she also visited us after the birth to check in and provide some very welcome support. If we have another baby, we will definitely work with Becca, again!

I could not imagine my first birth without Becca! From the very first phone call, I felt an instant…read moreconnection with her--she's such a kind, caring soul and a true expert in her field. One of the things that impressed me most was how seamlessly she read the dynamic between me and my husband. She always knew when to step in with support and when to step back and give us space. That balance was invaluable during such an emotional, vulnerable time. When my birth plan didn't go the way I had envisioned, Becca's expert advice and calm presence gave me so much security in the decisions I had to make. She helped me feel grounded, informed, and confident every step of the way and encouraged me to listen to my instinct and body. Another aspect of her support that you simply can't put a price on is how connected she is at Kaiser. She knew nearly every midwife and nurse, and because of her strong relationships there, I felt reassured that the care I was receiving was exactly what I needed. Her presence gave me an extra layer of trust in the whole process. Becca communicated beautifully, supported us with such compassion, and helped make my first birth experience one that I will cherish forever. I can't recommend her enough--if you're considering a doula, Becca is truly one of a kind! Thank you so much Becca!

My wife and I had our third baby at home through Thrive in November, and again, I can do nothing…read morebut sing their praises. I had complete confidence that Thrive had our best interests at heart every moment my wife and son were in their care. As usual, they practiced informed consent, validation of experiences, and love to a degree that I have never seen or even dreamed of previously in health care settings. The highlight of this birth experience was (of course) the birth itself. This time we were graced with three of the midwives through good fortune. Again, immediately after birth, our newborn struggled to take his first breaths. We waited about 8 minutes for him to take that first breath, and yet, my wife, daughter, son and I were all calm and felt immensely supported in that moment by the three women in our presence who absolutely knew what their calling was and what their roles were in that moment. It is hard to comprehend how different that experience could have felt from a sterile, medical, environment of a hospital, and how different our newborn's first few minutes, hours, and days after birth could have been. Not to mention how the perception and feelings surrounding births could have been malformed for our young son and daughter. We are so immensely thankful to have this collective of women in Sonoma County who are such a breath of fresh air!

We had our baby at Thrive in July and it was the best experience! This was our first baby and we…read moreare so happy we decided to transfer our care from Kaiser to Thrive. The midwives are amazing; supportive, loving and really helpful. I had pregnancy insomnia and Tracy turned me onto a sleep tincture that she sells and it was like magic. I was finally able to sleep!!! The appointments were an hour long and the post partum appointments are at your home! We had trouble with breastfeeding and received so much support through text and having them come to our house. We cannot say enough good things about Thrive and Taya, Tracy, Morgan and Hannah.

I had a beautiful birth and I owe it in part to Debbie. Debbie is an amazing doula. She is…read moreintuitive, she knew my needs before I even said anything. Her presence is calming, like a friend you've known forever. She worked beautifully as a team with my husband and encouraged my husband and I. She helped me breathe, focus and stay in the zone while my hubby rubbed my back. She has a lot of experience and has taught many of the doulas in the area. I highly recommend her.

Debbie was such a great doula! It was wonderful to have her there, knowing the process and helping…read moreto let us know what was normal! Labor is kind of scary, but it was SO comforting to have her there. It was great for my husband, too. It helped him to remain calm when I was going through intense labor. I could not recommend having her there, more! She also took some great pictures during the labor.

Aly is a peaceful and strong force, exactly the energy you want by your side during child birth. As…read morea first time mom I was nervous, uneducated and unsure what was best for me and baby. Aly put me at ease and guided me through the entire journey from pregnancy, child birth and postpartum. It is such an intimate time and I felt completely comfortable and supported every step of the way. Aly was by our side from laboring at home to the hospital birth. I don't know what me and my husband would have done without her. Eternally grateful for her wisdom, dedication and advocacy. Thank you Aly!!

I can highly recommend Aly as both a delivery AND postpartum doula!…read more Two of my friends had worked with Aly. One had her as their postpartum night doula, and the other to help with delivery. So I didn't think twice about hiring her, based on their recommendations. Our whole experience with her from start to finish was wonderful. To prep us for delivery, Aly shared some great resources and sat with us patiently and calmly asking questions, educating us about options, and helping us figure out what we wanted (which was a natural as possible and very intentional birth experience, but in a hospital setting). Aly arrived at the perfect time, right as things were ramping up, and coached me beautifully through the end of my delivery. After a few sleepless nights, we decided to bring her in for nighttime help 2x/week and her support helped us get through those first few weeks feeling pretty good! She is also a total sweetheart, thoughtful, warm, and just a joy to be around. Thank you again Aly!

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).

My husband and I loved working with Sophia. From the beginning, she helped us feel at ease and…read morealways had the most helpful stories/ information we needed to make important decisions. I appreciated Sophia's more "hands-off" approach and that she helped me feel empowered to listen to my own body and intuition. We felt extremely comfortable and safe having our baby at home and will miss seeing her so frequently!

No words can describe how honored and blessed my family was to have Sophia as our midwife duribg…read moreour prenatal/birth/postnatal care. She understands how to listen and nuture anyone whose been around western medicine/practices their whole life, like myself, and made us feel so comfortable during the whole process. Each visit was filled with love, time to answer our excitement and concerns since we were the first in our generation to consider/have a home birth. This experience I know my husband, now little 3 month old son, and I will cherish for the rest of our lives as I'm so thankful I found her and would recommend her in a heartbeat. She's very professional and loving at the same time including her Team Emma and Clover. Wow even more amazing to have them support her and they compliment one another yet they're so different in their own unique ways! They bring a calm ambience to wherever they go and when things needed medical attention (prenatal/birth/postnatal) I felt they did an amazing job and better than what any provider/clinic/hospital could've done. She also took amazing photos and videos during my birth and I have these for the rest of my life! I did the placenta encapsulation and tincture as this is something you can do and purchase and it was such a new idea I never thought of and I would do this and the whole process all over again! Her biller is on top of it if you end up using insurance and made the process smooth and in my eyes better than what providers offer. I feel like I gained a new perspective on homebirths/midwifery and also a new family with her Team. Do not miss out on this midwife gem team or in my light, my midwife goddess!

There are many things to be grateful for during pregnancy, and finding Sara's prenatal yoga class…read moreon Tuesday evenings is definitely one of them for me. For some reason in Sonoma County, there are not many prenatal yoga classes available for the working mama to be, so Sara's class has proven invaluable. I find myself looking forward to her class each and every week. This class is a wonderful way to take a break from the daily grind and be mindful of the amazing changes in your body while taking part in a community of supportive, understanding, expecting women. Sara is absolutely wonderful, and I highly recommend her prenatal yoga class!

YES! I have never had a yoga practice before getting pregnant and have fallen in love with my…read moreweekly prenatal yoga ritual with Sara, who teaches at Thrive. She is a calm, skillful teacher and the flow of the class is mellow and deeply restorative to the body, mind, and spirit. I appreciate how Sara really encourages each woman to listen to her body's limits and desires and to go at her own pace - a great prep for labor, birth, and early parenting. As a postpartum doula, I know how important having simple, centering practices can be for new mamas and Sara has given me many little tips on how to incorporate yoga into my daily life. I have felt healthy, balanced and flexible throughout this pregnancy and I have Sara to thank for much of that. Also, the social tea time after class is so sweet - to meet other mamas and bond over the pregnancy journey. You will not regret taking this class.

Thank you Sarah and Lauren. You both were a plethora of info and were always available. Lauren, I…read morewish you were on call when I went to the hospital! However I loved Sarah too! Sarah, labor was so focused because of you! Thank you for supporting me and I felt listened to! I had the best birth, the best memories. What a great collective!

Lauren is a godsend. 3 weeks before our due date, it became very clear that our homebirth midwife…read morewas not the right fit for us. We found Lauren through a friend and she met us at a local coffee shop. She had a gentle kindness and grace and she really listened to our concerns and seemed to understand what we were looking for in a doula. During my 53 hour labor, Lauren remained present, calm and supportive. I cannot remember much of the labor, I just know that it was the most intensely challenging two days of my life. Each time I wanted to give up, Lauren was there with her kind eyes and hands. She rubbed my feet and my back and supported both my partner and I emotionally and mentally. If I am lucky enough to have another little one, I would hope that Lauren could be our doula again.

Jackie from Birth Realm is the worst. I tried to book a doula from her on several occasions and she…read morebooked the doula with other people out from under me both times without offering the professional courtesy of letting me know she wasn't holding the doula or that other people could book with her first or even that other people were interested. I had zero idea there was any sense of urgency whatsoever. I was pretty frustrated after the first time but gave it another shot given the good reviews. so then I was on a waiting list for several months and responded immediately to let her know I was interested but I had to wait till I was back in the country to chat with the doula. Again, nothing was said about other people waiting or that there was any urgency. Had I known there was some amount of urgency I would have scrambled to take a call during vacation in Japan. Anyway, I waited until after vacation. IMMEDIATELY after I chatted with the doula I sent Jackie an email to let her know I was interested and to please lock her in. But oh I guess that somehow the doula I just talked to was already booked and she no longer has any available. I have no idea why she even allowed that call to happen if the doula was already booked but she not only disrespected and wasted my time she clearly has no respect for the people who work for her as the doula's time was wasted too. At this point I'm glad it didn't work out as I have no desire to support a business who operates like this. Her prices are like 40-35% higher than everyone else's too but it clearly isn't merited. Pregnancy is already stressful enough, thanks Jackie for making this already hard time significantly worse.

Working with Birth Realm was incredible. We felt such immense support from Jackie and Sondra, and I…read morefelt at ease each night they came to care for our baby. We can't express enough gratitude for all their help!