I have received multiple massages from Gracie during pregnancy and postpartum and they have all…read morebeen fabulous. Especially when I was 9 months pregnant, she did a fantastic job making sure I felt comfortable and helping relieving the physical pain of the third trimester. During postpartum, I have received a couple of massages for back pain related to breastfeeding and I always leave feeling rejuvenated and more aligned. Highly recommend

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.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Loving Arms Childbirth Services' birthing class! Jessica Cristen was our…read moreinstructor, and she was excellent! She's a certified midwife and lactation support specialist, with years of experience. Taking this class was the best decision I made for preparing for the birth of our baby girl. (even with the countless books I read and classes taken from Kaiser) My birth did NOT go at all as expected, but thanks to these classes I was super well prepared about all the possibilities that could occur during labor & delivery and helped my partner and I be on the same page (and have my partner know how he could best support me). Thus when things started to go different than what we prepared for in our birthing plan, we were really able to navigate the various options skillfully and have educated conversations with our care team. This made me feel way more secure when my health was declining during delivery. Even though I didn't have the birth I pictured for myself, I felt I had a wonderful birth story thanks to the classes from Loving Arms and our care support team. The class is very comfortable, super educational, and a good place to meet other couples about to have babies too. The instructors here really care about helping new families, and have years of experience and maturity. Again, best decision to take this class here @ Loving Arms. So glad I chose them!

We are so grateful we found Loving Arms and were able to take their childbirth prep class. I didn't…read morewant to have a doula and these courses helped me feel so knowledgeable about what to expect during childbirth and allowed my husband to know how best to support me. The lactation support and honest expectations about what to expect in the first few days with a newborn were invaluable. I ended up not having time to get an epidural and without this class, I think I would have panicked giving birth. However, armed with the knowledge from the courses, I was able to get through it and have a positive experience. Another plus is that we were able to bond with the other couples in the class and are still in touch now 9 months after our babies were born. Highly suggest!

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! :) :)

I truly appreciated the consistent focus on social equity, inclusivity, empowerment, support, and…read moresensitivity throughout the Cornerstone Doula Training course. The content was well organized, well delivered, and easily accessed. I feel honored to have received my Doula training from Cornerstone. They embody caring, support, and empowerment for all birthing people and their communities. Thank you for educating and supporting me along my journey.

This training was very healing & enlightening. I feel…read moreconfident & prepared to offer my services to a family in need. Training was hands on & very personal. Two thumbs up!

Ottilia and Cody make a great team. They are alike in that they both are warm-hearted, competent…read moreand approachable. The ways in which they are different is really what makes this a strong program. They each come from a unique professional background, and that coupled with their unique struggles and triumphs as mothers themselves, is what makes their breadth of knowledge so expansive. I think for a lot of women, myself included, there seems to be an abundance of information out there relating to pregnancy and childbirth, but when you're really going through it, you want individualized answers to your questions that are sometimes hard to find online or in books. Like Ottilia, I'm also a Labor and Delivery nurse, and yet she taught me things during my pregnancy that I never knew. She was indispensable when it came to providing labor support when I had my daughter. She's an excellent listener and she's extremely intuitive- two qualities I find indispensable in this line of work. I really connected with Cody when it came to my breastfeeding journey. The thing about becoming a mom is that you have no idea what leg of the journey is going to give you the most trouble. When you actually reach this junction, you are too tired/overwhelmed/busy/etc to do any real research to guide your decision-making. Not only did Cody provide this, she also shared her experience with me and at the time I just really needed to hear from someone else who shared my experience. Apart from all of this, they both are just really cool people that you'd actually want to share this part of your life with.

I can't say enough good things about Ottilia! Although I didn't have the opportunity to experience…read moreher course with my first child I would definitely do so for my next one. I was so fortunate to have Ottilia as one of my nurses during my stay at Highland Hospital. I originally planned a home birth but my son was a bit too cozy, pushing us past the 42 week mark so I needed an emergency transfer for induction support. From the start Ottilia's care was like nothing I had ever experienced in a hospital. Not only did she radiate so much warmth, but she constantly checked in to make sure I was taken care of and that things were progressing well. She always took extra precautions to make sure that my son was in a good position and answered any of my concerns with honesty. As her shift was ending she even went out of her way to put us in the care of an amazing nurse who also had a background as a doula. My husband and I were both thrilled, however, when Ottilia was one of the nurses that was present for our son's delivery. I was in labor for a total of 40 hours and was pushing for four when I was finally dilated enough. Ottilia gave me so much encouragement, continuously sharing affirmations and empowering the birth through the end. I know that she advocated strongly for me throughout that whole process. Because my son was posterior and just had such a hard time coming out we needed to do a vacuum assist. Ottilia was right there giving me the strength I needed for that final push to meet my son! He wasn't breathing for the first six minutes, but God is good and I knew in my heart that he would pull through. When we finally heard his cry Ottilia looked at me and said, "Do you hear that? That's your son!" Aside from my dear husband, I can't imagine having anyone else by my side at that moment. She even spent the time after to show me how to manually express and get that precious colostrum my boy needed. We have so much love, respect, and adoration for Ottilia. Let's just say that if we have a girl, we'd name her after this incredible woman.

Gingi supported my prenatal and postpartum healing journey -- helping both myself and my 8 week old…read morebaby. I attended her womb movement class while pregnant and absolutely love it! She was also incredibly knowledgeable about breastfeeding and newborn care to reduce gassiness and offered the most amazing body massage afterwards! She validated my experiences as a new mother and created a very comfortable and safe space for me. I look forward to working with her again and highly recommend her services!

VBAC/HBAC success story!…read more As a second-time mom, I knew I wanted my birth experience to be drastically different than my first. I lived in New Jersey when we found out we were pregnant, so I started looking for midwives and OBs out there. I could not find someone who felt right for me. Some wouldn't listen/validate my concerns, others were asking over $10K out-of-pocket up front. As a result, I didn't feel comfortable having any prenatal care at all for the first 30 weeks. Fast forward, my husband got a job in the Bay Area. We were eager to find prenatal care that I felt right about upon moving here. I researched midwives and found Gingi's website. I reached out. We chatted on the phone so she could get an idea of my previous birth and I could ask her some initial questions, and we agreed to meet. I kept researching other midwives, but as soon as I met Gingi, I knew she was the one. The search was over and I had finally found a care provider that I felt confident with. This is so key for an expecting mother. Confidence and trust in your care provider is crucial to obtaining the birth you desire. I could not have had the natural home birth I desired if Gingi Allen wasn't my midwife. God led me to her. She was attentive, caring, and so wise. When my labs showed low iron, she recommended natural ways of increasing my levels. It worked. When we found out my son was breech at 36 weeks, she recommended ways we could flip him. He flipped naturally. My husband was working nights 80 hours a week, I was chasing my 18-month old toddler around, working from home full-time, and unpacking from the move. She reminded me to slow down, reflect, meditate, pause. She really looked at my health from a holistic perspective. Because of her recommendations, I have a fantastic acupuncturist, osteopath and massage therapist. The team she assembled for me was amazing. She was approaching maternity leave herself, and made sure that Grace Bender, her fellow CNM, was there to attend to me postpartum. She was amazing and also at my birth. Kai, her apprentice, was fantastic, and conducted my bone closing ceremony postpartum. During my birth, Gingi really encouraged me to listen to my body. I asked her questions, like "should I push now?" LOL and she would say, "What is your body telling you to do?" She was so patient with me. Listen, my birth, from prodromal labor in the beginning to pushing at the end, was literally a total of 48 hours. She never wavered. She never said, "Well, if x, y or z doesn't happen in this timeframe, then we'll have to.....blah blah blah" That's usually what a woman hears before their care provider deviates from the birth plan. That never happened with Gingi. I loved that she didn't tell me how dilated I was. That was something triggering for me, since I stalled at 9 cm with my first son before I had the C-section. That's not even something I asked Gingi to refrain from doing. She just KNEW that dilating to 10cm was something I was concerned wouldn't happen, so she didn't allow me to worry about it during birth. I'm telling you, this woman's instincts are SUPERB. Trust me when I say, Gingi is the midwife YOU WANT AND NEED. I could not have birthed my beautiful 9lb, 11 oz son at home , after a previous C-section, if I didn't have Gingi. A comment my last midwife made (with my first son), was that my son was "big" which is why I stalled. He was 8 lbs, 12 oz. So literally my second son was almost a FULL POUND LARGER, and I had him at home, COMPLETELY NATURAL. I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT WITHOUT GINGI! She is amazing. Just hire her already. You'll be thrilled you did. I was only under her care from weeks 30-40 and still had the most amazing prenatal care experience. My postpartum care, first with her and then, Grace, was crucial to my recovery. I had PPD the first time, but not this time! Gingi Allen will do everything she can to ensure all women in her care have an amazing prenatal care and birth experience. As you can tell, I highly recommend.

This class was recommended to me by my OB/GYN Dr Laurie Green that's why I followed her…read morerecommendation. I was DISAPPOINTED with the time and money I spent on it. I walked out shocked and took more issues out of child birth than I came with. 1. Sarah McMoyler shows her background as a registered nurse and the whole class is all about her personality, acting skills and her awesomeness. 2. The class had way too much PRODUCT PLACEMENT, too many references throughout. 3. Introduction of the class was WAY TOO LONG, not informative at all. Class could have been an hour or two shorter if product placement, lame jokes and sucky intro were removed. 4. The breastfeeding and newborn care portions were too short, I expected more. 5. Information on labour and delivery seemed very hectic, NO STRUCTURE. I didn't learn much at all. No breathing technics except useless hee/haw and aaah. 6. Two live videos of labour that she showed in class were very DISTURBING and I don't see how they are supposed to be helpful. 7. A VERY PRICY class for what you get out of it: $400 for you and your partner. Overall, I left the class filled with DISGUST, I wish I had done something more useful that day and I wish I could claim my money back. The only USEFUL part was Infant CPR and Choking Relief section of the class and we got to practice on dolls. But you would be better off taking online certification for as much as only $40.

I want to first start by saying KUDOS to Sarah McMoyler and her wonderful, well-prepared lectures…read moreon the child birthing process, all the way up to the first few weeks with your new baby! I think it's important to start by acknowledging her ability to deliver such a thorough compilation of materials in such a short amount of time. Although there are alternatives to Sarah's classes, I have yet to hear about one with such a hands-on, interactive format. My wife and I attended both the 101 and 102 weeknight sessions lasting over a two-week span. In terms of the course structure, we've had friends that have taken the weekend session as well and can attest that having options (weekend vs. weekday) is perfect. My wife and I have found out how important our weekends are now (she's 6 weeks shy or her due date), so having weekday sessions was huge. In terms of the environment, the class takes place in a large quasi-lecture hall in a California Pacific building. We found this to work just fine for the group of 30-40+ people, especially since Sarah does a great job on walking the aisles to ensure that everyone sees and hears her. Also, she provides pillows, refreshments, and of course, who can forget - cookies! All in all, not to say that this little bit of information really matters, it at least makes for a more "comfy" class setting. The content, what most of you care about, was spot on. What do I mean by "spot on"? Well, for one, you will receive course booklets covering everything you will EVER need to know pre and post-labor. Yeah, plenty of books out there have more or less the same information, packaged more or less in a similar fashion. However, it is important to note that Sarah does a fantastic job going through the most important material in such a way that slowly but surely answers your questions before you even realize you wanted to ask them. As a new father, I can attest that I had plenty of pending questions that were ultimately addressed by Sarah throughout the course. So yeah, buy all the books you want regarding child birth, and the first few weeks, but I can promise you that you will have Sarah's course lecture books by your side at the hospital come delivery time. The last thing I want to comment on is regarding the last piece of course 102. Let me just tell you that having the ability to see a "real" family come in with their newborn (in our case the newborn was 20 days old) and swaddle, change, bathe, and even sooth the baby, was more than invaluable. I liken it to the whole indoctrination vs. hands-on learning environment. Nothing compares to seeing it in action, right in front of your face. The take away is this: in a world with more information than you or I even know what to do with, it's very easy to convince yourself to save the money and self educate. I for one am totally of that mindset. What I realized with this class was that it's impossible to know what to care about come "go-time". That is, Sarah does a solid job of educating you on the most important takeaways when you're in the moment. Yeah, you probably will only retain and adopt only 10% of the information much like you did in college, but remember, you have the course booklets, a network of parents, and even Sarah McMoyler to answer your questions well after the class is over. Good luck to all of those new parents out there!

I found sister doulas when looking for a doula who worked with Kaiser (my insurance). We did an…read moreinitial meet and greet type call where they introduced themselves, their services and answered our questions. They ended the meeting saying they recommend we meet with several doulas before making a decision. As soon as the call ended my husband and I looked at a each and knew our search was over; we signed paperwork that week. Between the prenatal home visits to the group educational classes we felt like we had the support we needed going into labor. The wealth of knowledge and experience between them was incredible. When contractions got serious and we reached out it was sister doulas calm voices on the phone that helped us slow down and make decisions. Their existing relationship with the hospital staff was reassuring. They ensured I/we felt supported, cared and advocated for the entire 22 hour labor. The post partum visits were helpful in a way that I hadn't expected. After the initial new baby excitement when family leaves and lack of sleep kicks in it was so wonderful to have sister doulas reach out and come to our home to check in on us. Without hesitation I would recommend Sister Doulas to any expecting family.

It's hard to put into words the gratitude my partner and I feel for the Sisters Doula team --…read moreAllison, Renata, and Andrea are truly incredible. Before meeting them, we thought of birth as something to get through. They helped us shift our thinking and see it as something to be experienced. The birth of our son became a deeply intimate, connected, and transformative experience. Even weeks later, we still find ourselves in awe, and we're certain it wouldn't have been the same without the Sisters team. They prepared us for labor in a way that felt both meaningful and empowering. We feel so grateful that we began our journey into parenthood in such a beautiful way with their support. From our initial at-home meeting with Allison, we immediately felt at ease. Her calm presence and deep wisdom around birth were grounding from the start. Renata's classes were interactive and experiential, helping us feel informed, capable, and prepared. When labor began, the Sisters team was an invaluable support. Andrea checked in consistently by text during the early phase, and when we were ready, Renata joined us on the phone--calming us and helping us with decision-making. Allison then met us at home and helped guide us in timing our transition to the hospital. Throughout labor, she was a steady, reassuring presence--gently guiding me through different positions, offering encouragement, and helping me stay grounded. The postpartum visits with Allison have been meaningful in ways we hadn't anticipated. Having the space to revisit and process the birth experience with her felt emotional and meaningful. She has been incredibly helpful in normalizing the challenges of early parenthood while also sharing in and celebrating the joys.

We had a wonderful experience with Brenda. She came to meet us before the baby was born, which was…read morereally helpful and gave us a chance to get comfortable with each other beforehand. Once the baby arrived, she was incredibly helpful, especially with tips and guidance on how to soothe him and help him get to sleep. She was so kind, gentle, and caring with our baby, and it was such a pleasure to have her with us during these first days. We're very grateful for all her help and would absolutely recommend her!

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 am a big fan of abdominal massage to heal all sorts of things both physical and emotional. It is…read moresuch a balancing and grounding experience and Francine is truly a healer in everything she does. Anytime you are feeling out-of-sorts Francine's treatments can put you back into your body and help lessen the stress of life by revitalizing and nourishing your soul.

I received more than a massage from Francine. I received a healing. I first met Francine over a…read moreyear ago when she was the assistant midwife for one of my best friends births. I had heard very good things about her and I knew that she was really known and respected in our community. This dear friend gifted me a massage with Francine following the birth of my own baby. I could not have been more excited and in need of a massage as you can imagine. Two and a half months of breast feeding, sleeping with, and carrying a new baby can really leave you with a sore back and arms. I felt very safe to express my emotions and concerns with Francine around what I was looking for in a massage. She normalized all of my disclosures and was very empathetic as she is a midwife and mother herself. I feel that Francine combined many techniques in her massage to help me realign sore areas in my body and I am certain that she also helped me call my spirit back from wherever it had gone during labor. I had many insights and left her home feeling refreshed emotionally and spiritually. I sincerely believe every mother deserves to treat herself to a massage with Francine. As a mental health therapist, I believe it is a necessity to experience the release and realignment that she can intuitively provide so well. I can't wait to treat my husband and mother to a massage with her as well. Thank you Francine.