Working with Carla and her team was an amazing experience. We were paired up with Eduarda (Duda),…read morewho we got along with right away. Not only is she incredibly professional and punctual (she would show up early and leave late for every shift), but her communication style was perfectly aligned with what we were hoping for: patient, warm, and very knowledgeable. Our newborn baby girl seemed to absolutely love her and was very calm in her care. For anyone considering Nurturing Hands, I can't recommend Duda enough. She set the bar so high, and we're excited to continue working with her (hopefully even in the future if we decide to have kid #2).

We had such a great experience with Nurturing Hands Doulas! Carla is great and matched us with a…read morewonderful doula, Leticia. She was our night doula and provided us with the rest and recovery that we need to make our days feel more manageable and less overwhelming. She was very professional, offering advice/guidance, as needed. We highly recommend working with Nurturing Hands and Leticia.

This review is long overdue. Alana was our birth doula last June and is nothing short of…read moreexceptional. Let me touch on different areas: Education: My husband and I couldn't be more opposite - I lean natural/functional and he leans conventional, needless to say there were alot of unknowns for us experiencing pregnancy and birth for the first time. The education she provided during our prenatal visits was thorough enough to answer questions and guide both of us through our different perspectives and we are both very satisfied with the knowledge we now have. Birth experience: I had an unmedicated birth with minimal intervention, exactly how I planned. If it wasn't for Alana being there as support, it would have been so much more difficult. I tend to be a more reserved and private person and was internally debating going through the birth with just me and my husband, since I felt the prenatal care and education we received was so substantial. Thankfully, Alana asked if she could come to the hospital to help support us. The hands-on support was so crucial to my overall birth experience, and I couldn't thank Alana enough! She had my back, literally and figuratively, the entire time. Overall 10/10 experience working with her, and I will definitely be hiring her again if/when needed in the future :)

We had the most incredible experience working with Alana. From the very beginning, she made us feel…read morecompletely supported, heard, and never judged. Our prenatal meetings were so helpful -- we left each one feeling more informed, confident, and empowered going into the birth. During labor, she was a calm, steady presence and exactly the kind of support we hoped for. But what blew me away was the postpartum care she provided. When I was having a really hard time with nursing, she showed up with so much compassion and patience. She truly met me where I was at, helping relieve pressure while still supporting us in working toward our goals. I honestly can't imagine a better person to have alongside you during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. We felt so cared for every step of the way. I would recommend her wholeheartedly to anyone looking for thoughtful, skilled, and deeply supportive doula care.

I am certain that my experience with Keelia made THE difference in achieving the birth of my…read moredaughter the ways that I wanted it- delaying at home for as long as possible, no pain meds and a positive, empowered experience. My biggest fears were my low pain tolerance and lack of control over knowing exactly how it would go. Shortly before our due date, Keelia came over to review our birth plan and a timeline of what to expect for pre-labor, active labor, travel to the birth center, transition, and delivery. She made sure we practiced comfort measures, breathing and how I wanted to be supported verbally. It wasn't until the last moments with Keelia where she looked me in the eye and said I was ready, that I actually felt prepared to go into labor and meet my daughter. 2 days later, my water broke in the middle of the night. For the next 44 hours of contractions, naps, two car rides up to the birth center, a traumatic cervical check on day one to then be sent back home, many walks around the neighborhood, yoga ball bouncing, 1 game of Monopoly, snacks, massages, and support - Keelia was at our beck and call. By the time we got to the birth center (again) on day 2 after 36 hours, I was only at 1cm and 50% effaced. Keelia helped me calm down from exhausition and frustration at this news, and we made a plan to get misoprostol to thin my cervix but hopefully proceed with no other interventions. Miraculously, Ava was born 7 hours later. Keelia coached me through contractions which came back to back for hours, waved lavendar oil in front of my face for nausea, massaged my back, covered the clock when she noticed it stressing me out, got me into the shower with Joe when I hit the wall of transition, and helped me breathe through pushing - 3 contractions! She reassured me every step of the way - calmly & knowing I could do it at all moments. In this amazing doula's hands, I felt loved, safe, and supported. Thank you, Keelia.

We interviewed a couple of doulas but the minute my wife and I met her, she felt an instant…read moreconnection with her and knew that she was the right person for the job. We met with Keelia at our place for dinner and knew she was the right person for the job. She has a very soothing and calm personality and is a great listener (which is a rare quality). She made herself available for texts and calls before the pregnancy and we had to text and call her a few times anytime my wife was exhibiting symptoms she was concerned about. Keelia was responsive to our questions and did her best to answer them even though some of them were of a medical nature. During the labor process she was also fantastic. Very calm and composed under pressure and very responsive to my wife's needs. My wife, in no uncertain terms, declared that she wouldn't have been able to do it without Keelia. Keelia massaged her during every contraction and it seemed that was the only thing that would help with pain management. In fact because of the massaging my wife was able to make it to 9 cm without an epidural -- she was super fatigued which is why she ended up doing the epidural but I'm pretty sure if labor hadn't occurred during the wee hours of the morning Keelia's massage techniques would have helped her give birth without using any medication. Thanks Keelia, you were great.

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.

I cannot recommend Nina enough, she is truly an infant whisperer…read more We worked with Nina for the first five months of our son's life due to his unique needs, as he required feeding around the clock. From the moment Nina started with our family, she was calm, caring, incredibly knowledgeable, and completely trustworthy. As a new mom navigating some extreme postpartum anxiety, trust did not come easily to me but Nina changed that almost immediately. Her presence is so grounding and reassuring that I was able to fully rest at night knowing my baby was in the absolute best hands. Our son was also very high needs, with severe reflux and slow weight gain, which made those early months especially challenging and stressful. Nina handled everything with such confidence, attentiveness, and compassion. She not only cared for him beautifully but also gave us guidance and support that made a real difference in his care and our peace of mind. Ester also supported our family on several nights, and she was exceptional as well equally calming, attentive, and wonderful with our baby. It was clear that the level of care and professionalism extends across the team. Nina has a rare gift with infants and an intuitive understanding of what they need. She didn't just help us get through the newborn stage she truly made it a more manageable. Any family would be incredibly lucky to have her. I wholeheartedly recommend Nina (and Ester!) to anyone looking for exceptional overnight care. I would also be more than happy to speak directly with anyone considering working with Nina, she can connect you with me if helpful.

Nina was an absolute breath of calm, fresh air when we brought home our first baby. She knew…read moreexactly how to care for our little one at night (soothing him, top off feeds, diaper changes, etc.) while also being a support system for me when I was going through such a big physical/emotional change in my life. Our baby loved her so much, too. Her expertise in caring for newborns is incredible. Nina is respectful, warm, and professional. I recommend Nebula Doulas to any family looking for assistance from a night doula when you bring your new babes home and need extra support (and as much rest as you can get!).

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'll be honest: when my wife first told me she wanted to spend our first week as parents at a…read morepostnatal retreat, I didn't fully get it. I get it now. The Village was one of the best decisions we've ever made, and I say that as someone who was not the one who just had a baby. Jen and her team are exceptional: warm, deeply knowledgeable, and somehow able to anticipate needs neither of us even knew we had yet. From lactation consultants and infant CPR classes to massage therapy, couples counseling, and round-the-clock baby care, every detail is designed so that new parents can actually recover. My wife finally had people taking care of her, not just the baby, and watching that shift happen in real time was everything. She could sleep. At 7 days postpartum, we were having coffee on the rooftop together, which felt like a miracle! I also want to note, for the record, that the whiskey selection was excellent. The staff made me feel like an empowered, prepared parent rather than a complete disaster, which was not where I started the week. We did our baby's first photoshoot there, made friends with other new parents, and left with a level of confidence I genuinely didn't expect to have this soon. When we broke down the cost versus hiring night nurses and day nannies separately, it wasn't even close. I've already recommended The Village to every expecting parent I know. My wife says she'd have another baby just to go back. I'm not quite there yet, but I'd absolutely come back for the whiskey.

The services and amenities provided vastly did not align with the premium cost hence the 1 star…read morereview. We booked 14 nights here because the 5 stars reviews online look promising and the tour seems alright. However, the actual experience fell short. Issues: We got a pest infested filthy room during our stay. On the first night, we saw a roach crawling in the shower. I was horrified and didn't use their shower for the rest of our 14 nights stay. We reported the roach issue to the owner and staff but there was no offer of a room change, deep cleaning, or any remediation other than an apology. They did asked the building management to set up some roach traps but no one came back to collect them or check on it. Yes, there were more roaches caught on the roach trap. On the second night, my husband went to take a shower and saw a huge flying moth. He managed to catch it and reported it to the owner and staff. But again, they only apologized and told us to close our windows in that dry stuffy room. The windows were already opened when we checked in but it was implied we opened the windows too much. There were also mosquitoes. On the third night, we noticed a jar of moldy q tips near the sink. We didn't open it as we don't use q tips but it was placed very close to where I placed my toothbrush. Absolutely terrifying and really questions if the room was cleaned before we moved in. Again, we reported this and only got an apology. The owner checked on us in person a few days later but throughout our 14 night stay, she came to check on us only once. It was implied the previous guest must've left food in the room which caused roaches. At that point, I stopped bringing up other issues as I'm too tired postpartum and want to focus on rest and taking care of my baby. The room was also very dry and stuffy. My skin was constantly cracked and my baby's nose was stuffy. We had to go out to buy nasal solution to clear baby's nose as he has a hard time breathing. There's a small humidifier in the room which we had to figured it out ourselves and it only humidified a small corner of the room. No AC in the room. Room layout was also very odd with the sink outside of the bathroom and across the other side of the room making it inconvenient to wash hands. Wifi was very slow and unstable. The video call with the therapist was very choppy. No changing table in the room, so we changed our baby in the bassinet which got peed on a lot. No one came to clean the peed bassinet. Robes, slippers, diapers were poor quality. Supplies were scarce, we asked for a refill on diapers and they only gave us 4 diapers. Location - neighborhood has many unhoused outside and the cvs in the area was robbed while shopping for the nasal solution. Building is old and outdated with creaking floors. Windows were done poorly so pests got in. Guidebook in the room referenced the Fairmont hotel, their old location but this new location was a real letdown and management did not clean the place prior to guests moving in nor kept the place clean. Services - No room cleaning, no changing the sheets, robes, regardless of length of stay. Towels are refilled if asked, same for dirty towel collection. No housekeeping on the weekends so no refills on toilet paper, towels and garbage collection. The village staff occasionally picks up garbage in the weekends but we had to ask. Staff - maybe 2 were great but some were not very responsive or helpful. Took very long to respond to help weigh our baby or to help clean bottles which delays the time for us to feed our baby. Food - I wasn't too picky on food, maybe too greasy and it's the same food choices every day. Some of the food brought over was not covered and exposed to the air which didn't feel sanitary. Food portion was inconsistent and sometimes they forgot a side or a drink. Breakfast time was also too late in the morning. Parent lounge - the snacks and refreshments never got restocked. Classes - not enough classes to offer. We ran out of classes after a week. Some classes were not very useful and only 5-10 minutes long. Spa - had a facial that left my face oily. This was included with the 14 night stay but the quality did not align with price. Tip was not included and felt obligatory. Owner said esthetician was a contractor which was odd because the esthetician's picture was on the staff board. After - the exit interview was very awkward as there's no interviewer. They forgot to collect the room key and asked us 24 hours after we checked out, so we had to make an extra trip to return them the next day. They also sent an email to ask for tips. Really? My advice - I don't recommend booking your stay here. With this price, the services and amenities are very lacking. We should've just walked out on the first night we saw roaches and asked for a refund or file a chargeback. Instead, we were too tired so we ended up putting our health at risk for living in a pest infested room for 14 nights.

My husband and I had a great experience working with Cradle and Coos to find our postpartum night…read moredoula to help care for our first child. After communicating the type of care and support we were looking for, we were able to select and interview several fantastic doulas and ultimately found Sheila. We trusted Sheila wholeheartedly with our daughter. She not only took care of her in the night, allowing us to get some much-needed rest, she genuinely cared for our whole family. We learned so much from Sheila as new parents. Everything from how to bathe our daughter, how to comfort her when she fussed, and more. Sheila has many years of experience with newborns but never passed judgment on our parenting approach and was completely open to doing things in the way that was most comfortable to us. She was a comforting presence in our home during the sometimes stressful early newborn weeks. We are forever grateful to Sheila and would work with her again in a heartbeat. We are so happy to have found her and Cradle and Coos.