Hiring Lenore as our doula was one of the best decisions we made. She was consistently warm,…read moregenuinely caring, and incredibly responsive. Her professionalism and organization were impressive, yet she remained completely approachable throughout. Lenore empowered me to create the birth plan I wanted and provided resources to help me feel prepared. She walked alongside us through important decisions and connected us to wonderful providers, including a pelvic floor therapist. During labor, her support both at home and at the hospital was critically helpful. I'm so grateful for my beautiful birthing experience! It was also reassuring that she was a known and respected presence at the hospital. My partner was initially uncertain about hiring a doula, but now says without hesitation that it was one of our best decisions. I cannot recommend Lenore highly enough.

If you are looking to hire a doula, look no further. Lenore is absolutely incredible at what she…read moredoes, and choosing to have her on my birthing team was one of the best decisions I've made. I honestly couldn't imagine going through the birthing journey without her. She provided so much insight, support, and value throughout every step of the way. During the prenatal sessions, she was intentional about getting to know my partner and I, as well as my birthing preferences. When the unexpected happened, she was there to offer me a fresh perspective and the right questions to ask. Lastly, when it came to giving birth, she knew exactly what to say, exactly what support I needed, and kept me feeling embodied and empowered throughout the entire experience. I can confidently say that I would never have been able to achieve my desired birth without her.

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!

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.

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!

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).

We have nothing but praise and fond feelings for Nicky and her help at our home following my knee…read moresurgery. She travelled quite a distance to be with us returning to home post-op. She cooked us fantastic vegan meals, staying one night in a chair in my room overnight to cater to all my needs, stayed in our guest room to catch some sleep before tending to me, then went to care for a new family elsewhere. She is unassuming, patient, flexible, and heart fully open with unending love and care. I highly recommend her for anyone.

If you are looking for a Doula, look no further. Nicky was truly wonderful to work with! She has…read moresuch a calming demeanor and was the perfect addition during my labor and delivery. I had a very very quick delivery but she was there every step of the way. She took some amazing pictures and videos (as requested), provided snacks after delivery and helped us get a quiet hour to ourselves right after that incredible birth. She also provided a few pre and post sessions where she really helped us talk about what exactly we wanted during this process and after came back and helped with the new baby and even gave me some time to myself to go and shower. I would definitely hire here again and highly recommend her!!

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 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.