From our first visit with Carol, my husband and I knew that she was the one we wanted to help us…read morethrough my pregnancy and the birth of our first child. She is 100% invested in women, midwifery and the safe and healthy delivery of babies. Not to mention she is super funny! Every single visit with her lasted 2+ hours where we would discuss everything under the sun. My husband never felt uncomfortable, left out or unimportant with her. Along with seeing Carol I was also seeing an OBGYN ... mainly because I wanted to do all the genetic testing, U/S and knew I would need RhoGAM shot and wanted my insurance to cover it (I am Active Duty Military). Although I liked my OBGYN just fine, the care I received from the OBGYN and Carol was night and day. Carol took the time to get to know my husband and I on a personal level where as my OBGYN had to read my name off my record every appointment. I was not able to have a homebirth as planned, my daughter was breech. We tried everything to get her to turn ... EVC, acupuncture, handstands in the pool, scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees ... nothing worked. Carol offered to help me find a doctor that would naturally deliver a breech baby, but my husband and I decided that we didn't want to take the risk. I ended up having a c-section. My post-natal care with Carol was just as amazing as the pre-natal. In fact I ended up seeing her for 8 weeks post-partum. I was struggling with breast feeding, partly me and partly my daughter's latch. We met weekly to work on it and every week I would leave our sessions feeling revived and a little bit less overwhelmed with motherhood. Now my daughter is 20 months old and a real boob-monster! I don't know if I would have been a "successful" breast feeder without her help. Both my husband and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Carol and would recommend her without hesitation. In fact almost two years later I keep in contact with her. She has been my inspiration to become a midwife.

I am a local home birth and natural childbirth educator and have had the opprotunity to work with…read moreCaroline as both a professional, and as a client. She has attended the births of many of my students and friends, as well as my own. She is smart, professional, but also hilarious and the perfect person to have around in a tense moment. If you are considering a home birth, Caroline must be on your list of midwives to meet.

If you are pregnant and trying to decide where to give birth, I HIGHLY recommend Casa Natal! All of…read morethe midwifes are caring and will sit with you for hour long visits to answer your questions. The center is BEAUTIFUL and also has huge tubs you are actually allowed to birth in, unlike other (all to my knowledge) local hospitals that do not allow water births. The perfect in between if you do not really want to do a home birth but want a home birth-like experience in a very gorgeous and peaceful setting! It is also super close to a hospital should you need it (most people do not) and while not needed was great for my peace of mind. They also have a call line where you can ask questions postpartum that is very helpful. Overall, I had a beautiful birth thanks to them and am very grateful. Birth is something you only do a once or a few times in your life, will remember forever, and I am very glad I got to experience this with the team at Casa Natal.

I had my baby girl in June 2021 and I'm so glad I chose Casa Natal (los gatos) for her birth…read more I was with an OB for the first half of my pregnancy and I was able to see the difference in the care provided at Casa Natal versus my OB's office. My OB appointments lasted for only 15 minutes and I didn't feel supported or heard. At Casa Natal, every appointment lasted for an hour, the midwives checked not only for my physical but also my mental health and answered all of my questions. I was able to get acquainted to Melissa, Julia and all the student midwives during my visits. I also took the breastfeeding class that Emily hosted and it was informative and helpful. Coming to the actual birth, it was truly a beautiful experience. I got the exact birth that I had hoped for as a first time parent. I felt supported throughout my labor. Melissa, Tara, and Charlie attended my birth and were the best team I could have asked for apart from my husband. Tara and Charlie guided me with different positions and techniques to help progress with the labor. After about 6 hours of laboring at the birth center, I delivered my baby vaginally, without any interventions and I was back home 4 hours after my baby was born. They also provided me with excellent postpartum care and lactation support. If you're looking for a holistic natural birth experience, look no further. This team is it!

Madrone - Monitrice package…read more We chose Madrone as our midwife because from the first time we met, they had a calming, safe presence that made us feel completely at ease with our upcoming birth. We chose the monitrice package because I wanted the reassurance a midwife could provide me with, and it was the absolute best decision. Having a Doula and midwife was the best of both worlds, we felt supported emotionally and had the hands on care from a midwife. This helped us realize our goals of laboring at home as long as possible, and having an unmedicated, natural birth at the hospital. I had my partner, mother and Madrone in the birth room, and Madrone balanced everyone out perfectly. They helped ensure each person had a place and space in my birth, all while taking photos to document it which I will treasure for the rest of time. Madrone was not only there for us during our birth, but before and after in such an impactful way. They helped us prepare before mentally and physically, helping us put together our birth plan and leading us through meditative breathing exercises. Madrone was also there after our birth, with several in person sessions as well as available for support along the way as we got settled in at home. It was so reassuring to have someone so knowledgable to ask questions as things came up - breastfeeding, diaper rash, eye boogers - Madrone had helpful information and answers to everything we asked them. Why we loved working with Madrone: - They are knowledgable and incredibly good at being a Doula and Midwife - They have a warmth and calming presence that always made us feel at ease and safe - They have a very balanced and practical approach to preparing, birth, and the postpartum. - They are respected by every birth worker I came in to contact with. Everyone loves Madrone! - They are humorous and full of so much bright energy, and that helped me through some of the most painful moments during birth. - They allowed me to confidently labor at home as long as possible, monitoring baby's heart rate while my contractions intensified - they cut out my stitches at three weeks when they were no longer serving me. Saving me an unnecessary visit to the doctor. Questions I asked Madrone that they were able to support and guide me through: - What are the pros/cons of the hep b shot? - I think my water just broke... does this look like amniotic fluid (photo of captured fluid in a jar sent... lol)? - How do we communicate to our family that we need them to get the Tdap and flue shots if they want to be around the baby? - Why does our baby have goop on his eyes? - I think my milk supply is too strong for baby to drink, what should I do? - I think my stitches fell out, what should I do? - Is the level of prolapse normal at 3 weeks? - How much should I be resting?

STOP. THIS IS IT. You can stop researching and interviewing doulas now because Mireille is THE…read moreBEST! We started looking for a doula at 6 weeks pregnant so we definitely had the time and energy to look for a doula and we are SO HAPPY we found Mireille. After she came to our home to chat with us, we knew she was the one! We found Mireille through our birthing class at Harmony. she had worked with our midwives, Lin and Maria (shoutout to BAM!) before and was familiar with El Camino Los Gatos so we knew she was perfect! Mireille helped us with our birth plan, eased any fears, and supported us to have a natural childbirth! We couldn't have done it without her. She was there from when we first called her all the way until baby was born, never leaving us :) The best part was she really supported my partner in being part of the birthing process. Will definitely come back to Mireille for our next birth :)

To begin with, we did not choose for my wife to go to Natividad Hospital. In fact, my wife begged…read morethe firemen to take her to Memorial Hospital and not Natividad. We didn't know much about Natividad Hospital, but what we had heard about was not good. She has Medicare, and because she has had some health issues over the years, we purchased the best Medicare Supplement available and can go to any hospital we want. But because we live closer to Natividad, the firemen told us that they had to take her to Natividad. At the time, we didn't know how serious her injury from her fall was, but she was definitely in a lot of pain and knew she needed to go to a hospital. I went to the ER to see her that night. They were still taking X-rays, etc. to determine what was wrong. When I left after about an hour and a half, I still didn't know what her injury was. I went back in the morning and was informed that she had broken her hip, and they would be having surgery that afternoon. When I left the hospital, I didn't know what was going to be done. My wife has had four back surgeries over the years all performed by Dr. Gus Halamandaris. We didn't pick his name out of a hat to have him do the initial surgery on her back. It was based on recommendations we had received on him and after meeting with him to discuss the surgery he was going to perform on her. This was not the case at Natividad. And because this was an emergency, there was not time for us to go shopping for a surgeon, and we understand that. Had it been a surgery because of a degenerative nature, and had time, we certainly would have and had the surgery performed and chosen a different hospital to have it done. I didn't even know the name of the surgeon who would be performing the surgery on my wife, much less what was going to be done. She was scheduled to go into surgery at 2 pm. I called at 5:30 and was told that her surgery had been delayed and that she had just gone into to surgery. I called again at 8:30 to see if she was out of surgery and was told that she was still in surgery and I was assured that I would get a call when she was out of surgery. I never got that call. I finally called again at 9:30 and was told she was out of surgery and would be transferred to a room. After each of the four surgeries Dr. Halmandaris performed on my wife, he would come and see me if I was at the hospital or call me at home to let me know how the surgery went. When I left the hospital the following day, I still didn't even know her surgeons' name or exactly what had been done. It wasn't until two days later that we were told by a nurse that she had a partial hip replacement. After a short stay in the hospital, my wife was transferred to the Sam Karas Acute Rehab Center, which is on the same site as the hospital. But that is a separate story. After she was released from the Rehab Center, we had to return to the hospital to meet with her surgeon for a follow up. We were told to be there by 9:15, which we were. We didn't meet with her surgeon until almost 3 hours later. After he went over her operation, he said he wanted us to return in about a month for another checkup. I told him that we wouldn't be returning and that we would go to another orthopedic surgeon who has in private practice for any future follow ups. There is no way we were going to spend 3 hours waiting to see a doctor we had an appointment with; plus the distance we had to traverse from the parking lot to where we had to go to me with him. He told us that we didn't have to do that and we could just go to our family doctor for any follow ups. As far as her stay in the hospital, we were relatively satisfied with it other than the food is absolutely horrible. Fortunately, she didn't have much of an appetite. I have been a strong proponent of universal healthcare because I believe it should be a right to have access to have medical care. However, if this an example of what universal healthcare looks like, I may have to reevaluate that opinion. It should be better than this.

Horrible experience here. I went in last night for a car accident (passenger v car) and I was in…read moresevere pain and my leg bleeding and unable to walk properly. All they did was give me Tylenol and an ice pack, and sat me in the lobby. No clean up on the wound or nothing, my husband and father had to literally tell the staff to get something to cover it and even then the staff was so slow and unwilling to help. Ended Up leaving after x rays because I had already been there 3 hours and no updates or help that was asked for. HIGHLY DONT recommend this hospital if you want proper care.

Due to my privileged position, and very personal experience with Silicon Valley doulas, I can tell…read moreyou it has been nothing short of exceptional since their inception. Czarina brings over 20 plus years of experience, extensive training, and a true passion for supporting families through one of life's most meaningful transitions -- welcoming a new baby. Her background covers everything from lactation consulting and sleep training to postpartum depression and psychosis support, patient advocacy, birth preparation, and more. She's worked with over 300 families over her career thus far, providing truly personalized and compassionate care each and every time. Her depth of knowledge about the birth journey, babies, and the postpartum period is remarkable, and she always approaches her work with professionalism, empathy, and a calm confidence and experience. One thing I respect deeply is her clarity and integrity when it comes to her business policies. She has a no-refund policy that's clearly stated in her contract (which is completely legal and standard for her field). The reason is simple and fair, much like many other businesses she reserves specific dates and times for the families she assists and does not take other clients during those scheduled sessions. When someone cancels or tries to back out of a contract she's already set aside that time, so it's clearly ethical that her time and commitment are respected. If you're looking for a highly skilled, knowledgeable, compassionate, empathetic doula who combines unmatched experience, professionalism, and genuine care, Czarina is the person you want by your side through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

TL;DR: Last-minute cancellations, fell asleep on duty watching our newborn, refused hands-on baby…read morecare, offered useless virtual support, prepaid for 13 nights, and refused refund. We're disputing the charges with our credit card company. Do not recommend. We hired Czarina for evening doula services shortly after welcoming our newborn, hoping for support and rest. Unfortunately, the experience caused us significantly more stress than doing it alone. The most alarming issue was that she repeatedly fell asleep snoring loudly while on duty watching our newborn. This happened on multiple visits. We could see and hear her sleeping, which meant that instead of resting, we stayed awake monitoring her to ensure our baby was safe. When we addressed this directly, her response was shocking: she claimed she was doing it to "train us to be better parents" and get us used to sleeping while the baby sleeps. As exhausted first-time parents, this felt unreassuring and completely unsafe. We hired a night doula to reduce anxiety, not to monitor the caregiver. Beyond the safety issues, basic doula duties were neglected: * Refusal of Care: She was unwilling to help wash the baby and unable to provide clear, hands-on guidance for newborn care. * Household Help: She provided little to no assistance with basic household tasks. * Ineffective Virtual Support: She attempted to substitute some support with "virtual" sessions, which offered zero value to us as parents who needed physical, hands-on help with a newborn during overnight hours. Her reliability was poor, with multiple last-minute cancellations and rescheduling. Most importantly, we prepaid for 13 nights of service. When we terminated the arrangement due to the safety concerns and poor service, she refused to provide a refund for the unused nights. We were forced to escalate this to our credit card company to try and recoup our funds. Czarina was pleasant to speak with initially, but her actions put our peace of mind at risk and violated our trust. If you are looking for reliable, hands-on postpartum care that allows you to rest, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. Ask specific questions about staying awake during night shifts, hands-on newborn care (including bathing), refund policies, and what "virtual support" entails before hiring.

Jamie is one of the most incredible people ever! I could not have asked for a more amazing…read moremidwife/provider. As a young first time mom, Jamie was everything I needed in a provider, and then some. She is kind, understanding, calm, confident and extremely knowledgeable and skilled in midwifery. I never doubted for a minute if me and my baby were in good hands! And when my home birth turned into a hospital birth, it was so wonderful to know that she could still provide care for me there. I plan on having another kid before I move in a couple years just so I can have Jamie be my midwife again! If that isn't a testament to her care, I don't know what is lol.

I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Jamie! Throughout my pregnancy she was an…read moreamazing resource and competent, reliable, professional caregiver. During the birth itself I had no doubt that my baby and I were in good hands with Jamie. My husband was able to be as involved as we wanted as well, which was great. From our first appointment, Jamie consistently provided sound information, backed by research and her experience, which empowered my husband and I to make the decisions that were both safe and right for us during the pregnancy and birth. The care Jamie provided for me and my baby after the birth was outstanding; she went well beyond what I would have expected. Anyone would be lucky to have Jamie as a midwife - I'm grateful that I did!

Heather is the nurturing soul and care provider all mothers need! She gives you her time and…read moreattention to make you feel heard and understood. She follows through with discussed treatment plans and ends the session with a hug! You'll feel truly cared for in her practice!

Heather is truly one of a kind. She's been my midwife for two pregnancies and births, and I can…read morehonestly say I don't know how I would've done it without her. From the very beginning, Heather brought so much calm, wisdom, and reassurance to every step of the journey. She always made me feel seen, heard, and cared for--not just as a client, but as a person. What stands out the most is how deeply she cares. She was there through every high and low, and her support never wavered. Over the years, she's become so much more than my midwife--she's become a friend. I feel incredibly lucky to have had her by my side through such transformative moments in my life. Heather is a rare gem, and I couldn't recommend her more highly.

Being a first time mom, first time (full term) preggo, having anxiety over a previous miscarriage,…read moreand a little type-A, preparing myself for the ultimate woman-making "race to the finish line" was something I knew would help calm my fears of the unknown. As mentioned, I'm type-A, so you would think I would have had this class all pre-planned however, with a previous miscarriage, I didn't allow myself to fully take in that a baby was fully on her way--despite an ever-growing belly. Two months before the due date, we finally nailed down some times. Being that we were commuting over an hour to work everyday, Aimee gracefully offered to meet us at our home, on our requested times, on our requested days! She made it so easy to make it happen with the little time we had. She even shifted things around when we had an abrupt loss in our family as we were about to take the class. The actual class was easy to absorb and super eye-opening. Knowing our rights, knowing what a woman's body is supposed to do, knowing what drugs actually do to you, knowing alternatives, knowing things we could do NOW to help with labor was absolutely priceless. You see, I had a breech baby. Aimee suggested how to do exercises each day and even gave me a gentle nudge to see a chiropractor. After that visit--boom--baby wasn't breech! The entire class gave me the knowledge I needed to prep myself for the day. And as far as mentally and emotionally prepping myself, she lent me a book on positive birth stories. She was helping me remove that horrible stigma around terrifying labors. Well, come 37 week appt and I had to be induced, medicated, and eventually c-section as baby flipped back to breech during the process of trying to lower her. However, guess who was on the other end of my anxiety-ridden text messages? Aimee. She was there to help with decisions I felt uncomfortable with and to even let me know that even though it wasn't the birth I had wanted, I was doing everything right for my baby and my health. As you can tell, I think Aimee is amazing. If you're looking for a partner, a guiding force, or just some real knowledge on birth/labor, Aimee is your gal.

Aimee was my birth doula in September, 2019. I was really nervous about giving birth, and Aimee…read moretook the time to meet with me on multiple occasions to make sure all of my questions were answered and I was supported. During my unexpected c-section labor, she advocated for me and made me feel like I could get through anything. I couldn't have done it without her and I would absolutely recommend her to all of my friends. Still to this day she checks in with me to see how I'm doing. Thank you Aimee!