Coastal Doulas was invaluable to us during our first pregnancy. My husband was super skeptical…read moreabout having somebody with us during delivery. Now, he sings nothing but praises and advocates for doulas. Having Lindsey with us provided us a sense of calm - someone who could advocate for us, help translate, and coach both of us - especially when decisions had to be made. She was also there for us the weeks before offering support and guidance all along the way. It was truly incredible to have someone on your team. The childbirth classes beforehand were also personalized for my husband and I and discussed not only physical, but emotional aspects of labor and delivery. All of the other sessions we had with Bonnie and Lindsey (Newborn Care Class, Postpartum planning, etc.) were extremely helpful in prepping for such a big change in our lives. Plus the connections Coastal Doulas offers such as lactation support and pelvic floor have helped during recovery immensely. We hope to use Coastal Doulas services for future births and highly recommend!

Words cannot even begin to describe how amazing Bonnie is! My wife and I hired her kind of late in…read moreour pregnancy and weren't sure what to expect. But she is by far the most caring, loving and amazing woman out there. She helped us so much during pregnancy but mostly during labor and delivery. After 24 hours of contractions and talking with Bonnie throughout those 24 hours we decided it was time for her to come over. She came over and stayed with us right by our side, helping mostly my wife through each contraction offering suggestions, position changes, essential oil's and other natural remedies to help ease the discomfort. She ended up staying with us for an additional 30 hours, even when we had to transfer last minute to the hospital. We are so grateful to Bonnie for everything that she did for us and continues to do. I feel that her knowledge of pregnancy labor and delivery exceeded most professionals and even submit wives that we spoke too. She knows the inns and outs of hospitals and procedures and helped us out tremendously after we had to transfer and didn't know anything about hospital procedures since we were planning a homebirth. I would hire Bonnie again in a heartbeat. Thank you again so much for everything you did for our new family!

The child birth class is the first event we attended, hosted by Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies…read more They are a nonprofit and offer free prenatal classes for expecting parents. If you've never read a book or watched a video on the birth process, then it may be for you. If you've already done some basic homework, you may want to keep searching for a more useful class. Our session was hosted by Ruth Kraft. She is a doula and very biased against pain intervention. She overindulges herself by sharing irrelevant anecdotes and uses the class as a platform to market her services. The class should only last 2 hours but was projected to dragged onto 6 due to poor moderation of questions and drifting into tangential discussions. We pardoned ourselves around the 4 1/2 hour mark. I cannot comment on the other classes but we will try non-pro bono prenatal sessions offered by our hospital for the remaining learnings (breastfeeding and etc.). Hopefully, it'll be a more effective use of our time.

I attended a class conducted by Ruth Kraft in 2017 and in 2019. She does offer some useful…read moreinformation thus the three stars. However, she also offers misinformation and promotes unnatural birthing practices. For example, in 2017 she claimed full term is after 37 weeks. Full term was changed from 37 to 39 weeks in 2013 due to the efforts of one of the Kennedy foundations. Thankfully, she updated her knowledge by 2019 but it took her 6 years to do so. She also promotes forced pushing and shows videos of women forcefully pushing their babies out. This is a dangerous birthing practice which ALWAYS produces injuries for mothers and babies and should be used only out of dire medical necessity. She claimed that once the cervix is fully dilated it is OK to push. There are tons of mothers who did not tear their cervices while pushing but tore a variety of other structures. Cervical dilation is a proxy for pushing time and a very inaccurate one. It is only and solely the body that knows when it is time to push not the cervical dilation. There are a multitude of structures that need to dilate not just the cervix. She also claimed that if the baby experiences a brain bleed from forced pushing it would lose consciousness. This is not true. It depends on the location and severity of the brain bleed. She also does not correctly read contraction patterns. As the class finished I stayed longer to ask her a question. She told me that she has only ten minutes. Her priority was not on addressing my question but taking pictures of the class questionnaires as she explained to me that she needed to do that to get paid. She is money oriented and uses every opportunity during the class to promote her services. I do not recommend hiring her as a doula, she lacks compassion, care and intelligence. What really struck me as a contradiction is that she is selling health services while she herself is morbidly obese and looks very unhealthy.

Normally, I am a planner by nature, but when it came to getting a doula, I didn't get one until the…read morelast minute. There were a number of reasons for this, but most are simply due to a lack of actual research. For example, I didn't think doulas would assist you if you wanted a hospital birth with pain medications, which I did. I know my own limitations, and that a totally 'natural' birth might be beyond my scope; I wanted to leave medication options open to me. Call it serendipity, Kirstyn actually found me through a Facebook group that we were both in. I posted a question about my doctor wanting to induce my labor, which I was against. Everyone that replied to that post was saying "you need a doula" and posted a lot of Doula referrals. Of the referrals, Kirstyn was the one who reached out to me personally, so we set up a time to meet. Next, I Googled "Questions to ask when hiring a doula" because I was starting from scratch and was already about 38 weeks pregnant... I was very short on time! I felt Kirstyn was informed and able to answer all of these questions and concerns my husband and I had with calm confidence; I felt supported and reassured by her. We had a couple more personal meetings before I delivered. She met my husband and mother, both of whom would also be in the delivery room; we were all going to be a Team and it felt important to me that we all get a sense of each other before the birth and Kirstyn expressed the same. Kirstyn was well connected with resources! When I was overdue and my doctor was threatening an induction, Kirstyn was able to set up an 'induction massage'. This, by the way, started my labor an hour later and I delivered my healthy baby girl in the middle of that same night ... no induction needed! I sincerely believe without Kirstyn, this would not have happened. It meant the world to me! Kirstyn met us at the hospital instead of at my house as we had originally planned because my contractions got very close together quickly. She was by my side with tools and ideas for my entire labor. As soon as we were in the hospital room it became immediately clear that Kirstyn "was in her element!" She has vast knowledge of procedures, timing, machinery, tools and methodology; she was able to explain anything and everything we didn't either understand or questioned. She interacted with me, my husband and my mother based on our individual personalities and strengths helping create a seamless support to me during my birth. I felt peace knowing that she was there and I know what a support she was for my husband and mother as well. She was an absolute treasure to find and she will always have a special place in my heart. I also had her encapsulate my placenta. This was a concept I learned about through Kirstyn (just one of many extra talents she has!) I highly recommend this to every new mother! I never had the baby blues and feel like the placenta encapsulation is the reason why.

I've waited three weeks to write this review because I want it to be perfect and to speak to you…read morefrom my heart. I have to admit I'm typing this on my phone with one hand while cradling my three week old with my other hand. I apologize for any errors in advance. My husband sought out a doula for us and came across Holistic Birth and Beginnings via reviews on Yelp. He wanted a doula for his own comfort and to make sure we were covered as first time parents. Although she did not have many reviews, the ones she had were quality and so he booked a meeting with her. We met and went over what services she provided, past experiences, our birth preferences and she answered a million questions. We left our deposit with her that day, knowing in our hearts we made a good choice. Throughout our pregnancy, she checked in with us periodically to ask about dr visits, answered questions and overall provided continuous advice as to what we could be doing then to make our birth experience what we intended. When time got closer, my dr began discussing a possible induction. Kirstyn knew that if we were to be induced, we likely would have other interventions that we did not want. She scheduled a meeting with us to go over options, techniques for getting birth started naturally and things Hubby could do to assist. On a Thursday night, I began to feel contractions. They stopped Friday and picked back up Saturday. By Saturday night I thought we were really going somewhere. I called Kirstyn and she was at our house within a half hour. She knew the contractions weren't close enough together and convinced me to try to get some rest. She returned Sunday morning and after deliberation, we decided to head to the hospital. I still wasn't contracting close enough (8mins apart) so they sent me home. Kirstyn told me a few things to try to do (bath, exercises, etc) and we split up for a few hours. In that time, I started telling my husband to throw the birth plan out the window and that I wanted all the medication in the world. They both knew that wasn't my original intention. He called Kirstyn and she returned to our home and worked with us all night. She had me on the birth ball in many different positions, was massaging my head, had music playing and danced with me as silly as we looked, had the essential oils going and kept me focused on what my body was doing. My 10pm Sunday we were headed back to the hospital. She kept me home until I couldn't bear the pain any longer. When I got there, I was 8-9cm dialated and contractions were 2-3 minutes a part. This woman stayed by my side and held a leg as a pushed the most beautiful baby girl out at 1am Monday morning. I did it without being induced and without any medication at all. I was able to walk out of the hospital the next day. The birth we had was largely influenced by Kirstyn. Without her, I do believe I would've been induced and possibly had a c section, and at the very least would've had all the medication I could get - which was not my preference to begin with. Not saying there is anything wrong with those scenarios, just not what I was hoping for. She stood by me every single step of the way, answered all my weird questions and helped welcome in the most important person in my life. There is no amount of money or good words that can be used to show our gratitude for Kirstyn. She is an amazing doula and you will be lucky to have her as your teammate for the birth of your baby. You deserve the best and that's exactly what she is.

Oh Anasuya , she is more than a doula , she basically changed our perspective about birth and…read more pregnancy, and motherhood in general! I am extremely grateful to meet her and work with her ! Anasuya made our homebirth easy and pleasant ! Yes pleasant ! It's possible! If you love and trust yourself , your body , your family , your doula !! What a life changing experience! Thank you Blessed to meet you !

From the owner: Namaste! At Anasuya LLC, we provide compassionate doula support, childbirth education, and…read morepostpartum care to families in Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas. With decades of experience, we help you prepare for birth with confidence, calm, and clarity. Whether you're preparing for birth, navigating postpartum, or exploring the path of becoming a doula, I’m here to walk alongside you with compassion and wisdom. Private or group prenatal yoga sessions are also available upon request. Serving Broward County—including Hollywood, Plantation, Davie, and beyond.

The birth of our second child with Palms Birth House was a beautiful and joyful experience. Coming…read morefrom the "hospital experience" and a big OB group with our first child, we were disappointed with the impersonal care we had received but also somewhat nervous to try an out of hospital birth. Palms Birth House made all the difference in the world. We can't say enough how (1) personal and friendly the front office staff was (they know your name when you call and are INCREDIBLY responsive!) (2) how patient and kind Elizabeth, the midwife, was at every visit (she spends as much time with you as you need, there's no rush to get you out the door) and (3) how professional and calm Elizabeth was during our fast-middle of the night-on a holiday-home birth. Palms Birth House treated us with dignity and compassion, and I will never consider another hospital birth again. Thank you for showing us how wonderful birth can be!

If only a review could begin to express my gratitude for Elizabeth Charron and The Palms…read moreBirthhouse!!!! Finding them and getting to travel the journey of pregnancy and delivery in their care will forever be one of the great blessings of my life. Elizabeth is extraordinary. We wanted to have an experience birthing our son that felt natural and with as little intervention as possible and we had just that. At every step Elizabeth had the perfect answer for any question or concern that I brought to her or stories of friends birthing issues that I was concerned about. She was easily able to express how she would handle those moments if we found ourselves there. Throughout the pregnancy she was relaxed and gave us all the information to make the decisions we needed to make without making us feel stressed or imposed upon. We laughed at every visit and looked forward to seeing them all even though it was a 35 minute drive from our home in Jupiter! From my very first call, when Tiffany answered, she was full of helpful information and that's remained true to this day. Everyone goes above and beyond. It is nothing like an experience you would have at a doctor's office where the wait times are long and they have you in and out quickly. The service is so personalized it's truly amazing. My mom could never get over how long Elizabeth spent with us at each check up. If we have more children it will definitely be with them and I highly recommend it to any mama looking to bring baby into the world in a most loving and tender but also intelligent and safe environment!

I loved having Christine as my doula! The meetings prior to the birth were very informative and…read morehelped me get comfortable with her. She is so kind and has a calming presence. I feel very lucky to have had her there with me on my journey!

From the owner: A full spectrum doula service, Tremendoulas offers support to women through a complete range of…read morepregnancy and maternity-related situations, including birth, postpartum, antepartum, bereavement, and adoption. Caring for expectant and new mothers of the Palm Beaches with the highest level of service possible, the goal of Tremendoulas is for mothers to be able to look back on their phenomenal maternal experiences positively, with comfort and satisfaction. This is accomplished with: effective techniques encouraging words advocacy for mothers' wishes availability and continuous support ambiance improvement recording of experiences It is my utmost privilege to be with women in the sacred moments of birth, as well as in loss. I am deeply grateful to be invited into these major life events. Whatever the wishes of each unique pregnant mother, I wholly respect.