As we got closer to our due date and reality was sinking in that we were truly going to have a baby…read more(!) my husband and I talked about the idea of having a post-partum doula. We just wanted the peace of mind, especially because we did not have any family around and wanted to make sure we had some support if things were not going well. We found Regula on Yelp and then also found out that she was the post-partum doula for my husband's coworker who LOVED Regula. We engaged Regula to come a 3-4 days a week for the first 6 weeks after having our little one. We were so glad we made the decision to employ Regula. The first 6 weeks are so hard to navigate. Is he eating enough? Is he still hungry, is he sleepy, is it normal he is only sleeping for 20 minutes, should I try and keep him up, should I let him cry a little? So many doubts and questions. It was so wonderful to have Regula around to give that reassurance and confidence. Our son was healthy and happy, we still faced usual challenges. Our son lost a little more weight than the doctors want to see (~12%) so that was a bit stressful. As was my husband getting the flu when Oliver was 2 weeks old. Regula was our rock, personal lactation consultant, and support system. She let us know what was normal and what wasn't, and she put as at so much ease being there for us. She made such a difference to both me and my husband. Regula is also just such a lovely person, with such a calm and warm presence and was so nice to have some socialization during that time without being stressed about having a little one around because that is what she was there for. I personally would recommend everyone use a post-partum Doula (and Regula specifically!) if you've nervous about bringing your newborn home. She made such a big impact on us. She is flexible, will cater to what you need and help any way you best see fit.

Hiring Regula was one of my best life decisions. She came weekday mornings to help my husband and…read moreme adjust to parenthood for a few weeks postpartum. Her calming manner and touch helped ease all of us into my son's first month of life! She reassured me when growth spurts were happening and was invaluable encouragement the first tough weeks of breastfeeding. She was incredibly helpful in keeping our house tidy and baby's room in order, his clothes clean, pumping gear sanitized, and diaper rash at bay ... She set us up with a routine that we are still using and made the first month of insanity somewhat manageable. If you're thinking of having a baby, SERIOUSLY consider a postpartum doula and seriously consider Regula as that doula!

I can't say enough good things about Nina, Kathryn, and Brigette! I just had my second baby with…read morethem (my first home birth) and it was the most relaxing, smooth, beautiful experience. So much of that was because of the energy they brought to my care. I had my fair share of anxiety throughout pregnancy and they always knew exactly how to reassure me. They're the most incredible and warm women and I'm genuinely sad I won't get to see them regularly anymore! I'm so grateful to Homebody for giving me my dream home birth experience. I may have to consider having a third baby just so I can work with them again ;)

The love and true care we received from our midwives was touching. We welcomed our 3rd baby, 2nd…read morehome birth and learned a lot from Morgan and Nina. Every visit and interaction felt focused and intimate. We experienced a magical en caul birth and are so grateful to Homebody for becoming part of our family in a way. We adore our midwives!

I recently had the pleasure of working with Rebecca as a lactation consultant, referred to me by my…read moremidwife. Rebecca made a fantastic first impression with her quick email replies. Maybe she could sense my desperation? Either way, we quickly set up an in-home visit (an invaluable bonus of not having to leave the house with a 2 week old baby). She not only had a very reasonable rate, but even offered a sliding scale. After struggling with breastfeeding in any and every way possible (latching, positioning, etc.), Rebecca's help was extremely welcomed. She was calm, confident, reassuring, caring and knowledgeable. We worked together for over 2 hours at that session, calling it quits at the baby's discretion. Although I don't have a "miracle worker" story about how everything was magically fixed and we lived happily ever after, I do have a happy ending the breastfeeding saga. It took a few more weeks (and a few more tricks) for me to really apply everything that Rebecca taught me in that session, but now my baby and I are pros, and I really do owe much of the success to Rebecca's help. I would highly recommend her services as a lactation consultant to anyone!

Rebecca Plum is an extremely talented, composed, and compassionate Midwife. I worked with Rebecca…read morewhile she was the primary Midwife for my doula clients, and from the very beginning I was impressed with the quality and the individually tailored care that she provided. I was first exposed to her work ethic and birth philosophy during our homebirth -team meeting. This is a time for everyone who is planning on attending the birth to gather and discuss the women's birth vision, discuss roles and prepare for various scenarios that might unfold. Rebecca smoothly moderated the session so that everyone knew what was expected of them which allowed us to all see ourselves as a team working to provide this couple with the love, respect and care that they deserved. What really stood out to me was Rebecca's deeply intuitive nature and her ability to address under currents and subtle signals, bring them into the conversation and positively harness all the unknowns and natural anxieties that can accompany birth. While being ever professional and remarkably prepared, she sparked an excitement in the air and made it down right fun. During the birth Rebecca continued to be the ever calm, smooth and joyful presence. As a doula, I have been a part of many birth teams and seen many provider's styles. Rebecca's style is at the core about trusting the birthing woman, the natural birth process, and giving the woman space to trust herself. She imbued the birth space with laughter and a true love for her work and the family that she served. It was contagious. Knowledge, experience, choice, and laughter- not a bad combination for a midwife!

Meleah is an angel on Earth!!! I truly cannot imagine my birth experience without her. I had an…read moreextremely long labor (over 72 hours) and Meleah was there guiding me, comforting me, advocating for me, and coaching me through it every step of the way. She helped me find the optimal labor positions for my body, guided my husband in how he could best support me, and provided a depth of knowledge that we would have been completely lost without. My goal was to have a vaginal birth without induction, and with Meleah's support, that goal became a reality. I know that if I hadn't hired her and had gone to the hospital as soon as my contractions became more painful, my birth would likely have ended with far more interventions than I wanted, especially given how long my labor was taking. Because of Meleah's constant support and reassurance, I was able to labor safely at home until I reached 6.5 cm and then have the vaginal birth I had hoped for at the hospital. Once we arrived at the hospital, Meleah stayed by my side the entire time. She brought her expertise into the delivery room and helped position me in ways that made a huge difference when it came time to push. She was also there helping with cleanup, offering emotional and physical support, and advocating for me throughout the entire process. I felt completely safe with her. Before my labor, we had three meetings with Meleah, plus another meeting postpartum. We talked through our expectations and preferences, created our birth plan, and did a full labor-preparation session. My husband and I both knew immediately that we were in incredibly good hands. On top of everything else, her communication is outstanding. She responds to texts and emails as soon as she possibly can (often almost immediately) even when it's a 3 a.m. text! And even now, two months later, Meleah continues to check in and answer any questions we have about our baby girl. Her support didn't end when the birth was over, and that has meant so much to us. Meleah was recommended to me by a friend, and I could not be more grateful. I honestly want Meleah at all of my future births because I know she will help me feel supported, confident, and as comfortable as possible throughout the entire experience. I cannot recommend her enough!!! If you're considering hiring a doula, hire Meleah. You will be so grateful you did!!

Hiring Meleah was one of the best decisions we made as first-time parents…read more She was an incredible resource throughout pregnancy, helping us prepare for labor, birth, and life with a newborn. When labor finally arrived, her support was invaluable. She brought a calm, reassuring presence, helped us navigate decisions, and was a tremendous advocate and source of encouragement during a long and emotional experience. Having her with us at the hospital made a world of difference. After our daughter was born, Meleah continued to be an amazing source of knowledge and support. Whether we were struggling with feeding challenges, babywearing (she wrote a book on it!), sleep deprivation, or just trying to figure out what was normal, she always helped us find a path forward and gave us confidence as new parents. Meleah combines deep expertise with genuine compassion, and it's obvious how much she cares about the families she works with. We are incredibly grateful for her guidance and would recommend her without hesitation to any expecting parents.

This is a long overdue review for Farrell. She is an amazing teacher, newborn care specialist, and…read morelactation consultant. She is the best of the best. She helped us on our journey by helping our son recover from weight loss after birth (10%) and helped us navigate through many issues such as undersupply, oversupply, latching, eczema, and swaddling. Whenever we had questions and we certainly had quite a bit as first time parents, she was very responsive and made sure that we felt confident with a plan moving forward and connected us with many resources. We felt very comfortable working with her due to her knowledge but also due to her warm, friendly, and engaging personality that the baby seemed to really enjoy responding towards especially when she did her unique slow swaying which we call the Farrell method! :)

We had difficulties latching and breastfeeding from the start with our first and only baby. After…read moreseeing different lactation consultants at every visit with Kaiser, we decided to work with Farrell for personalized and consistent support. She visited our home over the course of several visits and provided so much education and support for our feeding challenges. Because of our work together, we were able to improve our child's tongue and mouth mobility and suction and my milk supply, and establish ways for us to feed and comfort him at the breast. I highly recommend working with Farrell if anyone is looking for personalized lactation support!

Sarah provided me with compassionate and expert support in my journey feeding my kiddo. I greatly…read moreappreciated her warm, non-judgmental approach and her wise advice. She was able to meet with me on short notice, followed up via text to check in on me after our first appointment, and has fielded several questions via email, even while she was traveling. I am very grateful for her support and would highly recommend her!

At 5 days postpartum, I was feeling incredibly stressed and overwhelmed, but Sarah came to our home…read moreimmediately to help. She spent several hours with my husband and me, teaching us everything from the basics of breastfeeding and milk supply to the specifics of breast anatomy. Her calm demeanor was exactly what we needed; she completely eased my anxiety and gave us the confidence we were lacking. This was truly the most helpful support we've received since coming home from the hospital. If you are looking for an expert who is both knowledgeable and deeply compassionate, look no further.

Amber has a beautiful, gentle and calm presence and her time with us after the birth of our…read moredaughter was so very valuable. She came and supported us during my postpartum time, cooking delicious, nutritious meals. Making warm spiced chai, special teas and sweets for lactation. Her expert knowledge around birth, postpartum and hormone balancing is excellent. Combined with her gentle touch through abayanga massage, which was so very restorative for me, especially after I had quite significant blood loss during my birth. I felt totally held and nourished and couldn't recommend her highly enough for this incredibly tender time, she is a really special person. Thank you again Amber! X

My husband and I had a wonderful experience working with Alana Corrin through Healthy Mamas,…read moreHealthy Babies. First, learning about the services and speaking with Amber was great. She is highly organized and very responsive. I also loved the online mom support groups with different topics covered each week - these were so helpful! For the doula services, Alana was wonderful. She is very laid back and easy to talk to while also being super knowledgable and attentive. I wasn't sure if I was going to try to have a natural birth or get an epidural and I felt like Alana was ready to support me no matter what option I wound up choosing. Also, my husband tends to be very anxious around any medical or hospital setting so we weren't sure if he would be able to be with me for all of labor and delivery. Our meeting before birth was great because Alana was able to listen to his concerns and talk him through what L&D would be like so he wouldn't be so nervous. We only wound up being able to have one pre-birth meeting because my baby decided to show up 6.5 weeks early! Thankfully, Alana was able to meet us at the hospital within an hour of my husband calling her (around 3am??). My labor proceeded very quickly and we were both overwhelmed because we had not anticipated having our baby that early. Alana remained a calm and consistent presence throughout my labor and for a while after delivery after they took my baby to the NICU. She was also able to ask the nurses and doctors questions we had completely forgotten to ask and kept us up to date with everything that was happening. My husband wound up being able to stay for most of L&D and I think a lot of that has to do with Alana being there - we both felt fully supported the entire time. We had three post-partum sessions with Alana and they were also incredibly helpful. I would definitely recommend her to others and would love to work with her again if we wind up having another baby (hopefully closer to my due date next time, hehe)!

Working with Brigette for my birth doula and placenta encapsulation was a great experience…read more Brigette, and Vanessa Norton who she teamed up with last summer, were the doulas for the birth of my daughter this past July. During our pre-birth meetings, Brigette was warm, responsive, and gave my partner and me a sense that she would be a competent, caring, and strong advocate. On the week of my daughter's birth, the City of SF experienced a record birth boom. What this meant for us was that Brigette was in back-to-back births. As soon as I told her my water broke, she arranged for a back-up for us in case the birth in which she was participating didn't finish by the time I was in active labor. It didn't and we went with her back up doula. We stayed in contact throughout the day until I went into active labor. The Universe has a way of giving me what and who I need at the right time, and this was no exception. Even though Brigette had been in 20+ hours of labor and deliveries, she came to my hospital room right after I delivered my daughter. Can you imagine? We hugged and cheered and introduced Brigette to our miracle - it felt as if in a way she'd been there for the birth. Brigette also took my placenta home with her and encapsulated it. Seeing my placenta post-delivery was nauseating, so I was grateful that Brigette was encapsulating it rather than me try to DIY prepare it. The encapsulation process was easy. A couple days later, Brigette came by and visited with us. She gave me the encapsulations and directions on how to use them. Everything was straightforward and simple, which as an exhausted, new mom, was a big help. I highly recommend partnering with Brigette for your birth!

My wife Gwen wrote this review but it speaks to how we both felt!…read more I can't imagine not having Brigette at my (first) birth and postpartum - throughout the process she was a breath of fresh air and allowed me to stay calm and even maintain my sense of humor when things got tough. I joke with her that I can't wait to get pregnant again so she can support me for round two - although I'm going to give my body some buffer time ;) haha. I planned a homebirth, but hired Brigette because I knew she'd be an incredible advocate for me whether I gave birth at home or had to transfer to hospital. She was recommended by our midwife Kara Englebrecht, and I was so grateful that Kara pointed us to her. From our first meeting Brigette was down to earth with a warm and openhearted energy. She made me feel calm and confident - helped me feel empowered about the fact that I was the one giving birth and she was there to support and guide as needed. During my labor she was extremely intuitive. She was great at providing counter pressure on my hips during labor sensations and read my body for what I needed. Most of the time what I needed was to bury my head in her neck during contractions so I could breath through them - she felt like a sister to me, which is incredible when I step back and think that we hadn't spent *that* much time together - but it speaks to how quickly I grew to trust her. When I was pushing, I was concentrating on her bangs, blowing air towards them to focus and she read my mind and made sure to stay close so I could continue to focus that way (strange I know, but it helped, and best part was I didn't have to ask/tell her to stay still - she just knew what to do!). She also encapsulated my placenta and supported our family postpartum. She showed me how to be an excellent burper, and helped me spread my momma wings with little tips and tricks to grow my confidence. I'm *so* glad we got to continue working with her as our postpartum doula - she was so helpful and efficient it was almost difficult for me and my husband to think up additional to-do tasks. But mostly, she was a warm familiar face that helped me exhale and feel at ease in those challenging first couple of weeks. I'd recommend her 100x over, can't imagine it any other way. FYI: I was able to use my FSA health savings account to use pre-tax dollars to pay for her birth doula services. It's an eligible expense ("Birth Coach"), I had my OB fill out a short form (Letter of Medical Necessity) that I got from the FSA website, and attached it to the reimbursement request. I think hiring a doula is worth every penny, but helpful tip to get a "discount" by using pre-tax dollars!

We had the absolute pleasure of having Agnes K. as our night doula after the birth of our newborn…read moreand we are incredibly grateful for her help. She is extremely knowledgeable about baby care, and we could tell that our baby loved how calm, caring, and confident she was. Agnes was happy to not only help with taking care of our baby at night, but also logged feedings and kept bottles prepped. She also was easily accessible via text for ongoing support. She was able to give us plenty of actionable advice and feedback on how to take care of our little one which, as new parents, made a massive positive difference with our confidence as well. We definitely would be in a far worse place in terms of taking care of our baby if not for her help, and highly recommend Agnes to any family who is looking for a doula who clearly loves what she does and is really good at it too.

I highly recommend Khatherine of Duyan Care! She was the first night doula we've ever worked with,…read moreand immediately put us at ease with her friendly, professional and knowledgeable demeanor. Khatherine took incredible care of our son for three weeks and also helped with breastfeeding tips as we'd been having a lot of trouble with our baby's latch; despite working with multiple lactation consultants, it wasn't until Khatherine observed and provided some helpful feedback that my latch drastically improved and pain subsided almost immediately. Khatherine was gentle and calm with our son, and treated our entire household with care and respect. She would wash our bottles, fold any laundry, leave our space tidy and provide in-depth notes on her night shift which provided invaluable information. It was evident she is passionate about her job and truly cares about the babies and families that she works with.