Simply put, our family loves Caitlin! I hired her for postpartum support, and she amazes me with…read morehow gentle and loving she is with my little one. I trust her completely with my son, and even my older son loves her. When I tell him that Caitlin is coming, he exclaims, "Yay!!! Caitlin!" :) My husband is also getting a full 8 hours worth of sleep, and he asks me upon waking up: when is Caitlin coming for another night? If you're looking for rest during the day or night, call Caitlin. Personable, sweet, supportive, and loving, Caitlin is the best!

Caitlin was referred to me by a fellow doula and she was nothing short of amazing. We had planned…read moreto meet and discuss my birthing plan a few weeks before my expected due date but my baby girl decided to come early. Without meeting prior to the birth, Caitlin responded to our call in the middle of the night and drove from SF to Redwood City to assist us in the birthing process. She arrived ready and energetic while remaining calm and soothing. She listened to me and addressed all my needs and became a liaison between my family and the hospital staff. We were very grateful for her presence. Caitlin also offered to keep and freeze my placenta for encapsulation. At the hospital, Caitlin was also a lifesaver by installing our car seat! After the birth, Caitlin followed up with us and helped us for the first few weeks at home with the baby. From teaching me about infant carriers and breast pumps to discussing how the body recovers after birth, Caitlin was an expert. You can tell that this is her passion. I thank Caitlin for being an amazing doula and an overall wonderful person to have during this new chapter in our lives. My family is the most important thing to me and I trust Caitlin with my precision baby girl! Thank you so much Caitlin!

This review is long overdue…read more I had my first child in Dec 2023. I worked with Chandra as my postpartum doula and the experience was nothing short of amazing! She was like a second mother / sister to me the entire time. The first few weeks of postpartum were truly a rollercoaster ride of emotions but working with Chandra made it so much easier. I could ask her any question and knew that there was no judgement whatsoever. I felt so comfortable around her within a few days. She was the blessing I needed during my postpartum phase and I am truly grateful that our paths crossed. She is a wonderful human being with such a beautiful aura. The treats she made were so tasty and healthy. When I mentioned to her how I loved a certain treat she made, she made me the same one a few days later as a surprise in addition to what she already made for me. On our last day, she gave me a sacred thread to bless me and my family which I am still wearing a whole year later! I am super thankful to her for taking care of me so well during my postpartum phase. she is truly a gem!

Chandra and Soi have been the most incredible support system during my postpartum period. My first…read morepregnancy and postpartum were very difficult and I knew I wanted to take a different approach for my second baby. Chandra and Soi created a custom support package for me and worked closely with me to craft a plan to make sure that postpartum with my second baby was a more positive experience. While I was still pregnant, Chandra and Soi provided bodywork that really helped me prepare for the birth. Chandra also took the time to educate me on the Ayurvedic approach to postpartum (nutrition, bodywork, and healing in general). After my baby was born, Chandra delivered an incredible food and drink package to UCSF so that I could focus on my recovery from day 1. She was also in touch in the lead up and during the delivery providing emotional support and encouragement. After I came home from the hospital, Soi arrived and cared for me and my baby for 8 weeks. The level of care that was provided went above and beyond my expectations. Soi truly took care of me, so that I could be there for my new baby and toddler and be present with them to enjoy this precious time together. Soi cooked nutritious and warming meals for me, she provided daily bodywork to help my sore muscles, and she was there every step of the way encouraging me. She quickly became a very close friend that I knew that I could rely on. She was incredibly hands on with my newborn, making sure that I had time to rest and recover. It was such a relief to have someone in my home that I felt like I could trust, and who I genuinely believed cared about my and my baby's well being. Over the course of these 8 weeks Chandra was also always on call and available to provide additional support, advice, and encouragement. After the 8 week period I have continued bodywork with Chandra and it has made such a positive impact on my continued recovery. Working with Chandra and Soi was the best investment I could have ever made in my physical and mental health and my recovery. From the moment you meet Chandra you can immediately tell that she loves caring for others, and finds joy and meaning in helping other people. Soi also has a very positive and nurturing energy and puts 100% of her heart into her work. Every thing that Chandra and Soi do comes from a place of love and wanting to connect and care for new moms. I highly recommend both Chandra and Soi, and would work with them again with no hesitation.

I am a big fan of abdominal massage to heal all sorts of things both physical and emotional. It is…read moresuch a balancing and grounding experience and Francine is truly a healer in everything she does. Anytime you are feeling out-of-sorts Francine's treatments can put you back into your body and help lessen the stress of life by revitalizing and nourishing your soul.

I received more than a massage from Francine. I received a healing. I first met Francine over a…read moreyear ago when she was the assistant midwife for one of my best friends births. I had heard very good things about her and I knew that she was really known and respected in our community. This dear friend gifted me a massage with Francine following the birth of my own baby. I could not have been more excited and in need of a massage as you can imagine. Two and a half months of breast feeding, sleeping with, and carrying a new baby can really leave you with a sore back and arms. I felt very safe to express my emotions and concerns with Francine around what I was looking for in a massage. She normalized all of my disclosures and was very empathetic as she is a midwife and mother herself. I feel that Francine combined many techniques in her massage to help me realign sore areas in my body and I am certain that she also helped me call my spirit back from wherever it had gone during labor. I had many insights and left her home feeling refreshed emotionally and spiritually. I sincerely believe every mother deserves to treat herself to a massage with Francine. As a mental health therapist, I believe it is a necessity to experience the release and realignment that she can intuitively provide so well. I can't wait to treat my husband and mother to a massage with her as well. Thank you Francine.

Perspective from a new dad:…read more My wife and I hired Jenny because we felt that she understood our concerns around childbirth; while we knew we'd have great healthcare in the Bay Area, we wanted to make sure we had an advocate for our family in the delivery room (not just agents of the hospital). At first we weren't sure what kind of doula would be right for us, as we were a couple of scientists looking for an experienced hand to guide us through the process, not... hippies. With her calm and gentle demeanor, Jenny was more than accommodating during our initial meeting. Throughout our pregnancy, Jenny provided us the research behind any suggestions she made and wasn't dogmatic about any one approach. As a prospective father, Jenny listened to me and made my concerns heard, too. Of course, I played a much smaller part in the engagement, but I appreciated that I wasn't an afterthought. Jenny was very helpful in giving both of us tips and exercises to do to prepare my wife for childbirth. Where Jenny's services really shined was, of course, during the big event. We called her when my wife started feeling early contractions on a Saturday morning and into the evening (10pm) and throughout the night (2am to 4am). She was responsive to text and phone calls throughout. We went to UCSF to see how dilated my wife was, and unfortunately we found out she wasn't that far along, so we returned home to Oakland. The next morning, things were _really_ picking up. We called Jenny over and my wife's water broke on Jenny's way over. When Jenny arrived, she assessed the situation and said we should call and start heading to a hospital. Then, the hospital recommended we call 911. While I coordinated the paramedics and firefighters that were taking my laboring wife into an ambulance, Jenny was coaching my wife and helping her deal with the intensity of the surges. I would not have been able to give my wife the support she needed without Jenny's help. The paramedics didn't think imminent birth was likely at all, but Jenny trusted my wife's instincts, despite the fact that she wasn't showing the traditional contraction pattern that indicates active labor! Jenny continued to help her through the contractions from the front seat of the ambulance. Ten minutes later, as that ambulance flung open its doors at the hospital, out came our baby's head. One more push and our son was born healthy as my wife was being rolled into the Emergency Department! Jenny helped us have the most wonderful (and adventurous) birth story, and we're so thankful for her help.

Jenny was my doula for the birth of my first child and she was wonderful! To be honest, we really…read moreweren't sure what to expect (I didn't know much about doulas and was paired with her through a volunteer program at my hospital), but was with us for ~12 hours of my home labor (i.e., before I went to the hospital and was able to get pain medications) and made this phase a ton more physically comfortable and mentally manageable. To begin with, Jenny came over for a meet & greet, established expectations, and gave us some sage advice and a few handouts to stew on. She was really good about staying in touch for the last couple of months of my pregnancy, asking for updates after each of my doctor's appointments. She also wanted to know when I started going into labor, making sure that I knew to call her, especially if it was in the middle of the night. She was always super responsive by text, and she took a cab over around 4am when I did go into labor and my contractions got very painful - basically when my hospital said I wasn't far enough to come in yet, and this was a good time to focus on home labor and to call my doula if I had one. For my partner and I, who were completely inexperienced and mentally unprepared for the intensity of the contractions, Jenny was a complete godsend. She guided us in setting up several coping "stations" using various props, like pillows, our yoga ball and a hall banister, which each facilitated different stretches or poses. One thing she excelled at was tracking my contractions and managing my expectations for progress. Another was helping me manage my pain. Specifically, she leveraged her training as a massage therapist to massage my shoulders and back, do these great hip presses, and applied a TENS (electric pulse) Unit to my lower back muscles. All these things together made my last 12 hours before I could go to the hospital much more relaxed and manageable, and helped me keep my energy up for the long stretch ahead of me. Throughout the whole process, Jenny did a great job soothing our minds and my cramping muscles. I highly recommend her as a doula!

Emma is nothing short of incredible and working with her was one of the best decisions we made to…read moreprepare for birth and postpartum. She met with my husband and I several times in person ahead of the birth to help us think through our plans and honestly educate us on everything we could expect since we were first time parents. Genuinely found her much more helpful in learning what to expect than any of the birth prep classes or books I read. She gave us options without judgement and with lots of follow up research so we could make the right decision for us. When we unexpectedly had to pivot to an early induction, I was so thankful to have Emma to call. She calmed me down and really helped me plan for this big change so I went in ready and confident. During the birth, she was my all seeing guardian angel. She was very respectful of the doctors and nurses but would give me translations for why they might be pushing for certain measures and what all my options were. She spotted dips in my blood pressure and baby's monitor not working at 4am while I was asleep and made sure the nurses acted (I'm really thankful for that!). My husband who is the ultimate pragmatist is a big fan of Emma and we both give her so much credit for taking what could have been a scary and overwhelming experience and making it extremely positive. She was there for our postpartum too and helped troubleshoot some of those new parent worries. Emma is caring, kind, grounded, and an excellent listener and advocate. Cannot recommend her more highly!

Working with Emma throughout my pregnancy, birth, and postpartum was a wonderful experience…read more Meeting with her several times in advance of the birth to talk and create a set of birth intentions helped me and my husband feel more confident and excited about the prospect of the birth and transition into the early days of parenthood. It's so easy to get caught up in the anxiety and fear that come with all the unknowns of pregnancy, but from the first time we met with Emma I felt more calm. She helped us prepare for what to expect emotionally and physically, how to best think through the decision making process at the hospital, and what we would need in the postpartum time. She makes it very clear that the right choice (and there are so many when you are pregnant- home birth, birth center, hospital birth, epidural, etc etc etc etc) is whatever feels right for YOU! She is incredibly kind and open minded, and does not bring any sense of judgment for whatever kind of birth you are wanting to have. On the day of my labor and delivery Emma was a calm presence throughout the day. The labor and delivery nurses were even commenting to us in the elevator on the way to the postpartum floor what an incredible doula we'd chosen (they commented that some doulas expect to only show up when you're about to push, and that couldn't have been farther from our experience!) And she took some wonderful photos for us :) I have already recommended Emma to my pregnant friends, and would highly suggest working with her if you are looking for a birth doula, it is an investment worth making!

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.

We paid $3,000 for doula services that included two prenatal appointments, birth support, and two…read morepostpartum visits. While Kirsten was present for the birth, everything fell apart after we came home from the hospital. We spoke on the phone shortly after returning from the hospital and then texted to coordinate our first postpartum visit. The morning of the scheduled visit, she canceled, saying she was called to another birth and would reschedule. She never followed up. I reached out multiple times over the next few weeks, kindly, patiently, and assuming something might have happened. I never received a response. Eventually, I left a public comment on her Instagram asking for a response concerning for the services we paid for but never received. Instead of responding, she blocked me. She provided a contract when we hired her with all of these services laid out and yet, she is the one who has now broken the contract and technically owes us money. But this isn't even about the money. It's about what emotional hardship this has added to the most vulnerable time of my life. What makes this even more painful is that I was physically and emotionally recovering from a traumatic delivery. I had trusted her to be part of my postpartum support system. Instead, I was left feeling confused, abandoned, and incredibly sad. I would not recommend this doula to anyone. Ghosting a client after childbirth is not only unprofessional, it's cruel.

Where to begin with the lovely Kirsten! Kirsten was our postpartum doula from when our baby boy was…read moreborn in January to when he was 5 weeks old. My husband and I instantly knew when we video called with Kirsten that she was the postpartum doula we had been looking for. Friendly, knowledgable and she immediately put us at ease with the idea of someone coming into our home during the vulnerable PP period. Kirsten was always exactly on time and ready to get started. She showed endless enthusiasm for answering any questions we had about our baby and listened with a kind ear to any struggles we were experiencing PP or with our baby. She also had great patience for our our very yappy senior chihuahua! We never once felt worried about our baby being cared for by Kirsten, it was clear from the outset how much she liked newborns and we could always hear her chatting away to our baby boy on their way upstairs. Every night at 10pm, no matter how hard our day might have been, we looked forward to Kirsten's arrival so we could debrief our day with her and get ready for some good quality sleep! Having had a C-Section, Kirsten's goal of getting me as much sleep as I could realistically get depending on my baby's needs was exactly what I needed. For my husband, I believe the extra sleep he got during the time we had Kirsten with us was invaluable and helped him to really enjoy bonding with our new baby in the day. I found the idea of pumping quite intimidating and had barely opening the box before baby, but Kirsten was very knowledgable and helped me set up my pump and get into a good rhythm with it! She was also always on hand to offer breastfeeding support. I am still confidently navigating pumping and BF nearly 4 months later! Kirsten's experience as an infant nanny meant that she was excellent at learning our specific baby's needs and she had a lot of knowledge on how to get our baby good quality sleep. By 5 weeks old our little boy was comfortably doing long stretches of sleep - sometimes 8-10 hours - and I credit Kirsten's guidance and responsiveness to our baby's needs for this development! Kirsten was full of insight and tips to help us during our days alone, it was always clear she knew A LOT about babies and we quickly dubbed her the 'baby whisperer'. Many times our baby would go through a developmental leap and Kirsten would call it before it even happened! As if being the baby whisperer wasn't enough, Kirsten also cooked us many delicious meals in her role as a postpartum chef. Her menu was very varied and we always enjoyed eating from it. Without family help during our first 5 weeks this meal support helped us stay more energized and taken care of, rather than having to default to takeout every night. We were so sad to say goodbye to Kirsten as not only did we appreciate her support but we also enjoyed her company very much! However, the skills and knowledge Kirsten helped us develop meant we felt very ready to transition to our next chapter taking care of our baby boy on our own. I would not hesitate to reccomend Kirsten as a postpartum doula, it was a blessing to have her with us and a time I will always remember fondly. We can only hope she's available if we ever have baby number two!

My wife and I cherished Michi's wisdom, expertise and support before, during and after our daughter…read morewas born. We met Michi when we were seeking advice on how to navigate the bureaucracy of Kaiser. Michi coached us on how to advocate for the type of birthing experience we wanted, and also introduced us to a phenomenal midwife in the Kaiser system who would listen and support us in our birthing journey. We met with Michi several times prior to my wife going in labor. They helped us build a solid birthing plan and also provided ample information about what the experience would be like so we could have an understanding of what was ahead of us. Michi was able to answer all of our questions, and their steady, peaceful confidence was a blessing through the entire experience. When my wife began the laboring process at home, Michi was the first to arrive and was extraordinary in terms of keeping us all calm and focused. They provided a great deal of comfort and support as we began the life changing experience of birth. Additionally, their knowledge of spinning babies techniques was so helpful as the labor continued on. When we needed to transition to the hospital (and pivot from our plans for a home birth) Michi was a godsend. They were an extraordinary advocate and thought partner as we navigated all the decisions that had to be made while also being throughly exhausted (and my wife was still laboring). I truly cannot express how grateful I am to have had Michi by my side as I supported my wife. Michi coached me on what to do while also being a helpful and calming presence for my wife. After our healthy and happy baby came into the world, Michi came to our home to check in on us, do an abdominal massage for my wife, and did a beautiful ritual to acknowledge the transition into motherhood we had experienced. I've recommended Michi to every friend I know who has had a baby recently. I cannot sing their praises highly enough. They have deep knowledge and expertise in the hospital medicine side of things, while also holding vast wisdom and connection to the spiritual core of the experience. Working with Michi is a gift, and I hope you are able to partner with them as you begin your birthing journey.

This is my second (and last) pregnancy and I vowed to myself that I would lean into self-care this…read moretime around. My previous pregnancy was difficult to do so as our first born was born during peak COVID. This second pregnancy was of course much different than the first with more and new aches/pains. I found myself needing more massages and acupuncture, so of course I wanted to continue the act of self-care in my postpartum recovery. I had read about belly binding and the benefits and was researching bay are folks who performed this. That is when I found Michi. She came to my home - very convenient considering we're laying low with a newborn - and combined a very soothing, lovely uterine massage with the belly binding. In addition, she also showed my husband the technique to wrap me so I can take it off here and there. After Michi wrapped me, my uterus and hips felt super supported! It was an unfamiliar feeling (or maybe I had forgotten) to feel as if my uterus was going to fall out prior to this belly binding. Being my second pregnancy I was told it will take longer for my uterus to contract back to normal size, but very confident this belly binding will help with that! I highly recommend Michi! And, I will be looking to book her for other services as well. She is gentle, calm and kind - truly a lovely person.