I cant rave enough about Aris Ervin as my doula for the birth of my second child at home. I decided…read moreon a home birth midway through my pregnancy with my husband's support, but made the decision only a few weeks before my due date to hire a doula. I was so blessed to have Aris as my doula and part of my birthing team. Knowing she is an experienced labor & delivery nurse gave me even more reassurance of her expertise and the kind of support she could give that others could not. I had a beautiful birth story and it wouldn't be the same story without Aris. Aris was there for me every step of the labor, which was long and not progressing. I was worried and struggling through contractions but Aris has a calming presence about her; she guided me through positioning, exercises and at times just speaking positive affirmations that gave me peace in tough moments. I remember at one point after several hours of laboring, I stood up and my water broke. It was A LOT of fluid! I felt like i was standing in a small pool! But Aris was right there with me, holding me up while talking me through a painful contraction. I progressed quickly after that (pain was level 10) but my midwife had not arrived. Aris kept me calm and focused, and got me in the birth pool. When the midwife finally arrived, she and Aris moved quickly because my little girl was born moments later. It was a beautiful precipitous birth and I cant thank Aris enough for helping make it the experience that it was. She even managed to capture some photos of the birth for us that I am so grateful to have. I didn't realize how different the support and advocacy a doula contributes to the birth experience. And having Aris there was the calm during my birthing storm and I cannot recommend her enough! If you're on the fence, don't hesitate - Call the Doula!

Having Aris at my home birth transformed my labor experience. Her calm presence helped my anxiety…read moreto melt away. Her gentle touch, quiet spirit, and encouraging words helped me to peacefully progress through labor. Her suggestions about different body positions really helped me to labor more efficiently. After birth, she helped my husband tidy up from the labor, made sure I was comfortable, and that I had everything I needed for myself and the baby. This was such a relief! I am so thankful that she was present at my birth. I will definitely be reaching out for her help with the next one!

We hired The Birth Babes for postpartum nighttime support and we had a very positive experience!…read moreTaylor was our Doula and she is caring, trustworthy, and calm. She helped us survive those first 6 weeks and we couldn't be more grateful! We definitely recommend The Birth Babes.

Did a virtual consultation with Clare and she was incredibly helpful, kind, and very prompt to…read morerespond to any questions. She also made sure to follow up and see how I was doing. She helped fix a bad latch and extremely painful nipples. We were quickly on our way to a successful breastfeeding journey.

Brandy Walters with In-Home Lactation Specialists is a phenomenal lactation consultant. We chose to…read moreuse her services when our second child was demonstrating a few issues - she was wonderful to work with. First, I used her website to submit a request for consultation at 3 AM (newborn!) she emailed me back by 8 am with a few opportunities to meet. She came to my house, weighed the baby, did an interview with me and then I demonstrated nursing where she showed me a number of holds, resources and tools to use to help my baby. She was calm, funny and very at ease with my baby - I learned a lot from her. She offered her services throughout our nursing career via email and phone at no charge (unless she needed to come do a home visit again) Highly recommend her services to any breastfeeding mother.

I/we could not give a high enough rating! What started as a prenatal/natural birth class became so…read moremuch more because of the care and knowledge brought to each session. We've so looked forward to our time together and the connection that was built.

I wish I could give the team at LLB&F more than 5 stars. I hired them for doula services, birth…read moreclasses, and lactation advices for my first pregnancy. I started with them in April/May and am still using them for support after my baby has been born for 2 months now. With COVID being an issue this year, the team is regularly tested before they visit you and wear masks at all times. They offer online courses, consultations, and tons of resources. The consultation we initially had to determine if I wanted to use them as my doula(s) was simple and felt very natural. They were all so easy to talk to and they answered all my questions thoroughly and made my feel at ease that I knew right away I wanted them as my doula. I had the Down and Dirty birth classes with Christie. There were 2 classes. Both were for what I could do during pregnancy to ease my body, exercises to do, plans for after birth, plans for during birth, what I could expect before, during, and after birth, and even a short newborn section on how to care for my baby when we got home. She was so detailed and gave so many resources for my spouse and I to review together. It was honestly so much better than reading a dozen birth books or watching youtube videos of similar classes. During my pregnancy, I was given a team of 3 doulas (Lisa, Kate, & Kelly) that I could contact at any time for questions, pregnancy concerns, venting, or whatever I needed. They were always helpful and made me feel comfortable to talk to them about anything, including the gross stuff associated with being pregnant. During my birth, Lisa was on call and arrived at the hospital very quickly since I went into spontaneous labor. She helped me get comfortable since I was attached to 2 different IV's and was restricted to only being on the bed and helped me advocate for myself since I had a lot going on and pressure to break my water and start pushing when I wasn't ready. She helped my spouse with affirmations and what he could do to stay comfortable, help me, or even get food while she stayed in the room. While I was giving birth, she was great at coaching helped me push and helped my spouse with what he could do to help me as well. They were a great team that I definitely needed. Lisa stayed for a few hours after baby arrived. She made sure everything was going smoothly, that my spouse and I were okay, that baby was okay, we were getting enough skin-to-skin time and additional food/water if we needed it. Postpartum, the team stayed in contact every day to make sure I was doing okay. LLB&F offers house support during the day or at night but I opted out due to COVID. Kate is my lactation consultant and I needed her 2 days after I came home from the hospital. I was having a meltdown on breastfeeding and she was there that night to help me out. We went over everything I was concerned with, including the different bottles I had and their flow, how my baby was latching and different ways to hold him, and how to express my milk, pump, and gather it during breastfeeding. I have stayed in contact with her for weeks and even months now with random questions or concerns I have during my baby's growth with breastfeeding. Kate has always been there for me and at this point I consider her one of my friends thats how close we have gotten through this journey. I have recommended LLB&F to all of my friends and family who plan on having kids. My excitement and happiness with them throughout my entire pregnancy journey has been unmeasurable. I'm so happy I chose them and will be using them again. As if their personal care wasn't enough, they also offer affordable doula support for those who need it and they are active in the LGBTQ+ community as well. I have learned so much through them and am still learning every day from their Instagram @livelightdetroit. Thank you Christie, Kelly, Lisa, and Kate for giving me the best support, learning tools, and now a lifetime of friendship. I can't wait to see you all again.

I have only just met with Kristen about being my doula, so this review is based off a single…read moreconsultation. With that being said, I'm extremely happy with how she handled things with me. I will be a first time mom, come March 2015... so needless to say I'm extremely nervous about the birth process. I called her late one evening, expecting to get her voicemail... and she picked up!! I explained my feelings, and although she was at a birth, she had a few minutes to talk to me. She told me that birthing classes may help educate me and calm my nerves quite a bit. So we ended up setting a time to meet a few days after we talked. She was extremely professional, came with a lot of information for my fiance and I to read, and had a wealth of information that she shared with us. I still have yet to call her and officially hire her by signing my contract, but I got very good information and felt very comfortable with her.

I strongly advise against using this service if there's any chance of a cancellation and they're…read moreunable to make it. You'll still be out the entire amount you paid because of an unforeseen circumstance. Neither doula showed up, leaving us over $2000 out of pocket with no compensation or sympathy from the service provider.

I can't recommend Angela highly enough! She went above and beyond all expectations. She came to the…read morehospital at 7am to help us advocate for ourselves and help us decide between an induction or repeat c section at just 34 weeks. We chose induction and sent her home for a while as we knew it was going to be a long day. She kept continuous contact via text and made the call to come back on her own once my waters had broken. At that point I was handling contractions great, but within an hour of her arrival they intensified quickly, like she knew exactly when I would need her. She was a continuous calming presence for me, helped my husband in supporting me, and provided a barrier between me and the constant interruption of doctors and nurses checking in. When baby started having scary heart decels she remained calm and warned me a lot of people were about to come into the room and what was happening. Despite knowing things weren't going the way I wanted her demeanor helped me remain calm. The call was made to have a repeat c section. Angela accompanied us to the OR for a 2-ish hour surgery as I had so much scar tissue from prior c sections. Our preemie was born an hour in and my husband followed her to the NICU. Angela stayed with me holding my hand and telling me what was happening almost the entire time, only leaving my side when I requested her to get an update on my baby. She followed me to recovery and stayed until I was ready for her to leave. My husband had been concerned about whether a doula would be "worth it" in the event of a c section, and I can confidently say she was worth every penny and I would do it all over again. In fact, if we didn't live so far away (almost 2 hours) I would hire her for postpartum care as well. She has continued to remain in contact during our NICU stay, checking in on me, my healing, my mental state, and asking about baby. We love Angela and are so grateful for the love and care she provided us through this beautiful and scary experience.

Sima was wonderful! This was my 3rd baby. I had never used an in-home lactation consultant before…read moreand wish I would have with all three children. Sima was warm, friendly, and professional. She immediately let me know the things I was doing right. She also helped me with some issues I was having with my newborn including: --Newborn being up all night and sleeping during the day. Her tips helped the baby move into a daytime routine. --Incorporated my husband by teaching him to use an eye dropper and ensuring to feed the newborn only when she is sucking. This allowed me some MUCH needed extra sleep. I no longer feel like I'm in this alone. --Newborn wanted to feed for over an hour. The newborn still cluster feeds; however, her advise helped me recognize when the baby was actually hungry vs. comforting herself. This aided significantly in cutting down the amount of time she is up at night --Nipple discomfort and soreness. I have cracked and bleeding nipples. She gave me recommendations on how I can promote healing and lower pain. She also has a nipple cream in her arsenal that helps with recovery. --Newborn biting. She gave me tips on how to educate the baby not to bite during breastfeeding Overall, having Sima come to my house was a positive change for myself and the rest of my family. It took only a couple of days using her advice to feel more like myself instead of an exhausted, inpatient, and sore Mom. Granted, the newborn is only 1 week old. I don't expect her to sleep through the night; however, Sima helped in getting me 3-4 hour blocks of sleep instead of an hour here and there. It's life changing. Sima is absolutely wonderful. I will recommend her to everyone I know having any type of issue with breastfeeding.

I worked with Sima at A Mothers Touch and had a great experience! Her support and recommendations…read morehelped my son and I get back on track with breastfeeding. She was incredibly gentle with both mom and baby, was not judgmental and made small tweaks instead of major changes that would be hard to implement. Sima is easy to get in touch with through phone or text and her personal follow ups after the session let you know she really cares about her clients. I am a second time mom and originally thought we wouldn't need a Lactation consultant again but every baby is different and I'm so glad we got in touch with Sima.

Unbelievably grateful for the care I received with the amazing Midwives & Nurses at ABC. It was…read morebasically word of mouth that I was encouraged to switch from Women's First in Royal Oak and delivering at Beaumont to The ABC. And I honestly can't express how extraordinary my labor experience was. The level of care provided to me and my beautiful son was unmatched. When I was a patient at Women's First - I felt there was very little attention paid to educating first time parents and the overall care was very industrialized (even from the Midwife) it's basically churning out care and I have really heard negative things about the coldness of care at Beaumont. Without getting too deep into the details - I had a very long labor (30+ hours) - ended up getting drugs - and pushed for 4 straight hours. Every step of the way my hand was held by the beautiful woman of the ABC (Midwives Emily, Andrea, Danielle and Nurses Christy & Jesse) all supported me like family - joined by our doula (Metro Detroit Doula Service (a must) and my husband. It was difficult and unbelievable all wrapped in one huge life changing experience. We also were so well cared for after the fact in the wonderful ABC (we stayed 2 nights) and I really believe the success my son & I have had with breastfeeding is due to the great guidance of the nurses. I wish more women/families knew this is how your birth experience should/can be. I will sing their praises forever and hope they understand the valuable place they have within our family. It seems amazing care is rare these days. If you're thinking about the ABC you're in the best hands.

Ali, the ICU nurse, is amazing. My dad was on his unit, and he checked on my dad frequently, so…read moremuch I told him to take a break, lol. Ali's natural nurturing aura was served with such grace. Ali is attentive to my father as well as our family. The best nurse I've experienced here, hands down. Please give this man some recognition!