Jenn completely changed my postpartum experience for the better. We got home from the hospital and…read morewere lost when it came to establishing a feeding routine that would be sustainable and support our little one. She spent so much time and energy and thoughtfulness walking us through a solid schedule and approach that worked seamlessly in our lives. She doesn't provide a standard approach, but rather tailors her recommendations to the family and baby at hand. Jenn came highly recommended from a friend and our pediatrician said that she's one of the two lactation specialists that she relies on in her practice. Highly recommend working with Jenn.

Jenn made a huge impact on my breastfeeding journey with just one visit. I had been triple feeding…read morefor weeks and had contemplated giving up on breastfeeding. Pediatricians weren't able to give us a path off of supplementing and we had gotten a lot of overwhelming advice of various treatments to improve transfer. Jenn did a thoughtful evaluation and gave us a very straightforward and actionable plan to transition off of triple feeding. She really built up my confidence around breastfeeding and within two weeks we were exclusively nursing. She also checked in a few times in the following week to see how things were going. Overall a really positive experience!

I cannot recommend Marilou at Doulas by the Bay highly enough. She was our postpartum night doula…read morefor the first few weeks after our son was born, and she was incredible. As new parents, the sleep deprivation is real, but knowing she was there allowed us to finally get the much-needed rest we required to function. Beyond just being a set of expert hands, she became a trusted guide for us and taught us invaluable newborn care tips that we still use daily. We trusted her implicitly with our baby from night one which was critical for us as anxious new parents. Marilou's calm, professional, and warm presence made us feel so at ease during a very vulnerable time. We truly loved our time with her and are so grateful for the care she provided. If you are looking for a doula who is knowledgeable, nurturing, and completely trustworthy, Marilou is amazing!

We had an incredible experience with Sally for our son from when he was 1-3 months. She was…read moreconsistently punctual, professional, and incredibly kind. Beyond just helping with night feeds, she took the initiative with bottles and laundry, which was a huge help to our family. We felt completely at ease knowing our little one was in such caring hands. In addition, she helped with sleep training. Additionally, the office staff was a pleasure to work with. They were extremely professional and maintained a quick turnaround time on all our requests and paperwork. We highly recommend this team for anyone looking for top-tier newborn care!

It's rare that I'd describe a retail store as "life changing" but this little shop was. In my raw,…read morepostpartum days after an emergency c section and a ten day stay in a hospital, I was breastfeeding and desperate for clothes I didn't feel terrible in and that I could breastfeed easily in. I stopped here and not only did they provide a cozy, private place for me to breastfeed with a helpful Breast Friend pillow, they also had changing tables and a scale for me to use, which brought me peace of mind. Then the nice young lady working there (after giving me space and privacy to nurse) helped me find nursing bras that I love (bravado, sadly being discontinued) and I even found some great nursing shirts that I wear every day. Please support this wonderful women owned shop!

Healthy Horizons is a great place to get lactation help and they have such cute clothing as well…read more.... have to remember to stop here for the next baby shower! I am writing this review because Sheila Janakos doesn't just help new parents in her store/lactation support center but she is also a generous soul who helps the community. I have been on the board of a nonprofit for 32 years now called Nursing Mothers Counsel which provides free lactation support via phone with volunteers trained in lactation and counseling support. We are a great back up source for parents who may not need the expert support that Sheila and her IBCLC staff provide, or who are in need of support after business hours. We are so grateful to Healthy Horizons for donating 4 Medela Symphony Pumps to NMC for use as grant rentals for low income families we serve. This substantial donation will certainly help many low income families in the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County. Sheila has remained an affiliate member of our small non-profit and supported NMC with donations throughout her many years associated with our organization. Thank you so much Sheila and Healthy Horizons for your generosity and support!

Amanda is absolutely a doll! She was so easy to communicate, helpful of all hours, and really made…read morea bug difference in my breastfeeding journey. I hired her as a private LC because I didn't feel that clinic LC had enough time with each client and getting into one with a newborn isn't very convenient. Amanda and I did one before I delivered to help ensure that I had all the tips and tools needed to make my BF journey as successful as possible. After our consult she was still available to help troubleshoot and advise me. I am forever grateful to ever meet Amanda!

Amanda is a compassionate and knowledgeable resource for all families. She provides a caring and…read morewell informed approach to lactation support. Breastfeeding can be stressful and the support and information received from many doctors and hospitals is lacking. That's where Amanda comes in! She helps ease your fears, looks at the big picture and stays solution oriented. Additionally, her background as a NP gives her a breadth of knowledge to truly provide families with all the information they need to successfully breastfeed. So happy to find her, she is wonderful and I highly recommend her!

Sara is truly a baby whisperer. After our move to San Francisco from London, she helped our son…read moreadjust his jet lag and then guided us through a gentle sleep training approach that really clicked for him. Very quickly, our little guy was sleeping through the night and taking long, restorative naps. Before working with Sara, we were really struggling. He was waking regularly throughout the night, and we were doing everything to get him back down. It was taking a real toll on our whole family. What made Sara stand out immediately was how aligned she was with our values. We are very conscious of attachment, and any version of cry-it-out or Ferber felt far too harsh for us. Sara's approach was gentle, thoughtful, and deeply respectful of both baby and parents. She gave us a framework that felt humane, intuitive, and sustainable. She is incredibly patient, generous with her knowledge, and so perceptive. One of the most amazing things she taught us was how to really tune into the different kinds of cries and better understand what our son was actually communicating. That alone was invaluable. We are so grateful for Sara and all of her guidance during this chapter. She brought so much calm, clarity, and confidence into our home at a time when we really needed it. When we have a second baby, she will absolutely be our first call.

I logged into my Yelp account for the first time JUST to review Sara, because I can't imagine doing…read morethis first-time mom thing without her. She just knows absolutely everything about babies, and knowing that I could call on her gave me so much confidence and comfort. Some of the best things about Sara: - Most importantly, Sara gets results! Our baby was a pretty good sleeper from the get go, but as soon as the doctor gave us the go-ahead to stop waking him to feed every three hours, Sara had him sleeping six hours a night. By two months after his due date, he was sleeping 10 hours, and at six months, he's sleeping 12 hours a night with no noticeable regression. - Hiring Sara doesn't just give you relief for one night. She gives you a game plan to develop good sleep habits that you can implement on the nights she's not there, so that your baby becomes a good sleeper every night. We had done all the reading and online courses (Taking Cara Babies, etc.), but it's just different doing it in real life, and Sara can show you how to apply that generic wisdom to your specific baby. For example: She figured out--without us having to experiment for months--that the best thing for our baby was firmly tapping his hip so his whole torso jostled slightly. It relaxed him and got him right back to sleep. We theoretically knew that movement/rocking helped babies, but would never have thought to apply that to our baby by patting his hip! - She has literally seen it all and can help with any kind of baby. Our baby was a preemie who spent weeks in the NICU and had to take a cross-country flight very early and then adjust to a new home. Sara put us instantly at ease with caring for him overnight, despite his special needs, and had very concrete ideas about how to adapt the conventional sleep wisdom to his specific circumstance. - You will face no judgment from Sara. She's seen it all and knows way more than you, but she is super deferential to your decisions on parenting and will share hilarious stories about her own child-rearing experience to make you feel comfortable. - She's attentive to all facets of your baby's well-being, not just his sleep. On the very first night she came to us, she noticed that the way we were mixing baby's formula (shaking instead of swirling) was likely to worsen his reflux. Literally overnight, our baby went from shrieking in agony and arching his back after every feed to having bad reflux symptoms maybe once or twice a week. For that alone, I would have paid Sara any sum of money. - Having Sara in our Rolodex has made us much more adventurous and confident parents. We took a trip to Hawaii and are planning a trip to Japan; I doubt we would have done either without Sara's assurance that she'd get our baby back on track and over jetlag in a night or two. - She gets results fast. After five months of ignoring Sara's nap/daytime recommendations and winding up with a baby that required hours of movement/snuggling/very specific sounds to fall asleep during the day, we finally caved and asked Sara for a daytime consult. In literally a single two-hour stretch, she got our baby falling asleep easily in his crib for naps and has freed up hours of our day. - She's not at all doctrinaire about baby sleep philosophies. She's not a hippie dippie doula who makes you feel guilty if your child fusses or cries. But she also doesn't use crying it out or Ferber or any of harsher sleep training schools. She meets the parents where they are comfortable and is happy to use whatever method they think is best. But we deferred to her recommendation (for naps; she got us full nights of sleep with zero crying)--which involve some crying, but never more than a minute or two, and never without you cuddling and comforting when it felt right--and it worked really well for our baby. I could go on and on, but send me a message if you want more details. I know she's expensive, but it's one of the best investments we've made. It was worth every dollar to get enough sleep; it made us happier people and better parents.

Catriona lived above me for 3 years and, in my opinion, made my life torturous and unsafe. No…read morecompromises were accepted with my DJ hobby of 20+ years, as she was trying to illegally run short-terms rentals a la AIRbnb secretly against our landlady's leasing agreement. Tried to gain access to my portion of the house violently when in a fervor, bashed my door numerous times when I was playing music at reasonable levels in the early evening, and fabricated false narratives of harassment in an attempt to weaponize my landlady's power in order to have me evicted so she could take over the entire building. Admitted to meeting with housing authorities and police-friends in a crusade to make me homeless when I had done absolutely nothing wrong except perhaps "slight" her and disrespect her by turning down sexual advances she made one evening in our shared laundry room. Even went as far as to employ her "houseguest" Omar to harass and disturb me in order to create a hostile living environment that would cause want to vacate. Held 3 formal meetings that I overheard (I'm sure there were plenty more, but these I heard distinctly and notated) with the primary subject being "how can we get him to want to leave" with her brother, cousin, and various friends/family members brainstorming ideas such as having her dog attack my indoor kittens, hack my video game systems to take footage of nudity/personal habits in order to blackmail me or turn them over to my landlady, and forge a vacation sweepstakes win which would get me off the property for a week or 2 in which time they would destroy my belongings and change the locks. Pretty extreme (though points for creativity!) stuff for a neighbor-spat. I personally find Catriona to be sociopathic and would NEVER trust her with a blade of grass, let alone my infant and home and loved ones. All personal opinion of course, but with all these previous claims I do have evidence. Even more outrageous stuff that I will leave out because of lack of tangible evidence, but needless to say, I find her to a horror of a human being and as I type this, the harassment continues through numerous avenues because of vengeance and lack of mental stability. All of this in my subjective opinion, of course, as I don't want to be subjected to legal liable. Beware interaction and subsequent involvement into your lives.

Catriona has been wonderful with our newborn baby and supporting our family as we transition into…read moreparenthood. I really can't imagine bringing a newborn home without her support. Truly, it was the best money we've spent on all things baby related. She helped me to set up my own routine to adjust to life with a baby and has gotten our baby on a schedule that helps him sleep through the night.

I couldn't be luckier I found Maria to help me out. I started working with Maria when my daughter…read morewas 2 weeks old after a few unsuccessful doula hires. Honestly, finding her was like a breath of fresh air. Initially, I thought my life is not going to be the same again but step by step she showed me that everything is doable even with a small baby. She helped me for the first 12 weeks right until we started the daycare. She is caring, genuine and professional. Having 2 kids of her own made her learn a lot about the babies and she LOVES taking care of the little ones. I would recommend her services to any mom. She was there for my daughter and me, helping out with the baby, light household cleaning and making sure I get my rest too. She was always on top of making sure the nursery is clean, and everything is organized. I literally didn't have to ask for much as she always was ahead of the game. She is also a professional massage therapist, so you can get a little treat here and there if you are lucky.

Melitta is 100% the reason why I'm breastfeeding my 6 month old and love it so so much. For the…read morefirst two months of my baby's life, he simply refused to latch. He didn't have a tongue tie, he just hated breastfeeding. I did too. Every single day I came so close to quitting because it was truly making me miserable. Well, I had two visits with Melitta, and she changed everything. She's warm and knowledgeable and not at all dogmatic about breastfeeding. I truly felt that she was there to help me to whatever I wanted to do and didn't have any agenda of her own. She was really observant about me and my baby's situation and was able to provide me with more than just random tips that I had already heard about how to be successful, but more like a paradigm shift in the way I think about breastfeeding. It's hard to explain, but she somehow took the pressure off and gave me a renewed confidence and openness at the same time. She also talked to my baby in a way I've never heard anyone talk to a baby before. She would look him in the eyes and say in a plain, kind voice things like, "Okay, now we're going to try something different, and you might find it frustrating, but that's okay." Hearing someone talk to a baby like a real person and treat them with respect left a really big impression on me and has influenced the way that I parent. I'm really in awe of how much Melitta has done for me. In the early days, I thought breastfeeding was the worst thing ever and I spent most of my waking hours thinking about how awful it was. Now it's easy, fast, convenient, and a huge source of joy for me and my baby.

Melitta was incredibly helpful with figuring out breastfeeding with our twins. Kaiser also offered…read moreLC services, and she was super clear about when she thought it would be helpful for her to visit and when she thought we should wait another few days. She was supportive and knew when I just needed to cry and let it out, and she gave me the most clear and helpful feedback for things to try to build my supply as well as how to be realistic about what my body was able to do. I recommend her to all my friends!

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!