What Support Do I Need?

Often families don’t know how to anticipate the unknown.  Setting you up for success is going to involve full spectrum doula support with prenatal education, labor, and postpartum support, with referrals to practitioners and community-based organizations that can support your growing family, too.  Every woman deserves a Birth Doula and a Postpartum Doula to nurture her and nourish her, and her family, through this special moment.

As your Certified Birth Doula, I support your birthing desires non-judgmentally and help you learn to self-advocate prior to your labor by making evidence-based, informed decisions based on your values and preferences.  I’m on-call to support you labor at home and at your choice of birthplace, wherever it may be, and teach your partner how to support you best.

Through two In-depth Birth Envisioning and Birth Interventions and Preferences Planning prenatal meetings, I’ll help you plan for your ideal birth experience, teach you factors that may influence your recovery, and provide evidence-based information so you can choose how to deal with scenarios if they arise during birth, while planning what you do and don’t want for your birthing time and your newborn’s procedures. You’ll learn ways to effectively communicate with your provider which can help slow medical decision making and provide value toward your intended birthing goals. Customized strategies for possible triggers we will have discussed will help your partner know how to make you more comfortable, along with physical and emotional measures we’ll decide on together. Partners: having a Birth Doula means you’ll have someone who has your back as a literal witness at the birth, as well as an educated and experienced support person who will guide you to best prepare and support your wife or loved one about to birth your precious baby.

Through training in childbirth hypnosis as a Hypnobabies Hypno-Doula, I found my birth clients to experience even shorter, more relaxing and more comfortable labors.  When I first heard about hypnosis, I was a huge doubter and I thought it had to be a trick but I was encouraged over and over again, hearing birth stories from another HypnoDoula about how easy women were laboring and decided to train in the extensive Hypnobabies Hypno-Doula program. I found my clients who take an instructor-led Hypnobabies childbirth class or those who do the Hypnobabies Home Study Self-Course have MUCH shorter labors (4-10 hours shorter) than women who choose traditional childbirth classes which focus on coping with the pain vs. hypnosis training on relaxation AND they’re falling asleep through birthing waves (contractions) at 10cm dilated (also called being “complete” when the cervix is fully dilated and pushing can begin!  My Hypnobabies birth clients experience phenomenal births when they use birth hypnosis specifically through Hypnobabies… so much I had to reduce my fee by $400 when hired as a Hypnobabies Birth Doula (versus my Basic Birth Doula package) because it makes my job so much easier, labor is shorter, and because I want each woman to be able to experience this profound type of birth they deserve.  It is so very fulfilling for me to guide an expecting mother through a safe, memorable, and empowering birth experience. Seeing expecting mothers benefit from much more comfortable and easier births using Hypnobabies as a Hypno-Doula inspired me greatly – which influenced me to changed my practice so much that I started teaching the Hypnobabies Childbirth Ed classes myself!

Through our private prenatal Tackle the 4th Trimester meeting (included when signing up for postpartum doula services) – or through a virtual group postpartum prep class via Zoom- you can learn what you need to setup your ideal postpartum recovery. Learning these ayurvedic methods prenatally prepares you for the best healing period so you have the healing foods and supplements on-hand and tools for the ideal postpartum experience you deserve. This includes learning how to life live for the first few weeks in 2-3 hour increments, until your newborn develops into an infant, and how to maximize rest and proper emotional and mental health, too.

As your Postpartum Doula, my passion includes supporting your incredible, life-changing moment of transition into motherhood by nurturing your new postpartum body (and heart), providing breastfeeding advice as a Certified Lactation Educator Counselor, as well as specialized newborn education and excellent care to your baby, and empowering your new role as a Mother through parent-child bonding.

This includes cooking your meals with my background as an Ayurveda Postpartum Doula, making sure you’re fed and hydrated with herbs and foods appropriate to your dosha type and to maximize milk production while toning your blood and lymphatic systems, easing digestion, and elimination.  I also provide reflexology massage and teach you abhyanga, the Ayurveda self-massage, and other daily rituals you can incorporate into your life as a new mother, because you matter too.  Learning how to carve out time for self-care during postpartum can equip you to achieving balance in your mind, body, and spirit, and also pass down wellness to your children as they grow.

Being trained as an Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula further allowed me to deepen my knowledge of how to balance the body based on each woman’s individual needs, and include more healing foods and herbs to both decrease baby blues and balance hormones while speeding the healing and strength in the body.  This promotes nutrient absorption for both the mother and the baby, building quality milk composition, better microbiome, and an abundant milk supply aided by the ayurvedic principles.

I also prepare you herbal sitz baths, breast and bottle-feeding support, pumping and milk storage assistance, umbilical and circumcision care, helping you learn to groom and bathe and massage your baby, baby laundry, nursery organization, and emotional guidance.

Other services that I provide which can speed your healing include pelvic/vaginal steaming as well as belly binding which can be found discounted in the a la carte Postpartum Wellness Packages.

In addition, through our Newborn Care Class, you’ll learn about newborn reflexes, how to help your baby through growth leaps during moments of important cognitive and physical development, how to interpret newborn cues through their five different cries, while learning baby grooming basics and specialized newborn care.

To learn more about the support roles, view the Birth & Postpartum FAQ.

After transitioning from solely working as an NCS (also known incorrectly as “night nurse”) to Postpartum Doula, Birth Doula support, and Lactation Consultant, I kept getting requests from clients when I got back home from work to bring more meals and tonics I’d made them. I saw the growing demand for nutritional support aside from my educational support, and created my ayurvedic postpartum meal delivery service, Nourish which was a huge success, helping postpartum women speed their healing faster from childbirth.

For almost a decade, I have been providing virtual support past the 4th trimester for older babies as a way for parents to get quick support for their growing babies after our immediate postpartum contracts ended. These virtual support sessions include:
Virtual Newborn Coaching, Virtual Infant Care Coaching, Virtual Teething Consultations, and Virtual Transitioning to Solids Consultations, and Lactation Consultations.

Naturally after the 4th trimester, families continue to grow and a need for a nanny arises. As a former Nanny who was part of 19 agencies in Los Angeles, I am aware of the 20%+ fees charged to new parents equaling $3600+ to find a nanny as their baby grows older. This always felt wrong to do to new parents who are starting to grow their family. I created Heartistic Families LLC Registry which helps my clients find a Newborn Care Specialist and/or Newborn Nanny at no charge to my clients as their babies grew older. My team of professionals are held to CA-state standards of being fingerprinted and background-checked through the required California Trustline Registry.

Join our Free Meet & Greet or scheduled a private Individual Consultation to get started.