I could not imagine my first birth without Becca! From the very first phone call, I felt an instant…read moreconnection with her--she's such a kind, caring soul and a true expert in her field. One of the things that impressed me most was how seamlessly she read the dynamic between me and my husband. She always knew when to step in with support and when to step back and give us space. That balance was invaluable during such an emotional, vulnerable time. When my birth plan didn't go the way I had envisioned, Becca's expert advice and calm presence gave me so much security in the decisions I had to make. She helped me feel grounded, informed, and confident every step of the way and encouraged me to listen to my instinct and body. Another aspect of her support that you simply can't put a price on is how connected she is at Kaiser. She knew nearly every midwife and nurse, and because of her strong relationships there, I felt reassured that the care I was receiving was exactly what I needed. Her presence gave me an extra layer of trust in the whole process. Becca communicated beautifully, supported us with such compassion, and helped make my first birth experience one that I will cherish forever. I can't recommend her enough--if you're considering a doula, Becca is truly one of a kind! Thank you so much Becca!

Becca was a god send during the first couple of months as a first time mom. After a hard emergency…read morec-section she took care of me and my baby with love, compassion and care. I would absolutely recommend Becca. Becca, if you read this we miss you, and so does Hannah :)

My wife and I had our third baby at home through Thrive in November, and again, I can do nothing…read morebut sing their praises. I had complete confidence that Thrive had our best interests at heart every moment my wife and son were in their care. As usual, they practiced informed consent, validation of experiences, and love to a degree that I have never seen or even dreamed of previously in health care settings. The highlight of this birth experience was (of course) the birth itself. This time we were graced with three of the midwives through good fortune. Again, immediately after birth, our newborn struggled to take his first breaths. We waited about 8 minutes for him to take that first breath, and yet, my wife, daughter, son and I were all calm and felt immensely supported in that moment by the three women in our presence who absolutely knew what their calling was and what their roles were in that moment. It is hard to comprehend how different that experience could have felt from a sterile, medical, environment of a hospital, and how different our newborn's first few minutes, hours, and days after birth could have been. Not to mention how the perception and feelings surrounding births could have been malformed for our young son and daughter. We are so immensely thankful to have this collective of women in Sonoma County who are such a breath of fresh air!

We had our baby at Thrive in July and it was the best experience! This was our first baby and we…read moreare so happy we decided to transfer our care from Kaiser to Thrive. The midwives are amazing; supportive, loving and really helpful. I had pregnancy insomnia and Tracy turned me onto a sleep tincture that she sells and it was like magic. I was finally able to sleep!!! The appointments were an hour long and the post partum appointments are at your home! We had trouble with breastfeeding and received so much support through text and having them come to our house. We cannot say enough good things about Thrive and Taya, Tracy, Morgan and Hannah.

Aly is a peaceful and strong force, exactly the energy you want by your side during child birth. As…read morea first time mom I was nervous, uneducated and unsure what was best for me and baby. Aly put me at ease and guided me through the entire journey from pregnancy, child birth and postpartum. It is such an intimate time and I felt completely comfortable and supported every step of the way. Aly was by our side from laboring at home to the hospital birth. I don't know what me and my husband would have done without her. Eternally grateful for her wisdom, dedication and advocacy. Thank you Aly!!

I can highly recommend Aly as both a delivery AND postpartum doula!…read more Two of my friends had worked with Aly. One had her as their postpartum night doula, and the other to help with delivery. So I didn't think twice about hiring her, based on their recommendations. Our whole experience with her from start to finish was wonderful. To prep us for delivery, Aly shared some great resources and sat with us patiently and calmly asking questions, educating us about options, and helping us figure out what we wanted (which was a natural as possible and very intentional birth experience, but in a hospital setting). Aly arrived at the perfect time, right as things were ramping up, and coached me beautifully through the end of my delivery. After a few sleepless nights, we decided to bring her in for nighttime help 2x/week and her support helped us get through those first few weeks feeling pretty good! She is also a total sweetheart, thoughtful, warm, and just a joy to be around. Thank you again Aly!

Krista is sensitive to our needs, informative on questions and extremely competent and loving in…read moreinteracting with our grandson. She has been an integral part of the team and I so appreciate her involvement!

What a kind caring individual. We have here. Krista is highly qualified and loves babies!read more

I knew I wanted to have a doula as a first time mom having a hospital birth to have extra support…read morefor my husband and I. The idea of having photos or videos was an added bonus and when I found Paige, I was so happy to see that she could do it all! Paige made us feel so comfortable and prepared from the start, and I was really confident going into my birth that I would have the support that I needed. I don't think it would've been possible to have the amazing birth experience that I did without her. She helped coach me through contractions, manage pain, and helped my mom and husband better support me. It really made all the difference. We also ended up going with a photo and video package which was such a great decision. Birth is a crazy experience and it's so nice having it documented, especially all our special first moments together. I highly recommend hiring Paige!

Paige was amazing to work with. I hired her for our family maternity shoot and newborn shoot. She…read moreis patient, calm, positive and has an amazing eye. I looked at dozens of other websites and photographers in the area, I feel that her editing and her whimsical style was perfect for what I was looking for. She came to the Santa Cruz area and met us along the coast line in the spot that we picked out. Although there were many moving parts, she was able to truly capture the moment and I am thrilled with our photos!! We look forward to the newborn shoot to come...

Doula Care Collective provides community for families. Whether you need birth support, postpartum…read morecare or go to one of their monthly educational gatherings you won't be disappointed. It takes a village! I highly recommend reaching out if you are looking for any of the above!

There truly aren't enough words to describe how incredible my postpartum experience was because of…read moreKavita. As a third-time mom, I knew we wanted night support, but I still felt a bit apprehensive and nervous...having someone else watch my baby while I was sleeping is daunting! However, from my very first conversation with her, I knew she was the perfect fit for our family. Kavita brought an immediate sense of peace, calm, and trust into our home. With a 4 and 2 year old to care for as well, her presence made such a huge difference. Because of the support she gave me (and the sleep I was actually able to get!), I felt like I could actually function and keep up with all three kids. She has such a gentle, intuitive way about her--she not only cared for our son with so much love and expertise, but also supported me in a way that made me feel truly seen and cared for. I'm endlessly grateful for the role she played in such a special time in our lives. If you're looking for a postpartum doula, look no further. I cannot recommend her enough--she's literally an angel!

Kavita is an incredible Doula. As a first time dad, I felt like Kavita had so much knowledge and…read moreexperience to give me. I had so much confidence in her care and attention for my son. I had many questions about best practices and products to use for the different stages of his development. My home felt peaceful with her calm and reassuring presence as she worked. Kavita is always looking for ways to improve her care and services that are unique to your child as an individual. I can't recommend her enough! Angel+life saver!

Jackie from Birth Realm is the worst. I tried to book a doula from her on several occasions and she…read morebooked the doula with other people out from under me both times without offering the professional courtesy of letting me know she wasn't holding the doula or that other people could book with her first or even that other people were interested. I had zero idea there was any sense of urgency whatsoever. I was pretty frustrated after the first time but gave it another shot given the good reviews. so then I was on a waiting list for several months and responded immediately to let her know I was interested but I had to wait till I was back in the country to chat with the doula. Again, nothing was said about other people waiting or that there was any urgency. Had I known there was some amount of urgency I would have scrambled to take a call during vacation in Japan. Anyway, I waited until after vacation. IMMEDIATELY after I chatted with the doula I sent Jackie an email to let her know I was interested and to please lock her in. But oh I guess that somehow the doula I just talked to was already booked and she no longer has any available. I have no idea why she even allowed that call to happen if the doula was already booked but she not only disrespected and wasted my time she clearly has no respect for the people who work for her as the doula's time was wasted too. At this point I'm glad it didn't work out as I have no desire to support a business who operates like this. Her prices are like 40-35% higher than everyone else's too but it clearly isn't merited. Pregnancy is already stressful enough, thanks Jackie for making this already hard time significantly worse.

Working with Birth Realm was incredible. We felt such immense support from Jackie and Sondra, and I…read morefelt at ease each night they came to care for our baby. We can't express enough gratitude for all their help!

Absolutely hire Fernanda if you can! We worked with her for 3 months after our daughter was born…read more Our daughter was born 2 months early and spent a few weeks in the NICU, so we were anxious when we brought her home. Fernanda was a life saver: We immediately felt at ease with her, and it was a huge relief to have someone we could trust caring for our baby overnight. We were actually able to get some sleep early on, which kept us sane. Our baby comfortably sleeps for a long stretch at night in her bassinet thanks to Fernanda. Fernanda also helped us get set up for longer term success with sleep. This included: - Advice on setting up the nursery before the baby was born so things were easy to grab. - Sleep conditioning. This included things like advice for our baby's day routine and advice on creating the right environment (room temperature, whether the room was dark enough, etc.). - Guidance on how to handle the baby on nights when we were on our own. - How to swaddle our baby. Our baby was a swaddle escape artist, and Fernanda showed us how to swaddle in a way that actually kept her arms in. She generally made our lives easier by with: - Washing pump parts and storing milk. - Reports in the morning on how our daughter did overnight. - Gear suggestions. The essentials list she provided before the baby arrived and when we asked for ideas were all on point. - General advice: recognizing when our baby was ready to go up a diaper size, identifying when she was ready for a faster flow nipple on her bottles, how to burp the baby and help the baby pass gas, and other things that take time to get a feel for as first time parents.

I wish I could leave more than 5 stars for Fernanda!…read more My husband became very ill with an autoimmune disease just as we were bringing home our second child and I found Fernanda to help with the baby during the nights so both of us could rest and heal. I was so nervous never having had a postpartum doula with our first, but the second I met Fernanda, all my worries went away and I felt relief to have someone so warm, caring, trustworthy and knowledgeable caring for my child. She was truly an angel sent to me during the first few weeks of my son's life and I don't know what I would have done without her. She was so instrumental in helping my son, who was very gassy and ended up having a milk allergy, sleep better at night and now at 12 weeks, he has already sleeping 7pm to 6am. What I originally planned as a 2 week period of help, I extended into 3 months and counting of doula support because of how incredible the support is. I truly could not recommend Fernanda more, and if I ever decided to have a 3rd child, I would absolutely love to have Fernandas support again. Beyond her deep expertise in newborns, she is such a wonderful and kind human. Thank you for everything Fernanda- We love you and are so grateful for you!

Linda helped us care for our newborn baby in the first few months after she was born. She's the…read morekind of person that put this neurotic first time mom at complete ease. When she first scooped up our daughter she immediately started talking to her, singing to her, playing with her and reading her stories. So many other care providers work hard to just keep a baby quiet but Linda works hard to make sure that your child is happy and constantly learning and growing. We were very sad to hear that she was leaving Austin. She left enormous shoes for us to fill.

Don't let Linda's bubbly personality make you think that she will be too much energy for you during…read morelabor. Linda is calm and quiet and encouraging and tuned in when she is working. She gets in the zone and knows exactly what you will need as a laboring mom. She will be present and responsive to your needs but not overbearing or taking center stage. She knows how to support the laboring mom and at the same time support those around you and teach your loved ones how to help you. Linda was my birth doula in July 2013 for the homebirth of my first baby. I don't know what I would've done without her. Even though I had midwives at home and my husband, the care she provided was essential. My husband is sensitive to my needs and caring but Linda was able to show my husband how to help me and support me more specifically. She did not steal the show, but was just present enough during the whole thing. I see pictures of my labor now and see Linda as an integral part of the process, even holding me up at times, yet she was never too much, never bossy, and was in fact a very calming presence. Linda has not given birth to a baby herself, but I see that as a strength to her work as a Doula. She doesn't have preconceived ideas about how your birth should go. She doesn't have her own experience to compare to yours. She has been to many births and knows the process well. She is very experienced and knowledgeable and when she assists birthing moms in the hospital the nurses and doctors trust her and love her help. She has a lot of helpful things to try to comfort and assist you during labor. She can use massage, essential oils, a labor ball, and many helpful position suggestions. There's this idea that in the hospital the nurses will be coaching and helping you through labor every step of the way...and there's this idea that at home, your midwives will be coaching you along. And while this is true to a small extent, it's not like the olden days and nurses and midwives aren't by your side like they used to be. Linda fills that role, though. She is the one who will hold your hand, massage your back, help you to focus your breath, encourage you, tell you that what you're going through is normal, and convince you that you are strong and that your body can do it! She's the one you want by your side even if you already have a wonderful support team of family, friends, and partner. I didn't know what to expect in giving birth for the first time and I wasn't sure if I really needed Linda, but now that I've gone through it, I would NEVER chose to give birth without her. She checks in frequently as you near your due date, she gives the best (and least intimidating) childbirth education ever, and after giving birth she gives excellent follow up care. She helped me to feel confident as a new mom, she assisted and supported me in breastfeeding. She's very knowledgeable in lactation support. And most of all, she helped me to feel like I could do this. I don't know of anyone who has used her services and ever regretted it. You want this girl!