If you need a Lactation Consultant, this is the person for you…read more I was having issues with my daughter not properly latching and trying to figure out why she was so gassy. Claire came to me immediately and diagnosed the issues I was experiencing with my newborn. She figured out that my daughter had a lip and tongue tie and why I was going through pain while breastfeeding. She recommended great resources that I could reach out to as well. She has an incredible personality and you can tell this is a labor of love for her. I love that she is evidenced based and easy going. She is gentle, caring and made me feel at ease. I have found my permanent LC for all my breastfeeding needs.

Claire is extremely knowledgeable, easy to chat with and responds quickly to questions. She offers…read moresuggestions and offers guidance without being directive. She has a lot of experience with all sorts of breastfeeding/pumping situations. And she's now located in Concord which was super convenient for me! I highly recommend her if you are struggling with anything breastfeeding related!

I sought help from Kelly as a last resort after a month of baby struggling to get back to birth…read moreweight. I was prescribed triple feeding which was totally unsustainable. She helped tremendously and gave us so much confidence as parents. She was so patient and knowledgeable, and professional. We got the latch down and were able to drop the triple feeding routine. Here we are almost a year later still nursing and growing right on track!

Kelly is the best lactation consultant any mama could ask for!!! A week into my breast feeding…read morejourney with my first baby I was ready to give up. (We saw a horrible lactation consultant at Kaiser who made me feel like I was starving my baby and tried to move us to formula immediately.) Thankfully we found Kelly on Yelp and she was able to see us the next day. She listened to my concerns/frustrations with breastfeeding, then watched me nurse my baby and gave such compassionate guidance. She gave me so much confidence!!! Fast forward to today, my baby girl is 9 months old and I am still exclusively breastfeeding!!! Breastfeeding is so much harder than anyone ever told me it was going to be. My recommendation for any first time mama would be to make an appointment with Kelly and get all the support you didn't even know you would need, it makes a world of a difference!

Abbie was everything I was looking for in a doula: knowledgeable, responsive, and calm. My birth…read moredidn't go quite as planned and Abbie was there to help at every turn. As a first time mom, I was very happy to have a doula and I would recommend Abbie as your doula 100%.

Best Doula ever!! Sorry for such a late review... We were due with our second one in November. I…read morecontacted Abbie somewhere around July 2021. And she immediately replied back when I told her I really really really want to go for a VBAC after a very traumatic c-section with my first born. Abbie gave me the dates when she can come over to our house and discuss everything about our past birth experiences and future plans for this new birth and baby. VBAC was something I have been dreaming all these years as my c-section recovery was too much for my body and it didn't let me bond with my baby. I told abbie everything and she supported me and my decisions from the first day we met till the day we bid goodbyes to each other. She taught so many ways, exercises and labor positions to cope with everything related to birth especially a VBAC birth. She gave us so many resources about what to expect for our labor, birth, baby and even breastfeeding. The best part was that she was so accommodating and friendly that her presence never felt like a stranger or a new person, but rather it felt like I knew her for so long. We had to change the location of our birth in the last moment after my water broke, because the hospital we chose was over-booked, she never even flinched about that change and went ahead with whatever was needed in that moment because I felt that for her my needs and my mental health and support was most important in that moment. So if you want an experienced, patient, extremely supportive and gentle doula who will listen to you, suggest you what and how you can do things right and who is very resourceful, hire Abbie right away!!

Serena truly is a gem of an IBCLC! Not only is she kind, patient, and understanding but she is also…read moresomeone who guides gently and uses positive language which is immensely helpful for someone like me who is dealing with a low milk supply. She helped me with my first baby 8 years ago and I knew I had to reach out to her asap when I found out that I was pregnant with my 2nd. I knew my breastfeeding journey needed to be established right away and it required Serena and her knowledge of low milk supply. She did a house call about a week postpartum and did a weighted feed and assessed baby for ties which he does have. She was able to ease my mind and helped guide me on what to do and how to get my supply up. I've been able to message her with my many questions and she has been so responsive and so kind. She has made the journey great so far despite me not making a full supply (I make about half of baby's needs). If you want an amazing ibclc who wants to see you and baby succeed then look no further!

It is no wonder Serena has 5 star ratings. Our 8 wk old baby started showing slow weight gain and…read moreas a first time parent, I was so worried and overwhelmed. From our first call, Serena was kind, thorough and asked all the right questions. She made time to come over within days, immediately pinpointed the issue, and created a clear feeding plan that gave me so much relief. She even reached out to our pediatrician right after and they called me the same day to schedule a weight check by end of the week! Serena's care doesn't stop at your session -- she checks in often and is always available by text, making me feel completely supported and never alone. She's warm, friendly, non-judgmental and turned a scary situation into something manageable. We're still working with her but I couldn't wait to share. Even though we're not out of the woods yet, I feel a million times better knowing Serena is by our side. If you're considering working with her, don't hesitate -- she's a gem!

Sarah provided me with compassionate and expert support in my journey feeding my kiddo. I greatly…read moreappreciated her warm, non-judgmental approach and her wise advice. She was able to meet with me on short notice, followed up via text to check in on me after our first appointment, and has fielded several questions via email, even while she was traveling. I am very grateful for her support and would highly recommend her!

At 5 days postpartum, I was feeling incredibly stressed and overwhelmed, but Sarah came to our home…read moreimmediately to help. She spent several hours with my husband and me, teaching us everything from the basics of breastfeeding and milk supply to the specifics of breast anatomy. Her calm demeanor was exactly what we needed; she completely eased my anxiety and gave us the confidence we were lacking. This was truly the most helpful support we've received since coming home from the hospital. If you are looking for an expert who is both knowledgeable and deeply compassionate, look no further.

Chelsea has been such an incredible support throughout the feeding journey with my twins, and me as…read morea first-time parent. From the very beginning, she approached everything with so much compassion, patience, professionalism, and genuine care for our family's unique needs. What I especially appreciated was how personalized her guidance was. Our twins have had different feeding journeys since birth, and Chelsea truly listened and met each baby (and me!) where we were without judgment or a one-size-fits-all approach. Her expertise made such a meaningful difference for all of us. She suggested transitioning to a different bottle when the twins were eating very slowly and tiring themselves out before finishing feeds, and the new bottles were an absolute game changer. She also properly resized me for pumping flanges, which immediately improved both comfort and milk output. Beyond being incredibly knowledgeable, Chelsea is simply a lovely human being. She's warm, sweet, reassuring, and makes you feel supported during what can be such a vulnerable, emotional and exhausting season of parenthood. I am so grateful to have found her and would wholeheartedly recommend her to any family, especially fellow twin parents navigating complex feeding journeys.

Chelsea was wonderful to work with and so helpful on my breastfeeding journey. As a first time mom…read moreit is confusing to navigate all the newness of postpartum but having Chelsea there to support me put me at ease. She was very kind, caring, and knowledgeable and I would definitely recommend her to any mamas seeking breastfeeding help!

Allison has been such an incredible lactation consultant for me as I navigated learning to feed my…read morebaby. From latch, to clearing out my clogged ducts, engorgement, fears that Vivi wasn't getting enough milk, getting comfort and confidence. Allison was on speed dial and always there for me with the best advice backed with kindness and joy. Her love of babies and supporting mamas spills over. I recommend her to all of the new mamas and so thrilled to have had her shotgun through this journey. Side note for anyone reading this: If you are looking for a lactation consultant - know that this journey is not easy, but sooooo worth it and it will get easier with time. You got this mama!!!

Allison was such a HUGE help in my breastfeeding journey that is still ongoing. We started with a…read morepre-baby lactation consult to help me really understand the basics of breastfeeding, what to expect, what to ask for in the hospital, etc. she sent me videos and detailed notes post call so that I had all of this on hand when the time came which made me feel very confident going into birth. My baby was born with both lip and tongue ties and was having an incredibly challenging time feeding. I texted Allison and she came over in an instant with a calm and helpful demeanor to see how my baby was latching, show me different positions and assist me with those, help me set up my feeding areas to be comfortable, told me about nipple shields and how those can help with the pain in the interim, guided me with suggestions for my mental and physical well being during challenging times, showed me how to use my pump given I had to go on nipple rest while we got my daughters ties snipped to allow my breasts to heal - but gave me the confidence in all of these new and challenging areas to continue moving forward in the best way I could. She was so encouraging, knowledgeable, and kind throughout the process it always made me not want her to leave (haha) because I felt so at ease and peaceful with her presence around. After 2 in person sessions post birth, my baby was breastfeeding like a champ. I cried tears of joy being able to feed my baby thanks to Allison's guidance and expertise. I know I will continue to lean on her and have her support me and my feeding journey for years to come with more babies, too. Cant recommend her enough! It's been almost 3 months of successful breastfeeding and my journey is far from over, but if it weren't for Allison I probably would have quit up front. I appreciate you so much, Allison!

Ellen was caring, effective, and helped us overcome challenges to reach our breastfeeding goals.read more

Working with Ellen for lactation support with my 3rd baby was one of the best decisions I have…read moremade!! Even though I had had two prior breastfeeding journeys, they both had their complications/challenges and I knew I wanted to have some support on-hand before my 3rd baby. Having a private, in-home lactation consultant was nothing short of amazing. Ellen even did a prenatal visit where she learned about my past breastfeeding experiences and challenges and listened to my goals and worries for this time around. In the past, I had only ever seen LC's in a "hospital outpatient" relationship and while those providers were experienced and competent, the setup really lacked continuity of care that I think is really important in a breastfeeding journey. Ellen did wonders to soothe my instinct to pathologize every little thing, and also brought me up to speed on the new evidence-based guidance for flange sizes and mastitis/clogged duct protocol as a lot had changed from my 1st two babies. She helped me ID a tongue tie much earlier than my 2nd baby, and with her updated protocol recommendations, I can now say I have made it 6 months EBF with no mastitis (something that was not the case at ALL my 1st two times). I really enjoyed working with Ellen and always looked forward to her visits. Even though it was my 3rd baby, I know that I would not be having such a positive breastfeeding journey if not for Ellen. She helped remove a lot of the anxieties and frustrations I had. Learning how to do "laid back" breastfeeding from the comfort of my own bed/couch was an absolute game changer and my baby breastfed with Ellen's support has had much better head/neck strength from the get-go from her nursing position. My body has been so much less sore/worn down from this position too. I wish I had discovered it years ago! If you are looking for lactation support - please consider working with Ellen beginning from late 3rd trimester - having that continuity of care from the first few days home from the hospital was an incredible gift. I can't recommend her enough from my experience!

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Amrit! She guided me through my entire feeding journey…read morewith my second baby without any judgement. More importantly, she was compassionate and practical which can be VERY hard to find in the lactation world. She attentively asked me my goals for feeding this time around and then helped me make a game-plan at each step. Ultimately, I was unable/chose to stop nursing and pumping. While I personally felt so disappointed in myself for that, Amrit was nothing but supporting and loving. She supported me in any decision I made to keep my baby happy and fed and for that i'm forever grateful. She also helped me figure out how to get on a pumping schedule (when I needed to) and eventually how to wean without getting mastitis. Although my feeding journey eventually did not include breastfeeding, I'm so so happy I found Amrit to help me navigate all the things that come along with feeding a newborn. I felt like I was always in wonderful and capable hands and would recommend her to every new mom who needs some support. Breastfeeding is HARD and Amrit never made me feel guilty or bad. She simply supported me and helped me find something that worked for me and my family. Thank you again Amrit for all of your love and support with baby Ryan!

I owe my entire breastfeeding relationship to Amrit! I nursed my oldest for 2.5 years and needed…read morevirtually no help. Things were much different once I had my son. She taught me so much and I could NOT have learned the things I did had I not met with her! She was able to help me latch my son on in the office and we have been thriving since our visit! Ahe was told she can not accept patients with my insurance, and yet, she saw us anyway!!!! I am so grateful and genuinely believe we would have failed without her help and over 40 years of experience! She is unable to see other women with my insurance (I have state funded mediCal) unless they are a Bayside patient. However, if you have private insurance you can contact Bayside in Berkeley and make an appt. There's a $37.50 copay for the visit.

I don't think words can truly describe how amazing this woman is. Charlee is such an amazing person…read morefirst and foremost. I had the pleasure and honor to get to work with her for not one of my babies, but two of them. I had given birth January 2023, she came to our house for every appointment. She listened to all of our concerns. She was so thorough and in depth. Never missing a single thing during any appointment. We Explained to her that we wanted something to where we could be the most hands-on during our birth, and that is exactly what we got. Throughout the entire pregnancy, she educated us. Answering all of my questions. She is so funny, but also extremely professional and truly just a joy to get to work with. When I went into labor, she was there a heartbeat more ready than we were we were taking our time we had two other kids lol. She always asked for permission before doing anything. I felt like I was being treated like a queen. After giving birth, she was so accommodating so attentive. She came to do checks on myself and the baby she always asked before even touching the baby. She respects everybody boundaries. I got the honor to become her friend and kept in contact giving her updates on our baby that she helped bring into this world. Then we got pregnant again and knew that we wanted to have a free birth. But we still knew that we wanted prenatal care and we only knew of one place we wanted to go to get that.. Charlee helped guide us to make sure that we got our blood work done during pregnancy, our anatomy scan, and even made sure that baby was headed down a few weeks before giving birth. Unfortunately, we were moving to Texas to give birth, so there was no way for her to be our midwife. But she helped us by making sure we had a healthy pregnancy the entire way. We made it to full-term and gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. After giving birth, though my placenta was being a little stubborn. I gave Charlee a call on FaceTime and she picked up it was a little late into the evening and she still answered! (That's because she's truly that awesome) she helped by simply telling me to stand up and cough and sure enough that did the trick! Talk about being such an amazing midwife over the phone in a whole other state. The financial aspect of it all she works with you. Some people are concerned that they want to have a homebirth with the midwife, but they can't afford it. She can come up with a payment plan for you and let me tell you 100% worth it with Charlee , if you were to invest your money anywhere for the birth of your baby every single time I would put my money into Charlee. The medical aspect of it all let me tell you when you see the bag that she brings to every appointment. She is ready for the impossible. I swear she's got like a mini hospital in that bag. The all natural aspect if you are somebody who is trying to avoid as much medical stuff as possible, she's also your go to woman. She will give you different stretches and things you can do to avoid medication pain relief etc The overall aspect of Charlee as a midwife is, she's the woman you want to go to . She's the one you want on your team. I'm so lucky that I get to share this intimate photo of my most recent birth just to show how amazing she is and how much she cares about her past, current, and future clients. Thank you so much, Charlee for everything you've done for me and my family . Words truly just don't express how amazing you are not only as a midwife, but as a person.

I chose to hire Charlee as my midwife for my first pregnancy because when I spoke with her she said…read moreshe had over 10 years of experience and has done 200 births. As a first-time mom, those credentials gave me confidence that I was putting myself and my baby in experienced hands. During one of our visits, she was prepping me for delivery day. She not to reach out to her in the middle of the night unless my contractions were at a 3-1-1 pattern because she wanted to be rested for me during the day. The day came for baby to arrive. Around 9pm on a Saturday I started having contractions. At 2am on Sunday, my contractions became very intense contractions. They were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting 6-8 minutes long, my husband and I were tracking them with a contraction app. The contractions felt pretty intense. We sent Charlee screenshots of the contraction patterns and reached out for guidance, but a she told us I was not ready yet because I was not at a "3-1-1" pattern, but that if I think the baby is coming, to let her know. How do I know if the baby is coming in not? I've never had a baby before. As a first-time mom, I had no way of knowing whether my labor was progressing normally and it was going to get more intense than what it was, or whether my baby was coming. That's exactly why I hired an experienced midwife to help me make those decisions. I was alone in my living room for hours, my water broke and gushing out (it definitely was not a trickle like they say it would be), feeling like I was on a rollercoaster. By around 6:30 that morning, my doula arrived, saw the amount of pain I was in, looked at my contraction pattern, and immediately called Charlee, telling her "you need to get here now". Charlee arrived about an hour later. By then, my contractions had already slowed down considerably. During the day Charlee commented that she wondered why my contractions had slowed down, which surprised me because I expected someone with her level of experience to have insight into what was happening. While I was laboring in the birthing pool, I also overheard Charlee talking with my doula about wanting to pivot careers into being a motivational coach instead of continuing to attend births. Whether or not she ultimately chooses another career is her decision, but hearing that conversation while I was in active labor made me worry because in my field of business, that is what people say when they aren't getting much business. This was not something I expected or wanted to hear during one of the most vulnerable moments of my life. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of an experience that ultimately left me feeling unsupported and questioning the care I received. The baby was stuck in my canal the whole day. We could feel her head. At 6:30pm, I got transfer to the hospital. We ultimately had to do an emergency vacuum delivery. My body was not contracting, and it was not ready for a baby to come out. I ended up with a permanent spine injury, along with other injuries post delivery that were still having trouble diagnosing. I had to go back to the ER by ambulance 2 days after come home from the hospital. I was in a wheelchair for 2-3 weeks, graduated to a walker, then cain, and now I have on going treatment 9 months post delivery. Which all could have been prevented, if my baby came out when I my body was contracting at 2am in the morning. Charlee charges you $9,500 for her services, but split it up in four sections. She said because I delivered at the hospital, she would not submit me for reimbursement for the delivery costs, since I did not deliver at home. If Charlee could not do her job and deliver my baby, then why can't I get refunded for her not doing her job? I don't know how you can take someone's money like that and sleep at night. I do not recommend Charlee as a good choice for a midwife, do not trust this person with your life!