Aylie was truly meant to be part of our journey as we navigated postpartum life. We feel incredibly…read morefortunate to have found her. This past summer, she supported us after the birth of our second son, and her presence immediately put me at ease. With her nurturing energy and vast experience with newborns, I trusted her with my baby completely--probably even more than I trusted my own husband (sorry, babe!). From the moment she arrived, our little one felt completely safe in her care. What sets Aylie apart is her ability to anticipate needs without ever being asked--whether it's loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher or folding the mountain of laundry lingering in the corner. She is completely nonjudgmental during such a vulnerable time (did I mention the piles of laundry and unmade beds?), and has an intuitive way of making everything feel more manageable and smooth. If you're lucky enough to have Aylie as your postpartum Doula, I promise she will make your experience 10 times better. P.S. It's a major bonus that Aylie is DONA certified and covered by Carrot Fertility for postpartum Doula support!

We hired Aylie Millar pretty quickly- our interview with her automatically felt comfortable and…read moresafe and she just felt like a good fit. And what a great choice she was! Aylie is a consummate professional and a person whose peaceful energy and quiet confidence I can only hope to match someday. Aylie did a home visit before our little one arrived, which allowed us to touch base on her methods and everyone's expectations. She reiterated that she was here to help- whether that was with the baby or with chores or whatever else we needed that fell within the contract. Once our baby was born, she coordinated times throughout the week that she could come by. We tended to ask her to come in for a few hours in the morning. Among the things she helped us with were chores (I don't think we had a concept of how quickly laundry would pile up for us!) and caring for the baby while we got in some self-care. Often, that would cover us while we showered or got in a much-needed nap. More important than anything else, more than the very useful cleaning and tidying, more than the holding and soothing of our baby while we took care of other things, was the peace of mind that Aylie provided. As first-time parents, we had so many questions. Some of these we would text her and some we would write down to ask her about. In this way, she helped us develop confidence and skills. She coached us through babywearing with a wrap and through our baby's first bath. She also helped me troubleshoot breastfeeding. She has so much expertise and it was by far the thing I found most valuable about this experience. Aylie is a wonderful human being and an exemplary postpartum doula. I highly recommend her services to anybody- new or experienced parents!

I cannot say enough good things about Cheryl. She is incredible and I hope she'll be my doula for…read moreall my future births. BACKGROUND on me/us. We decided when the pandemic hit that we wouldn't let it stop us from starting a family. I got pregnant in April of 2020, and in September, we moved from San Francisco to Seattle. Since this was my first, I wasn't sure what I was looking for. I visited Swedish First Hill thinking I might want a hospital birth, and interviewed three midwives and several (six, to be exact) doulas. When I met Cheryl, I knew I had found "the one." She was also the only person I spoke w/ that made me genuinely feel EXCITED about giving birth. PRE. Not only did Cheryl offer to meet me throughout my third trimester to do the stairs or go for walks, but she also hosts weekly prenatal yoga classes (over Zoom), which I'll be honest, were the *only* times I did yoga during my pregnancy. BIRTH. On the birth day, Cheryl was phenomenal. She comforted me not only w/ her words, but also her hands when I was laboring. She rubbed my back or my leg, which I later found out is not the standard for birth doulas, and suggested different positions for me as things progressed. She was so good about feeding me and making sure I was staying hydrated, too. (As an endurance athlete, I know for a fact I would have bonked had she not force fed me a banana, honey, and electrolytes.) She made me feel strong and safe throughout my entire labor. POST. After baby was born, Cheryl took such good care of my partner and me. She fed us, taught us how to swaddle baby, helped me through mastitis, and became someone we consider to be family. She encapsulated my placenta after making placenta art, too. Her intuition about what we needed was so spot on, it truly is a gift. I birthed a 9lb1oz baby w/o drugs or stitches at home, and I thank Cheryl (and my midwives) for that. We adore Cheryl and anyone would be lucky to have her.

As a first time mom, I was clueless about the labor and delivery process. As I was exposed to…read morevarious kinds of births, I came across the idea of having a birth doula to help both my husband and I through the process. Cheryl was everything we had hoped for and more. We connected with her immediately. I would reach out to her regularly during my pregnancy with questions and concerns, and she was very quick to respond and ease my nerves. We took a few prenatal classes with her which helped us understand labor and delivery better. I wanted to make sure my husband and I were also well versed with the possible interventions that could take place at a hospital birth. Cheryl did a great job of teaching us what the alternative options were in case things didn't go as planned. On the day of, Cheryl helped me labor at home and the hospital, which is exactly what I had hoped for. I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible before heading to the hospital, and I felt very secure knowing that Cheryl would know when is the best time. The majority of my labor was pretty intense back labor and Cheryl knew exactly what to do to help me get through the contractions. Our experience with the labor and delivery would never have been the same without Cheryl. I had an amazing experience thanks to her faith and support. After the birth, Cheryl came to our home a few times to check on us and help me breastfeed as well. Being with Cheryl on this journey felt like being with our family! It's been almost a year and a half since our daughters birth and we still keep in touch with her and enjoy speaking to her about parenthood! Cheryl was a Godsend, and we could not have imagined our daughters birth without her!

We started working with Marianne when our post-term baby was about 3.5 months old. I was about to…read morego back to work and honestly panicking about how little sleep we were all getting. I didn't want to do full cry-it-out, but I also knew what we were doing wasn't sustainable. Marianne helped us put together a realistic plan. She went through our baby's feeding and sleep schedule, made suggestions to make sure he was getting enough calories during the day, and walked us through how to phase out his middle-of-the-night feed. She also encouraged us to drop the pacifier at bedtime, which I was nervous about, but it turned out to be the right move. The best part was honestly just having someone to check in with. She was responsive to texts when I wasn't sure what to do, and she kept me from giving up when things felt hard. On a couple of nights when I had to work early the next day, she even came and stayed overnight to keep things consistent. That kind of support made a huge difference. It wasn't an overnight miracle -- there were still some rough nights -- but within two weeks our baby was falling asleep on his own and sleeping through the night. Now he is 5 months old and we are so happy about our decision. If you're looking for someone practical and supportive who will give you a plan and stick with you through it, I'd HIGHLY recommend Marianne.

Marianne changed my life! I am a single mom of 18 month old twins (they were 7 months at the time…read moreof sleep training). I reached out to Marianne and desperation after my twins being on completely opposite schedules. She was absolutely incredible and guided me through the whole process. She was available day and night via phone and text and was so supportive and loving through the process. The best decision I've made as a mom! I now have time, sanity, and some kind of manageability in my life. Forever grateful for you, Marianne!

My allergy shots were moved to this location when UW decided to consolidate locations. The Eastside…read morelocation had staff that focused on providing customer service and worked to make sure appointments were flexible enough to work with customer's work schedules and other issues. So far, this location couldn't care less about the patient's needs or working with them. They threaten to charge you if you're late (a very likely possibility considering city traffic), but leave you sitting in the waiting room if you're early, racking up additional parking fees.

This place is like pregnant lady haven. Ashley and Katie are amazing! They remembered my name after…read morethe first appointment. I thought I was just another face to them. Ashley even remembered off the top of her head how far along I was. I did my research when it came time to choose OB vs midwife and I'm SOOOOOOO glad I signed up to see the midwives. Midwives concentrate on the special topic of pregnancy, birth, and post partum recovery. OB is a trained surgeon for generally anything going on "down there." Most childbirths don't need surgery. They're definitely related and a lot of their jobs overlap, but midwives are specialized nurses that spend overall more time with their patients as supports and guides. Midwives are the ones that deliver and catch the babies at NW hospital. OBGYNs are surgeons. They don't catch the babies; they perform surgery. They are there to perform surgery when something goes wrong. They did not train as in-depth as midwives when it comes to helping you survive those 9 months beforehand. As the hospital nurse very politely whispered to me when I sat in my hospital bed after 15 hours of labor..."Let's hope you will never need to see the OBGYN. If you do, it means something during labor went wrong." TL;DR - If you want preggo sage lady experts COME HERE! When I was there, there were 6 midwives on staff rotation. They're all extremely knowledgeable. I saw Deborah, Yaseem, Cindy, and Victoria the most often and she was never judgemental even though I asked (looking back now) the stupidest "questions." Everyone was so patient and open-minded. They respect women's bodies and do everything with faith that our bodies are stronger than what we believe to be (it's very true.) My appointments sometimes ran long because I'm long-winded but they always let me stick around. I would have slapped myself if I had to listen to me for a hour! When I needed to be induced (baby was 11+ days overdue) Victoria Swarthout saw how terrified and concerned I was so she squeezed me into a morning appointment on the date of my induction so I could ask her ALL the questions and address all of my concerns... which @ 42 weeks pregnant as a first time Mom during a pandemic just sounded like this "WHY why whyyyy me!!! Why won't this baby come!!!" Oh forgot, it was the start of the pandemic. Yeah I gave birth in March, the very same week things went into lockdown. New hospital policies were being put in place and my anxiety level skyrocketed. I'm first generation Chinese American of course, and a little bit of a hypochondriac so the pandemic got me off on a very rough start. I was afraid of discrimination (none at all found here) and I was afraid of changing hospital policies. On top of the unexpected induction and having to find a doula last minute. I was literally being induced with a hand UP my cervix while trying to hire a new doula on the phone...ugh! Lol. The induction and labor was 35+ hours. Very very very long. And we were all ready to give up...get that C-section no one wanted...when Victoria calmly said "You know what? Let's give it another hour." I wanted to cry. I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours and I was going to end up on the surgeons table after all that waiting and exhaustion. Victoria gave me as much time as she could. 1 hour or 2 later, I suddenly felt a crazy need to push. So she came back to check my dilation and suddenly I went from 7 to full 10! How did she know I just needed some time? Time to PUSH!! YASSSSS! Pushing was the best part. That took no time at all. And suddenly I had a perfect baby on my chest. No c-section. Pure miracle. All thanks to the patience and faith the midwives have. No medical intervention, no pressure, no rush, no panic. A woman's body is truly, truly a miracle blessed by nature. We were designed to give birth and on our own body's timeline. Post partum support with midwives was awesome too. They vetted for post partum depression, checked on my perninal tear, talked and administered birth control. I am basically going to use the midwives as my general doctor. Did you know they do that? Yup! You can do your annual check ups with them :) Anyways this is probably the most personal Yelp review ever hahaha. Look at the handiwork that Victoria caught on that first day of spring at 3 am. Eden is 1 year old already. What a blessing and what a miracle these 6 women at NW midwives are. I'll be forever in debt to them my entire life.

Troop saved my life!!! I could not have survived the newborn phase without the help of my doulas…read more They were all so caring, helpful and knowledgeable. Even though it can be tough to be separated from one's newborn baby, I felt so comfortable sleeping while my doula took care of him. Having overnight support allowed me to get the rest I needed to heal and gave me energy to spend time with my toddler during the day. Troop is like family to me! I would recommend them to anyone in need of support.

Pregnant and postpartum moms - DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY…read more We signed up for doulas for 12 weeks while I was pregnant and put down the deposit (roughly $10k). Our needs changed postpartum and when we went to update our timeline we were told that the deposit we put down would not be applied to the updated timeline - basically we were asking for $8k in services and even though we had already paid $10k we were told that we still needed to pay more. They quoted the handbook which was not noted in the contract we signed and we were never told of this "policy" while interviewing or signing the contract. We received the handbook after we had signed the contract. We worked out an agreement after pointing out how ridiculous this was and we felt it was still worth it to move forward as we were hopeful that they would provide the services they promised. Over the course of four visits we had two different doulas. Both were very polite and nice but had totally different levels of care. The first doula set timers on her phone to wake up and check on our daughter as well as wake and bring her to feed so that she didn't go too long without eating. As a mom that is EBF this was immensely helpful and she was great to work with. The second doula was polite but did not take care of our daughter. She slept so deeply that did not wake during my daughter's feeding cues/crying. I awoke to engorged breasts and when I checked the monitor I could see my daughter fussing in her bassinet while the doula slept on. I also saw that she had set the temperature of the room to 74 degrees. For a 6 week old that can't regulate heat this was VERY concerning. I went to wake my husband to figure out how we could change it to a safe temperature and then went downstairs and woke the doula while getting my daughter from the bassinet. My daughter was so overheated that she could barely finish one side even though she regularly finishes both. While I was feeding her, this doula fell asleep again and when I brought my daughter back she did not wake to me entering the room- I changed my daughter's diaper and only after returning with a light on did she wake up. We were scheduled to have her for the next month and my husband and I did not feel comfortable leaving our child in her care again. When I emailed the company to cancel (on a Thursday with our next visit being a Monday), I received an OOO message from Lynette Wilson the Director of Operations. The following day (Friday) I forwarded the message to the scheduling team and did not receive a response. When Lynette returned that following Monday she did not ask why we were suddenly cancelling but did try to tell us that she was going to charge us for not cancelling 24 hours before the shift even though the message was sent several days before. Only after I was able to get Lynette on the phone (you cannot contact anyone in the office directly) did she relent. I also brought up the concerns with the doula - again she did not once ask why. She did not seem to care or bother to offer solutions but rather wanted to end the conversation. We've spent $10k+ for 4 nights. Pregnant and postpartum moms - this company does not care about you or your child. Their team of overnight doulas is sporadic in their level of care and created an unsafe environment for my child. This company only cares about squeezing you for money during one of the most stressful and vulnerable times of your life.

Have you experienced extreme pain having an IUD installed? PLEASE go to this facility if you'd like…read moreto be on anesthesia for an IUD procedure. The anesthesia will very likely be out of pocket cost, but it was worth every penny! Now for the rest of my review: After experiencing horrendous care at other OBGYN facilities in my more local area, I was first terrified to change to this location for an IUD procedure but I was recommended it by a friend. The doctor called me ahead of my procedure to answer any questions and he was super kind over the phone making me feel so much more comfortable. Day of the procedure there was a bit of a wait as it was filled with appointments. But the waiting room was nice as we all got to watch a Netflix show to pass the time. Once I was called in, the staff were very nice and very efficient to get me ready. And the anesthesiologist was so funny my nerves were completely settled before they put me under. Next I remember being fully dressed and they guided me to a low lit room with comfortable recliners that had such a peaceful ambience. The nurses were kind to answer my questions I had about how the procedure went while I was in that room which was promptly followed by the doctor who did my procedure. She came in to ask how I felt and how I was doing and I just felt an overwhelming sense of care and compassion at this facility that I've never experienced before anywhere else in medical care, I nearly cried from how happy I was. (That could have also been the after effects of the anesthesia but the emotions were still genuine). I was sent home with a little bag of overnight pads and information on my IUD device. My pain levels after never got above a 2/10, and they sent me home with a pain meds prescription for the following few days to address any cramping I might feel. I cannot put into words how thankful I am to this facility, the staff, and the doctors that made my experience here incredible, and comfortable, and safe. I don't care how long of a drive it is for me, I will always only go to this place for OBGYN needs in the future.

I received the best card ever. At first I was so nervous going in. The medical staff told me that I…read moream going to be fine and all of them were really nice and sweet.

I felt so cared for and safe/ comforted by brooks' competence and counsel. She helped me practice…read morehonoring my body and tended to all levels of my experience. She encouraged and empowered me with the confidence to grow as a person and a mother. I am eternally grateful for this gift and honestly floored to receive this level of care and trust with a healthcare provider. I would recommend SHM to anyone considering home birth / birth center!

I feel grateful to have gone through my fourth pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience with…read moreSHM. During my time with this practice, Heather retired from clinical practice and Brooks took over as the owner and sole midwife. The practice also transitioned away from their longstanding Columbia City home to seeing clients in the office spaces at Center for Birth in Eastlake. Despite these many changes to SHM, the practice has held true to their reputation of providing excellent midwifery care to the Seattle community with Brooks at the helm. Her care is genuine, evidence-based, and from the heart. Suzanne, office manager, is equally skilled at her job, attending promptly to administrative needs. Communication is across the board a major strength, primarily via the client portal. I was particularly impressed by Brooks' steady presence and intuitive, tender care during my labor and birth. I would highly recommend a consult with SHM even to those skeptical of an out of hospital birth experience, as you will be hard pressed to find this level of exceptional, safe care elsewhere.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Renee. As a first time mom with next to zero prior…read moreexposure breastfeeding/nursing and infants in general, I needed help. She was direct yet soft, quick to reply over email on any issues I was having in between appointments, and extremely knowledgeable. She keeps up to date on studies which I greatly appreciate as medical professional myself. Simply put, Renee is an expert in this field. I recommend her to anyone wanting to nurse pain-free. She also had great tips for bottle feeding. My baby is 2 months now and exclusively breastmilk, both with nursing and bottle. I owe it all to Renee.

Pretty bad experience and a complete waste of time. Before my first appointment I filled a detailed…read morequestionnaire that included insurance information. Still, during the first 15-20 minutes of my appointment she kept grilling me about my insurance information, wasting my time. After that she wasted some more time dissing the newborn care classes I attended at Swedish. I had already decided against getting long term care by now, this kind of negative attitude is not conducive for sure and I totally agree with the other reviews about the dismissive and negative personality traits. The funny thing is after a few weeks she reached out complaining that she was not able to make an insurance claim. However, I checked both my primary and secondary insurance claims, and the claim related to her was processed by both the primary and secondary insurance.