I had Rebecca come to observe me and my daughter (4 1/2) twice. I have to admit, I only signed up…read morebecause I was required to as part of my custody agreement, but I'm so glad I did. Her observations were spot on, and she was able to communicate her thoughts clearly and gently, along with very practical advice for how to do things in a better way. My daughter can be a handful, to say the least, and Rebecca's strategies are already yielding fruit. I definitely recommend her to anyone who wants to be a better parent.

Rebecca is absolutely incredible. She's a lifesaver in a world where the parenting style has…read morechanged drastically over generations and we need new tools to be a modern parent. As struggling parents of two young kids, she gave us customized coaching tips specific to the behavioral problems of our kids, things we could not find in books or anywhere else. She has tremendous real world experience with her own kids and other clients, and gave us so many ideas to try. After 6-7 sessions with her, she's given us the tools we needed to take on those normal challenging moments with young kids that are yelling, having tantrums, not eating new foods. She's also really open minded and has a flexible approach (not one size fits all). Being a parent is also working through your own issues - her program really gives you a change to reflect on yourself and your own issues as a parent. I find myself frequently wanting to ask her questions throughout the day - I wish she could move in with us!

Joanna was our night doula from the night we took our baby home until she was about 2 months old…read more She was such a lifesaver for us as first time parents who had no idea what we were doing! Here's why we loved her: * Family-focused, not just baby-focused - she was the only person we interviewed who asked my husband how he was doing! * Helped me figure out best positions for nursing, how to swaddle, burping, and all hectic things about feeding a newborn * Brought so much positive energy and warmth, clearly feels huge responsibility and optimism about the next generation we're all raising * Flexible and generous with her time, always made sure the baby was fully asleep in our room even if it meant she stayed a few min overtime * Responsive and well read on all things baby-related, often shared articles or documentaries about raising babies * Strong network of postpartum supporters, e.g., helped us find our lactation consultant and another doula for when she was out of town Joanna was a joy to work with and such a reassuring presence during those first few weeks home from the hospital. Highly recommend reaching out to her!

I highly recommend scheduling a visit because it's an experience you will look forward to every…read moretime. I was thankfully introduced to Joanna by a friend and I loved the 1st experience so much I'm integrating sound healing sessions as part an investment in my health and well being. Joanna is a true professional very knowledgeable, great communicator and listener, friendly, centered, calm, and empowering. I've become a believer and so will you ;) cheers

Aki has been a regular speaker at our Co-op preschool. I really enjoy listening to her talks and…read morelearning new parenting tools from her. She is an engaging speaker. Recently I had a question that I thought of after one her talks and I emailed her. She promptly replied, asking that I call her. We played phone tag a couple times and I finally got a hold of her. We spoke for a few minutes. She provided some concrete advice about how to go about handling my issue. I am happy to report that her advice was on spot. She even emailed back to follow up. Aki is awesome!!

Shout out to Aki! She is just wonderful. I first came across her on a Mama FB group we are all a…read morepart of, and she was hosting a webinar on figuring out the "preschool puzzle" that exists in SF. Right away I loved her energy. She is friendly and enthusiastic about parenting and all that comes with it, which is so necessary in the face of the challenges that come up. i was impressed with both her knowledge and her totally impartial attitude, giving us mamas all the room in the world to make the choices we wanted to make. Recently, I ran into a challenging situation in my family, and when I was contemplating who I could speak to about this, she came to mind. she was very responsive and we set up a phone consultation immediately. The second we got on the phone, I felt relieved. I explained the situation to her and she was SO compassionate and non judgemental, reassuring me while also addressing the challenges as something to be dealt with. She gave me some great information about how my son is developing at his age and how the challenges would impact him, and some concrete ideas of how to improve the situation. I left the call feeling so much better, lighter, with specific actions to take. I highly recommend Aki's phone consultations- they are easy to set up, you do them from the comfort of your home, and you get top notch support. Thanks Aki!

I've felt very cared for by everyone I've encountered here throughout pregnancy and postpartum, but…read morewanted to especially highlight Ocean Berg. In just a couple lactation consultancy appointments, we've made so many breakthroughs in feeding with Ocean. I love how she attentively watches our baby for cues before trying to come up with a solution. She is super encouraging and strikes the right balance between being a great listener and getting right to the action, which makes for very productive sessions where we get a lot of practice in. We had also attended her childbirth class when I was pregnant, which I had found pretty educational. For example, she had made us feel very comfortable with fentanyl as a painkiller during labor, which turned out to be extra important for me since the anesthesiologist wasn't available to give an epidural before my baby came out so I had to rely on fentanyl during labor. My main complaint is that introductions took quite a while because every couple in attendance answers 5 or so questions, and it was hard to schedule the class online and also reschedule it when the dates changed. Lastly, I love that Newborn Connections has Saturday lactation consultant appointments available. And also the appointments end up very affordable after being billed to my insurance!

(1) Lactation Consulting. Christen Chang is an amazing lactation consultant. She's super patient,…read moresuper gentle, super knowledgeable, and super caring and empathetic. We met with her several times in the first two months of our journey with breastfeeding. The initial first few visits were to learn the ropes, and the second month's visits were to troubleshoot challenges that arose. Christen is so great, no amount of praise or explanation could do justice to just how truly excellent she is. (2) Classes. We also took first aid, child birth prep, and breastfeeding classes with Newborn Connection. The sign up process and web interface is unintuitive, but the classes themselves were helpful, fun to do with partner, and a good opportunity to meet other expectant couples in the same phase of life as you. (3) Rentals. Lastly, we rented a hospital grade breast pump here. If your insurance covers it, or if you can afford it, it's great to have because it's much more effective than retail breast pumps. If you plan on pumping for more than 24 months (i.e., 2+ babies for 12+ months), buying hospital grade might be cheaper than renting hospital grade.

Wow, I can't believe it's been over 6 years! I met Sandy at…read moreher original location back when my nephew use to attend Modern PlaySpace. Fast forward to today, now my son attends Modern PlaySpace at the new location! Sandy has not changed, always so warm and friendly. All the new teachers I've met are just as amazing. Modern PlaySpace is always so clean and organized. When you walk in, it's so inviting with all the toys and colors. There's so many fun activities for the kids. My son is within autism spectrum and at Modern PlaySpace all the activities are so supportive of his needs. They do lots of sensory friendly activities and the kids practice living skills. Not to mention we have been accommodated with having my son's therapist arriving to give him his session there. All of my son's therapists love it at Modern PlaySpace too. We're honestly so grateful to be at Modern PlaySpace working with Sandy and all the teachers. Never in all my years have I ever felt pressured in any way. I truly feel comfortable having all the children in my family attending Modern PlaySpace. If you want a safe, clean, fun and small group setting for your children to attend, then I highly recommend Modern PlaySpace.

A safe, loving and nurturing environment that support healthy growth and development, challenging…read moreyoung children to learn and prepare them for kindergarten. My son kenzo was been here for 8 months, and he improved a lot. I love this place.

We had the best experience with Maureen, one of the many talented doulas at Brilliant Births. We…read moreopted for a private Laboring together class, and it exceeded every expectation. Maureen guided us with so much knowledge, warmth and patience. She gave us practical tools, hands on techniques, and the confidence we needed as we prepare for our baby. We both walked out feeling way more prepared. If you're looking for someone who empowers, educates and genuinely cares, Maureen is incredible. We're so grateful!

My partner and I recently completed the Hypnobirthing three week course at Brilliant Births. We had…read morean absolutely incredible experience, for many reasons--The information we learned was invaluable, but also the instructors' teaching styles and depth of personal experience they offered was appreciated, comforting, and helpful. They clearly have a deep well of wisdom and experience-based expertise to share. We started our class with Keira and absolutely loved her--originally we were a bit bummed to know we would have a different instructor for our last day of the course. However, it turned out that Heidi was equitably wonderful and all things lovely-- instead of only one great instructor and guide, we ended up with two...which leads me to believe you'll be in skilled hands with anyone you interact with at BB. We will definitely be returning to take advantage of their other offerings!

Felicia is absolutely the best. This class is very informative! I'd say the best part is Felicia is…read morealso my birth doula, which I'm extremely grateful to have her. She helped with me the best birth experience I can ask for. I'd strongly recommend every expecting mama to take this class AND hire Felicia as your birth doula if you are considering a doula!

Felicia is truly great! Super, super helpful class. Tons of information. Also great to have the CPR…read moretraining.

My family's experience at ACNC was very frustrating and painful. The clinic (from admin staff to…read morethe supervisor to the owner of the clinic) made the process of getting my child properly assessed emotionally draining and expensive (as I had to go to a second clinic for a proper evaluation). During the ACNC evaluation process, the student evaluator and her supervisor minimized my reports regarding my experience with my kid and provided alternative reasons my child was presenting with ASD symptoms. These alternative reasons were completely debunked by the second evaluation I received, where the clinical psychologist I saw confirmed my son has autism. Most importantly- this is not a neurodivergent-affirming clinic. They do not seem to be informed about recent advances concerning the different presentations autism can have. I would strongly encourage ACNC to include recent advances and research in their practice and provide neurodivergent-affirming care.

Our son showed developmental delays and we were plunged into the world of finding a developmental…read morepediatrician to do a diagnosis (which takes forever) and researching ABA agencies and programs. This is really hard to do when you don't have a diagnosis yet and don't understand the world of ASD services. Which agencies are good? How do they differ? Should you do ABA, floortime, ESDM, discrete trials....? The Regional Center was a disaster to communicate with, so no help there. What you really need is someone who knows the available treatments and programs AND has the experience to understand your child to recommend where to begin and how to start intervention. Enter: Lina Fancy. We would have been absolutely lost without her, especially because we got things rolling in Feb 2020, and the world shut down the next month. Because of Jumpstart and Lina's help, we had a gameplan. We began our own version of intervention based on her recommendations (ESDM for the win!) and saw amazing results. Our little guy came back to us- looking in the eye again, attending, showing us what he was capable of. We've since moved cross country but we STILL talk to Lina periodically to get her counsel. Jumpstart is absolutely the place to go.

I've seen people say great things about this place but I did not have that great of an experience…read more Note also I never participated in their services or activities. I brought my daughter who is two to visit and check things out and being a two year old she was acting unruly and noisy (yes, immaturity is the definition of being a toddler). One of the ladies there gave me a very unpleasant expression and outright told me that my daughter needed better manners and discipline. In my head I'm thinking, who are you to define what a two year old needs? Should I be complaining about your urinary incontinence and constipation problems when you have them, you old hag? Go take your osteoporosis medications. I left immediately and I've never looked back. I expected much better in a city of acceptance such as SF. My review is just a population of 1, so I'm sure that many reviews here hold true and am happy others have found a good experience because as parents, all we want is a good environment for our children to be in.

I used to take my son to the wednesday morning drop-in play group with Jenni Clancy, and we both…read moreloved it! Jenni and the other parents/nannies were were all really friendly and welcoming. The play group has unstructured play time for the kids for about one hour, and then a short circle time with songs, puppets, and bubbles. We haven't been for about 6 months due to a conflict in our schedule, but my son still sings and loves the songs he learned from Jenni's circle time. The play room is small, but I never felt like it was too crowded, and they have plenty of toys and activities for the kids to play with. I would say that the ideal age range is from 6 months to about 2.5 years. This is a great place to bring a crawling child because of the size and layout of the play space. It is also a bit cheaper than many of the drop-in play groups when you get the 5 time punch card.

We started our baby in Peggy's RIE-inspired classes when she was only 2 months old. Her guidance…read moreover the past several months brings me reassurance, confidence that I'm communicating well with my baby, ideas for playtime, and community with a group of like-minded parents. Peggy is wise, open-minded, always ready to learn more directly from the parents she serves, and integrates my feedback on a genuine level. The baby has so much fun in class and I look forward to it every week!

I highly recommend Peggy Herring as a parenting coach. My family recently moved to Alameda, and we…read moresought Peggy's advice on local preschools. Her recommendations were excellent and were in alignment with our values. In addition she coached us on how to re-sleep train my 2-year-old son. After 3 nights of applying her peaceful methodology, our son is now sleeping through the night. She gave us our life back!