Hello -
I am seeking a doula in San Francisco. My estimated due date is 10/2/08 and I plan on delivering at UCSF. Can anyone recommend someone, or otherwise advise? Many, many thanks.
Have you tried calling Birthways? They are a great nonprofit that deals with everything birth related in the bay area. Their website is: http://www.birthways.org/
A doula in SF is Ann Hayman. Her website is: http://www.thelotustouch.com/index2.html. All her contact information is on the website.
Hi S.,
My name is A. B. I highly recommend my doula, Susan Arthur. We hired her for both of our births. The first one was a c-section and the second a vbac. Susan does at least one prenatal visit with you to help you decide what kind of birth plan you would like and to help prepare you with all kinds of tools for pain control and comfort during the labor. She would be willing to of course do more than one visit if you so desire. During the labor, I found Susan to be very helpful. She steps in to assist only as much as you want her to. She helped my husband guide me through my labors. She doesn't take offense if you tell her to back off, but she'll also step right in and offer things without being asked. I never felt like she was overbearing or too hands off. She has a great sense of humor and bubbly energy, but also a calming effect at times when humor isn't helpful. With my c-section, a breech position discovered in active labor, she was right there advocating for me by asking what other options I had besides surgery. Unfortunately we had no other options. With my vbac, she was always there rubbing my back, doing counterpressure, giving my husband ideas how to help, calling nurses when necessary, reminding me what questions I wanted to ask the staff, and reminding the staff of my birth plan. I also appreciated the postpartum visits in which we discussed the birth and what we liked about it and what we might have done differently. I had a lot of help from my parents right after the birth, so I didn't need her help as much, but she always left the door open for me to call her for assistance with my newborn. Susan is also my prenatal and postpartum yoga instructor and has become a dear friend. If you'd like her contact info, I'd be more than happy to share it with you! Best of luck with this beautiful, miraculous journey!
-A.
Hi S.,
I would recomend Susan Arthur, she is a Yoga teacher and she assisted me with my daughter who born on October I took Yoga classes with her, and she is wonderful to make pregnant women feel good everyone in the class wanted her to be the doula. She gave me tips before and after my delivery and it made it so much easier. She lives in San Francisco her e-mail is ____@____.com
I am a 31 year old mother of 2. I used Susan Arthur (____@____.com)as my doula for the birth of my second child and it was wonderful. Susan was my Yoga teacher at prenatal yoga at St. Luke's hospital. I had my first child at CPMC which was sort of hyper-medical. With my second it was much easier and I was much more relaxed.
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Amy
Contact sfdoulaservices.com or sfdoulagroup.com. You can go to Natural Resources on Valencia St and check out their doula binder with various doulas bios/services listed. Also, the second Saturday of every month (next one will be April 12) there is a Meet the Doulas session from 2 to 4 at Natural Resources where you can meet a bunch, hear about what hiring a doula entails and set up an interview with any that you like.
Felicia Roche (www.feliciaroche.com) is amazing. She was with us through 2 days of a failed induction, then another 2 days of labor and delivery. She was warm, supportive and really helped me feel OK about the very difficult choices we had to make (I wanted a totally natural delivery, which did not happen due to my baby's very large head!).
Here are my recommendations, S.. I used someone at Birth Advocate who is no longer a doula because she is in midwife training, but Annie came and relieved her for a couple of hours (I had loooong labor) and I liked her a lot. I think these women are a little lower cost than others because they have not been doing it as long. http://www.birthadvocate.com/
Also, for a natural childbirth, I would also strongly recommend taking a Bradley class. We loved, loved our class with Zann Erick and it gave us a supportive community of people who supported our choice for a natural childbirth, which we were surprised to find lacking elsewhere! let me know if I can give you Zann's contact information.
Hi,
Earth Lande is fabulous! She has attended births for several friends of ours. Here is her info....
Check out the doulas from natural resources.
http://www.naturalresources-sf.com
I am a student midwife and I also do labor support, as well as concurrent care. Please give me a call if you are interested. I have been at many laobrs at UCSF. ###-###-####.
-K.
Hello and Congratulations on your pregnancy!
I also would love to recommend Susan Arthur. She was my doula for our firstborn daughter and she was wonderful. We had planned a homebirth with a midwife and doula and aside from a long early labor (took its time to really get going), that is exactly how it happened-a beautiful, natural birth. Susan and my midwife encouraged me when I felt like the labor would not progress. Susan comforted me during active labor when her strong hands did a hips press through contraction after contraction for hours. She took photos of our new family that I will always cherish. She did even more but I believe that she individualizes her care for each client/pregnant mom so I won't go on and on. I'll just say that I definitely recommend her as your doula.
PS UCSF was the back-up hospital that I chose and from what I remember Susan has attended births as a labor doula there.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/nell-waters-massage-therapy-san-f...
Hi S.,
My former (excellent) massage teacher at San Francisco School of Massage, Nell Waters, is a doula. Above is her yelp.com link with testimonials. Even though they are for her certified massage services, Nell is a doula, as well. She is also one of the best teachers I have ever had in ANY subject, but especially massage. Give her a call!
And, congratulations! My daughter was born at UCSF 18 years ago - I can't believe it! My advice: Hold your child as much as you can. Because before you know it, they'll be 16 and wanting to move out of the house (like my daughter - she finished high school early). It's a miracle my daughter ever learned how to walk, I held her so much! She was the only kid on the block who, at 2 years old, would say, "mommy can you put me down so that I can run?" when all the other kids would be screaming for their mom to pick them up...I even tried to carry her when was 5. I still try to pick her up and hold her in my arms - all 130 pounds of her! Hug 'em while you can! It's the thing she remembers most about her childhood and that memory really helped, especially during her adolescent years when girls usually start distancing themselves from their moms. There were times when she would actually put her arms around me when crossing the street together - and she was 14! IN this day and age, what more could a mom ask for?!
Take care! Be sure to call Nell!
Lilli Ann Papaloukas
I can highly recommend Desiree Tamsky. She was my doula and we had a great experience with her.
Congratulations S.! I delivered my beautiful baby girl at Kaiser SF on Jan. 12, 2008 with not one but TWO doula's, my mom and my husband....we had a big team and I wouldn't have had it any other way!
Basically the doula we hired was in another birth when I went into labor 9 days late so she called in a replacement who we loved. Since my birth was so long our original doula finished the birth she was in and joined our party about 24 hours in.
In any case I had a 36 hour labor without a single intervention, though there was talk of breaking my bag of waters, pitocin, the whole deal, and I KNOW I wouldn't have had an intervention free birth at Kaiser without the help of my doula's. Not to mention that they did such an amazing job not just of taking care of me, but taking care of my mom and my husband. Really I could go on and on and on about how great they were, so if you want more info feel free to contact me.
The doula we hired originally was Jessica Berman: ____@____.com but we loved Jannell, our replacement as well. Jessica has all her info.
Good luck and congratulations again on your decision to work with a doula. I wouldn't want to labor without one!
HI there my name is T. I am a doula in the east bay. ANywho I finished my trainning a few months back so I know alot of doulas from my group and most of us are doing birth as volunteers. I would love to be your doula or I could help you find one in san francisco. I know a few great woman over there that would be a great help. You can have a natural birth you can do anything you want. Let me know if you want some help finding a good match. My cell is ###-###-####. Be well. T.
sandra lloyd : ____@____.com I think. absolutely fantastic.
Hi S.,
Yes, I do know of a great doula named Tracy Massillon. Her name used to be Tracy Dillen.
She's also very familiar with UCSF. In fact that's where I gave birth and when we were there she knew more about where things were than some of the nurses.
I was a patient of Judith Bishops, one of the midwifes on staff at UCSF, but got to know all of them (which I recommend, because Judith didn't help me deliver). They were very supportive of my need to have a natural child birth and so was Tracy.
She really cares, and works with you and alleviates and fears you might have.
By the way, I did have a completely (no drug) natural child birth and know that having a midwife, doula and my partner made a world of difference in giving me the strength and voice I needed to have the birth I wanted.
Good Luck,
-M.
I see that someone already recommended Sandra Lloyd. We hired her to help us deliver our daughter in June of 07 at UCSF. I can't imagine having done it without her. She was amazing. I also worked with Judith Bishop and was lucky enough to have her deliver my daughter.
Also, I saw that someone recommended Tracy Masillon. I love Tracy. (She teaches childbirth preparation classes at Natural Resources and is a very open-minded, nonjudgemental advocate of natural childbirth.) But I don't think she's doing births any more.
Good luck!
