Atlanta Birth Doula

Atlanta Birth Doula Supporting growing families, one birth at a time. We provide birth and postpartum support, placenta Se habla espanol.

The Atlanta Birth Doulas provide continuous labor support to women in childbirth, postpartum doula services, placenta encapsulation, and Natural Childbirth Classes. Please contact us at [email protected] to schedule your free consultation.

Sometimes we have to slow down. Reevaluate our lives. Rediscover ourselves. We’ve taken a break from social media to do ...
01/20/2022

Sometimes we have to slow down. Reevaluate our lives. Rediscover ourselves. We’ve taken a break from social media to do just that, but soon we’ll be back and we’ll be better than ever. We’ve got some great things we’re putting together and we can’t wait to share it all with you guys.

Being a new mom is hard. Happy Saturday!
04/03/2021

Being a new mom is hard. Happy Saturday!

Every pregnancy, birth, and child is different. Here is a sweet photo of my best friend and the newest addition to her f...
03/01/2021

Every pregnancy, birth, and child is different. Here is a sweet photo of my best friend and the newest addition to her family (shared with explicit permission). This photo is a representation of her motherhood journey with her second child. She struggled with breastfeeding with her first and ultimately had to exclusively pump for 5 months then switch to donor milk and formula. She is proud to report that she is exclusively nursing as well as building a back up supply of milk for when she returns to work. Every journey is new and different. Embrace the newness every time you welcome a life into the world.

One of my favorite things to do is consultations with expectant families. I love educating anyone and everyone on their ...
02/26/2021

One of my favorite things to do is consultations with expectant families. I love educating anyone and everyone on their birthing options, what's right for them, and providing resources.

Whether you want a home birth, to birth at the birth center, or stay in a hospital let's talk about.

Want to know what virtual support looks like or provider options in our community. I'm here to assist you so you know what's available. Want to set up a consultation? Email me, Sara, at [email protected] and we can schedule a time to chat.

In our last post we broached the topic of making change. Something that we need to start doing is holding our providers ...
02/24/2021

In our last post we broached the topic of making change. Something that we need to start doing is holding our providers accountable to the change we want and need. During your next visit I encourage you to ask your provider what they are doing to improve outcomes, not just in their practice, but in our community.

Here is an example of a provider who cares.

Doula Team Emily and Sara host a prenatal and postpartum support group for their clients. During one of these visits Carson Reagan, midwife, came on to discuss concerns, policies, and answer questions. She did this because she wanted to, not because she had to or was expecting anything in return. She wants to see better patient care and is working to do that. She's also started a homebirth to hospital service for those who would like to have a back-up plan in place in case they need to transfer care.

This is what we need. Providers and hospital working to make change, working to see better outcomes. We need to hold them accountable.

I’ve struggled to make this post. I’ve tried to find the right words to express my frustration but there isn’t a good wa...
02/15/2021

I’ve struggled to make this post. I’ve tried to find the right words to express my frustration but there isn’t a good way. So here it goes anyways.

No institution has the right to tell us how we can birth, where we can birth, who we have present at our birth, or when we should birth.

No one has the right to touch your body without consent.

No one has the right to treat you as less than an equal.

No one knows your body better than you do because you are not a statistic.

Our community deserves better than what is currently being provided by most of the hospitals in our city. They dictate our births with their policies and procedures regardless of what people want. Make your wants known. Don’t ask. Tell. And if your provider or birthing location isn’t listening then GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. You are not beholden to your doctor or hospital.

We deserve better Atlanta.

As you guys know I love getting feedback on our doulas. Katrina had the privilege of supporting a surrogate and this is ...
12/22/2020

As you guys know I love getting feedback on our doulas. Katrina had the privilege of supporting a surrogate and this is what the surrogate had to say:
"Katrina was a true dream to work with and I would change absolutely nothing about my experience." Doulas are for anyone and everyone, all birthing experiences, and are a wonderful addition to your birth team regardless of the circumstances. Having been a surrogate who used a doula it was especially nice to have someone whose soul job was to care for me.

After months of providing virtual support I fee like my partner and I have gotten pretty good at it. Here's what we have...
12/22/2020

After months of providing virtual support I fee like my partner and I have gotten pretty good at it. Here's what we have found that works for us.

Our focus is always on the birthing person but we also put a lot of emphasis on connecting with the partner. During your birthing time they are generally the person we communicate with most. We have extra virtual visits prior to birth to develop a rapport with your partner, help them feel comfortable using technology, and go over the different ways we can communicate while you are in the hospital.

We have found that the partners we have worked with greatly appreciated and benefited from this service. The key is their participation though. If your partner isn't into it then maybe a childbirth education class is better for you.

We individualize our care during your pregnancy, we learn a lot about you and your partner's wishes and concerns and fears. We help navigate all that during your birthing time so that your partner feels like they are providing the best care they can.

We can join you at home and help you labor at home if you would like and if it is safe to do so.

I tell our client's partners that they are essentially a mini-doula when all is said and done. My goal is to make sure that when they are supporting the birthing person that the nurses at the nurses' station are bragging on you!

That wraps up my Week of Wisdom you guys. Now here's a picture of me in my wedding dress having a tea party with my girl...
12/19/2020

That wraps up my Week of Wisdom you guys. Now here's a picture of me in my wedding dress having a tea party with my girls. Have a great weekend!

The biggest mistake I made was not doing my research. I tell this story often when doing consultations. I'm a nurse, I'v...
12/18/2020

The biggest mistake I made was not doing my research. I tell this story often when doing consultations. I'm a nurse, I've worked in healthcare for years, and I thought I knew enough about birth. I didn't take any childbirth education classes, I didn't research the different hospitals, I totally disregarded home birth and the birth center, and I didn't hire a doula. I had this expectation that because I had some education that I would be fine. I had a unfulfilling birth experience with my first and then because I thought since I had some experience under my belt I made the same mistakes with my second. It took my fourth pregnancy/third birth (my first pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage and I will share that experience another time) to finally get my s**t together. I switched to the , took a childbirth education class, hired a doula, and set myself up for success. My third birth was so empowering and this is what I wish for everyone who is pregnant and going to give birth. Don't make my mistakes. Don't live in regret like I do.

I have such few photos of my first birth and zero video. This now makes me so incredibly sad. These are moments that I c...
12/18/2020

I have such few photos of my first birth and zero video. This now makes me so incredibly sad. These are moments that I can never get back. I didn't want a ton of pictures because I was self-conscious. These are some of the few pictures that I have. There's no pictures that captured her first breath, no video of her first cry, or our reaction to learning who she was (we didn't know the gender), no record of my first words to her. So many firsts that I have no pictures or videos of because I felt like it "wasn't necessary" and it's so hard to remember it all. Once you come crashing down from the birth high it's so hard to picture it all in my mind. And when my daughter asks to see pictures I have very little to show her. This is a devastating sadness I didn't anticipate. So take all the photos and videos. Don't be embarrassed because this moment will be one of the most beautiful, amazing, and life changing events in your life.

No one, absolutely know one, knows your body and baby better than you do. Doctors, midwives, nurses, patient care techs ...
12/16/2020

No one, absolutely know one, knows your body and baby better than you do. Doctors, midwives, nurses, patient care techs etc. know science but they don't know you. Only you know what's happening in your body and with your baby. We have a culture of looking to our providers to have all the answers, that they are this authority and that isn't the case. The knowledge that they have is based on formal education and hands on experience which can be invaluable but every single person is different. The pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience is different for everyone no matter how "routine" their pregnancy is. We have gotten away from trusting ourselves, trusting our bodies, trusting our babies, trusting in the process.

When my first daughter was born they whisked her off to the NICU and I knew there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. I knew that what she needed was to be on my chest but I felt like I had no voice. The fear that something MIGHT be wrong was more important to the medical providers than my innate knowledge. Sure enough there was nothing wrong and I had to fight to get her discharged from the hospital. The neonatologist at one point even said to me that he was "looking for reasons to keep her." It was at this point that I said well stop cause there isn't anything wrong with her. I missed out on so much during those first days of her life. It was my first lesson in motherhood, don't ever stop fighting for your children. ing, and believing in each other.

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Atlanta, GA
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