“The thing I appreciated the most about having Jocelyn at my birth was her natural ability to put me at ease. She has a very calming and reassuring presence, and she had a knack for knowing just what I needed and when. For example, she brought lotion for massaging my feet (a blessed diversion in triage!), and when the really rough contractions hit, she was right in my ear, quietly offering these great directives to help me relax through the pain. She was also sensitive to the other members of my birth team, intentionally making space for my mom and my husband to be a support to me as well.
This was my first birth, and our daughter was delivered at 9 lb 9 oz without any medication. I could never have done that without the support of a doula! Having Jocelyn there meant I didn’t have to remember every little thing from our birthing class. It freed me to fully focus on my body and the task at hand, and I am so pleased with the results.”
“Having Autumn there with me was an immeasurable gift. She was so calm, so soothing, so loving and so very helpful. She was a deep well of quiet strength, experience and knowledge that was ready to be tapped to the fullest, but she didn’t interject herself into the precious time with my husband and our special adventure. And besides that, I knew my husband was glad she was there, because she could help in ways he couldn’t, and she could also offer him a break from his (sometimes stressful) helpfulness :o). Thank you Autumn for blessing me and for being such a wonderful part of our daughter’s birth day!
“I credit my successful VBAC [Vaginal Birth After Cesarean] at age 39 mostly to the support of Autumn and Jocelyn. Despite all my best intentions, I did not go into labor in a strong state of mind. I felt worried for my baby, who was overdue and showing signs of distress. I also didn’t trust my own body after having had an unsuccessful labor previously and an emergency c-section after 26 hours of labor (with six hours of pushing) which started at home and ended up with a baby in the NIC [Newborn Intensive Care] unit. After that experience the prospect of natural labor deeply terrified me, but I felt strongly that I wanted to try for a VBAC anyway. Autumn and Jocelyn gave me exactly the coaching I needed to help me find strength and to deliver successfully despite a difficult position of the baby. They supported me with complete respect for each of my decisions.
I feel so blessed to have had Autumn and Jocelyn help me achieve a successful VBAC. My recovery has been much more rapid than after my cesarian, allowing me to really enjoy these first days and weeks with my newborn and family. It would have been excruciating to come home to my five-year old as an invalid after this birth. But instead I have been able to get him ready for school and read to him and bake cookies with him since our first day home from the hospital.
I also really appreciated Autumn’s postpartum visit to my home. I had been struggling with sore, raw nipples (a problem I did not have with my first) and she helped me correct the latch and try different breast-feeding positions that quickly improved the pain and let my nipples recover. She also had many useful tips for all aspects of life with a newborn.
Overall Autumn and Jocelyn were both a perfect combination of warm, sincere, supportive, extremely competent, reliable, organized and professional. They showed enormous endurance at my birth and went the extra mile to support us. I cannot recommend them highly enough.”
““I’m a 2nd time mom, and I didn’t have a doula the first time. Having Jocelyn as my doula made my birthing experience this time around much easier. If I could turn back the hands of time, I’d have Jocelyn during my first pregnancy too. She has magic hands! My pain just seemed to melt away with her massages. She was wonderful throughout.”
“Autumn is an amazing doula and truly made our birth a wonderful experience! She is extremely personable, friendly and knowlegeable. I trusted her and felt comfortable with her right away. She was always one step ahead of me throughout labor- she offered a cold towel before I realized I could use one, adjusted me into different positions before I realized I should move and gave me constant encouragements that I didn’t realized I needed. She was always a huge help and support for my husband, allowing him to enjoy the labor, yet be rested and present throughout.
She was a huge help postpartum as well. She is very knowlegeable about baby care and breastfeeding and she is always available.”
“I highly recommend Autumn as your birthing doula. She is knowledgeable, compassionate and professional. Autumn was able to walk me through the entire labor process; from creating my birthing plan to ensuring breastfeeding was well established before she said goodbye to me and my newborn son. I am very thankful that I not only had my sister and mom there, but Autumn as my doula. She came completely prepared to respond to each one of my labor needs. Shortly after I arrived at the hospital we discovered that my son was positioned incorrectly, posterior. Autumn explained to me exactly what that meant and then clearly explained the options we had to get him to move correctly. I spent time sitting on a birthing ball, and then Autumn would use a rebozo to lift my belly and ease the pressure in my back. In my labor process I experienced intense back labor. In the doula bag she brought with her she had many strategies to alleviate my back contractions. While my sister and mom used all of their strength to press on the sides of my hips, Autumn used tennis balls, or water bottles to alleviate the pressure on my lower spine.
Even with the additional women I had in my birth to support me, Autumn stayed focused on me 100% of the time. She did not get distracted or lose momentum in the birthing process. With her support I was able to feel comfortable, and relaxed, knowing that I didn’t have to worry about anything else. I was able to give all of my attention to delivering my son, staying calm and breathing deeply. I was able to have the water birth I desired without any medication, and my son was born, big and healthy weighing 9 pounds and 6 ounces. Autumn is a gifted doula who is passionate about the entire labor process; from the pregnancy, to the momma in labor, to the baby that is birthed at the end. Thank you Autumn for an absolutely amazing experience!
“The Ohana doulas were fantastic to work with. At first my when my wife said she wanted to hire a doula for the birth of our first child I was a little on the “uh. why do we need that” side. My thought on the whole experience was people have been having kids for years, why do we need any help. WELL LET ME TELL YOU, They were worth every penny if not more with how much they helped make this one of the greatest experiences of our life.
I really can’t rave enough about how they helped me help my wife, from suggesting places to apply pressure to relieve some of the pain my wife was in to places to massage to comfort her. Just little stuff I would have never thought to do in the moment. My wife had a natural child birth with no meds so there were a few times there was a heavy feel of despair in that room but they were so positive and kept reminding us of what we were working towards. I could continue on and on but bottom line is these ladies made the experience of bringing our adorable little girl into this world pretty much exactly what we wanted and I can’t thank them enough.”
“My husband and I had a great experience partnering with the Jocelyn & Autumn for our first-born daughter’s birth. They were kind, respectful, prompt, and very helpful as we led up to the birth, during the birth, and even afterward!
5 stars can’t go far enough to show our support of these caring ladies!
We heard about them from a friend.
Don’t go with anyone else in the Seattle area!
“Autumn was our birth doula and she is hands down THE BEST. We had a difficult pregnancy with lots of unknowns, and Autumn was always available to chat about any concerns we had regarding birth and postpartum. We ended up requiring an early cesarean section, and Autumn was there in a heartbeat to wait with us until my scheduled surgery time. In such a scary situation, it was so helpful to have a peaceful, grounding person there to keep my husband and myself calm. (She was also able to catch a few videos of us meeting our baby girl for the first time and they are so treasured by us!) After surgery, she stayed as long as we needed, and kept me company while my husband was in the NICU with our baby. She helped me navigate a breast pump (and saved some colostrum from being dumped by our nurse so it could go to our baby!) and did all she could to make sure I was comfortable.
After we went home from the NICU, we had our postpartum follow-up with Autumn in our home. She helped with some breastfeeding questions and we loved having her around to spend some time with our baby girl! We had a rough breastfeeding journey for a few months, and Autumn was always a text away with advice which was so helpful for me as a first time mom.
Autumn’s continuous support and advice was so helpful and absolutely worth the investment! We can’t say enough great things about her!
“Autumn was FANTASTIC, and neither my husband nor I could have gotten through my extremely tough and long induction without her incredible support. I knew having a doula both during pregnancy and for the birth would be invaluable, but I had no idea the level of support that Autumn would be able to provide, especially when I knew I planned to get an epidural. Because I had a scheduled induction, we were brought in at 8pm at night. Autumn met us at the hospital to get us situated with our nurse and medical team, and make sure we were comfortable with both our surroundings and the decisions being made. Once we were settled, she headed home for the night with the instructions to call whenever we needed her or when contractions really started up. We called the next morning around 10, and she came right in. Once things really got going, she physically supported me with different massage techniques and belly/back support as well as I labored through back labor. Without her knowledge of different positions and techniques, my back labor would have definitely led to a c-section. Long story short, she got us through 43 hours of labor on pitocin, during which an epidural broke off unknowingly, and a vacuum-assisted birth. Nothing went as planned during my labor and birth, but with her amazing support (physical and emotional!) both my husband and I made it through, with a baby safely in our arms. We were blown away by the fact that Autumn stayed for over 24 hours, slept upright in a hospital rocker, and did so with so much grace and love. We will definitely be calling her when baby #2 is on the way!”