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Whether you are just starting your parenting journey, or looking to expand your growing family, I am so glad you're here! I understand that what makes birth a positive experience for one family may be different for another, so I strive to be a good listener and guide to help you achieve your unique birth vision. I recognize that there is more than one way to welcome your baby and I believe that with the right support, birth can be an empowering and powerful journey into parenthood! 

 

I completed my first birth doula training in January 2009 and I have now been attending births full–time for 16+ years. I am thrilled to support ALL families as they embark on their parenthood journey and I am committed to making sure that you feel safe, heard, respected and welcome. With 850+ births attended, I am one of the most experienced doulas in the DC Metro area and am proud to have also grown up here! I draw upon my knowledge, training, and experience to provide emotional support, physical comfort, and advocacy to make sure you have the information needed to make informed decisions as they arise in pregnancy, birth and the early postpartum period.

 

In my heart, I know that “doula–ing” found me at the exact time in my life when I was ready to embrace it. While on a vacation in Dec 2007, about ten years into my first career as an Executive Assistant in property management/commercial real estate (and affectionally nicknamed “office mom”), I connected with a pregnant mom also vacationing in Bermuda and we immediately hit it off. I ended up spending most of my vacation with her and as luck would have it, she and her husband were on the same early morning New Year’s Day flight home to Virginia! Sitting at the gate she looked at me and said “you should be a doula” and I actually had to google it. Fast forward 6 months, I had the honor of attending her birth, which was quite complicated and full of unexpected turns. The next day, as I drove home from that experience, I knew I had found my calling. I became a doula that day and immediately started working on how I might go about transitioning into supporting families as a birth doula. Shortly after that experience I found out I was going to welcome my second daughter in the spring of 2008…ten years after my first birth! Training as a doula while going through pregnancy was such a gift, I was learning how to support others through their pregnancy while preparing to give birth again myself. I had an amazing doula for that birth and she taught me so much about the kind of doula I wanted to become. The birth of my youngest daughter was long and more challenging than I anticipated, and I am forever grateful I had a doula alongside my partner, working as a team to support me through that experience.  I had an intense 20 hour back labor which taught me a great deal about my strength, my personal goals…and about letting go of judgement and expectations. 

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With my longevity in this field, I have had the opportunity to train in additional modalities that enhance my doula support. In addition to being a Certified Birth Doula with DONA, I am also trained in Spinning Babies Positions for Pregnancy and Labor, Acupressure protocols for pregnancy, and TENS therapy for labor. I am excited to be a certified HelloBirth® Hypnobirthing Childbirth educator and Hypnobabies Hypno-Doula. I have extensive experience supporting the full spectrum of High Risk Pregnancies, which has become more and more common in the last few years. I am also thrilled to have a great deal of experience supporting VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean), IVF Pregnancies, Twins Pregnancies, and LGBTQIA+ families. 

 

An important part of my doula self-care is to cultivate a beautiful work-life balance, which I believe is how I have sustained the intensity of navigating the unpredictable nature of 24/7 on-call life for more than a decade. In addition to being a mom to two wonderful daughters, in 2018 I became a “Kiki” (a nickname given to me by my older sister when I was born) to my first grandson…and welcomed another grandson in 2023! I had the incredible honor of supporting my older daughter during both of her births, a gift unlike anything I could have imagined! I enjoy spending my free time loving on my family & friends – you might also find me in one of my happy places      getting messy hair in the Jeep with the top down      feeding the pollinators in my garden      singing my heart out at the local karaoke spot      enjoying the sun and water on my purple SUP with my BFF or enjoying a daily morning walk with my fun loving life partner (and talented Real Estate Pro) Jon and our rescue pup Lola    

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