Meet Your ProDoula

Background/Experience that you think is beneficial to Doula work: My birth experience: I was under the care of a home birth midwife throughout the entirety of my pregnancy, all was totally normal and the plan was to birth at the birth center. While in labor my daughter was having frequent decels so I was transferred to the hospital. Due to the decels I had an emergency cesarean. Dealing with the complete change of plans and the unexpected in my personal life really allows me to help encourage my clients to be open to the idea of being flexible, to have a plan-b prepared so that if the unexpected does happen they feel like they are still having their desires/hopes/choices respected and heard, and to be empathetic and to understand how best to support my client and their partner.

What led you to become a Doula?: During my yoga teacher training in Costa Rica, I was deeply moved by a midwife who spoke about the concept of conscious partnering, sex, and conception—emphasizing the power of energetically connecting and sending love to the cells that would become a baby. This experience opened my eyes to how powerful our energy is and how it can affect the very cells that form our unborn child. I realized that if more people understood this, we could truly change the world. Initially, I felt drawn to teach prenatal yoga, hoping to help birthing people connect with their babies on a deeper level. However, when I learned about the role of a doula, I knew it was my true calling. Beyond just the physical aspects, I was drawn to birth work, particularly education, because I believe society often overlooks or fails to respect the profound identity shifts that occur during the major transitions of life. From the time we first menstruate, we’re handed a tampon and told our bleed is something gross to be hidden. During pregnancy, we are either frightened by others' traumatic stories or told that it should be nothing but a magical, positive experience. Then, as we enter parenthood, we're led to believe that it will be filled only with love and beautiful moments. I believe that women and anyone becoming a parent, deserve to be fully educated on what to expect—the good, the bad, and the ugly. They need to know that they have choices and should be prepared for what’s to come. My goal is to help them build the best support team possible, so they feel held, respected, and empowered to move confidently through pregnancy and into parenthood.

What are some positive comments made about you by other people?:

Natasha and her team have been an incredible support system for my family from pre-natal, delivery, and postpartum. She was sure to listen to our concerns, the wishes we had for our daughter’s birth, and what we needed postpartum. We felt encouraged with the decisions we made, comfortable, supported, and overall grateful for her knowledge! I would highly recommend their services and support. ~C.B.

For my second time giving birth, I knew I wanted to have a doula. After interviewing a few, we met with Natasha and decided to go with her. My husband and I appreciated her calming energy and her focus on helping us work as a team and supporting my husband while supporting me. She helped us feel prepared and empowered going into it. The in person appointment towards the end of pregnancy was especially helpful. I would highly recommend anyone giving birth to get doula support, and Natasha is certainly a great choice you won’t regret. L.J.

If you’re questioning the services, value, and outcome, I’ll save you time and any concern and tell you don’t waste another minute missing out on the pure excellence and experience that Live Light (in our case Natasha our doula and Claire our CLC) will provide you. Just secure it ASAP, but please read the entirety of this review if I haven’t convinced you yet.

As a first time birth giver who also is a labor and delivery nurse, black, queer female who went about becoming pregnant with my wife via RIVF (reciprocal in vitro fertilization), I had high hopes, expectations, and immense passion for birth work and what would be the birth of our first child. I’d like to add that I was diagnosed with a short cervix therefore threatening pre-term labor at 23 weeks, so I was high risk and put on strict restrictions for the remainder of my pregnancy. But even then, we knew we wanted a doula present for many reasons: so I could focus on labor and delivery instead of the beeps and reading strips that I know all too well; to guide my wife and I through stages of labor with all the tools we learned from the in person meetings with Natasha as well as the extremely helpful and informative videos/ classes included in our Live Light Services package; potential NICU stay support (which ended up coming to fruition though we made it past term); and advocating for us in moments we may not be able to or simply needed a minute to gather our thoughts and not be persuaded into things that we heavily discussed in our “variety pack” of birth plans. It was critical we were heard during the birth of our child as we were concerned given the state of black maternal health nationwide, as well as being an interracial, lesbian couple. During the process of becoming pregnant and even through switches of OB offices after our IVF clinic, we endured many unfortunate situations that were simply inconsiderate and inappropriate simply based off of who we were. However, with Natasha, we felt extremely comfortable, heard, acknowledged, and respected in a way that no other provider during our process did.

Even with all the planning, discussions of hypothetical situations, educational acquired thanks to Natasha, NOTHING could have prepared us for what ended up being the most valuable parts of having Natasha as our doula during birth and postpartum. Natasha coached us while laboring at home, showed up in what seemed like no time to the hospital, was supportive and spoke up any chance that was appropriate, held my hand while I cried after being separated from my wife and daughter in recovery as they were in the NICU, and saved us on the days/nights she spent in our home postpartum. Every family/household has different needs postpartum. For us, the honest, deep conversation and meal prepping is where Natasha came in clutch. We cannot thank her enough for the hours spent in our home (with four dogs, a cat, and baby).

This statement deserves to stand alone: ASK FOR THE GOLDEN MILK. It was out of this world delicious and was quite the treat in the midst of postpartum fog. Natasha made it for my wife and I had it postpartum and we still *attempt* to make it half as good as when Natasha made it for us.

Natasha from Live Light is an absolute gift to this world and more specifically, to the birth world. She has compassion and empathy, is raw and authentic through and through, and any baby is lucky to be brought into this world with Natasha there to support their parent(s)/family. We could not have asked for a more wholesome and uplifting experience. -T.O.

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