Ellen Levitt, LM Wombservice Midwifery

We love Ellen! We used her for two of our home births. She is pretty much part of our family now. :)
She is full of knowledge and resources.

Wombservice is the real deal. These women work seamlessly as a nurturing and effective birth support team. Their prenatal and postnatal care is thorough and extra supportive. As a prenatal massage therapist, many of my clients receive their care and they all rave about Wombservice. I’ve been at birth with these women and watching them work is nothing short of awe inspiring.

I was just emailing to recommend Ellen and her midwifery team to a friend and went on their website and it seriously makes me want to have another baby! Ah… to go through the process with these incredible women again — to be able to see them on a regular basis has enhanced my life, my husband’s life and the lives that they helped usher in — our two daughters! So much!
Ellen and her team helped us with our first pregnancy — which we lost — they were completely there for us and helped us feel safe to go through the intense process of miscarrying at home. They then were our primary providers for our pregnancy with our daughter, Zoe, and helped guide us through a very challenging 3 day labor — they were right there the entire time and helped us transfer to the hospital when it became clear we needed that and were there for another 1 ½ days in the hospital with us advocating and supporting us. We ended up having a very necessary cesarian birth that with their support and care was really a beautiful experience. They helped to keep both the baby and me safe. And then they helped us have the most triumphant birth of our little baby Stella — at home — a home birth after C Section! I love these people and am so grateful for them.

Ellen and her team of apprentices (at the time, Jaime and Kristina) are the epitomy of what guidance «for women, by women» should be during a natural birthing experience. That’s what «midwife» means. And that’s what Wombservice Midwifery is!
We received care from them during the last two months of my pregnancy (as I’d just moved to the area… hmph, nesting!), our successful homebirth, and post-​partum, and I couldn’t have chosen a better option. None of the other midwives we’d interviewed in both Santa Cruz and the SF Bay Area «felt» right. None had the mixture of medical expertise, gentleness, presence, kindness, openness, and «can do» attitude that Ellen and her team have.
I received hours upon hours of person-​to-​person (even text messaging!) support in our planned prenatal appointments. I felt nurtured, deeply cared for, and in experienced, sound, professional hands. We discussed back-​up plans and she honored all my preferences. I’d say there was even a bit of emotional counseling in there for us as a soon-​to-​be-​parents-​couple. :)
During the birth, I felt held, nurtured, and in the midst of pain and terror (and joy and ecstacy), they «had» me. Between the 3 of them and my partner, they all «had» me. I FELT SAFE. Jaime breathed EVERY single contraction with me, with her hand on me, moaning with me. I lived 4 blocks from the hospital but did not need to go. I pushed for 4 hours with an arm coming out first but DID NOT TEAR.
Ellen’s use of olive oil is second to none! ;)
And when my baby needed a little help breathing when he came out, my midwife team’s medical expertise exceeded anything I’d ever expected. Quick, efficient, caring, and safe… they helped our baby off to a positive, healthy start.
Post-​partum, I received care & encouragement that every new mother would die for! From spending 4 hours after the birth to clean up, check on me and the baby, and give us helpful guidance… to the many post-​partum appointments that come with a midwife (and not a hospital birth… not in the same way… not nearly so personal or emotionally supportive!)…Our new little family were well taken care of!
My boy is now 12 months old (healthy and shining and bright!!) and when we have another baby we will DEFINITELY hire Ellen and Wombservice Midwifery as our midwife team AGAIN. (I can even still text Ellen with questions and she always makes herself available… I don’t know how she does it!
I *highly* recommend these ladies to anyone wanting natural, extensive, thorough, gentle, loving, encouraging, medically-​sound guidance during the prenatal, birth, and post-​partum phases of a woman’s childbearing year!
PS — Ellen’s apprentice, Jaime, and Kristina (who was an apprentice at the time) run a business called Placenta Apothecary — Jaime dehydrated my placenta the day after our birth and made it into Chinese medicine, tea, and prepared the umbilical cord as a keep-​sake!

I cant say enough good things about Ellen and her excellent team. Although I was sure I wanted to birth my second baby at home, I had a whole host of fears, concerns and anxiety as the date drew closer. In addition to extremely attentive care throughout the pregancy (I connected with Ellen in my 3^rd month) Ellen, Jamie and Noah were incredible in helping me step by step through this difficult but transformational experience. They were sensitive to my every need, preemptive, kind, supportive in exactly the way I needed them to be every second of the 12 hour labor. I feel a tremendous sense of respect and gratitude for them all.

We asked Ellen to be our midwife for our second baby. She was a great caregiver and our birth was just beautiful. (however painful :-) If you are considering a homebirth, you must interview her!
One of the huge plus is that she comes to you for the prenatal and post natal appointments. I did not know that some midwife provide this service for my first baby and it is so great that Ellen comes and gets to know you in your environment as you will be giving birth there!

Ellen is exactly what you want in a midwife — the perfect mixture of warm, personalized nurturing with excellent medical care.
She provided my family with wonderful prenatal care that encompassed our emotional health as well as physical, and prepared me really well for labor. I was getting my labwork done at Kaiser Oakland since insurance let me do this cheaply, and the contrast between my 10-​minute OB-​Gyn appointments and the holistic care I was getting from Ellen was beyond dramatic.
After a fantastic homebirth, Ellen alerted us to a potential health issue that ended up taking us to the NICU. She was there with us every step and made that stressful night far less traumatic – we knew we weren’t on our own.
We are so grateful to Ellen for her expertise and caring attention!