San Francisco Doula Collective

When I was pregnant, several people told me that the best decision they made for their labor and delivery was to hire a doula. Let me pass this advice onto you. Best decision I could have made. Just do it. And hire these ladies.
Amanda and Vanessa visited our home twice in the weeks leading up to my delivery, which was particularly helpful, since I wasn’t able to make it to a proper labor prep course. After those visits, I felt reasonably prepared.
Two great things about these folks:
— they were great at involving my (somewhat shy and freaked out) partner
— they are wonderfully open, pragmatic and non-​judgmental in their approach
I ended up having a very abrupt and unexpected emergency induction about two weeks early and Amanda was instrumental in supporting me and my husband through the whole thing. In spite of the induction, I had exactly the outcome I had hoped for. I am certain that this would not have been possible without Amanda’s help. Here are just a few of the supremely helpful things she did:
— applied cool, scented compresses
— fed me bits of chocolate
— helped guide my husband in supporting me
— rooted for me when I thought I couldn’t continue
— ran interference on some pesky doctors so I didn’t have to
Also, in the frenzied and blurry postpartum days, Amanda and Vanessa visited us. It was particularly great to see them during that time.
I can’t recommend them enough. Because of them, I think I might even consider having another kid!

We had an amazing labor and delivery experience and, in addition to the great staff at UCSF Mission Bay, it was mostly due to the fantastic support of SF Doula Collective. Hands down the best decision we made during pregnancy was to work with them.
Starting my doula search At 38 ½ weeks pregnant was not the way to go, but as luck, fate and unpredictable due date schedules would have it, Vanessa and Amanda had an opening and we were able to get the care and support we needed to make the delivery a positive and encouraging event.
Here are just a few of the many reasons I would recommend SF Doula Collective:
1. They are super experienced and very hands on — from pregnancy through delivery to post partum care. Each step of the way my husband and I felt we had the support we needed to navigate each step of this process.
2. Vanessa and Amanda were there to advocate for the health of baby and mother and never left our side during labor. No one else will be so explicitly focused on you and baby as they are and it’s exactly the support that’s needed to help get you through the more trying times of labor.
3. They are super competent and have wonderful calming energy — a winning combo when you are not feeling your very best. I was always glad they were at my side and was never annoyed by their suggestions, care or questions.
4. They are a great liasion with the hospital staff. During contractions, it was invaluable to not be the one to have to chat with every nurse/​dr that came in. They happily communicated our delivery wishes and concerns with staff and took me out of the equation so I could focus exclusively on having the baby. They also have great relationships with many of the staff and my experience was that the hospital staff and the doulas worked together extremely well and made a great team.
5. They are able to explain in more detail some of the hospital jargon and scarier parts of birth options than you might otherwise hear from the drs or nurses. And again they do it from an orientation of what is best for mom + baby, making sure you are comfortable with what is happening and understand your options.
6. They are super inclusive of birth partners and are not there to make them feel unneeded in any way. They help you both have the experience you want when you bring your child into the world. My husband loves them as much as I do!
7. Their at home check in 3 days after delivery was wonderful! Again I felt so supported by them as I started this journey into motherhood and their tips on feeding and post partum care were spot on. Their remedies truly helped speed up
my recovery time. Hugely helpful and not something I would have received if I hadn’t had the good fortune of working with them.
I had a healthy pregnancy and relatively normal delivery, and ended up opting for an epidural halfway through. Regardless of the type of delivery I had, I would always choose to have Amanda and Vanessa there. Their services are amazing and they are wonderful people to have in your corner during such a life changing event!

I cannot recommend SF Doula Collective enough. After interviewing various doulas, we decided to go with SF Doula Collective because of their vast experience, warmth, compassion and attentive care.
My husband in particular felt the most comfortable with them because they whole heartedly included him in the birth preparation process. Some doulas wouldn’t even look at him or mention the importance of the partner’s role. With SF Doula Collective, he really felt included.
I believe that finding the right doula (s) is a lot about the right chemistry. They felt like the right fit for us. All three of them! I felt I could trust any of the three doulas and would have been happy to have Meg, Amanda, or Nova at our daughter’s birth.
They are a wonderful team that works seamlessly together. We learned a lot from them in preparing for the birth. As we got closer to the due date, they were even so kind to offer to go on walks with me, above and beyond the predetermined visits.
During labor Meg was with us and she was able to coach us and support us through it all. Once at the hospital (St Luke’s) I was amazed at how wonderfully she worked with the hospital team. Again, seamless! (I can’t say enough positive things about St Luke’s either!)
The post-​partum visits were also very helpful and very important to us because of some complications I had after the birth. Being able to rely on their expertise and support was invaluable. They will always be warmly remembered as a key part of our experience of becoming first-​time parents.

The birth of my first child took over 36 hours, with some twists and turns thrown in (we had wanted a natural birth but ended up with a Caesarean). Throughout the contractions, the hard decisions, the medical staff rotations, and the countless hours of waiting, the ladies of SF Doula Collective were there to nurture and keep us sane. If not for them, I don’t think either me or my husband would have come out of our labor with as positive a mindset as we did.
From pre– to post-​partum, I couldn’t have asked for a better support team. There’s a huge difference between the care that a doctor or hospital can give you versus the wisdom and practical know-​how that the doulas provide. At the prenatal visits, we covered everything from hospital medical procedures, to nutrition to coping with emotions that labor would bring up. During labor (we worked with all 3 ladies since mine was so long), each doula came onto her 10-​hour shift energized and fully briefed on how I was doing, and made each stage of my birth comfortable. They gave me and my husband confidence to advocate for ourselves in the hospital, and make tough and timely decisions. After birth, I got follow up visits to make sure I was happy, healthy and not over-​exerting myself (yes, Amanda, I heard you! :D).
My husband was also hugely relieved to have an extra pair of hands and an experienced voice in his corner, at all times. Having their support helped him focus on the labor and what he needed to do to support me in turn. While I don’t think I would want to go through that labor again, I will definitely be calling on the San Francisco Doula Collective to help us if/​when there is another little one on the way.

Once I found out I was pregnant and met with a midwife at UCSF, she suggested that we hire a doula if it was financially possible. After meeting a couple of other doulas, we decided to reach out to SF Doula Collective based on their reviews on Unilocal.From the minute we met Christina and Nova (Amanda gave birth that day!), we were convinced that they were the right team to help us through pregnancy and the birth process. Little did we realize at that point how much we would come to rely on them for support from 34 weeks on.
After a very normal and boring pregnancy, my water broke at 34 weeks and we were admitted into UCSF. We were completely unprepared for this (and the baby) but Christina, Nova, and Amanda were amazing. We had as much medical support as we wanted at the hospital (UCSF was amazing) but we relied on SF Doula Collective for emotional support and lots of laughter. They each came to visit and stayed in constant contact always offering to come whenever we wanted. Nova brought us a preemie book on kangaroo care, Christina massaged my legs trying to get things going faster so as to avoid an induction, and Amanda warmly reminded me of my birth plan and helped me believe that there were still several elements of it that I could still have.
Fast forward a few days and Nova was on call when the contractions started. She was a superstar for my husband and I. Even our labor nurse commented on how wonderful Nova was with us. Contrary to what many people think, doulas aren’t there to yell at the doctors or participate in your medical care. She was simply there to walk us through contractions, breathing, labor positions, reminders to drink water, walk around, crack a joke, massage my back, help my husband help me, etc. I am so fortunate to have had Nova on my labor team.
It’s now been four months and the SF Doula Collective is still a part of our lives. Christina has helped out with night doula work and I’ve stayed in touch via email and phone with Amanda and Nova. These are wonderful women who really care about their clients. Their work is so much more than a «job» and even though I can’t imagine having another child right now, I would never do it again without them.

Nova was such a tremendous help during my second birth, a VBAC at home! Nova’s caring demeanor was exceptional throughout my pregnancy – I found this support vital in the success of the birth of my second child. Not only was Nova warm and welcoming, she was very reassuring in that she was very knowledgeable about the birthing process and she knew how to handle the emotions that come with pregnancy and labor. Nova was very trustworthy and and transparent throughout the entire birthing process. I especially appreciated her commitment, working closely with the midwives, and especially providing me guidance through the times during labor when it felt like I wanted to simply give up – Nova came through for me! I can’t thank her and her family enough for helping my husband and I deliver a healthy baby boy! Nova has a true gift in birthing and it shows through her gentle and grounded approach to her profession.

I was referred to The San Francisco Doula Collective by a close friend, who told me how she couldn’t imagine her birth without them. Boy was she right about that.
The guidance and support Amanda and Nova gave me leading up to my birth was so invaluable to me. No book or birthing class could compare. I found their experience with the hospitals in SF particularly helpful to us. We made a big decision to switch hospitals halfway through my pregnancy. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do this without them at such a late stage. I loved how they never imposed their own opinion on each hospital, but spoke to their experience which helped us come to our own decision. In the end, it was one of the best decisions I made during my pregnancy (next to hiring them!) and I am forever grateful for their input.
Amanda was with us for my entire labor and birth of our baby. Her gentle demeanor and warm spirit was just what we needed to help us get through our all natural birth experience. Amanda made a great team with our midwife and nurses too.
Both Amanda and Nova were always available for emotional support throughout my pregnancy and after. I still am in touch with both of them and hope to stay that way.
The San Francisco Doula Collective does amazing work! I highly recommend them and as another reviewer wrote, five stars isn’t enough!

The San Francisco Doula Collective was referred to me by a friend when I was looking for support in a second attempt VBAC (that’s two scars form C-​sections, onto my 3^rd pregnancy).
At the time my husband I interviewed them, one of the the doula members was on maternity leave, thus we meet and worked with Amanda and Nova. They both presented themselves as serious professions, but I really felt like they were passionate about their work. They seemed ernest, well informed, and very approachable. After having 2 c-​sections, I ended up with insecurities around the birth-​worker world, and I felt really comfortable with them right away. I love their business model; mother doulas!
I was able to have a successful VBAC, and I really have the SFDC to thank for a beautiful, supported, and amazing birth. I still can’t say that ‘thank you’ does justice to the full heart and gratitude I have for the birth of my baby– the chance to labor and birth with dignity and love.
The key talents they provided were:
knowledge on how to work with my midwife and hospital staff and my laboring body.
How to get my husband active in helping me work through the contractions. They were skilled at many many things, but most important to my birth was a good doula sense on how to shift support according to birth plan changes, and helping me with postpartum visits. Those home visits were invaluable. The prenatal information was very helpful.
I’m so happy they exist!

We cannot thank these three women enough. Their kindness, support and strength, played a major role in our son’s birth being the most magical of experiences for us. It seemed there were so many moments where the event could have turned south, yet it never did. So thank you Amanda, Nova and Christina for everything that you did for us, five stars could never be enough.

Amanda and Christina are great. What a team of wise women! They bring a balance of pragmatic/​medical knowledge with intuitive/​somatic/​emotional wisdom that is such a grounding, calming, reassuring, and trustworthy blend. We loved working with them during the huge rite of passage of entering not only labor and delivery, but the next life stage of parenthood. They are responsible, empathic, grounded, and well-​versed in their stuff both personally and professionally. It was helpful to know not only do they know their stuff professionally, but have been through it both personally and professionally in being mothers and assisting others in becoming mothers birthing themselves and their babies. They had lots of good suggestions for self-​care during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. They also were able to provide information when needed and drop any didactic agenda to meet you wherever you are at physically/​emotionally/​spiritually. I love that they are a team modeling that someone can always be «on call» and someone can always be «not on call.» Very good modelling of balance for what it means to be a professional and a parent. (I can’t speak to Nova personally as we didn’t work with her– however, I assume she’s great of she is working with Amanda and Christina).