ABOUT

What is a Doula Team?

Peninsula Birth Companions came about as a way of combining our resources to provide better services while maintaining continuity in your doula care. Our team is rich in ideas, life experiences, skills, tools, and perspectives, offering you more than a single doula could alone. Like many doulas, we have spent the last few years in solo practice, frequently working with each other for backup and professional support. Realizing that we shared similar philosophies and approaches to supporting families, we chose to enhance our services by teaming up to provide our clients with personalized support while offering the strength of a group.

How Does This Work for You?

When you work with Peninsula Birth Companions, you choose your primary and secondary doulas, subject to our availability. Your primary doula is the companion you have chosen to support you during labor and birth. You and your partner will develop a relationship with both your primary and secondary doulas during prenatal and postpartum appointments. Your secondary doula may attend your labor during times when your primary cannot, such as due to other births, illness, or scheduled commitments. She may also assist or relieve your primary doula during long labors, where a fresh, but familiar, support person can contribute invaluable enthusiasm, energy, and ideas. Finally, you will also will have an opportunity to meet and interact with the third doula on our team, who provides yet an additional level of backup for the primary and secondary doulas. Such pre-arranged hierarchy of support guarantees our clients consistent and familiar care at all times.

Our Doulas

Audrey

DONA-Certified Birth Doula

Lactation Peer Counselor and Educator Childbirth Educator

Women need a safe emotional harbor to participate fully in the transformative power of birth. I help hold the space where families can experience and honor birth, whatever that experience may be for them. I became a doula in 2003 as a result of the life-changing experiences of birthing my two sons with doulas to support me. I am dedicated to journeying alongside parents-to-be as they take part in birth as a rite of passage. I am certified through DONA, have additional training as a lactation peer counselor and educator with the Nursing Mothers Counsel, and have trained as a childbirth educator through Birth Works. I currently teach breastfeeding through Peninsula Birth Companions as well as through Blossom Birth Services. Audrey has supported approximately 80 families during labor, delivery, and immediate postpartum.

Julie

ICEA-Certified Birth Doula

Childbirth Educator

Prenatal Yoga Instructor

My decision to become a doula and childbirth educator grew from the birth of my daughter in 1999. The event, though long and full of challenges, was empowering and made me reevaluate my chosen vocation and train to become a childbirth educator, doula, and yoga instructor. My philosophy is that for the vast majority of women, birth works best when supported with patience and left to follow its own path with as little intervention as possible. By sharing information, providing encouragement and supporting her choices, I help women feel respected and listened to so they can look back on labor and birth as a positive and empowering experience. Julie has worked with more than 100 families as a birth doula.

Alexa

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Lactation Peer Counselor

Newborn Massage Instructor

Pregnancy, Birth, and Newborn Photographer

I have a background in biochemistry, molecular biology, and psychology. Since becoming a doula in January of 2006, I have supported over 50 families both at home and at local hospitals. I am passionate about helping mothers feel empowered, accomplished, and positive about their experiences. I also volunteer for Support in Overcoming Labor and Childbearing Experiences (SOLACE warmline) and Teen Age Pregnancy Program (TAPP). I am a co-founder and interim leader for the Peninsula chapter of Bay Area Birth Information (BABI). I speak Russian, Ukrainian, and rudimentary Spanish. My second passion is maternity, birth, and newborn photography. You can visit my site to see my work.

Gloria (on maternity leave)

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Whole Birth Yoga Instructor

Digital Print Designer

A lifelong interest in birth, combined with my own birth and postpartum experiences, inspired me to become a doula. I completed my doula training with Penny Simpkin in 2003 and am certified through DONA. I am also a certified Whole Birth Yoga instructor. As your doula, I strive to ensure that you experience labor and birth with comfort and compassion, regardless of your background, birth preferences or place of birth. I am a mother of 4 beautiful boys. I have a background in human biology and public health epidemiology. I design digital birth announcements, as well as pregnancy and newborn albums, for print or web. I am fluent in Mandarin.