My San Diego Doula & Placenta Encapsulation

Some people come into your life and feel like a blessing the moment you meet them. That was Courtney for our family. When we learned we were expecting our first baby in March we were excited of course, but also apprehensive… February and March of each year, my husband is IN A DIFFERENT STATE. I’d have to endure the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy without my husband, and I am so grateful I had Courtney here to help me through that time. Courtney is knowledgable, warm and experienced, but most importantly, she is supportive. She offered me support in all my decisions from the beginning. She also helped provide research and articles when I was confused about birth decisions. She was patient with my questions, quick to respond to calls, texts and emails and seemed genuinely excited to be a part of my progress.
Her prenatal support was HUGE, but on the big day, she was INVALUABLE. I never thought I would say this, but my labor and delivery experience was wonderful. Don’t get me wrong… it was exhausting and painful, but it was wonderful. BECAUSE OF COURTNEY. Courtney helped me focus, kept me breathing and calm, suggested alternate positions, massaged my back, said exactly the right thing at exactly the right time and always, always, made me feel like I could do it. Additionally, she helped my husband a great deal. For him, seeing me in pain was very challenging. Courtney helped by allowing him to worry about and focus on me because he knew she would be thinking of the baby (in addition to me of course).
Courtney’s support didn’t stop the day our son joined our family. She came to check on me a few days after his birth and brought placenta pills and chocolate… EXACTLY what I needed. I believe placenta encapsulation helped me to maintain my energy level through sleepless nights.
Courtney also helped me on three separate occasions for a week each time by staying overnight providing postpartum doula services while my husband was out of town. In those first several weeks of our son’s life I was so nervous to be alone as a first time mama. Having Courtney here was like having a friend (but with more knowledge) or a mother (but much younger and with fewer opinions) staying over to help care for our son. I could sleep between breastfeeding sessions knowing he was in the best and safest hands. Our son was always easily soothed and clearly comfortable with Courtney. Don’t tell my husband, but I got better sleep when she was here than him. ;)
Courtney STILL remains in contact with me. She cares about our son’s progress and growth and continues to make me smile with her sweet and thoughtful check ins.
You will not regret the decision to have Courtney join you on this very important journey!

Our experience with Courtney was fantastic! I interviewed several doulas before choosing her. Responsiveness was a priority for my husband and I and she was very responsive to our calls, texts and emails. She always knew what to say to talk me off the ledge when I started getting nervous about my upcoming delivery. I was impressed with all of the services that were included with her doula package.
The prenatal visits were extremely informative for my husband and I and they were a great way for us to get to know her better. She coached us through several hours of my labor via text and then showed up bright and early when we had run out of ideas of ways to find comfort on our own. She was with us for about 16 hours and stayed after our baby came. With her coaching and my husband’s support, I was able to have the natural birth that I wanted for my baby.
I also took advantage of her belly binding and placenta encapsulation. The placenta pills have been so helpful in my recovery. The belly binding blew my mind. My belly button returned to its normal shape after the first night!
My husband raves about her when he tells our birth story. I think she was what kept him present and sane during my labor and delivery.
Courtney continues to check in on us, which I appreciate so much. The birth of our first baby was such a wonderful experience. It is so nice to have another woman to reminisce on my birth story with so I am so glad that she didn’t just disappear out of our lives after our baby was born.
I have recommended Courtney to my other pregnant friends and will use her again for our future births! (Or maybe just have her deliver our babies since she will most likely be a midwife by then!)

Courtney was an amazing Doula for me and my Husband’s first birth! She met with us to prep for delivery, designed a birth plan and typed it up to give to my doctor and hospital, did an extensive breastfeeding course and was great on the day I went into labor! We planned for a natural delivery and she really helped me though the whole labor process. I would absolutely recommend her services!

I hesitate writing this review, because my labor was so quick that Courtney wasn’t able to make it to the hospital in time. So my review may have been very different had she had been there for the birth, and is only based on my experiences with her outside the hospital.
This was my second birth and second time having a doula. Unfortunately we moved and I wasn’t able to use my first doula again.
What disappointed me about my experience with Courtney was the fact that she is very overcommitted. We often felt like we weren’t a priority to her at all, even though we paid good money to be one. She would sometimes not text us back for days, and I would have to remind her to do some things that she forgot about.
Yes, she is very nice and knowledgable. And maybe we were spoiled with our last doula, but we still feel like she just has too much going on right now and that her doula clients were last on the priority list.
Again, our review may have been different if she was there for our birth (to no fault of her own– she got there as soon as she could). Our review is only based on our pre-​natal visits and our communication before and after our birth not the birth itself.

I first reached out to Tiffany inquiring about making placenta pills. I had no idea what these capsules really did. She explained everything very clearly! I decided on doing the ½ raw, ½ regular. The raw ones were very helpful the first few weeks! It helped give me a boost of energy and keep my spirits up. I didn’t have any pp issues. Thanks Tiffany for all your help!

I first heard about placenta encapsulation reading an US weekly (or some other embarrassing publication) when January Jones spoke about how she encapsulated her placenta. My first thought was utter disgust, what the heck do these hippies in Hollywood think they are doing?!
Once I had my first son I became a bit obsessed with the birth community and anything VBAC related. Article after article kept popping up about placenta encapsulation. I quickly learned that while some people ingest it in raw form (still a little too granola for me), there were ways to ingest the organ that were a little, for lack of better words, less icky. At first I was only interested in the pills, but through more research I learned about the multitude of benefits the tincture offered, and even found that it lasts so long you could enjoy the benefits throughout more than post partum. I’ll be honest the first few times I took the tincture it was a bit difficult but I knew I was giving my body what it needed to heal from 9 months of growing someone as well as bringing them Earthside. I grew that organ, it’s part of me, it was made to grow and protect one of the people I love more than life itself, how powerful and beautiful that the organ lives on to provide my family with protection and love.
I ended up in a CBAC for my second birth, I was separated from my baby for almost three hours, and I feel that I owe a lot to my placenta (outside of it’s obvious role). My son is 18 months old and still nurses 3 times a day. I made so much milk in the beginning (one of the many benefits) I was able to donate over 100 ounces! I felt better (emotionally and physically) and NEVER had an issue with production. Honestly, even if it’s a placebo, which I don’t see how it could be, how cool to recycle something that gave you and your baby so much? I won’t bore you with the statistics about how consuming your placenta can do wonders for your mind and body, I will just say that I wish I had done it with my first and will DEFINITELY be consuming it if I’m lucky enough to have another child.

I encapsulated with my second baby, because I had such a horrible post-​partum experience with my first. I heard of the potential benefits (increased energy, decreased baby blues, increased milk supply…) and felt I had to try it; anything would be better than how I felt for the first two months of my older daughter’s life.
Courtney answered all my questions (I had a lot of them!) and reaffirmed all the potential benefits I desperately needed this time around. Her pick-​up at the hospital, turn-​around time, and drop-​off at my house went smoothly and was quicker than I expected.
I began taking the capsules immediately, and have felt great! I’ve had no baby blues at all (I thought I would still have them a liitle, even with encapsulating!), I have more energy throughout the day than I expected, and my milk supply established early and easily, with no struggles.
I am SO HAPPY I chose to encapsulate with this baby; I would recommend the process, as well as Courtney, to anyone even slightly concerned about their post-​partum experience!

My husband and I had the wonderful opportunity of having both Courtney and Tiffany at the birth of our daughter. We had hired Courtney as our doula and Tiffany came along with my midwife as a student midwife, assisting our birth.
Our experience with Courtney was incredible. My husband was initially unsure about having a doula present as he was concerned what his role would be. We met with a few doulas and ultimately chose Courtney for her calm & soothing demeanor. You can tell that she chooses her words carefully and is extremely thoughtful. She knew when to step in to help and instruct my husband, while being extremely respectful of my wishes during the labor & delivery. She took a few photos of the delivery that I will cherish forever.
Not only did she support me during my labor and delivery, I opted to take her private breastfeeding class and traditional bandage binding services. Courtney came to my home shortly after giving birth to my daughter to perform the rebozo bone closing ritual, massage my belly and instruct my husband how to properly bind my belly. The bandage binding made me feel secure, my organs supported and helped me to maintain a better posture. After you have baby and you feel like all of your organs are just floating around inside of you the binding helps secure everything in. I also enjoyed the daily ritual of my husband binding me and taking that moment to take care of myself. I highly recommend Courtney for all of her services!

I (embarrassingly)first heard about placenta encapsulation on an episode of «Keeping Up With The Kardashians.» I immediately thought it was so cool! Totally
Something I would do. We already had one little one but I knew that when had our next baby that I wanted to «eat his placenta.» As soon as we got pregnant with baby number two I started doing research and found that it is actually more common than I thought. It’s something mommas all over the world have done for a really long time. I got in contact with Tiffany early on in my second pregnancy and let her know that I wanted to get my placenta encapsulated.
When delivery day came I told everyone that walked into my room to save my placenta for me. No one thought it was wired and no one made me feel funny about it. When baby and placenta arrived everything was perfect. The nurse took my placenta and put it in a bag and then into a tub with ice. Tiffany had instructed me to contact her once we were in recovery and she came and picked up my placenta shortly after. She made it super easy and stress free for me. The next day she brought my placenta pills to the hospital for me with instructions and dosage information. She also took pictures of the entire process for me. The only regret I have about any of it was not asking to have the umbilical cord dried and saved for me. If your going to get encapsulation done request to keep your umbilical cord. If you don’t like it you can always throw it away, but I SO wish I had our sons.
For me the pills seemed to start working right away. I felt like my emotions were much more stable in those first few postpartum days than they had been with our daughter. Once we were home I was tired of corse, but I had more energy than I did the last time even though this time I had a newborn and a three year old to attend to. My postpartum recovery and bleeding seemed to finish quicker this time around too. I took 2 pills a day every morning and they lasted me about 2 months. I absolutely loved my placenta pills and I was so sad when I ran out. I would recommend it to any expectant mother. If we ever have another baby I will absolutely have Tiffany encapsulate for me again.

Courtney did my placenta encapsulation for my first (and only) baby (so far). She helped to explain the process and was available to help answer questions even pp. I contacted her when I was having some terrible cold sweats weeks after baby was born, and offered suggestions on how to take the capsules to minimize the symptoms. Courtney was warm, knowledgeable, and prompt with the turn-​around. I’d do it again!

I am so glad that I decided to encapsulate my placenta with my second baby! Courtney was so incredible! From the initial contact, Courtney listened to all of my questions and answered everything and made me feel so good! My husband contacted her as soon as I had the baby, and she was there within a couple hours to take the placenta away to process. That evening she already returned with 2 bottles of my pills in a cute bag with a little gift inside (that totally made my day!). Since taking the pills I feel less anxiety and in a better mood. There were a couple days I forgot to take it and I really could tell the difference (I started getting emotional and snappy towards people) — I truly believe it has helped me. I am not sure if it helps with breast milk supply, but it definetly did not hurt it. Overall, I did not experience any negative side effects (though the pills have a strong odor) and felt great! Courtney was always so kind and followed up with me postpartum and even answered additional questions I had after the baby. I would definetly recommend her and placenta encapsulation!

Tiffany Alblinger is a Godsend! I used to think doulas were like a midwife’s assistant and were not really necessary. However, after some encouragement from a friend, my husband and I decided to meet with Tiffany. I knew immediately that she was someone I wanted at my labor. Tiffany has amazing energy and a very calm spirit.
Having a doula meant everything to us as Tiffany prepared us before the event and stayed with us as long as I needed her. One of the things I loved about having a doula is she gave my husband incredible confidence and support. We both felt prepared and excited before having our son.
Do to some health issues, I ended up giving birth in the hospital. Tiffany was a rock for both my husband and myself. If it wasn’t for her, I would have gone to the hospital many times before I needed to. She answered all of my calls and texts and was right there with me when I was ready to go to the hospital. I was already 8 cm when we arrived!
I could go on forever, but I will end this by saying every pregnant woman should have the individual support of a doula. Meet with one and see, like I did, if it is an option for you.

Wow-​We can’t say enough about Tiffany Alblinger! She was an amazing, essential part of our birth experience, and irreplaceable in the level of heart-​filled care she provided us with. Her enthusiasm, knowledge, and compassion helped us navigate through a labor that was not what we had anticipated. She physically helped me with each contraction pushing on my back and supporting my body for hours, and was a rock for my husband to lean on the whole way through from pregnancy to labor and even months later. My husband was physically unable to help me during labor, and Tiffany didn’t hesitate to jump INTO THE BIRTHING TUB with me! Her encouragement and strength in the moment stood out to us as one of the top reasons we were successful in having a home birth. After the labor she stayed as long as we needed her to, I was able to turn to her for all of the questions that come up after labor and she was easily able to help us navigate them all. She returned several days later to check in on us — this visit with her was so pivotal to my own and my husbands emotional recovery.
Tiffany helped to oversea the entire birthing process – she was like our co-​birthing-​manager – she helped guide us for preparing for the best labor possible. She had amazing referrals for everything from a chiropractor to acupuncturist to midwife to hypnobirthing doula… she was an incredible resource throughout and was easily able to surround us with providers that were our best match. One of the things I personally appreciated as the wife/​mom, was having someone who asked poignant, thought provoking questions not only to me, but also to my husband about his recovery and his concerns regarding the labor — going into my pregnancy I was so worried that he would left out of the process, but with Tiffany, it felt like he truly was my birthing partner.
I would highly, highly recommend using a doula! Its very humbling and very touching to know that there is a group of women in the world so dedicated to helping moms-​to-​be during the most challenging, vulnerable moment of their lives. Thank you doulas, and endless thanks to our very own doula Tiffany! You will forever have a special place in our hearts…

When we found out we were expecting our first child, we were not really considering hiring a doula. However, after speaking to a relative who had a really great experience, we started to look into the idea. We interviewed a few different doulas but ultimately chose Tiffany Albinger and we are SO GLAD we did. Tiffany is not only incredibly friendly and kind but she is a child birth educator with extensive knowledge and experience. As first time parents that was exactly what we needed In our meetings before the birth she really took the time to get to know us and to educate us on what to expect during the birth. We were so much more prepared to deal with the different issues that could arise when we headed into the hospital and thank goodness for that.
My daughter’s birth did not go as we had planned and we ended up facing a number of decisions regarding medical interventions. Everything ended up fine and I was able to deliver my daughter without a C-​section, but I firmly believe without Tiffany this would not have been the outcome. She helped us digest the information the doctors were giving us and ask the right questions but never tried to influence our decision. Tiffany also worked tirelessly during my labor, running errands, getting us food, massaging my back for hours and providing counter pressure so that I could get through a tough back labor. We honestly believe that we would not have made it through the labor without her! Even the nurse asked us where we found Tiffany noting that she was one of the best doulas she had ever seen.
My husband and I often talk about how hiring Tiffany was one of the best decisions we ever made. She was our guardian angel and we can not recommend her enough.

Tiffany Alblinger went far above and beyond anything I expected from a doula. She is insightful, incredibly intuitive, caring, and compassionate; she gave my husband and I the confidence and support we needed to go into labor with courage and flexibility. Tiffany worked with us ahead of time to make sure our concerns were heard and that we built up the strongest set of resources we could for delivery. When I was in labor, she remained an essential source of wisdom and caring. She met us at the hospital and immediately her calm, easy presence provided relief. Together with my husband she helped me through the most difficult and intense hours of labor, took the most exceptional photos of the birth of our son, and stayed with us until we were comfortably at rest several hours later. She visited us the day after birth in the hospital and again at home to see what else she could to do support us. Her participation in our preparation, labor, and recovery has been nothing short of remarkable. I can’t begin to describe what a difference she made in our birth experience. We were fortunate to have a birth that was even better than we’d hoped for and I believe this is largely due to Tiffany’s amazing work. We are so grateful to have had her as our doula.

On behalf of my wife: Tiffany offers amazing moral support and is so uplifting and encouraging. She is a blessing :-) It is so special to be able to pray with her. She has amazing insight into natural options. And she is very resourceful. She is a wonderful listener and gives fantastic advice. Tiffany is so thoughtful and really takes the time to meet your needs and wishes. We are so thankful for her!