Pura Vida Doula Services

Having someone in your home taking care of your baby is a very specialized job. Jen is clearly VERY experienced and confident in her work with families. We felt immediately at ease with her in our home taking care of our precious baby. Such a calming presence and so thoughtful, kind, and detail oriented. Thank you, Jen! The families that get to work with you are so lucky.

This review is way overdue. I can’t image our son’s first year of life without Jennifer. She was my birth doula and then our night doula for the first few months. We were impressed with her from the start, grew to rely on her presence and guidance, and absolutely love having our son spend time with her. From the first time we met Jennifer, I was impressed with her knowledgeable and professionalism, but the most important factor for me was how open minded, easy going, and non-​judgmental she was. I knew that I wanted a natural birth and a birth doula to help me through it, but a few doulas whom we had previously met seemed neurotic about natural births, as in, they’ll totally judge you if you want an epidural. Jennifer was the total opposite.
During labor and delivery, her calming presence and experience were crucial. It was awesome to have someone there who had my back, who knew what I wanted and whose opinion I trusted. If you’re not sure that you want a doula, consider this: it’s a crap shoot who you’ll get at the hospital. Our second shift nurse was overbearing, pushy, and kind of rude to my husband. Better to choose someone whom you feel comfortable with, understand your goals, and most importantly, trust. If Jennifer hadn’t been there, I’m positive I would have gone for the epidural when I was close to being fully dilated. The nurse made it seem like I had a long way to go and the worst pain was ahead of me. The epidural probably would have prolonged labor by several hours and I likely would have needed an emergency c-​section. Jennifer knew this, helped me through the last few minutes, and I ended up pushing for 15. I’m so thankful she was there.

Doula Jen is amazing. We hired her as a post-​partum doula to support us in caring for our newborn son. She is great with babies (and dogs — she is the only pp doula I interviewed that my dog didn’t bark at!). Her experience as a labor and delivery and pediatric nurse makes her extremely well qualified. Our son loved spending time with her and I loved getting a break/​opportunity to catch up on some sleep while she was watching him. I highly recommend Jen.

I definitely could not have labored as well as I did or have had such a positive birth experience if it weren’t for Jen.
I’m a 2^nd time mom & with my first daughter, I fell into the trap of getting an epidural too soon, which stalled my labor; the labor ended up being a 28.5 hour chase of more pitocin, then more epidural, then more pit, more epidural. I was so numb I couldn’t feel if I was pushing or not (which ended up being 2.5 hours of «Am I even pushing? I can’t tell!»). I ended up with a max level of pitocin which made the final push much too fast and furious. Jen knew I wanted to avoid that scenario; I had clear goals this time around that Jen listened to, respected and helped me to reach.
I wanted to labor until 5 – 7 cm and then get an epidural; I wanted to avoid pitocin; I wanted to labor at the hospital with my husband and mother for support & I wanted as much natural pain management/​assistance as possible before the epidural. I’m a wuss with pain and know it, so it was important that my doula be ok with my wanting an epidural (I found some doulas were turned off by my planning to have medical pain management).
Immediately upon interviewing with Jen, I was impressed with her L&D nursing background. Her knowledge of the medical world is unlike other doulas and really was our deciding factor to go with Jen. Although she can not act as «your nurse», she can advocate for you as if she’s your personal nurse. No other doula I found has that education or experience.
Jen respected my decision to have an induction (via water breaking) and gave me a few tips on how to augment the labor induction process, which proved to be very helpful at keeping my contractions regular. She knew when to pull out her next trick for pain management (whether it be aromatherapy, TENS, or manual compression)– and yes I was shocked that all these things actually helped me cope with the increasing labor pains. She knew when to get my husband involved and when to step in herself. And man, is she strong! Her strength & endurance were key to dealing with those contractions.
She was able to guide me through a labor and delivery that was a tolerable
level of pain (which again, I fully admit is a pretty low level tolerance) & still authentic. Although I had an epidural, I felt every push (because Jen monitored how much epidural was given) & I felt that beautiful moment when my darling baby came into the world.
It was 9 hours from start to finish, including 40 min of pushing.
She also encapsulated my placenta which has been really amazing for my postpartum recovery. And she has a few extra goodies to help new moms during the immediate recovery period, which is just a lovely & thoughtful touch to her already high level services.
Couldn’t have done it without you Jen. We are ever grateful to you.

Jennifer is an incredible Doula. We can’t praise her enough. What I love most about her is the initiative she takes to make sure everything is taken care of. We were scheduled to meet on a Saturday morning to discuss her services. On Friday afternoon I texted her to let her know I won’t make our appointment. Early labor.
Low and behold shortly after I was checked in to the delivery room, Jennifer peeked in and asked if I wanted her to stay. Yes! Yes, we definitely did. It was my first child, I was nervous. Seeing Jen was like a breath of fresh air.
Although, we didn’t get the chance to do her customary discussion, work on the birth plan together, etc. She was perfect. Jen is a professional. Not only did she know what she was doing, her intuition is incredibly high, she knew what I needed before I did.
My delivery went off without hitch. In large part because Jen knew how to keep me calm and focused. Thank goodness she was there. Couldn’t imagine giving birth without her by my side. Loved it so much, she’ll be by my side again when I give birth to baby #2 in the next few weeks!

We hired Jennifer as both our birth doula and night doula and she has been an absolute godsend — we have a perfect baby girl and couldn’t have done it without her! She is an encyclopedia of delivery and baby knowledge and has a calm, capable, confident demeanor that lets you relax and focus on the experience knowing that she will take care of everything. With Jennifer you’ll get exactly the help you need with regard to your birth plan and without any attitude or agenda.

I found Jennifer through a wonderful recommendation on Golden Gate Mothers Group and I am thrilled we decided to go with her for the birth of my first baby (a boy!), born in mid December. My partner and I felt very secure in our decision given Jennifer’s extensive nursing background, but knew she would not cause any tension amongst the nurses in the hospital because of that. She was very respectful of the nurses roles.
Jennifer clearly loves what she does and is extremely knowledgable, thorough and personable. She helped put me at ease as a first time mom. I relied on Jennifer for many of my «birth plan» decisions and was very confident I was in good hands between her and my wonderful partner who could not have survived the long labor without her! She helped me make many decisions in the hospital I wouldn’t have wanted to make on my own after so many long hard hours of labor.
I was thrilled to meet up with Jennifer recently for the delivery of our son’s birth story which she recapped from the moment we called her to let her know I was in labor. This is such a wonderful treasure to have to go back and read and always remember the smooth experience we had together. My partner and I would choose Jennifer again without a doubt!
Best,
Courtney, Ian and Cannon (3 months)

After our baby was born July 9^th of 2014 she lost too much weight within the first two weeks after birth. We had to wake up every two hours at night to feed her for weeks and the lack of sleep really got to us after a while. Jennifer came to our rescue when we found her at our pediatricians office working as a nurse and hired her as a night doula. Not only was she highly qualified but we loved her approachable manner and communication style. We never felt uncomfortable letting her into our home late at night and appreciated her flexibility showing up late then leaving so early in the morning. Immediately I could see she had integrity. Jennifer not only worked late but washed bottles, folded baby clothes, and was generous with her knowledge that was so helpful to us as first time parents.
Anyone who discovers Jennifer’s services should feel fortunate. She is a true professional without charging outrageous rates just because she can with her qualifications.
— Michelle and Oscar

We just had our first baby in late December and only sent out an ad for a labor doula through a doula listserv in late November. Even with the short notice, Jennifer responded immediately and even before we met she impressed us with her listening skills and quickness to follow up on details. Jennifer’s price and contract terms were very reasonable and well thought-​out. The most important thing we’d like to say about Jennifer is that she consistently put our interests first, and helped us to make decisions when we were uncertain of what to do.
We met Jennifer twice before going into labor and each time we had a great, engaged conversation. She took care not to inundate us with too much information, but was clear about what we should expect and the tools available to us to meet our birth plan and goals. Jennifer’s birth plan template was also much more detailed than the hospital’s and helped us think through what we wanted for the birth experience.
During early labor Jennifer made herself completely available even during the night, and we felt reassured because she was really there every step of the way. Our labor was about 3 days long in total but we felt very well supported because of her dedication before and after we went into the hospital. At each stage of labor Jennifer made sure our birth plan goals were met and helped us think through next steps so that we could make the best choice at every turn. When it came time to push we followed her exact instructions and the baby was smoothly delivered.
Jennifer is trained as a labor and delivery nurse but she completely avoided mentioning that to the medical staff attending the birth, out of respect for their roles and so that there would be no conflict. She worked seamlessly with the medical staff on every shift (there must have been 3 or 4) and supported their roles extremely well throughout labor and delivery.
Lastly, Jennifer did placenta encapsulation for us in a way that was seamless and very professional. We came home from the hospital with the baby to see the capsules ready to go with instructions and we appreciated her personal touch with that process as well.
We are extremely thankful for Jennifer’s presence throughout the last month of pregnancy and the labor and delivery process. She was reliable and rational and we are so fortunate that she was able to accompany us through this process. Because of her we had an extremely positive birth experience that we’ll be happy to remember for years to come.
Karen & Dale