We are following all CDC recommendations, ask your doula more about her safety measures.

** years

L.B.

Birth Doula | Postpartum Doula
Service type Service area Experience Availability
In Person, Virtual Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens 4 years

  • Calendar shows the due dates the doula is available for
  • Approved by Carrot, Maven, Prodigny etc. for birth support (not post partum)

 

L. is trained as a Birth Doula via Childbirth International’s robust evidence-based program and she has had the honor of supporting a variety of families from early pregnancy into late postpartum. She has completed Pelvic Floor Therapist workshops training doulas in prenatal pelvic floor support and optimal labor positioning. Additionally, she has training in Parental Baby Loss Bereavement Support via Abigail’s Footsteps. She brings a wealth of knowledge on family-centered birthing, care provider selection and communication, evidence-based practices, patient advocacy, establishing breastfeeding, and postpartum wellness. She has supported a wide range of births from home births & birthing centers with zero intervention & zero medical pain relief; to spontaneous hospital births; to inducements that have resulted in successful vaginal births; to planned gentle c-sections with twins. She additionally has supported an open adoption journey working both with the birth and adoptive parents.

L. has a very holistic view of birth and postpartum, which engages the body, mind, and spirit, and she attends to families with intentional care and preparation in each area. Right from the start, L. loves building trust and developing relationships with families that will be the foundation for the safe and peaceful space of birth & postpartum. Your prenatal meetings with L. will focus on education via evidence-based research and birth goal development. Families have safer and better birth experiences when they confidently understand birth itself, their options, & have the chance to discover their own preferences. L. believes in supporting you no matter what those preferences are! Each pregnancy, labor, and birth is a unique and miraculous experience and the emerging family should be the center and focus of that experience. As a doula, she values being completely present with you in each moment with total confidence in a woman’s abilities & autonomy. She is a strong believer in trusting your instincts & provides mamas with lots of positional & pain management options during labor. What L. loves most in her doula work is gently nurturing a mother because if a mama’s needs are met, she can meet her baby’s needs.

On a personal note, she and her husband, Noah, live in Brooklyn, but she grew up as a mission kid in Africa and attended ministry school in Redding, CA. Though she has always been very drawn in by the raw beauty and strength of birth, she didn’t know how much she would love it until attending the birth of her niece and has since been coined “the family doula” being at the birth of all her nieces and nephews. A doula is called to “mother the mother” and Leah sees the need in the birth world for more mothers & sisters that understand the sacredness of birth, the blessing of children, and the greatness of women that equips them to birth with peace, joy, and power.

Testimonials

Working with L. is an absolute dream! From the moment you meet L. she’ll feel like she is a part of your family and truly wants the best for you, always. My husband and I really appreciated how L. guided us through our birth plan with educational resources and explanations, which then enabled us to decide on things that truly mattered to us. During labor & delivery, L. was my rock, source of comfort and advocate – I can’t imagine going through this experience without her and I know we will work with L. in the future, too!”

Kat, September 2024

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you so much [for the best wishes)]! 🥰🥰
Copying the below from my notes on my phone, so apologies if the formatting of this looks wonky, but I’d love to share more about my experience with L. as our doula, as she was wonderful to work with and it was very hard to say goodbye when our time with her came to an end.
From the beginning with her we could instantly tell she was there to support us as a couple and our wishes. At no time did we ever feel we were being pressured to fit/follow someone else’s idea of what birth or care “should” look like. She actively listened to us and then from that point forward her recommendations were always made with our goals in mind which was appreciated.
During my PROM (premature rupture of membranes) episode she was actively looking up recommendations and offering potential solutions/support while I was in triage. During my induction she was checking in frequently and available to us the whole time. And then when my progress jumped from 2CM to 10CM very quickly, she leaped into action to make it to the hospital in time for pushing support (originally our plan was she’d leave when I was close to 4/5CM which my body flew right past haha)
Postpartum she was my knight in shining armor honestly. I’ve never felt so delicate and fragile as a person physically and mentally, and she was gentile, supportive, and gave me space and time to talk through with her my birth story and process what went right and “different” than what I planned for. Physically she helped set up sitz baths, massaged my hands which were in a lot of pain afterwards from swelling, and supported me in attempting nursing with my (very tiny) late preterm LO.
I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about her and would recommend her to anyone having a baby in NYC in the future!!
Thanks,
Karima
July 2024
So, full stop; L. was incredible. We couldn’t have had the birth experience that we wanted without her. She was so integral in empowering us with knowledge leading up to the birth. She was accessible when I needed her and I felt very prepared going into the final weeks of my pregnancy.
And when I started to go into labor at 2am on January 12th,  she got me through it. I could NOT have done it without her. We labored at home for 6 hours and arrived at the hospital nearly fully dilated.  She was an incredible advocate for me and us, and I feel lucky to have been paired up with her. I would recommend her to any mom if they needed a doula and if I get pregnant again I will bring her along for the ride for round 2!
V.H., March 2024
I had a wonderful experience with L., she was truly an amazing support for myself and my husband during the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. I have nothing but good things to say about her!
Emilie, April 2024

Elizabeth, Oct.2023 postpartum client

L. worked with us for postpartum doula services and was fantastic. She was extremely available and supportive. I went into labor early and my son spent several days in the NICU before we came home from the hospital. L. was in contact with me the whole time with encouragement and practical support (ex. ways to help my milk coming in when I couldn’t breastfeed directly).

I am a first time mom and had no idea what to expect. When I was looking for a doula, I wanted someone who was knowledgeable and who I could feel comfortable being extremely vulnerable around. L. was that and so much more. I could ask her about anything, and she was ready with an informed and nonjudgmental reply. She has a very calming presence and made use of all her time that she spent at our house, finding things to do to be helpful when I couldn’t think of them myself. She has an extensive database of resources – when my son had difficulty latching, she provided me with options for specialists, and gave welcome recommendations around what order to go in to address the issue. Most importantly, she made me feel genuinely cared for, which was invaluable during this time.

We are so grateful for our time with her and it was the best decision we made. I really hope we get to work with her again!

Ariella, Jan ’23 Birth Client: 

“Absolutely recommend L. to all families! I had 27 long hours of labor, and she never left me! She knew exactly what to do at every moment. The birth was very hard, but I have beautiful memories, mostly because of L.! She did everything with great care and love and we will never forget all her support! She’s our Angel! “She understood exactly what we wanted and encouraged us to follow our choices. We felt safe knowing that she would advocate for us. We went through several difficult moments on the day of delivery, but she knew how to prepare us for the unexpected and support us through it. She worked so well with the hospital staff being very kind and friendly when I couldn’t be! I noticed how through that she really made the environment very welcoming and peaceful. “L. worked tirelessly to support my husband and I physically and emotionally. Her massages GREATLY eased my pain and her emotional support allowed me to live a unique experience in the most empowered & safest way possible. Having L. as a doula, I realized how important a good birth experience is and that’s what she helped me have. We felt supported throughout the process, before, during, and after the birth! We love you!”

Raquil, May ’23 Birth Client:

“110% would recommend L. to everyone! She is such an amazing doula! She takes care of her clients as her own family. I had a difficult pregnancy that led to a c-section, and I’m so thankful I had her help me through it. She really made the c-section experience so sacred and special. Also, I owe my quick breastfeeding success to her help in the recovery room!  “Having L. as your doula is like having a Google Search at your side to answer all our questions during the craziest moment of your life. All I cared about was that my baby was okay and she saw that and made me feel so safe. Honestly, my experience with her gave me the opportunity to know what an extraordinary human being is she. Thank you for all your care, L.! I really couldn’t have done it without you.”

Lauren, Sept ’22 Birth Client:

“L. supported our family in a way that was highly personalized and went above and beyond to support our birth plan and the needs that went along with that. I would describe L. as prepared, thorough, peaceful and compassionate. We had a home birth and as a testament to L., our midwives were thrilled to have her around because she was easy to work with and was always a step ahead of them as far as prep. She did whatever was needed and is very intuitive in her care. Also, having L. help postpartum was a complete game changer; her peaceful presence was so incredible for our family. Your birth experience will be worlds better having L. a part of it! Also, having L. to support my husband was really amazing! Her support of him and the fact that she took care of lots of logistics meant he could be present with me entirely which was everything! Also, having help postpartum is absolutely amazing and I don’t know how we would have done it without her help.”

 

 

Contact

Are you a doula and curious about getting referrals from The NY Baby? Fill out our form here
English