Sheena Fazili

7/2/2024

My husband and I took a birthing class with Fatima. It was 4 2-hour sessions where we covered all things labor and delivery. Fatima is a phenomenal teacher. Each session was well structured and we were able to not just learn about what to expect for the big moment but also how best to support each other through the process with a special focus on comfort measures. I keep going back to the material she shared and continue to learn from it. Could not recommend her enough!

Akilah Daniels-Vincent

1/27/2024

Working with Fatima was amazing. She was so knowledgeable, and she put us at ease right from the start. She gave us so many tools and resources that I was completely prepared leading into my birth. I loved her hands on approach, and I felt comfort in the fact that she was there for me at any time during the birth. As soon as she arrived there was a sense of calm and purpose in the room. It was amazing that she knew the nurse and staff very well, and they worked together, almost like an orchestra to manage the birth. She was so singularly focused on me and ensuring that I was comfortable. She knew how to direct my husband, and they both work together to alleviate my pain. All I had to do was focus on breathing and between the breathing and both her and my husband pressing on certain portions of my body, it ensured that I was painless the entire time! We had many conversations leading into the birth to find out how I wanted the experience to be and with her, the whole experience was as I envisioned. She ensured the staff honored all of my wishes and created the sense of calm in the room that I never knew was possible. Because of how well, she prepared me and coached me during the experience I had a completely seamless birth with minimal damage. It was such a beautiful moment, and I attribute that to Fatima’s grace, knowledge, and vast experience. After the birth she constantly reached out to ensure that I was OK and provided me resources to get through the first weeks of being a mom. I took advantage of haman and closing the bone ceremony postpartum. The way she cared for me, educated me about the ceremony, and provided me guidance along the way utterly relaxed me. It was such a great way to close the loop on the birthing experience! Overall I highly recommend Fatima!

Sassha

10/16/2023

Fatima was an incredibly calming and grounding presence during my home birth. She helped keep me centered, reminded me of my mantras, and used effective non-medication pain relief strategies. The TENS unit was especially awesome!! My original doula backed out when I was 31 weeks pregnant and it ended up being a blessing in disguise because Fatima was the perfect addition to the birth team. Can't recommend her enough!

Nasrin

5/1/2023

Fatima was my doula for my induced hospital birth at Inova Fairfax. She remains one of the best decisions my husband and I made in our pregnancy and delivery journey. She has a calming presence, a proactive nature and the composed resilience that make her a welcome and extremely helpful presence during childbirth. She is reliable and responsive. Having Fatima with me felt like having a well-informed best friend to advocate for me and help me think through the many decisions I was making in my labor. She took the guesswork and decision fatigue away and this saved me countless hours of research. We had several meetings throughout the pregnancy where Fatima explained all things labor and delivery related. Her presentations were comprehensive, clear, and very interesting. She shared many helpful resources in our meetings. And before heading to the hospital she briefed us on some of the decisions we would have to make regarding the baby (such as administering erythromycin and vitamin k shot). When my contractions started, she gave recommendations for pain management as I labored. Her gentle adjustments to my labor positions helped me dilate from one stage to the next, and I'm very grateful that I was able to deliver vaginally due to this progression. I would not have thought to make so many position changes while trying to manage the contractions. Having her to coach and direct that process was invaluable. She coached me alongside my husband as I pushed, and without skipping a beat when my baby was born, she took pictures and videos for us (a request we made ahead of time), helped me attempt to breastfeed, and even hand fed me my first post birth snack. I appreciated Fatima's follow ups postpartum where she provided suggestions that helped me greatly. She is a wealth of information regarding pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. I wholeheartedly recommend her as a doula. I continue to benefit from her passion for her work, and I know you will too. 

K Durbin

4/9/2022

Fatima supported my husband and me with my third child's birth in December 2021.  Upon meeting her, she quickly gained our confidence with her calm and practical personality and gentle approach.  Although we had had two previous births, Fatima patiently prepared us for this birth and helped us understand what to expect (things were a little different during COVID).  I particularly appreciated that she really tuned into what we needed and calibrated accordingly.  Before, during, and after the birth, Fatima was extremely thoughtful and prepared with whatever we might need (usually way before we even knew we needed it).  I would recommend Fatima to anyone without reservation--she was wonderful!    

Liz E.

5/23/2021

We had the most beautiful birth experience with Fatima as our doula! My husband and I hired her in November of 2020 for our March 2021 birth.  Fatima really took the time to understand both of our fears and hopes for the birth, and I can’t imagine things having going as well as they did without her.  Even through the challenges of the pandemic, Fatima was always accessible to us to provide education and thoughtful advice.  She clearly knows a lot about birth and has a genuine care for her clients.  Beyond that she is just so pleasant to be around, and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a doula in Northern Virginia! 

Emma

10/13/2020

I was a gestational surrogate, with Fatima attending the birth in January of 2020. This was not the birth we were planning (I was induced and ended up with an epidural); Fatima was so incredibly supportive of the situation, of my need for a partner as my husband was home with our child, with all the many things. I would absolutly ask Fatima to attend another birth, and cannot recommend her enough!

Hamda

12/12/2019

We are so blessed to have come across Fatima and her services! She was both knowledgeable and understanding. I had a horrible first experience and was determined to have a labor and delivery I was happy with. She helped me come up with a birth plan with everything I wanted. she then helped me fulfill it! It went better than I imagined. I no longer have the weight of that horrible first experience, because I got the most perfect second time. My husband also was so happy having Fatima, she gave him some things to do that were very helpful (like a fan), she made sure he wasn’t overwhelmed and was a helping hand. Having Fatima was the best decision we made. This was the best investment I made on myself. I will never give birth without a doula again! And I hope she will be available for us in the future. She is kind, reliable, understanding and compassionate. I can’t thank her enough. I recommend her to everybody you will not regret it!

Rubina

9/26/2019

I started looking for a Doula in my 35th week of pregnancy and came across Fatima on the internet. We met soon after and i was convinced that i wanted her as my doula. She is very warm and caring. She came for her visits and shared books, information and some simple excercise equipment to prepare you for  labor. When my labor did start, Fatima was in touch with me during the early hours, regularly checking in via text messages and phone calls. But once my contractions got closer, she came over to my house. During the initial hours of labor at home, she comforted me, gave me regular back and foot massages and was a source of great encouragement. She later accompanied me and my husband to the hospital and stayed there with us for about 30 hours. In the hospital too, she was immesely warm and caring and also helped me and my husband understand certain things about labor. She has a lot of knowledge about pregnancy and labor and while she is not interfering in one's decision making, she will give you suggestions if asked for. I ended up with a C-section due to certain complications, but Fatima's warm and friendly presence and care was an essential ingredient that really easened my labor and pregnancy journey. I strongly recommend Fatima as your doula :)

Martin B

3/8/2019

You deserve the greatest birth experience possible. Given the pressures of baby health, doctors, nurses, health insurance companies and the insurmountable postpartum emotions, having someone as knowledgeable as Fatima helped us successfully navigate each curve ball thrown at us. I was always taught to never judge a book by its cover and this was the case with Fatima. She is very humble and has a breadth of knowledge, patience and dedication to the art of being a doula that helped us ensure that we had the best birth experience possible. 

A coworker who had just returned from maternity leave with her first child recommended hiring a doula because she found out how invaluable it was and how much it helped with understanding their rights as a patient. Then we attended our first birthing class another mother was on her 3rd child and decided to get a doula this time to make sure it was a smoother birth after the first two. Hearing these two stories helped solidify the fact that we needed to consider a doula and thankfully we made a great decision by hiring Fatima.   

I was truly amazed at the amount of expertise, precision and compassion provided in support of our birth plan. We were provided in-home training, educational resources, on call/text availability, compassionate and flawless in person support at home and our delivery center. 

During the delivery she was there helping us understand our rights as a patient while also supporting both mom and dad with the emotional support needed for a marathon birth session. From heating pads, lighting, pictures and massages every minute detail was meticulously handled and executed beautifully and truly created an Oasis within our birthing room in the hospital. 

Our best decision was having our son the second best decision was hiring Oasis Birth Doula with Fatima.

Sonia Thomas

2/6/2019

Fatima is such an amazing doula! I‘m so happy she was there to provide support when I was giving birth. She has such a calm demeanor and she helped me relax and stay focused. My birthing experience would not have been the same without her, and I highly recommend her!

Brian Tierney

2/5/2019

Our experience with Fatima as our doula was incredible. She gave us a wealth of information and tools to guide us through the entire process throughout the third trimester and through postpartum. Looking back I know my wife and I would have felt a lot less prepared and confident during labor had we not partnered with Fatima. She clearly laid out the benefits and risks of the various choices we had to make and taught me how to administer pain-management techniques to make my wife feel more comfortable. Fatima offered so many materials and resources - including books, websites, relaxation tools and more - that were immensley helpful to us. At the hospital, at times a felt a little overwhelmed or lost until Fatima arrived - I was so relieved to see her and suddenly felt more confident as she guided me and Sonia through the process. She stayed with us for many hours until after our daughter was born, acting as a firm advocate in our corner and communicating with nurses and doctors to make sure my wife and baby were getting the right treatement. At one point, when it was clear to her that my wife was ready to start pushing (though one of the nurses didn't seem to agree), she insisted on calling in the doctors and sure enough my wife was 10 inches dilated and ready. She made us aware of safer options we had for the labor induction (which was something not explained to us by the doctors). In the ensuing weeks, Fatima came back to our house to check in and prepared two delcious meals (and lactation treats for my wife) for us. She also wrote a very touching, heart-felt letter to our daughter about her birth which we are excited to show to her when she gets older. I can't recommend Fatima enough. She was an essential partner in this amazing journey of bringing our daughter into the world.

Hanan Fadel

12/20/2018

Where do I begin. Fatima was THE BEST DECISION EVER. My water broke early in the morning and she met my husband and I at the hospital right away. I was having contractions 5-10 minutes apart for about 3 hours. She put a heat pack on my back and held me hand with each contraction and it helped SO much. The heat was literally a life saver. She also made sure I was hydrated and eating in between the contractions and she also covered my eyes in between contractions so I could rest. She gave me a homeopathic remedy during my labor when I started to really become fearful. She captured pictures of the birth as it was happening--pictures that I didn't get with my first child. Overall, it was an amazing experience. She has a calm energy, and I would 100% hire her again for any future birth.

N. Allen

8/17/2018

My husband and I interviewed a few doulas in the DC area before meeting Fatima Abdullah with Fatima Oasis Birth Doula. We knew from her calm demeanor that she would be the perfect fit for us. We were convinced that she would make sure that my husband would be able to take part in the birth, which was a genuine concern for us after visiting multiple doctor's offices that ignored him completely. We are also between deciding on a home birth and a hospital birth. Fatima was the only doula we interviewed who didn't look at us like we were nuts. She, herself, had a home birth - so we knew she was the doula for us.

Fatima met with us multiple times in our home before the birth. And she even offered to meet with our home birth midwife before our birth to make sure I really had a team when the birth took place. My husband and I were very confident when labor started. I texted her throughout the early labor and she was ready to come at the drop of a hat. I trusted my husband work with her directly on the timing of her coming over. She came over within an hour of our call for her to come. And she comforted me for about 3 hours before we called the midwife. It was great to have her comforting me while the midwife really coached the labor. My son was born peacefully at home in the early morning and Fatima helped us try lactating. She stayed at the house for hours after the birth, even after the midwife left. Throughout the following weeks, she visited multiple times and dropped off food & tea. And now, even though we have traveled away from the area, we have been glad to stay connected with her. Making sure that she and our son remain in touch has been very important to us.

I know Fatima is now getting licensed for postpartum care. I am so happy to know that at our next birth she will be able to help us through all phases of birth. I highly recommended Fatima and know that at our future births she will be by our side!

N. Allen

8/17/2018

My husband and I interviewed a few doulas in the DC area before meeting Fatima Abdullah with Fatima Oasis Birth Doula. We knew from her calm demeanor that she would be the perfect fit for us. We were convinced that she would make sure that my husband would be able to take part in the birth, which was a genuine concern for us after visiting multiple doctor's offices that ignored him completely. We are also between deciding on a home birth and a hospital birth. Fatima was the only doula we interviewed who didn't look at us like we were nuts. She, herself, had a home birth - so we knew she was the doula for us.

Fatima met with us multiple times in our home before the birth. And she even offered to meet with our home birth midwife before our birth to make sure I really had a team when the birth took place. My husband and I were very confident when labor started. I texted her throughout the early labor and she was ready to come at the drop of a hat. I trusted my husband work with her directly on the timing of her coming over. She came over within an hour of our call for her to come. And she comforted me for about 3 hours before we called the midwife. It was great to have her comforting me while the midwife really coached the labor. My son was born peacefully at home in the early morning and Fatima helped us try lactating. She stayed at the house for hours after the birth, even after the midwife left. Throughout the following weeks, she visited multiple times and dropped off food & tea. And now, even though we have traveled away from the area, we have been glad to stay connected with her. Making sure that she and our son remain in touch has been very important to us.

I know Fatima is now getting licensed for postpartum care. I am so happy to know that at our next birth she will be able to help us through all phases of birth. I highly recommended Fatima and know that at our future births she will be by our side!

Alix Riviere

6/13/2018

I cannot be happier about my pregnancy and birth experience with Fatima, who is an amazing doula! She has such wisdom and knowledge about giving birth, which is only surpassed by the kindness and compassion she demonstrated throughout the time we spent together. This was my first birth, and I went all natural. It lasted six hours. Thanks to her I will always remember the birth of my son as a wonderful moment!

Fatima and I had previously rehearsed what I could do during labor, and she gently prompted me to apply the positions and breathing exercises I had learned. While changing position is probably the last thing you want to do when experiencing painful contractions, it was exactly what baby and I needed to make this a smooth birth! Fatima thought about all the small things that matter during such a time: giving you water in between contractions, feeding you when you don’t even realize you need energy, bringing all the stuff that helps during birth (balls, hot pads, essential oils etc). I felt completely taken care of—all I had to focus on was my body and my baby. Having a doula also makes it possible for your partner to be completely present emotionally, which was exactly what I needed.

Throughout the pregnancy, Fatima was there to lend me books, help me make decisions regarding my birth preferences (a term she preferred to the less flexible “birth plan”), and provided incredible support. Any time I had a question she promptly answered it and gave me tons of resources during and after the pregnancy. I was in prodomal labor for three weeks before baby came, and it was incredibly frustrating. Despite the multiple false starts, Fatima was patient and reassuring. She was always ready to go.
I cannot state how glad I am that Fatima was my doula. Giving birth is such a special moment in a woman’s life, and now I will always associate it with her. I am so grateful for everything she has done for our little family!

Shannon M

2/12/2018

I feel that the right doula for you can change everything. She was our support, even for my spouse. Fatima was a game changer and for me, & one of my fondest memories of my birth experience, in fact, I can't imagine not having our texts from that time in my phone! Fatima was an angel sent to us & now she's a part of our family. No matter what kind of birth you want, consider her as your doula because birth is unpredictable but if you have the right person by your side, it can make all the difference; no matter what path you end up taking to get to your baby. My experience with her was wonderful and I wouldn't want to have another baby unless she is with us. She was kind and made herself available whenever possible. Very low-key and relaxed which can be so nice if you're feeling stressed by an upcoming birth. She spoke to us on the phone many times, came to meet us for an evaluation, birth history, and to go over my goals. She gave me exercises to do and a birthing ball to borrow. We learned new techniques and I got book suggestions as well as some homework to do for visuals, etc. We met again before the birth. Leading up to my birth, she was fasting for Ramadan and STILL stayed with me during all the hours of the wee morning. She helped support us in every way, securing our dream birth. When I started bleeding too much, she stayed with us through a hospital transfer and everything that followed until I was in a stable state and returning to health. She made a postpartum visit to me and demonstrated the art of belly-wrapping, checked my health (physical, mental & emotional), checked the baby and dropped off some DELICIOUS postpartum meals for a healing mom and nursing baby. SO amazing and unexpected. Best of all... I got a typed story of my birth to give my baby. I will always treasure that. You can tell when someone really loves what they do and with her, it's obvious! Thank you, Fatima, you will never know how much you mean to us.

Janan Sarwar

12/27/2017

Fatima provided an extremely comfortable environment for me that transported me from being in the cold hospital to a place of peace. By encouraging me using a gentle, optimistic, and soothing voice whenever I doubted myself, reminding me kindly to unclench my jaws and relax, and using soft touch on pressure points - specifically on my forehead, I remember calming down almost immediately. There were times I really felt like I could not continue, but both my husband and I looked to her for support and she reminded us and kept our spirits high.

She also provided me with a warm blanket, hot water bottle, and hydration whenever I needed it. Honestly, most times when she helped me with these things, it was without me even having to say it - if I seemed uncomfortable she made subtle efforts to correct that. When I was thirsty but didn’t have the energy to say so, she brought me water (and my favorite thing - ice chips). She got a cold compress for my head when it was getting hot and even fixed my hair to get out of my face when it was getting in my way - all things again that I felt were just perceived by her and perfect touches to make me feel reassured and cared for while 100% focused on delivering.

Not only did she support me, but she also supported my husband during labor. Like most birth stories, mine began in the middle of the night where my husband was running on very little sleep or energy. She encouraged him to refuel with food and rest and stood by my side so he could feel comfortable doing so.

Overall we had a wonderful experience with Fatima and I appreciate her support, kindness, and love.

Asma Zafar

4/10/2017

I would highly recommend Fatima's Doula services! She was an essential part of my birth team. It was very important to me try and have a 100% natural birth and to have a support team who would advocate for my wishes for a natural birth. I'm very happy with the support and assistance that Fatima provided before, during and after my labor and delivery. As a first time mom I was very nervous as to what to expect, but she helped me feel safe, supported and gave me all the facts without any prejudice or judgement. When i had doubts of my ability to continue with a natural birth she, along with my husband gave me the confidence & support i needed to push on and successfully have a natural water birth! Looking back, i could not have imagined going through my labor and delivery without her support and expertise! If i have another, i would love to have her as my doula again!

Maryam Abdallah

4/4/2017

We chose Fatima as the doula for our first child almost two years ago. She wasn't certified then but she more than made up for it with her own experiences, knowledge, and wisdom. During my last trimester, she met with myself and the hubby to go over my birth plan, calming methods during child birth, and just general information on how my birth experience will be.

As my pregnancy continued past the due date, and the OB was pushing to induce, Fatima kept advicing me not to indue. When the labor finally began at midnight, I was texting her the signs and and was advicing me to keep track of the contraction times and what to do. She then arrived at my house around 11 AM to walk me through my contractions and advice me not to go to the hospital as I would be even less comfortable there and my contractions were still spaced out too far. She had me walking around, massaged my back while having me lay on top of a birthing ball, brought essential oils with her which she had running to help soothe me, talked with me to distract me from the pain and walked me through breathing techniques to assist with the pain. After about 16 hours of this, we finally headed to the hospital as my contractions were about 2-3 min spaced. There, she stayed me with until I gave birth to my baby son at 2:00 AM. She played soothing music for me and provided me with dates to help pull me through.

I can honestly say that I couldn't have done it without Fatima's assistance. She really provided me and my husband with assistance that we were lacking/too inexperienced to know about. When the time comes, I will definitely be acquiring her services for our second child.