Anna Maier Rogers

7/5/2018

I came to the doula search process quite late in my pregnancy, and Alla saved the day! My husband and I had a wonderful experience working with her. After attending a birthing class while I was approximately 8 months pregnant, we realized that we would benefit from the support of a doula since we don't have many family members nearby. We found Alla's profile on this website and were able to get in touch with her right away. She was very responsive and non-judgmental. I gave birth at UCSF Mission Bay. I appreciate that Alla is open to supporting a range of birth plans and scenarios. She helped to prepare me for the process of labor and delivery in a hospital setting. She put me in touch with an excellent acupuncturist when I went past my due date. She also introduced me to Natural Resources which has provided invaluable breast feeding support.

While in the hospital Alla's presence was soothing and empowering. She provided me with a tens unit which really helped with pain management and suggested different positions and methods for natural pain relief. She also reminded me of my personal agency while in labor and made it clear that her role was to support my decisions rather than making any decisions on my behalf. This included advocating on my behalf if any issues arose with the hospital staff.

Alla is a talented photographer and took pictures during the birth which I will treasure. We've kept in touch during the post-partum period as well. I whole heartedly recommend her as a doula and am so glad she was by my side during this special time in my life.

Melissa Mirza

7/3/2018

Alla is an exceptional listener. She helped my husband and I feel fully heard and understood by the end of our first face to face conversation. My husband didn't understand what role a doula plays and Alla answered all his questions, successfully quelling his skepticism. With each meeting before the birth, Alla's warmth and patience helped to calm my anxiety around labor and becoming a mother for the first time. She helped me figure out what questions to ask my doctor and offered up several resources (from websites to books to people to brick and mortor places that provide services and community to expecting and new parents) to help me understand what was most important to me during labor and beyond. I appreciated the range of resources Alla presented so that I could explore what spoke to me most. I also appreciated Alla's openness with sharing her own experieces with labor and motherhood.

My labor was long, intense and full of complications. Alla played a huge supporting role for me AND my husband who agreed with me afterwards that we could not have held it together on our own. We needed her strength and assurance to not fall apart when things felt like they were spinning out of control. Not once did I feel judged by Alla for deviating significantly from my original birth plan. Alla was my constant cheerleader even when I was giving up on myself. And when I was faced with an inevitable c-section after hours of pushing, Alla asked the questions that I could not in my exhausted state.

After the birth of our healthy baby, Alla kept checking in on me via text and answered questions about breastfeeding, sleep and self-care in the chaos of those early weeks. During her postpordum visit, Alla helped me process a difficult birth experience so I could understand in hindsight what I went through. She also did our newborn family photo shoot and we LOVE the photos! We are so grateful that Alla was part of this lifechanging transition.