Erin Rice Millman

9/15/2024

Katy was an amazing support before, during, and after the birth of our baby in July 2024. Choosing her as our doula was hands-down the most valuable decision I made in preparing to give birth for the first time.

From our first meeting, Katy met me where I was at: excited to become a mom, not enjoying being pregnant, and low-key scared to give birth. She helped me & my partner focus on what we each could do to prepare for the birth we planned, then supported us when plans changed due to multiple non-baby-related crises in the final weeks of the pregnancy. During my induction, Katy was an absolute MVP; providing strategies to keep me comfortable, keeping everyone rested and hydrated, helping me shift positions through a rock-solid epidural to get baby to rotate from OP to OA at the last minute, and keeping our spirits and energy up when pushing went into the wee hours.

What exceeded my expectations most was how Katy's work shifted my entire experience of pregnancy and birth. While I expected to be transformed by this process, I never expected to feel empowered in it. Katy's knowledge made the overwhelm manageable, her enthusiasm made the tedious bits more enjoyable, and her care made the painful parts infinitely more comfortable. I am deeply grateful for her guidance through our first birth, and strongly recommend her to anyone navigating this process.

Kelly

4/14/2024

My husband Jesse and I are so thankful we had Katy guiding us during the time up to birth, through labor, and during the immediate postpartum period. I felt strongly that I wanted a doula because my hearing loss makes communication difficult in the best of times, but I wasn't sure if it was really a need for a straightforward, medicated hospital birth. After meeting with Katy, however, I immediately felt a connection and felt much calmer about giving birth. And now my husband and I agree that she was the best decision we made! 

Katy helped me prepare for birth by giving us exercises to do, going over our birth preferences, and answering all of our questions with evidence-based info and a total lack of judgment or pressure. Then when the day of my induction arrived, Katy's other client went into labor around the same time. Somehow Katy was able to attend my entire overnight birth and then immediately go be there for her other client as well. I was in awe of her stamina and dedication. During my labor, Katy had so many suggestions and tools to keep things progressing and help me cope. This was our first child so my husband and I would have had no idea what to do; she was able to help him be the best possible support for me. I ended up pushing for three hours (he was a big baby!) and Katy's calm, steady coaching got me through it. She also took some great photos of the moment when we met our son!

Afterwards, Katy came to us and provided the postpartum support and reassurance that we desperately needed. We now consider her a family friend and would immediately hire her again if we ever have another baby.

Bree Williams

5/23/2023

Working with Katy on my May 2023 birth was the best decision and use of monetary resources my husband and I made when prepping for our first child. Katy is patient, kind, experienced, and has the ultimate passion for her profession. I cannot imagine anyone more well suited to their job than Katy!

My husband and I knew that we were both clueless on everything in the birth process and wanted doula guidance. Katy has been incredible through every stage: pre- birth, birth, and postpartum. Katy encouraged us to text anytime with questions and always had fabulous answers ready along with links and resources. No question has been too small for her to help us with. Katy is great at providing evidence based solutions and resources, which helped me stay away from panic googling and stay focused. 

For the birth itself, I truly could not and would not have been able to have as successful of a birth without Katy. When I found out I had to be induced, I was pretty disappointed. She walked me through every single scenario and assured me she would be there. After a multi day induction with one failed IV, epidural struggles, and my bad anxiety, my daughter was born. Katy held my hand through the whole thing, showed my partner how to support me, and moved my body through dozens of positions to help my baby descend. All while acting calm and making sure to force me to eat and drink. 

Postpartum, Katy has been there for me through breastfeeding struggles and a pumping journey. I get emotional and overwhelmed when I think about her selflessness and her passion for this work. Everything would have been rougher without her. I cannot thank Katy enough for touching my life during this wild, once in a lifetime new experience, I will remember it (and Katy) forever. 

Leigh

1/2/2023

I am so grateful that my husband and I had Katy by our side for the birth of our first child last year. She not only served as a calm, positive presence at my birth, but she also made great suggestions about preparing for birth, helped to progress labor by moving me into different positions, and provided emotional support in the days and weeks after what ended up being a very traumatic birth.

Katy is a self-described "birth nerd" and knows a ton about pregnancy and birth and keeps up with the latest research - something I appreciated as a scientist. During our prenatal meeting she answered a million questions and made some suggestions for exercises I should do to get ready for pushing. I'm convinced that these really paid off and helped me get the hang of pushing right away.

On the day of, I had a relatively fast labor and had already received an epidural by the time Katy arrived at the hospital, but she had some amazing suggestions for body positioning during the rest of my labor. Even the hospital staff seemed impressed with how proactive and helpful she was. Then when my son was born she took some truly AMAZING photos with our phones, capturing moments I'll treasure forever.

For a variety of reasons (none of which were in Katy's control) my delivery and the days following were rather traumatic, and at our postpartum meeting Katy suggested we talk through everything that had gone down. It was incredibly meaningful to have someone else who had been present to bear witness to what had happened. After wearing so many different hats for us - teacher, cheerleader, snack-provider, photographer - she was able to slip into the role of therapist and help my husband and me reflect on the most intense experience of our lives.

Hiring Katy was the best thing I did to prepare for birth. Her knowledge, kindness, serenity, and positive outlook were exactly what we needed, and I'm so grateful that she was part of our birth story.

Riddhi sharma

12/6/2022

Hiring Katy was the best decision I made for my pregnancy journey. She was so supportive and the perfect advocate for me during my delivery. My husband and I were so calm the entire time because of her! Before delivery she kept me calm and during delivery she supported me in every way, wether it was helping me change positions, giving massages, or giving pep talks! After delivery she made a home visit where she spent a lot of time with me supporting me in every way, specially when it came to brest feeding. Best part, she brought over oatmeal cookies! I still keep in touch with her and would highly recommend having by your side.

Jean

11/27/2022

We feel so lucky that we had Katy as a part of our team! Prior to our baby's birth, we met with Katy and determined my birth plan. She asked all the right questions to ensure we were all on the same page, made very educated and evidence based suggestions, and really felt that she cared about my well-being. Leading up to my due date, she checked in, just to see how I was feeling and helped ease my mind about all the concerns/anxieties I had. On the day of the birth, she was with me through every step of the way and was such an amazing advocate for me, my partner and baby. I felt that all the work and communication we had put in leading up to this day was put into action and led to a very quick, seamless, and memorable birth story. We are so grateful for her partnership in this experience!

Marta

11/15/2022

Katy is amazing! I cannot recommend her more.
We started working with another doula but 3 weeks before birth we found out she had a scheduling conflict, so we were looking for a new doula livery last minute. We were able to interview Katy on Tuesday, we liked her and we're going to sign the contract the next day. We'll, the next morning I was in labor. I called Katy and she agreed to support us immediately! She was at the hospital that same afternoon.

Katy's support during labor was irreplaceable for both me and my partner. She gently pushed me to change positions to help baby move and ease the pain. She applied pressure to ease pain. She was very encouraging and positive. She was able to take some of the pressure off of my partner as well, so he could focus only on mental support for me. Katy made it possible for me to have an unmedicated birth. She stayed afterwards to help and came to our home a few days later and provided great advice on breastfeeding.

Mary Josberger

6/27/2022

Post 2/2.

For postpartum care Katy provided a night of much needed support on our second day back from the hospital when we were sleep deprived and felt out of our depth with a newborn. “How on earth are we supposed to keep this screaming potato alive and happy!?”. As soon as they stepped in the door we felt better. Katy helped get a full meal in us, and put the whole family to bed. During the late night wakeups they would help me breastfeed (which we needed significant help establishing) and then would rock the baby to sleep so I could focus on getting as much rest as possible. After this night of support we began to feel like we were on even footing, the boat was no longer going down under us.

8 weeks postpartum my husband went back to work so I hired Katy to help with the transition to my temporary day job of keeping my son alive and happy by myself. I look forward to the days Katy is coming with anticipation. They provide moral support, practical coaching (how to wear the baby properly, leading a set of stretches for me) and allow me to get much needed naps by bottle feeding expressed breast milk, diapering, and providing enrichment for my son. They’re also an amazing cook, the times I’ve been treated to a homemade meal have been incredibly tasty. Katy Carter is a fantastic human being and I am so glad to have them in my birth story. 

Mary Josberger

6/27/2022

Katy Carter has been a fantastic doula and postpartum support provider for a pair of nervous first time parents with a high risk pregnancy delivered by planned cesarean birth. Katy is a calm, professional, comforting person and I am forever grateful for their help in bringing my son into the world. Katy was allowed to join me in the operating room after the baby was born so my husband could go with the baby if he needed additional care in the NICU (which he did). Having Katy by my side kept me from panicking as they helped me process and retain the absolute deluge of information being thrown at me post-birth. I felt like my brain was a sieve and having Katy by my side gave me confidence that they wouldn’t let me forget anything important (and in a hospital everything is important.) With Katy I was able to focus on just the next thing, and how I was feeling, and not get overwhelmed by anxiety. Because of the NICU care I didn’t get to have skin-to-skin time with my baby in the operating room which I was disappointed by, but in the recovery room Katy helped me express my first drops of colostrum so I had a small gift to give my son when we were reunited. My husband could tell I was well cared for when we met again 3 hours after the birth and I was excitedly focused on dinner, while he was still flooded with adrenaline. My only regret is that Katy is not two people and we couldn’t send a copy of them with my husband to the NICU!

Post 1/2. (I'm at the character limit so I'm covering our postpartum care covered in the next review.)

Hailey

5/23/2022

Katy was such an intuitive and thoughtful support for my son and I. She was able to jump in so easily when I was feeling overwhelmed. I really appreciated her open and non-judgmental approach. She was able to care for my son in a way that quickly put me at ease, but also reminded me to care for myself. I would highly recommend her postpartum support!!

MeganS

3/17/2022

We had a wonderful experience with Katy Carter as our sibling doula for our older child (20 months old). They spent some time together (2 instances) pre-birth, and she was a warm, engaging presence for him. When I spontaneously went into labor at 2 am, she was super responsive and arrived at our house in under an hour. She and my toddler spent 36 hours together when I had some unexpected postpartum issues, and it was so reassuring to know that he was well taken care of while my partner stayed in the hospital to help care for our newborn while I healed. I would recommend Katy as a sibling doula without reservation.