I knew that I wanted a doula to help inform me, work with me, and advocate for me during my pregnancy and labor experience. I cannot express how amazing it was working with Lily of Golden Lotus Doula Services. Every step of the way, Lily would guide me through what we needed to prepare for our birth experience and offered so much help in finding what worked best for me and my baby. She was instrumental in helping give me the confidence to leave my OB practice that was not at all in line with what I wanted for my birth experience, and actually sent me information for the new practice that we went with who were amazing as well. My husband and I could not have been more relieved to have her on our birth team, and she just helped to make the experience so wonderful, stress-free, and calm.

   When my friends urged us to work with a doula for the birth of our first baby, I could never have imagined the support, technical and emotional, that we would find with Megan and Marlee. I had a difficult labor and I am not sure we could have made it through without Marlee’s  coaching. Yet the physical pain of the labor was nothing  in comparison with the emotional anguish of being told that, because I had the flu during birth, I would have to be separated from my baby for an undetermined amount of time. This separation was accompanied by an utter lack of compassion by the mother-baby unit staff. If it were not for Marlee’s advocacy, the separation would have been that much more painful and most likely more prolonged. As 1st time parents know there is nothing more frightening than those first few days when you get home to find yourself responsible for a delicate human life. Marlee and Megan have been uncompromising in their willingness to answer all our questions at all hours of the day. We created a WhatsApp group through which they made themselves available day and night to answer all our questions with 0 judgment, only evidence-based answers, and a degree of patience and compassion to which I can only aspire. They tell me to not apologize for bombarding them with questions, but I keep doing it because I can’t find a sufficient way to show to them just how grateful I am. The comfort their support has afforded us in these anxiety-ridden days is simply invaluable. We are both  PhD students and make little money. Working with a doula was an expense that was beyond our budget. We interviewed several doulas, but the second Marlee and Megan left our intro meeting my husband and I didn’t even say a word bc we knew they were the ones. Working with them has been the best thing we could have done for ourselves and our baby, and in a time of such insecurity it is one decision of which we are entirely sure. 

Anna Sylvester was a sibling doula during the birth of my second child. She took care of my 2.5 year old at our house during the entire labor and birth. My daughter had never been left overnight without my husband and me and I was very nervous that she would be confused or scared without me. She loved hanging out with Anna though and it was such a relief during my pregnancy to know that we had a solid plan for childcare. I had been more nervous about childcare for my toddler than the actual birth! Anna is clearly very good with children and I would highly recommend her services as a sibling doula. My daughter talked about all of the fun things they did after her visit and it was obvious that she really liked spending time with Anna. Communication with Anna was also very good during my pregnancy and leading up to the birth. This is a fantastic option for people like us that don't have family or friends in the area that can drop everything at a moment's notice to do childcare during a birth.