Leah Merchant Photo

Leah Merchant

Tender Roots Doula

Seattle, WA Service range 23 miles

Postpartum Rate

$60 to $65

Availability Remarks: Daytime support only. Currently not available for overnights

Postpartum Rate

$60 to $65


Postpartum Doula Experience

4 years and 22 families served


Postpartum Doula Certifications

  • Northwest Association for Perinatal Support (NAPS) - Certified Postpartum Doula

Doula Training

  • DONA International-Approved Workshop, May 2021

Type of practice: Solo practice

Clients per month: 1 to 3

Postpartum limits/restrictions: No smokers (asthmatic)


College Education

BA/BS


Special Services Offered

  • Abortion support
  • Babywearing education
  • First Aid and CPR
  • LGBTQIA+ Support
  • Miscarriage support
  • Newborn care specialist
  • Satellite doula (for remote and rural clients)
  • Virtual and remote doula support

Languages Spoken

  • English

Service Area

Seattle, WA Service range 23 miles

Certifications for Leah Merchant

Click a certification thumbnail to view the full size image.

Certification

Learn more about evaluating doula certifications, an important part of the interview process.

Report any issues or concerns with certification images.

Client Testimonials for Leah Merchant

Post a testimonial for Leah Merchant

Lanna

12/14/2024

Leah was an absolute lifesaver as we navigated parenthood. As first time parents, her guidance and expertise made all the difference in helping us figure out the many challenges of caring for a newborn. She taught us how to bottle feed our very gassy baby, helped me set up my pump (later coined the lactation station)`, showed us how to bathe our daughter, and provided the reassurance and support we needed while working through latching and breastfeeding struggles.

Our daughter truly thrived under Leah's care. She loved the playful tummy time sessions and benefited so much from the body movements and exercises Leah used to relieve gas and tension. I also deeply appreciated our conversations — Leah always offered thoughtful advice, helpful product recommendations, and practical strategies that made life easier.

Perhaps most importantly, Leah’s help gave us the space and time we needed for essential self-care, which was invaluable. We’re so grateful for her kindness, wisdom, and the loving care she provided to our family.

Erin & Alex Harris

6/28/2024

Our experience with Leah was incredible! She dove right in and provided feedback for both breast and bottle feeding, we learned so much each time she came and helped us with our son. In addition to all the practical skills and tools she provided us, she was also very reassuring that we were doing fine, at times when we felt like we had received conflicting information from the various other sources out there (pump this much, breastfeed this much, etc). Her presence was always calming and helped us feel like we were doing a good job, which was essential to getting through those first couple of weeks.

Finally, we were so sad that our sessions with her were up. Our time with Leah had become very much a part of our routine, and we certainly hope to have an opportunity to work with her again. Nothing but great things to say!

Kasia

5/6/2024

Leah is the only reason my husband and I made it through the first several weeks postpartum. She was the breath of knowledge and security we needed to feel confident in taking care of our newborn. As first time parents (and scientists!) we appreciated the wealth of knowledge that Leah possessed (and the research she referenced!!!). She was so patient and loving with our little one and with us. She taught me how to use my pumps, helped me with nursing, and taught us so many useful techniques that helped us with our baby. She was also an advocate for my physical and mental health postpartum. And above all that, she is a genuine joy to be around. I'd recommend Leah without hesitation to anyone. 

Marlena Bannick

11/20/2023

Having Leah as our postpartum doula was one of the best decisions we made as first-time parents. We saw Leah six times over a period of ten weeks. The extra support that Leah provided during that time helped our stress levels and our well-being tremendously.

Leah helped us in three main areas: feeding, sleep, and playtime. We ran into several issues when breastfeeding -- infant weight gain, over-supply, mastitis, and infant diet intolerances. Leah knew that breastfeeding was a priority for our family and helped us develop feeding strategies that worked for us so that I could continue nursing. For sleep, Leah gave us little tips, tricks, and advice that turned into BIG improvements in our infant sleep experience. She helped us recognize that all babies are different and to do what works for your family when it comes to sleep. This really freed us from thinking we had to do certain things that weren't working for us and our baby. Finally, playtime! We joked that every week we saw Leah, our baby "leveled-up" immediately with new skills. She really fostered our infant's cognitive and social development and we are so thankful for this!

Leah is just a wonderful person to have around as you're navigating parenthood. She's nonjudgemental, friendly, and so good with babies. We're so fortunate to have had Leah as our doula!

Emily & Keane

11/16/2023

We were so lucky to have Leah as our post-partum doula for our first baby and honestly I'm not sure we would've been able to stay sane without her advice, guidance, suggestions, help, etc.! She is a mom as well as a doula which really helped me feel seen and heard when going through the emotions (and hormones!) post-partum brings. She took time to speak with my husband and provided constructive suggestions to help him feel like he's more involved and aware of when to expect the baby to be more interactive, open to more than just mom! Leah helped me with breastfeeding, helping me with getting her to latch and also helped build up my confidence that I was doing it right and most importantly that my baby was well fed based on the cues she was exhibiting. She also gave me great input and suggestions on how to not over do it as I was teetering on the verge of oversupply at one point and with her help, I was able to get it under control. Leah's empathy and love of babies was really apparent and I appreciated knowing that I could go take a shower, a nap, read a book in the other room and our baby would be in great hands. She worked with our baby on tummy time and provided massages to help with digestion and her overall movement then would provide us with things we could do to practice tummy time and help aleviate her gas, aches, etc. Her presence was very calming and her reassuring nature and support really made me feel like I've got this and that confidence I believe made me not give up on breastfeeding. Having Leah be part of your baby's few weeks is a great choice, not only for baby but for new moms and dads as well!

Alison

8/15/2023

Leah is absolutely amazing. When welcoming our second baby, we were concerned about both the lack of sleep due to a newborn and also the impact on our oldest child.  We raised our concerns with Leah, and she developed a plan to address them.  Her in-home visits allowed us to sleep while she watched the baby, but also, spend dedicated time with our oldest.  Due to Leah's visits and support, we were better rested, present, and engaged with both of our children. Leah made the first few weeks after our second's birth so much easier.  She is incredibly knowledgeable, empathetic, and a joy to be around.  She expertly soothed our newborn and easily engaged with our energetic toddler.  She is easy to talk to, and if asked, provides reasonable and kind suggestions related to the baby, which we found invaluable as sleep deprived parents.  We looked forward to each of her visits and cannot recommend her enough. 

Anna Miller

6/8/2023

We cannot express how grateful we are to have found Leah as our postpartum doula.  We knew immediately after meeting with her that she was the right choice for us.  She is warm, knowledgeable, friendly, and professional and she made us feel so reassured that we would be able to survive those first couple of months after our son arrived.  
Leah was incredible. She provided a helping hand as we became first time parents, which was especially appreciated as all of our family lives on the East Coast.  In addition, my husband and I were going through a highly inconvenient home restoration when the baby was born and as a result, we were living in a hotel.  Leah was happy to accommodate our unique situation. At first, her being there gave us a chance to sleep, but as our son started sleeping a little more during the night, we were alert enough to take advantage of her wealth of knowledge. She gave us great insight on breastfeeding and pumping, ways to increase my milk supply, and she even made us some delicious lactation cookies.  
She helped us tremendously with ways we could engage our newborn through play and tummy time.  Leah helped us feel more confident to get out of the house with him by showing us how to use the baby carrier and wrap.  She even let me borrow her wrap for a while to test it out before I decided to get my own.  We couldn't have done it without her and we will absolutely be using her again with the next baby.  Thank you so much, Leah!  

Flamingo Cheung

2/14/2023

Our postpartum doula Leah is a godsend! It is the best decision we made for postpartum, I cannot imagine going through it without Leah. She's so nurturing, warm, encouraging and experienced. This is our first child and we have so many questions and anxiety as first time parents, Leah hold our hands and teach us everything we need to learn patiently, she really helped us to adjust to life with our precious baby. Definitely highly recommend her and can't wait to have her to be our doula again with our second baby! 

Gabby Messer

1/6/2023

Leah helped us as a post-partum doula for a couple of months after we had our baby girl. Leah is very knowledgeable and was able to help us with tips and tricks for nursing, how to get baby to sleep, and baby care. Also, since neither my husband or I have family in the PNW, Leah was a great pair of extra hands that we trusted to watch our newborn so that we could take time to go walk the dog or catch up on sleep. We highly recommend Leah! 

Gen

12/24/2022

Leah was our postpartum doula for the first couple of months after our daughter was born. We appreciated her help during this time while we settled in as new parents and I recovered from birth. Leah was an awesome resource for all of our questions. Looking back, she was key to us figuring out when/how to swaddle (and more importantly, when to stop!), breastfeeding success, and weathering all those newborn quirks with patience and confidence. We also appreciated Leah's help with cooking and meal prep. She could follow any recipe we gave her and her help prepping our CSA veggies made it easy for us to eat healthy.

Alexandra

10/5/2022

First, I want to stress the importance of hiring a postpartum doula. Coming home from the hospital, where we had a lot of support, can be hard. And we got very lucky to have had Leah's incredible help. Professional, but personal interaction style, Leah managed to educate us on a variety of newborn related topics and most importantly was able to come up with solutions to the many problems we bumped into during those first weeks. 

Katrin Iversen

3/13/2022

We feel beyond lucky to have found Leah as our postpartum doula.  We were about 6 weeks in with our newborn and were drowning in basic daily tasks and I was at my wit’s end with breastfeeding - Leah truly saved us!  She was encouraging, supportive, extremely helpful around the house, amazing with our daughter, and an incredible resource for all sorts of baby and parenting knowledge.  She would keep us fed, hydrated, and even made us multiple freezer meals to help us on days she wasn’t with us.  She allowed us to not only shower and take care of things we needed to accomplish, but most importantly freed us up to spend time with our baby during that key bonding time.  We could not recommend her more!

Elizabeth Murphy

9/11/2021

Leah came into our home with a wealth of knowledge and compassion. We had some phone consultations before meeting and she remembered small things I had mentioned and responded to our every need. I was very impressed with her attentiveness but most importantly, she’s excellent with babies. As I slept she held my daughter. Leah easily soothed her to sleep and my daughter was clearly at ease in her care. 

Postpartum Availability for Leah Merchant

= Available. Calendar last updated: 11-06-2024