Testimonial for Laurie Levy
Laurie was key to my positive birth experience. Strong recommendation! Some specifics for why:
During her pre-birth meetings, she had a structured method for figuring out our preferences for things we didn't necessarily know about. How are we supposed to know what our preferences are for medication, pain relief, and support when it's something you've never done before? Laurie helped us learn, helped us articulate preferences, and helped us understand what advocating for those preferences would look like when it was go time. This made us feel a lot less bewildered and a lot more prepared.
Laurie has extensive experience with many, many, many births. However, that doesn't mean that she's constantly telling you about other people's private stories. She combines her experience and also her knowledge of evidence-based medical research to help anticipate and act, and generally just make things go smoothly and help you do things before you realize you needed to. Some of those things are complex (navigating health care system) and some of those things are straightforward (suggesting perhaps now is a good time for you to pee/eat/sleep!).
Laurie knows when to take pictures! This certainly wasn't something that I was thinking about when looking for a doula, but it has been incredible to be able to look back on my birth experience illustrated by some incredible photographs. In the moment neither I nor my partner thought about photographs at all.
Finally, Laurie supported me psychologically and emotionally in ways I don't even understand. Going into birth, I was thinking a lot about biology and the mechanics of birth. I didn't consider how important it would be to be in a mindset where I believed I could do something so intense and painful. Laurie was incredible at this part, and I attribute a lot of my strength in birth to her.
You can't go wrong!
-Nadya
June 18, 2025
Laurie Levy
Laurie E. Levy Inc.
Birth Fee: $3500
