Testimonial for Patricia Thomas from Malo Lip

Testimonial for Patricia Thomas

Patricia was our doula for the birth of our son last August and I only have great things to say about our experience with her. She is very warm, pleasant, knowledgeable and available. We met a couple of time before the birth at my home and at the center in Clinton Hill, which was a good way to get to know each other. When I missed the 40th and 41th week mark, we talked regularly on the phone and she came to the hospital twice (one when I thought I had lost my water, and one when, on the day of the 42th week, we decided to let them broke my water) and provided us with very good advice, a strong but discreet presence and moral and physical support that I am not sure how I would have managed without.

I had a contentious relationship with my doctor who pushed for induction starting right before the due date and scoffed at my desire not to have an epidural. Patricia managed to carefully navigate around this not-so-good situation to be supportive, very helpful in terms of letting us know what our options were and not threathening to the doctor.

Unfortunately, despite all efforts (moving around, standing up, changing postures, etc.) the baby never advanced into the birth canal and after many hours, we ended up having to greenlight a c-section, which was heartbreaking but I don't think we had many options left without starting to endanger the baby's health.

Through the ordeal, Patricia's warm and caring presence helped me focus and go through the pain and supported both my husband and I when the experience was starting to take a mental toll on the two of us.

I am writing this testimonial 7 months after the birth, which is quite late but maybe that's what I needed to process it. But in the end, it might sound like a cliche, but once you have a healthy baby on your chest, everything recedes into the background. Once again, I want to thank you Patricia, I don't know how I would have done without you.

-Malo Lip

March 22, 2014