Testimonial for Heather Karlson (DONA)
I found Heather through a friend who had a wonderful home birth, so that alone made me feel very confident about using her. Heather was very helpful and encouraging in the weeks leading up to our daughter's birth. I had been dilated and effaced for weeks, so I had a feeling the birth would be early or short (or something different!) and that truly ended up being the case. I texted Heather when I had a few easy and random contractions one morning, thinking maybe that night or the next day baby would come. We texted a couple times over the next few hours and all of a sudden it felt like I went from zero to sixty in minutes. I was home alone in the tub and after Heather asked me to time the contractions, we both realized they had freakishly become over a minute long and only about a minute or two apart. Heather immediately got me on the phone and began talking me through the contractions. Had I not had her on the phone, despite the Bradley classes we took, I think I would be gone into a complete panic. Heather could tell right away I was in transition, told me to call my husband home that instant and call the midwives and tell them I was in transition. I obeyed her advice and we all met about 50 minutes later at the hospital. I was completely dilated and began pushing seconds after getting there and 35 minutes later our sweet baby arrived. The midwife didn't even have time to change out of her street clothes! So much of the experience is a blurr, but I remember having real trouble with the pushing and Heather was really great about explaining how I needed to put my pushing energy much lower and not all in my face (which is exactly what I was doing). She also took some pictures that I will treasure forever. Having Heather's knowledge and expertise was absolutely what we needed and even though I have a feeling baby #2 will fall out on the living room floor, I'm still going to hire her as my doula. She is priceless!
-Malia Ropp
February 05, 2015
Heather Karlson (DONA)
DoulaKarlson.com
Birth Fee: $1800
