Testimonial for Stephanie Sauer Pasternak, CD(DONA), CLC
It’s truly hard to express in words what Stephanie meant to us during our pregnancy, laboring, birth and postpartum, but I’ll try! We got pregnant with our son in October 2018 and knew we wanted the support from a doula but didn’t know exactly what that mean…until we met Stephanie and from that first moment, we knew we wanted her to be a part of our journey.
Because this was our first pregnancy we were thirsty for knowledge and Stephanie was the ultimate resource – helping us create our birth wish (birth plan), sending us evidence based articles so we could make educated decisions, offering ways to stay centered and healthy and making intros to vendors that align with our philosophies. The beauty of working with Stephanie is she supported our decisions without judgment and was (and continues to be) a beacon of love and encouragement. She’s as hands on as you want her to be – and while I have an amazing partner in my husband, she brought an extraordinary balance of confidence, knowledge and poise to our labor and delivery. As a result, she was a major reason why that experience was amazing (how many people can say that?!).
One of the most challenging aspects of this experience for me wasn’t the pregnancy or delivery, but rather the ability to breastfeed. We had hoped to exclusively breastfeed and Stephanie helped to guide us down that path. Her postpartum visits were not only valuable from a knowledge and practical perspective but even more impactful was her presence and encouragement, which brought a wave of comfort and love during the extremely difficult first few days.
Stephanie will forever be a part of the family – she was with us for every step of this intimate and beautiful journey and we’ll be forever grateful. And of course if there are more littles in our future, she’s the first person we’ll call!
-Lindsay Schoenfeld
October 12, 2019
Stephanie Sauer Pasternak, CD(DONA), CLC
Bergen Doula - Birth Doula & Lactation Counseling
Birth Fee: $1950 to $3500
