Testimonial for Raya Sagdejeva
Raya is a fantastic doula and this process would have been SO much more challenging and frustrating without her. She is the best support person ever. It was reassuring to have her talk to us multiple times leading up to delivery. Raya took a lot of time to show us different techniques for relief, things we could do physically even before delivery, and things to practice so we could feel comfortable during delivery. She also shared a detailed explanation of what exactly happened during the process. She went through each part of the process step-by-step and explained what alternatives and options might be to ensure we could make our own informed decisions and not feel pressured into something arbitrarily decided by the provider. Importantly, she reminded us that we had agency over the process - she made sure to center me and my physical and emotional needs the moment we made contact with her. Raya stayed with us on her birthday (!?!?!) and was kind and generous and supportive until 6 a.m. when they finally moved us to the postpartum room (hospital doesn't allow second support person in postpartum room, but we'd keep her with us forever if we could). Raya is very thoughtful, easy to talk to, and she's a great researcher. We ended up having a lot of questions, and she sent us a bunch of (verified) helpful resources so we could make an informed decision. She never pressured us and (very importantly) she never made us feel judged no matter what decision we made. She also made sure to help my partner understand what he could do to help and how he could participate in a productive way, which was fantastic. We absolutely recommend Raya - if we ever decide to have a second tiny, we'll absolutely have Raya at our side again!
-Krupal
April 18, 2021
Raya Sagdejeva
The Durham Doula
Birth Fee: $700 to $1250
Postpartum Rate: $25 to $40
