The Nesting Instinct

I learned all about the benefits of having a birth and postpartum doula early in pregnancy from a wonderful podcast called Birthful. My husband and I were eager to have the extra support, knowledge, and care that a doula provides and started researching. We interviewed 3 doula teams and our choice was an easy one. We clicked with Katie and Amanda instantly -- it felt like we were old friends. Their extensive experience teaching and attending births made us feel like we were in the best possible hands. The support they provided leading up to the birth made us feel at ease and prepared. Katie attended our labour and birth. She made a challenging, long labour SO much more comfortable. It was great to have someone so experienced there to guide us and help us navigate changes to the experience we thought we'd have when challenges arose. Katie was simply AWESOME from her soothing comfort measures throughout early labour to laughing it off when I spit an ice chip back at her in the middle of pushing. She even snapped our first photo as a family together, something I wouldn't have thought to remember in the moment but I am already so grateful to have. I can't say enough good things! The postpartum support has also been great, and we love knowing they're there if we need more. Huge hugs and thanks to you both, Katie and Amanda! Little Campbell is lucky to have entered this world with you two in his corner. We're forever grateful.

Negligent, inconsiderate and unprofessional.After calling and asking for support twice during early labour, Amanda did not show up. We called a third time to let her know we were going to the hospital and she arrived just after birth- completely missing everything!When she did arrive, she sat in our room while we waited to see our baby in the NICU and she was on her phone most of the time.She mentioned having another birth earlier in the day, so it seems as though she mismanaged her time, for which we ended up suffering for.Pre-care, she was unresponsive to important texts and emails. And when we did receive a response it was over a week afterwards. This caused us extreme anxiety during an already stressful and scary time. Her lack of communication continued afterwards for post-partum care.As a professional she did not engage with us in our best interest and did not provide the natural treatment and support of our birthing experience as promised. We were counting on her professionalism to held guide us but instead her negligence could have put our baby's life at risk, as well as mine.She failed to fulfil her duties as our hired doula and when approached afterwards to discuss, it took another 2 follow-up emails and a (public) facebook message, to finally receive a response 3.5 weeks later! (Yes, she was active on facebook but could not respond to our messages…)We are not sure what happened on her end, but due to her shortcomings and inability to provide what we had agreed upon, we fear that others will suffer the same mistreatment.We were extremely hurt and disappointed by her lack of empathy and her failure to own up to anything.We paid a lot of money, and received no value.She is dismissive, negligent and unfit to be a doula. She definitely should not be providing instruction to other doulas.Worst experience.