Fiore Grey & Carrie Malanga
As birth doulas profoundly inspired by Birthing From Within, our approach to doula work is deeply holistic. We aim to support you and your partner not only through the intense physical changes that come with pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery but also through the incredible emotional and spiritual transitions that the childbearing years typically bring.
Holding the laboring mother in unconditional love is the best gift a doula can give.
—Pam England
We believe birth is not so much a medical event as it is a profound rite of passage into parenthood. As mothers who have made this journey ourselves, we recognize the rawness and vulnerability of this precious time. Our aim is to meet you with sensitivity, love, and compassion, meeting you exactly where you’re at in each moment as it unfolds.
What We Provide
Different people want and need different kinds of support from their doulas. Here are some of the many things we offer:
Prenatal Support
- Comprehensive prenatal care is extremely important for you and your baby’s overall wellbeing. We’ll meet for 2-3 prenatal visits in the comfort of your home to get to know each other, address fears, hopes, and expectations, and help you process and prepare physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually for birth and postpartum recovery.
Labor Support
- Our physical support may include suggesting and supporting you in labor positions, providing massage and acupressure, ensuring your baby is in the best possible position, and making sure you stay hydrated, well nourished and as rested as possible.
- We do everything we can to make sure every comfort measure has been taken—everything from providing calming aromatherapy to soothing your backache with a warm pack to cooling you off with a wet wash cloth.
- Bringing in our backgrounds as Birthing From Within mentors and educators, we draw from several proven pain-coping practices to help you cope with the intensity of labor and minimize suffering.
- We aim to take care of as many of the details and logistics as we can so that you and your family can focus on the important things, like being with one another as you share in your child’s birth.
- It’s our job to ensure you have all the information and resources you need to feel confident in making decisions about your own health care. We are completely neutral and non-judgmental in this respect, giving you as much information as possible without being partial towards any particular preferences or outcomes.
- As much as labor can be physically intense, it can also be profoundly emotional. Through building a close, trusting relationship with one another during our prenatal visits, we work to create a safe space to help you work through whatever emotions arise during the intensity of labor, making sure that you have all the emotional support you need.
Postpartum Support
- As you settle into life with your new baby, we’ll meet you for 1-2 postpartum visits at the hospital or in your own home, assisting as needed with breastfeeding, newborn care, and physical and emotional recovery for you and your partner, supporting your transition as you emerge, newly-initiated, into parenthood.
Continuous, Comprehensive Support
- We offer 24/7 on-call support from your 37th week of pregnancy until you deliver.
- During labor, we’ll support you from the time that you would like us to be with you until the first few hours after your baby is born, ensuring continuous labor support for you and your partner.
- From the moment we begin our work together, we make ourselves available to answer questions, offer you information and community-based referrals and resources, and support you through whatever arises during pregnancy, birth, and the first several weeks postpartum.
The Benefit of Having Two Doulas
We have found that working in partnership with one another helps provide you with the highest quality of care. Since we both attend your prenatal and postpartum visits, you’ll have the opportunity to develop a close relationship with both of us. Whoever is on-call when labor begins will attend your birth. In situations where labor is long or especially difficult, both of us may be there to support you either simultaneously or in shifts.
Some benefits of working in a doula partnership include:
- Your doula will always be fresh, well-rested, and ready to fully support.
- You’ll have two people instead of one available to you to contact in case you need immediate information or support.
- You’ll already be familiar and comfortable with your “backup” doula. Because we are each others’ “backup” during your birth, unless an extremely rare circumstance arises, at least one of us will be present with you.
- You’ll have the benefit of each of our individual strengths and unique educational backgrounds.
Our intention is to empower you to discover your own innate strength and wisdom that will not only carry you through your birth but into your new role as parents. We have unshakeable trust in the birth process, holding a space to allow you to face whatever arises with curiosity, courage, and self-compassion. We believe birth is, above all, a sacred rite of passage and it is our honor and privilege to support you as you navigate this journey.
Questions?
Visit our FAQ page for answers.
Meet Us
Hiring a doula is a very personal process. To get the best sense of who we are and what we offer, we suggest you schedule an interview to meet us in person. We look forward to hearing from you!
