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support and advocacy for childbearing people & their loved ones
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lay lady lay

Supporting your decisions. 

Helping you trust your body. Advocating for your well-being. Nurturing & Educating.

Making space for love.

about

Hi, I'm Jennie 

post partum

I come to my doula practice with the belief in every person’s right to a safe, informed and even pleasurable pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

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I’m a cis-female Chinese/white mother of two. My own privilege enabled me to birth safely in environments where I was respected and treated with dignity, and recover with the resources my body needed to heal and integrate.

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My mission as a doula is to tend and protect the supportive circle of care that all childbearing people deserve.

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As a dancer, writer, and image-maker I bring with me a deep knowledge about the body, and a passion for all people's stories. I am here to help you ground,  make space, and be empowered through this transformational passage.

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Postpartum 

The stretch of time after the birth of a baby (or babies) is a true transition: intimate, unpredictable, messy, and beautiful. 

 

Regardless of the nature of the birth, the physical impact of childbirth on the body of a childbearing person is profound and total. 

 

A landscape of physical and emotional feelings and needs pulsate in the household.

 

postpartum doula is a neutral caregiver, helping to bring order, clarity, and ease into the mix of a family in a state of change.

 

A non-clinical, judgment-free support person, they bring training and experience working with families along the child-birthing spectrum. An extra set of hands to support the holistic recovery of the childbearing person, they are there to help each family member find their new role, as they integrate the gift of a newly born human into the household.

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Services

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recovery & restoration

From preparing sitz baths, to helping you to process your birth story, to making sure you get enough rest, I will help you to ground, center, feel and remember your body and self, even while baby wriggles on top of you. Though I’ll always be attentive to your boundaries, I also offer gentle body work and guided therapeutic movement for the childbearing person, drawn from my 20+ years of study and practice as a modern dancer working with a plethora of hands-on and somatic modalities. 

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awareness and education

With evidence-based research about issues and practices relating to postpartum and infant care from feeding, to sleeping practices, I help you to sift through the information to find the best choices for your family, always referring you to medical professsionals where necessary. With an array of resources, I help the family understand the unique qualities of the postpartum period, which has been valued for generations across cultures. 

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household

Newborns are messy business. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty to bring more space and comfort to your lives, so that caregivers can relax, bond with the baby, and more attentively support the recovery of the childbearing person. By sorting out the fridge, doing the dishes, making the bathroom and bedroom a haven of tranquility, more effectively organizing your space for feeding and diaper changes, I’m happy to do it, to relieve anxiety and create more harmony.

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food 

Should it make sense for your family, a postpartum visit is not complete unless the childbearing person and family has been fed something nourishing, and/or a meal, a snack, and a restorative drink has been made ready to eat for later. A student of postpartum nutrition, I make hearty, delicious, homey food with medicinal ingredients for healing. 

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Birth

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My privilege enabled me to birth safely both within the hospital system and in a birthing center. In both situations I exercised my right to birth as I wished and was attended to by staff with adequate and appropriate care. 

 

My mission as a doula is to empower you on your own childbearing journey, illuminating all of your available options, advocating for your access to the care you want and deserve, all the while centering your joy, pleasure, well-being throughout what can be a revolutionary process.

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I am committed to gender inclusive, anti-racist and culturally responsive, trauma-informed care. Through hands-on or virtual support prenatally as well as through labor and birth, I offer: 

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- Guidance through evidence-based research on the best decisions for you and your family regarding pregnancy, labor, birth, maternal and infant health

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- Practical education about nutrition, exercise, and self-care; how to best take care of your body-mind-spirit during pregnancy and in preparation for labor and birth

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- Holistic preparation for navigating the challenges of childbirth. Physical, emotional, and mental tools for dealing with sensation including movement, hands-on meditation and hypnotherapy, and aromatherapy

 

- Holding space for you and your family to experience this wild time with more understanding, embodiment, and joy.

"Jennie was essential for my husband and I when we birthed our third child, Noa, via VBAC. Her calming, non judgmental,  and nurturing presence allowed me to open up and trust my body, and give myself permission to make the birth to happen.

 

As a result of working with Jennie, my husband and I now feel like she is part of out family. She lovingly guided us through the most exhilarating, terrifying and wonderful day of our life and had she not been there we both feel we would have been lost at sea -- for Jennie was our life vest.”

Jessica L.

CONTACT

GET IN TOUCH

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I would love to meet and discuss your needs.

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Please get in touch for more information about availability, rates, packages including sliding scale options for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color,

LGBTQ+ folx and white people in need.

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Thanks so much for getting in touch. I'll be in touch within the next business day.

© 2020 by layladylay. Illustrations by @wendymeilingyang

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