My husband and I are so happy we had Kathleen there to support us throughout my pregnancy and the incredibly peaceful, joyful birth of our beautiful baby girl on January 9, 2018. As a first time mom and newly trained doula, I had my heart set on a natural birth and knew I wanted the support and expertise of an experienced labor doula. Throughout my pregnancy, she helped guide me through techniques and suggestions to help with optimal positioning of my baby and to help prepare my body for labor. I listened to all of her advice, such as excersize methods and proper posture, as well as some nutritional advice. She also worked with my husband to teach him different comfort measure techniques so he could also take an actively supportive role during my labor. We both grew to trust her immensely throughout my pregnancy. I went into labor spontaneasly around 11pm on January 8th and tried to get some rest until around 2:30 AM when contractions intensified. At that point, Kathleen headed to my house to help me labor at home as much as possible before we headed to the birth center. When she arrived, my contractions were becoming so strong that I was beginning to feel like I couldn’t handle them. As soon as she got there, she had me get back in my bed on my side and put her hands on my hips and started breathing with me slowly and deeply. She told me to relax my shoulders and not fight the contractions, just to melt into the bed with each one and focus on me breathing, letting the contractions roll over and pass. I instantly started to find a rhythm and just felt myself melting into labor, feeling a huge sense of warmth and peace and I totally lost track of time. This set the tone for the rest of my labor, continuing after we arrived at the birth center at 6:30am and until my baby was born happy and healthy at 11:05am. She never left my side and gave me the support and courage to trust my body’s inner wisdom without any fear or anxiety.