Being a third time mom I decided that this time around I'd benefit from having a coach since it would be my first time with an unmedicated birth. I was grateful for Carrie's professional advice and approachable attitude in our first meeting. She made sure I knew all expectations up front and supported my decisions. We share the same Catholic faith and I appreciated all of her prayers for me and the baby before and after birth but especially during! There were a lot of new terms that I was learning and she guided me through decisions when I needed more information about issues such as delayed cord clamping and different methods for pain management. We met twice before the day I gave birth. One time was meeting with my husband as well so he knew how they could partner together to help me. The next with a more hands on appraoch of pain management techniques. Her patience was truly admirable checking in with me daily starting around my due date and going through the next 2 weeks while baby boy had us waiting! She made sure that I knew about her back up doula and that vice versa her doula knew about my preferences in case something was to come up. The early morning my contractions started I gave her a heads up an hour after they were consistent. She planned to come to our home asap around 7am when I was already in active labor. From that point on, she was with me every single contraction with hip squeezes to relieve my all encompassing back labor! She provided a birthing comb for a distraction technique along with ice packs. I truly believe she was a key factor in how I was able to manage an unmedicated birth with a 9lb 14oz baby boy! I would hire her all over again to help with any future births.