I am at 30 something year old Brazilian woman living in the United States since 2006. I am married with a very supportive man and I have three energetic boys and a little girl. I have been working as a doula since 2010. Currently, I have helped and witnessed the birth of nearly 500 families, and also provided prenatal education, lactation and postpartum guidance to many other families.
I have experience in most hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have worked with single mothers, teen mothers, surrogate mothers, life partners, mothers in a high risk pregnancy, mothers with depression and anxiety, and couples that just needed the extra support. I have supported women during their unmedicated and medicated labors, as well with cesarean sections. I have experience with VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) and vaginal birth of twins.
I love what I do and my goal is to show people that labor does not have to be what they have heard their whole life, it can be just as beautiful as holding your baby in your arms, and mother by mother I will accomplish my goal of spreading this 'great news' to anyone willing to listen and experience it no matter the birth route chosen or needed.
Now, my journey takes on another path as I embark on spreading the "great news" of birth support to other doulas. It is a tremendous honor for me to play a part in someone's life in this meaningful way.
Karla and Renata have been friends for over ten years but became much close after having children in 2015. Karla's first child was born via an unplanned cesarian and that sparked curiosity and passion about birth. She wanted to experience birth the way nature intended. She decided that she would have doula support for her second birth and so she did and that time around she was able to have a VBAC and she felt like the support of a doula was essential during such process.
After her VBAC the passion for the birth world grew even more and Karla fell in love with the profession. Karla wants to help women to be able to have better access to labor support not just locally but also worldwide. Living in the US since 2007 she can see the differences in the birth world between many cultures and how much different cultures can learn from each other. Karla has an MBA and is a birth and postpartum doula trained by HFD.
Karla Ricard is a very important part of our team. She has a huge contribution to what HFD has become and in our story. She has had a few roles with HFD over the years and currently she is the HFD adviser.
Teeya is HFD trained and certified. She has been supporting families in the Bay Area for the past 12 years. After attending her first birth in 2022, she knew that this was where her heart was. She has a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is a 200hr yoga instructor. She likes to draw inspiration from sound and movement into her birth work
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Teeya is very active in the birth world and passionate about shifting the the current birth paradigm and making sure all birthing people feel a sense of empowerment, bodily autonomy and safety during their birth journey.
We are proud to have Teeya as a precious part of the HFD team. She took as her role the continue education portion of our training, being our circle coordinator.
Paola is a specialist in child development. She worked for many years with children and adolescents with cancer. She fell in love with the doula world when she realized that she was able to combine her profession with her life mission, but this time with the focus in main and most aspect of life, birth and the newborn phase. Helping and supporting are words that are part of the foundation of doulas work, Paola combines that with professionalism which makes her a great addition to our team.
Paola wears many hats but in the doula worls she mainly practices as a postpartum doula. For HFD she manages the finances, coordinates our postpartum doulas' arragements and placements and coordinate our events. She is an energetic and essential part of our team.