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 two 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 400 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 who 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 is getting into one more path within this journey which is spreading the 'great news' of birth support for other doulas. I feel honored to be able to be part of someones life this way.
Karla Ricard is the workshop coordinator of Hospital Friendly Doula and CPI-Brasil. Karla and Renata have been friends for over ten years but became much more 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 in her birth country, Brazil. Living in the US since 2007 she can see the differences between both countries in the birth world and how much the two cultures can learn from each other. Karla has an MBA and is a birth and postpartum doula trained by HFD.
Contact me to discuss how I can best serve your needs.