Why Work with a Doula?

Some studied benefits of having a doula include:

  • Lowered fear, anxiety, and pain

  • Lower likelihood of a C-section

  • Shorter labor times

  • Lower labor intervention rates

  • Higher APGAR scores for newborns

  • Reduced rates of medical inductions of labor or assisted deliveries

  • Higher reported positive birth experiences

I have experience with the following- hospital births, home births, cesareans, VBAC, unmedicated birth, medical inductions, epidural births, narcotic medicated births, IVF, single parents, teen parents, incarcerated parents, queer families, gestational parents over 40, survivors of sexual violence and/or abuse, pregnancy loss, postpartum nutrition and cooking, newborn jaundice, thrush, painful latch, pumping, sleep issues

My Philosophy

Your Journey.

Your Way



I will nurture and advocate for the experience that is essential to your empowerment and emotional and physical safety.

Follow what feels right in your body and I will follow you.

You are the expert on yourself. I honor your innate wisdom and stand behind your choices.

There is not one right way to conceive, give birth, feed your baby, or be a new parent.

There are many right paths, and what’s important is finding the best one for you.

I am here to guide you through these life transitions without judgement and hold the full complexity of your feelings, history, and identities as they show up throughout the tender perinatal times.

What does “Full Spectrum” mean? To me it means acknowledging that pregnancy can begin in many different ways, be experienced very differently, and have a variety of outcomes. I hold space for all experiences of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

As a full spectrum doula I provide support for:

  • All births: hospital, birth center, home, cesarean, VBAC, breach, medicated and unmedicated

  • Abortion, miscarriage, and loss

  • IVF and/or surrogacy

  • The postpartum period

  • Breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and bottle feeding

  • Queer and Trans individuals and families navigating reproductive health care

  • Survivors of sexual trauma navigating pregnancy, birth, and reproductive healthcare

My Core Values as a Birthworker

  • Bodily Autonomy

    Body autonomy is the right for a person to govern what happens to their body without external influence or coercion. My work centers informed consent and the belief that all bodies are good bodies. All bodies should be treated with respect, empathy, and reverence.

    Bodily autonomy empowers communities who have historically been targets of obstetric violence and systemic oppression within the medical system to navigate their reproductive health care in a dignified way free of stigma and discrimination.

  • Reciprocity

    Reciprocity, the system of exchange, is more than the exchange of money- it is an exchange of energetic value. Our time is equally valuable. We each have inherent value as individual beings to bring to each other. Every encounter, partnership, relationship, or contract is an exchange of energy.

    Energy exchange can include thoughts, ideas, gifts, money, feelings, and all things seen and unseen. We have more to exchange than we think. When we tap into our individual energetic value and share that, everyone becomes richer.

    With the intention of using this work to dismantle systems of supremacy, close gaps of disparity, combat barriers to care, and work against reproductive injustice, I ask that those who come from race or class privilege invest the highest possible amount for my offerings. By contributing the highest amount, it affords me the ability to support individuals and families who face economic barriers to doula care.

    *No one will be turned away for lack of funds. I am open to payment plans, trades, and other forms of reciprocity*

  • Inclusive Birthwork

    What is Inclusive birthwork?

    “It is a perspective and practice to birthwork that acknowledges the FULL SPECTRUM of identities reflected in birthing individuals, the FULL SPECTRUM of experiences they may bring, and the FULL SPECTRUM of barriers that may be present as a result of their identities and experiences. It is an approach to birthwork that is based upon the intention to contribute to the healing, empowerment and autonomy of birthing people, their families and community” -Eri Guajardo Johnson @birthbruja

  • Holistic Health

    Holistic health is about caring for the whole person. It is rooted in the understanding that a person’s physical, mental, spiritual, and social needs all equally affect their overall health, and being unwell in one aspect affects the others.

    Pregnancy and birth have impacts that ripple far beyond reproductive experiences- they are life transitions, they can bring up past trauma, fear, or anxiety, and they can significantly change a person’s relationship to self, others, or life.

    I provide care for my clients knowing each person enters the experience with their own individual history, expectations, and feelings. I am here as a witness to hold space for your full expression of self. I hope to cultivate an interconnected relationship between the body, mind, and spirit of all my clients. As a care provider, I focus on overall wellness and root causes of issues rather than treatment of individual symptoms.

  • Interdependence

    We are each tied to the entire web of life and can only be as individually healthy as our larger community, society, surrounding ecosystems, and ultimately the planet. This means that a commitment to dismantling violent systems that harm life- human and nonhuman- is inherently a commitment to your own personal well-being. As a birthworker I see too that not only does it take a village to raise a child, it takes a village to shepherd one into this world. We aren’t meant to take on the great task of our physical, emotional, or spiritual heath all by ourselves, especially not through such a challenging and transformative journey. We are meant to hold each other through these times of transformation, growth, healing, and integration. In a society where many people don’t live near their relatives or grow up hearing intergenerational stories of the wisdom of our bodies and the mystery of birth, what we are left with is a lack of truly understanding birth or the postpartum period, a fear based narrative of what birth and postpartum are like, and a gaping hole with the absence of community care for birthing people and new parents. We need each other more than ever.

I am committed to providing trauma informed  care under the framework of reproductive justice to normalize all reproductive experiences, empower all* bodies, and combat obstetric violence and health disparities that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and Trans birthing people.

 *I recognize that as a cisgendered white settler, I am not the doula for everyone- nor should I be! Everyone should have access to a doula they feel aligned and safe with. BIPOC and gender expansive folks- if you prefer to work with a doula that shares more of your identities, personal experiences, and history and are having a difficult time finding one, please reach out to me at danacaston1@gmail.com and I will reach out to my birth work networks for you/share resources that may be helpful.