I can not recommend Mel The Doula’s services enough. She will make you feel supported. She will never arrived empty handed. She will not disappoint. My over all experience with Mel was excellent and everything I could have hoped for. Maybe more? Definitely more.

After a wonderful experience with a doula for the birth of our first son in Nova Scotia several years before, my husband and I knew that we both wanted a doula again for our second baby-to-be in Ottawa. We interviewed a few different women and were satisfied, but not feeling that perfect, home-run fit. Maybe that would be enough? Then we met Mel 🙂 From the second she walked in the door, I’m pretty sure we both knew that she was ‘our people. Bubbly but relaxed. Genuine. Eager to chat but putting us at ease from the start. She felt natural in our home and I immediately felt my vulnerability begin to melt away.

Inviting a doula into your home, your family, your birth experience, whatever that looks like, is a very intimate thing. A doula isn’t clinical. This isn’t a medical procedure for her or him. In my opinion and in my experience, the best doula is ‘in it’ with you. They’re living it with you, part of the team, always watching and reading the room and finding where they fit best to ease the burden, be that physical, emotional, nutritional, comical, whatever-support.

To be honest, I can’t remember the whole experience and I think that’s for 2 reasons. First, it all happened so fast. Phew! Second, and importantly, Mel fit so seamlessly into our process that she didn’t stand out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying she didn’t play a huge role in it all. She did, but she fit as easily as my husband rocking the co-pilot role, my brother wrangling our toddler, and myself doing that little birthing piece. She found the gaps and supported us through them so well that we never noticed the gaps existed to begin with.

Mel is wonderful, kind, relatable, eager, competent – those things make her a great doula. She did (and still does) go above and beyond to make my entire family feel loved, prepared, supported, normal (even extraordinary), and all the positive adjectives I can’t think of without more sleep and coffee – those things make her OUR doula and now, my friend. 🙂

– Steve M. & Cait M.
Winter 2019