Janel has supported thousands of families during their pregnancies and births.

Janel is warm, wise, precise yet fluid, thorough, available, accountable, creative, reflective, and a thing I forgot to desire but came to value deeply – fun – as a support person in the pregnancy, birth, and parenting experience. I describe Janel to my community as someone who feels like an old friend - she was my first phone call from the referral list because her work seemed both intellectual and embodied, personal and political, global and expertly local to New York.

Personally, it was important to me to have someone in the room that had a shared cultural experience so I specifically sought out someone who understood my background and whom my Filipino family would be comfortable with.

Janel leads with compassion, and talking with her is like talking with a best friend, easy and comfortable. I had a great birth experience and am so grateful that Janel was a part of our birth story.

When we received alarming news at our 40 week sonogram, Janel was the first person that I called. She was able to soothe me and give advice to deescalate the situation and stop me from panicking… Her knowledge, patience, and calm demeanor helped bring comfort to my husband and I, and I was once again so grateful that my husband wasn’t witnessing my birth alone, that he had someone to help advocate for me and for our baby. I was able to stay vulnerable and feel supported and cared for as I delivered our son.

I cannot say enough great things about Janel! Janel was my doula and also my prenatal yoga instructor. In fact, my water broke during her yoga class, during the first 10 mins after the opening mediation. She was literally there through my whole pregnancy and labor!

When I met Janel for the first time, she told me, “You are a strong healthy woman and you are growing your baby - there’s nothing wrong with you. We should look at the hospital as a place to help facilitate this wonderful process.” I knew right away I wanted her by my side.

We are beyond grateful to have worked with Janel. With her guidance, we expanded on my yoga practice to prepare for natural childbirth and were able to adhere to our birth plan. I successfully gave birth naturally, without an epidural or interventions to our beautiful daughter.

Janel was extremely thorough and came to our apartment for multiple sessions on birth and childcare. It was those educational sessions that prepared us for our unusual birth.

I don't really know where to start... perhaps with the fact that I don't know if I would have had such an amazing birthing experience without Janel. She was warm, informative, and communicative--all traits I sought in my doula search.

We are so grateful to have had Janel in our corner and know that without her, our pregnancy and birth experience would have been much more stressful. I cannot think of a better gift to give yourself than Janel's support and we will 100% work with Janel again the next time around.

We were Janel's 86th birth, and it is this experience that we (as first time parents) so appreciated throughout our birth process. My husband is incredible, but having someone like Janel in the room who has navigated everything before supported both of us: helping him to help me, giving us both confidence in our decisions, and reassuring us that what was happening at each stage was "normal."

Janel was by my side emotionally and physically through the early unknowing stages of labor right up until that precious skin-to-skin hour post labor. She even documented our son's first few seconds of life - a video and gift that we will cherish forever.

We were undecided on hiring a doula, and didn’t make the decision to do so until I was 36 weeks pregnant. We were connected with Janel and knew immediately she was the right fit for us. She is compassionate, kind, flexible, and has a love and dedication to her birth work.

I wanted an unmedicated birth and to labor at home as long as possible--Janel helped to make that a reality and to make us feel safe and as prepared as possible along the way. Her experience as a yoga teacher spoke to me and made me confident in her intuition and knowledge around the female body and breath.