Aisha Awadallah
Birth Doula, CLC, Placenta Encapsulator
Providing experienced, inclusive, compassionate and empowering birth doula service across the New York City area
Providing experienced, inclusive, compassionate and empowering birth doula service across the New York City area
Aisha Awadallah Aisha Awadallah is a DONA certified birth doula, birth assistant, and CLC (certified lactation consultant). She/they have extensive community doula experience, provide placenta encapsulation, lactation consulting, and has also trained as midwife assistant at the historic Farm in Tennessee. Aisha identifies as a queer Black and Indigenous femme birth worker and artist. She is married to a wonderfully supportive husband in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and is parent to three cat babies. Outside of doula work Aisha is a visual/tattoo artist and art model; loves traveling and animals, dance and movement.
Aisha is a passionate and calm advocate for her clients' voices and reminds them of their own power and right to access maternal education and choose safe birthing environments. She believes a birth doula can provide essential and experienced support during labor and helps encourage an empowering and safe birthing experience. She provides comforting touch, education, and continual guidance as they begin to conceptualize their birth preferences and prepare for their postpartum experience. They also prioritize clients finding appropriate resources as they prepare for birth and can help in choosing more inclusive and specifically trained care providers if needed. She shares comfort and coping tools with clients to help them through their labor experience and is a compassionate coach and support person. Aisha is a birth nerd and can spend hours talking about physiological birth, lactation, postnatal care, and hospital interventions clients often navigate. She believes knowledge is power and that no birth should or will look the same.
As a birth doula for the past seven years and providing support for 150+ families; Aisha is always learning more about birth and all things related to it, and is continually in awe of the strength of the clients they have had the honor of supporting. She has learned just how important advocacy, community and support are; and how it can help remind us of just how much we are capable of.
Aisha believes that childbirth is a beautifully complex, life changing and powerful experience, and a transition that requires the support of a “village”; or a strong support team. A labor and postpartum experience in which the individual feels empowered, safe, present and supported is essential and should always be aspired to.
One free 30 min. consultation ("meet and greet")- I offer to meet you (and your partner if applicable) virtually over Zoom to discuss my services and how I can best offer and mold my birth doula support to you and your growing family, and provides an opportunity for us to see if we would be a good fit
2 prenatal visits (one virtual and one in-person visit), our meetings allow us the opportunity to develop and strengthen a trusting relationship, discuss your birth plan and/or birth preferences, practice comfort and coping techniques and positions, and to cover any questions you might have about the childbirth process and how to best advocate for your needs with your care provider
Continual email, phone, and text support- I am available within business hours to provide virtual support, and am available 24/7 once on-call for you
On-call at 37 weeks- this means you'll be super close to your estimated due date! Which also means that as your birth doula I am ready and available to be contacted by you at the start of early labor signs and provide in person support when you decide you would like me to join you for the process.
Continual labor and birth support- I join you at your home and accompany you to the hospital, birth center, or help you prepare for your home birth. I provide consistent and empathetic emotional, physical, and informational support throughout the labor process and birth.
Initial breast/chest feeding and latching support- after birth I stay with you for 1-2 hours and help with initial skin-to-skin contact and help establish a nursing latch if so desired
2 postpartum visits- within 1-3 weeks since your birth I can visit your home to help you process your birth experience, check-in on you and the baby, provide lactation support, resources or references for any additional needed support, and to bring our intimate journey together to a close. Also available for virtual support as needed.
Fee- $3000 (paid in two installments; one half at hire, second half at 36-37 weeks) (sliding scale available, please inquire with your budget)
The benefits of placenta as medicine and a healing remedy have been known and used through Traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. When consumed postpartum, the placenta has shown to lessen the chances of experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety, increase breastmilk production, speed up uterine healing and recovery, increase energy levels, aids in hormonal balance, and enhances one’s overall feeling of wellness after birth.
I offer placenta encapsulation and tincture services to birth parents/mothers to be used as an aid and ritual in post birth recovery. I encourage you to do your research and then decide if it is right for you.
Placenta Package - $450 for doula clients, $475 for non-doula clients
Prenatal consultation and planning for pick-up and transport
Placenta preparation and encapsulation
80-120 placenta pills (varies with placenta’s size). Placenta is steamed with lemon and ginger before dehydration
4 oz placenta tincture
Umbilical cord keepsake
Storage and consumption consultation at drop-off
A birth doula is a trained professional whose primary role is to provide continual physical, emotional, and informational support to a pregnant person and their partner before, during, and after labor and the birth of their child. The doula strives to approach her support and care for her clients with unfaltering empathy, professionalism, nurtured knowledge, and flexibility. A doula shares continually accumulated knowledge about the process of birth, applicable comfort and coping techniques, labor positions and helps their client to craft a birth plan or visualize and understand their birth preferences.
When a pregnant person makes the decision to pursue hiring a doula, they usually will have a consultation through phone, video chat, or in person with their potential birth doula. This provides not only the client, but also the doula themselves, to gauge whether or not they would be a good fit for each other and if the doula’s style of practice and personality is compatible to the client’s wants and needs. Upon hire, the doula will meet with their client for 1-2 prenatal meetings before their due date, usually the second meeting will happen around 37 weeks of gestation. Prenatal meetings are essential and a great opportunity for the birth doula to build a relationship with the client and their family, and establish a foundation of intimacy and trust. These meetings allow the client to express any thoughts, concerns, or fears they may have towards the birth and labor process and parenthood, to possibly share past traumas or birth experiences, and to discuss their personal and medical preferences for their labor, birth and birth environment. The doula listens to the clients experiences, thoughts, and desires with empathy and a nonjudgmental approach; it is not the doula’s role to make any decisions in regards to the client’s birth preferences, but to share evidence based information and professional and experience garnered knowledge to help adapt and allow the client to best advocate for themselves with their medical care provider and feel confident and informed in their options and desires. The doula can encourage the client to check in with their care provider as they devise their birth plan and to continually ask relevant questions or express concerns in regards to the care provider’s care and practices.
During these meetings the birth doula also shares coping and comfort techniques with the client and their partner, which can include techniques such as counter pressure massage, the double hip squeeze, massage and the value of positive reinforcement from the birth support team and affirmations the client may create for themselves. The doula can share how the client can utilize useful tools such as a birthing ball, peanut ball, rhythmic breathing, or rebozo to help promote an effective and efficient labor and maximize comfort. The client and doula can discuss recommended literature, classes, resources, and tools that are relevant to their needs as they prepare for their labor and birth.
At the onset of early labor the doula provides continual and comforting support over the phone and/or text and can suggest ways for the their client to stay comfortable, informed, and confident in laboring on their own or with their partner at home. This early communication also allows the doula to gauge their client’s progress, emotional state of being, and to stay updated in regards to the labor’s progress and possible physical signs of labor. When the client decides they are in need of extra support, the birth doula will physically join them at their home or birth location. Through the doula’s experience and knowledge, and the client’s communication, preferences, and visible signs of the labor’s progress they can help their client decide when would be best to contact their care provider and begin heading to the birth location or to contact the midwife to join them if it is a home birth. At home and at the birth location, the doula provides consistent physical and emotional support in helping the client navigate and cope with their labor that can be adapted to the client’s preferences and mood. This can include directed breathing, suggesting different labor positions, supportive language, touch and massage. The doula can also provide a helping hand, and comforting reassurance and coaching during the pushing stage. The doula also provides support to the partner and emotionally checks in and ensures they are rested, hydrated and physically capable to continue labor support. The partner can also be incorporated into physically and emotionally supporting the laboring person with techniques and advice shared by the birth doula.
With the support of a doula, "women were less likely to have pain-relief medications administered and less likely to have a cesarean birth. Women also reported having a more positive childbirth experience”. The calming presence and objective yet empathetic support of a birth doula is shown to drastically reduce the length of labor and need for medical interventions, and drop the rate of cesarean sections by as much as 50 percent. The importance of having continual support and coaching throughout labor is shown to greatly increase the chances of a positive birth experience, overall confidence and well being of the laboring individual, and improve the likelihood of establishing a easier bond with their newborn and a more positive start to breastfeeding.
Once the baby is born, the doula’s main objective to continually support their client, this can mean a comforting hand and informational support during the placenta’s delivery, during the possibility of any necessary medical procedures, and as the care provider assesses and finishes their care of the client. The doula then stays with the client and their family for 1-2 (or longer if deemed necessary) hours after birth to help with early breastfeeding, clean up, and ensuring that the client is comfortable and informed about early newborn care and if relevant, their subsequent hospital stay. Postpartum, the birth doula will follow up with the client a few days after the birth to check-in and to arrange for a postpartum meeting in the next week or two. At the postpartum meeting the doula meets with client at their home to check in on their emotional and physical well being, to help them in processing the birth experience, and to provide any additional support with breastfeeding and early postpartum care. If the client has a need or concern that falls outside of the doula’s scope of practice, the doula will provide relevant resources and referrals (i.e. postpartum doula, certified lactation consultant, mental health professional) the client can choose to pursue. This is also an opportunity for the client and doula to “close” their relationship, say their goodbyes, and for the client to feel comfortable in providing any feedback about their experience working together.