Amy M.
I was not looking forward to giving birth. Meeting my baby, yes; the hours that would precede it, NO. I was scared to the point of tears.
Jourdan was there for those tears, and there for the 30 or so hours my daughter took to exit my body. My labor started after a membrane sweep and unfortunately included back labor. Jourdan knew to feed me early on because eating would become harder the further I got, and when I threw up all the food she made me, Jourdan was there with a hospital-issue barf bag and caught every drop. She tried to help me walk, which I was super not into. She went with us in the Lyft to the hospital. I'd been unsure whether I'd want to get an epidural, and Jourdan and I had talked through options in advance, and she was completely supportive when I was like "epidural please" basically as soon as I got into a room. I was able to labor very calmly and with minimal pain after that, and Jourdan went home to rest a bit while I was getting some much-needed sleep and my cervix had a lot more opening to do. We ended up calling her back at 4am, a little earlier than expected, and I still don't know how she did it but I swear she strolled back into the room like 10 minutes later. It defied physics.
Jourdan supported my (also terrified) husband and helped him be the best birth coach he could be. He was on my left, she was on my right, and she talked him through holding my hand and holding my leg back while talking me through pushing and helping me breathe. Baby Corin arrived after 40 minutes of pushing, and Jourdan snapped the picture we ended up texting to all our friends (still one of my favorites).
I'm SO glad we were able to work with Jourdan. She was great at listening to our fears and talking us through how birth might go, while being clear that it doesn't follow a predictable path. Going into labor, it was such a relief to know that she was there and could talk us through anything that happened, and would be our advocate if we needed help communicating with hospital staff. I highly recommend Jourdan as a birth doula. She was easy to connect and communicate with, and was a real champ in the delivery room. Thank you, Jourdan, for helping us bring our goofy kid into the world!