DOULAS by the BAY LLC - El Cerrito, California

L Zhang

When I began my journey into motherhood, I knew I wanted the best support team possible, and Kassondra and Melissa truly exceeded all expectations. Kassondra came highly recommended by a dear friend who had recently had a baby, and after working with her, I completely understand why.

From the start, Kassondra impressed me with her professionalism and vast knowledge. She has years of experience, and it shows in the way she approaches every detail with care and precision. Her postpartum support was nothing short of incredible—she anticipated needs I didn’t even know I had, offered invaluable advice, and created such a calm, reassuring environment during what can be a challenging transition.

Melissa brought a wonderfully warm and supportive energy. She has a heart of gold and was always there with kind words, a listening ear, and a genuine eagerness to help in any way she could. Her emotional support made such a difference, especially on days when I felt overwhelmed.

If you’re looking for doulas who will go above and beyond, look no further. I’m beyond grateful to have had their support during such an important time in my life. Thank you, Kassondra and Melissa, for making this experience so positive and empowering!

Cara C

We matched with Faith and he helped us on nights when my husband was traveling for work. Faith is so knowledgeable, reliable and timely. She always gave me tips and answered questions that came up - which is often as a first time mom. I have already learned so much from her.

Miri H.

The experience with doulas by the bay was pretty good. They have a great team that supported us when we were having an issue with our Doula (thanks Ariel!).

We are not giving it 5 stars maybe because our expectations were too high. We love tracking all the info about our baby so that we can share with the pediatrician and the information that we were getting wasn’t as detailed as we thought it would be. Maybe an issue on our part for not communicating this to our doula but we thought maybe we were being too needy and no one requests that much.

We had a couple of issues with our doula (all minor and resolved), the biggest one being that she gave our baby boy prune juice without consulting us first. She mentioned it one night cause she thought our baby was backed up but we didn’t give her the go ahead. Maybe because we didn’t refuse (we planned to check with our pediatrician on this if the issue continued) she thought we were ok with it. The next night she gave it to him (very little, nothing to be worried about), but without asking for our approval. We would’ve liked to talk to our pediatrician before giving him anything other than formula.

It was definitely nice to have 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night and will hire this service for our second baby. However, I think that we will do more in depth interviews to see if the doula is a good fit with our family.

Margaret Walsh Ramsey

We worked with our Doula KMO (they/them) for the first few weeks of our second son’s life. KMO is a solid communicator, a grounded presence, and a welcome help! We particularly chose KMO because they also have experience with early childhood education, so they were able to also support our 3 year old when mom and dad had our hands full with the newborn. the admin of Doulas by the Bay are also responsive and helpful. We also appreciated that we could pay with HSA funds.

Lorace Manalo

Agnes from Doulas By the Bay was a Godsend.

I’m a second time mom and also a widow. This was my first time hiring any type of caregiver. I remember with my first child, taking care of a newborn during the nights was the hardest for me. My mom helped me out back then. Now five years later, I’m well into my 40s and my mom is getting older, I told myself I need to get some professional help for everyone’s sanity.

Fortunately, I have benefits from work for postpartum care through Carrot. I reached out to DBB about a month before my daughter was born. It was cutting it close since doulas are usually booked months ahead. DBB was quick to respond and a consultation was setup within a couple days shortly followed by interviews with two doulas.

Agnes took great care of my daughter. She came over the first night we were home from the hospital. I’m so glad she came over to take care of my baby the first night home. I was so exhausted from breastfeeding around the clock and looked forward to a couple hours of uninterrupted rest. I think the hours when Agnes was over helped me focus on rest and pumping which helped bring my milk supply up.

Agnes brought my baby to me about every 2-3 hours to feed or provided a bottle. She did the best swaddles for my baby, changed her diapers, rocked her to sleep. I hardly heard my baby cry for the 6 weeks she was with us. There was a period when my baby refused breast feeding and preferred the bottle. Agnes said that it’s because I was making it too easy for my baby to feed from the bottle so she gave me tips on how to properly hold the bottle to make my baby work for the milk, similar to breast feeding. It worked and it saved me a trip to see a lactation consultant.

Agnes is really good at pointing out anything on baby that’s concerning. For example in my case, my baby’s belly button didn’t look normal after the umbilical cord fell off and on another occasion, my baby’s congestion was getting bad. She suggested I see the doctor for both incidents. They were good calls because the doctor gave me next steps on treatment plans and gave me peace of mind on how to remedy the situation.

Agnes also sent me a log on what time baby had breast milk and formula, how many ounces, when she changed diapers and if it was pee or poop. At the end of each shift, she helped me wash bottles and sanitize.

We got along really well and we shared stories of our families. My 5 year old loved when she came over and was always excited to chat with her.

Agnes truly helped me get through this newborn stage - I was less stressed, slept more which gave me more energy to tackle the day. We love Agnes and we highly recommend her!

Amanda Mu

I am writing to wholeheartedly recommend Margaret Thaiya for her exceptional night time doula service. Since the arrival of our first baby, Margaret has been an absolute blessing to our family. As first-time parents, navigating the world of newborn care was daunting, but Margaret stepped in as our guiding light.

Margaret’s support has been invaluable. Not only does she provide much-needed assistance during the night, allowing both my partner and I to rest, but she also brings a wealth of knowledge on baby care. She patiently teaches us everything from recognizing feeding cues to mastering the art of swaddling and ensuring optimal safety measures are in place for our little one. She also records meticulously about each feeding and diaper change during the night so that we can easily take the records and log into our trackings to monitor the baby’s progress and routine.

Margaret’s warm demeanor and genuine care for our baby and family have made her an indispensable part of our journey into parenthood.

I highly recommend Margaret for any families seeking compassionate and knowledgeable doula support. We are super grateful for her assistance and will undoubtedly turn to her service again in the future.

Kelsey Dunn

I cannot say enough good things about Doulas by the Bay, and specifically Raychel, our AMAZING postpartum doula. The entire process was done in an efficient and professional manner, from receiving initial package information to interviews to the actual postpartum care. It's clear that the entire DBB team are experts in their field and take great pride in their product.

We immediately clicked with Raychel, and felt super comfortable with her integrating into our lives + our baby's life. Her knowledge, keen intuition, and kindness while she was caring for us was so appreciated, especially during a very vulnerable time. She taught us about caring for our little one, and offered options so we never felt like there was only one way to steer the ship. We are very grateful for Raychel and for all of her love + care.

I would highly recommend DBB to any friend, family, or acquaintance.

Lindsay Gartland

Rachel helped us out immensely with our son for a few of the early months when no one was sleeping. She immediately put us at ease and I had no reservations leaving our baby in her care overnight. She was always on time, extremely professional, great with our baby, and very kind. She left detailed notes on how the night went and always replied quickly via text if I had any questions the next day. She also helped us implement strategies to help him begin to sleep longer stretches. We really looked forward to the nights she would come. DOULAS by the BAY is very easy to work with in general and I definitely recommend them!