PRAISE

“Shiela is an incredible midwife. Her approach from our very first meeting was open, supportive, knowledgeable, sensitive, and thorough. Shiela listened intently to both our hopes and concerns around the birthing process and met each one with confidence, wisdom, and resources. Shiela is a deeply seasoned midwife, herbalist, advocate, ally, and counselor. A true support in every sense of the word.

Becoming pregnant was a dream come true. But when I began interacting with the western/allopathic medical systems, I became distraught at the overmedicalization and “risk prevention” that dominated my doctor’s appointments. Finding midwifery care with Shiela who sees pregnancy and birthing as beautiful, natural, and even spiritual was so liberating! No longer was I a set of symptoms and risks to be managed, but instead my partner and I were travelers on a beautiful journey towards birthing a life and Shiela was our steadfast guide and companion.

Shiela held my hand literally and metaphorically through each phase of pregnancy, labor, birthing, and postpartum. I could not imagine a better experience. My labor came on quickly during the wee hours of the morning, Shiela and her midwife partner Taya were at my house so incredibly fast, they set up their equipment and within hours we welcomed our new baby. They both brought a sense of calm, strength, competency, reverence, and joy to our birth. It was truly a transcendent, life changing, soul healing experience and these two Birth Goddesses are to thank for that.”

~ Shanna Butler

“Our journey through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with Shiela was powerful, transformational, and magical. A prenatal appointment held so much more than just measuring my belly and listening to fetal heart tones – laughing at the new quirks of my changing body, processing my dreams, answering my husband’s questions, visioning our birth plan, listening to the baby’s energy, etc.”

~ O’Nell Starkey

“Shiela provided the care that we needed straight from pregnancy to labor and even after for our entire family. Shiela’s patience and trust was felt the first day we met her. Her extensive knowledge and experience coupled with genuine warmth and caring made every visit a pleasure.  Shiela is so gifted in her profession that I wish every woman could have her by their side before, during and after giving birth.”

~ Tara Brooke

“I chose Shiela as my midwife because of her obvious trust in the three of us’ ability to figure out any challenge together. In a world that believes doctors know best, Shiela is a breath of fresh air. She is very knowledgeable in all things western medicine considers important for a safe birth, but she is committed to the inner wisdom of the mom, body and soul.”

~ Nimka Kurzfeld

“Shiela became my midwife during my third month. She always took time during her visit to get to know me and my needs, often staying longer than scheduled for each visit. By the time I was in labor, not only did we know each other and I feel comfortable with her, but she was a dear friend in whom I completely trusted. She knew mine and my partner’s needs and expectations, my medical history and my expectations for the birth. I honestly could not have asked for a better birth experience.”

~ Willow Osborn

“I want to thank you for myself, as a person, a woman, a mother and as a physically imperfect body that had to be called upon to do something of complete perfection. I can’t imagine the experience without your guidance, skill and absolute kindness. You were the exact friend I needed, literally holding my hand and making me feel like everything was going to be ok. Through the whole day and night (of Liran’s birth), I don’t remember feeling afraid.”

~ Robin Li

“I could write about how wonderful Shiela is for hours and hours. She is a truly special and gifted midwife and her care, advice, support and love for me and my baby and family have been overwhelming from the first prenatal visit to the return phone calls she made responding to the various worries and concerns we had about our daughter post partum. Throughout the various ups and downs of my pregnancy and labour (to be fair there were very few downs although a possible case of pre-eclampsia then an hour long crowning phase in labour were challenging!!) Shiela remained so positive, supportive, gentle, smiling and full of comforting, helpful words and suggestions to both me and my husband.”

~ Kate Watson

“Our birth was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to do it again. My husband and I talk about it frequently as it gives us much strength and courage to move forward as parents. The birth was a perfectly peaceful and graceful way to welcome our baby into this world. Sometimes when we talk about it, our baby gives us the warmest smile like he remembers very well what happened.”

~ Marina Budovsky Tselner

“Shiela is a deeply skilled and grounded Midwife. She is extremely intuitive in all stages of her care. She has the type of confidence that you can soften into and know you are held in each moment, no matter what happens. She lets you lead the birthing process with such a respect and honoring that she makes you believe you can do anything! She is exquisite at holding sacred space and can also bring humor to lighten the spirit at exactly the right moment!

Another piece that makes Shiela an outstanding Midwife is that she provides such in-depth postpartum care, which is mostly forgotten in this modern world. In all moments I felt held in love, and had absolute confidence that Shiela would show up exactly as I needed. And she did, in all her light and strength. I birthed my 10lb baby by candlelight with her by my side, it was simply magical.

She is a Midwife every mama should experience. For every Mother should be tended to with such love during this transformative time.”

~ Jayantii Lawless

“I wasn’t even considering having a home birth but I decided to meet Shiela to hear what it was all about. Well, my husband and I were hooked!! I realized that a home birth was exactly what I had been looking for, I just didn’t believe in myself enough yet. Shiela infused her love for mamas and birth in every meeting we had. My prenatal “appointments” were sitting on her couch, sipping tea, talking about everything in life. Then of course listening to baby and taking measurements, but it was about the whole picture of me and my husband and what was changing in our lives.

Shiela was preparing us to think about these changes every time we met. Her confidence and wisdom instilled a strength in myself I didn’t know existed, and when it came time for my birth, I felt supremely empowered and supported. Then the postnatal visits were the highlights of my postpartum months. Without having to leave my cozy nest she checked baby and me, answered all our questions, and really felt like part of our new little family. It was the most amazing experience and I truly wish all mamas could go on this journey with Shiela!!!”

~ Elana Roberts

“I truly doubt my wife, Bridget, and I could love Shiela and Marina more. They are just so great and the level of care they provided for us was just amazing. My wife and I did not hire Shiela until very late in her pregnancy as it took us some time to come around to homebirth and we had all sorts of fear based concerns to overcome. For us, our birth experience, and our son it ended up being the best possible decision we could have made.

I would like to first address the post-natal care we received, for that was almost my favorite part of the homebirth process with Shiela. We must have called Shiela 50 times in the first few days after our son Kingston was born. She was on the phone with us constantly, she came over repeatedly and she basically made us feel so much more safe and secure about our son’s health. I am fairly certain that we would have had a meltdown without Shiela and Marina’s expert, dedicated care. We could not possibly say more positive things about their post-natal care. When they came over, they would spend quite a bit of time just holding and playing with our son, it was such a refreshing approach to medical care. Each post natal visit was at least an hour long, whereas when we went to Kaiser for our first check up, we saw the Dr. for about 5 minutes.

The care that my wife received during her pregnancy and during the birth was as amazing as the post-partum care. My wife had a fever before her labor and Shiela and Marina were by her side for many hours, keeping her cool, comfortable and safe. As the supposed support person during the birth, I was so grateful for their expert care and felt very safe with my wife and son’s well being in Shiela’s care.

In all, we had the most incredible experience at our home during the birth of our son and we are so thankful to Shiela and Marina for their wonderful care. We really could not be more appreciative for Shiela and the wonderful gift she helped bring into our lives.”

~ Sean Joyce

“Words cannot express how I feel about having Shiela as my midwife. I don’t feel like any of this will do justice – call me and I will sing her praises!

I knew I wanted to birth at home before I got pregnant because of the care I would receive from a midwife during all of the prenatals and during the actual birth. The care I received from Shiela during this time was everything that I expected and more. She was available for phone calls (and didn’t make me feel like I was bothering her), she was respectful of all of our decisions. I so looked forward to every prenatal visit and I never wanted them to end. (In fact, she almost always stayed longer than the hour allotted because we didn’t want to stop talking!) What I didn’t expect was how Shiela took care of me after my birth. She seamlessly entered our cocoon every visit, celebrated my healing, cooed and ahhed at our baby, and made sure that we were all – mom, dad and baby – doing well every step of the way. She gave me permission to stay in bed and helped me remember that all those “to do’s” would get done later, so that we had that magical, sweet time together as a new family.”

~ Traci Moren

“As someone who had always subscribed to the idea that “births take place in hospitals (to ensure safety, etc)”, I was rather fearful of what felt like the many unknowns when my wife introduced the idea of a home birth. Over time, through discussion, reading, and perhaps most notably, meeting with Shiela and talking through my/our concerns, she provided countless reassurances, backed by useful information and found the right way to have us feel confident and happy with our decision.

Without fail, through the entire process, Shiela was present, patient (I asked a lot of questions), warm and made us feel like the center of the universe. My biggest complaint is that we don’t get to see her anymore now that our baby is here!

We had a wonderful, safe, healthy and incredibly fulfilling birth experience, a great deal of which is because of Shiela and all that she did to work with us leading up to it. I can’t say enough great things…”

~ David Moren