Isabel Perez Doula

I am a new mommy and I am so grateful I had the good fortune of hiring Isabel as my doula! My wonderful midwife Lauren at Community Midwifes was who recommended Isabel to me as she had recently worked with her on another birth.
Isabel works almost exclusively through word of mouth, but I figured more people deserve to know about this wonderful lady.
As you can see in the interview her other doula friend did of her, Isabel has ~35 years of experience working first as a midwife (trained with world-​famous midwife Ina May Gaskin,
), and then as a doula.
Reading Isabel’s story here:
was enough to convince me that I was in good hands, but I can confirm that Isabel has indeed that peaceful and motherly presence I would hope to have from someone supporting me through the intensity of labour.
My initial intention was to have a natural water birth at The Birthing Centre but since I passed my due date by two weeks, I needed to be induced at St. Michael’s Hospital. Even so, I was still hoping to have a natural (unmedicated) birth. However, with the induction, contractions became unbelievably intense. I’m grateful Isabel was there to apply counter-​pressure and teach me how to breathe through every contraction, otherwise I really don’t know how I would’ve survived! After about 45min of excruciating pain, I opted to have an epidural. That took away the pain but also slowed down my labour :/​After about 4 hours, there had been no measurable progress in my labour, and if something hadn’t happened soon, I was facing the possibility of a C-​section… which is absolutely Not what I wanted!
I fully believe it was Isabel’s expertise as well as her efforts that saved me from a C-​section, and resulted in my having the natural (vaginal) birth that I wanted!
It was thanks to her and my midwife using the rebozo on me that my baby finally descended into the proper position for birth. Isabel also used reiki on me to help labour progress. Additionally, her emotional support of me was invaluable, especially at a time where my family members were at wits’ ends thinking that my labour was taking too long, and putting pressure on me to have a C-​section!
I am unbelievably grateful for Isabel for all she did during my labour. I fully recommend Isabel as an amazing support person during labour.