Clients' Thoughts
I am so glad that the Universe brought Luci to us to share her gifts as a doula. From the first phone conversation, to the birth of our child, Luci has provided her calm and also energetic presence to us. In the words of Andrew, my husband, " Luci knew what we needed before we even knew we needed it".
Luci came to our home to provide education to us and physically teach us labor poses as well as counterpressure and acupressure techniques so we would feel confident going into the birthing process.
She was available to us via phone and text if we had any questions and was also very responsive. When the time came to make the call (at around 4am!) she walked my husband through how to monitor my contractions. We thought we'd be able to labor at home, but turns out our baby had other plans. Luci met us at the hospital and helped us rock out an unmedicated vaginal birth. I honestly don't know if we could have done that without her because the counterpressure both she and my husband provided made the labor pains bearable. She also took amazing birth photos that we will cherish for a lifetime.
110% percent the best decision we made was to hire Luci our prenatal/labor doula and I hope that if we have any more children, that we can work with her again!
Birth - June 2022
Working with Luci was one of the best decisions that we made to prepare for the birth of our first child. During our very first conversation, Luci immediately put us at ease with her non-judgemental, open, and vivacious personality. She worked with us closely to determine what kind of support we thought we might need, and was flexible as the pregnancy progressed and our needs and desires changed. Luci inspired us to articulate to ourselves and to each other our hopes and fears for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and guided us in all aspects of the experience, from generating a birth preferences document, to navigating visiting our families during the pandemic, to practicing birthing positions and affirmations. Ultimately, we approached our birth feeling more confident and empowered in both the decisions that we were making and also how to support one another through the process. While Luci was unfortunately unable to attend our birth due to Covid-19 restrictions, she offered reassuring virtual support over the phone. However, the highest praise that we can think of for Luci is that after working with her, we felt fully capable, both as the birthing person and birth partner, to have the positive birth experience that we had hoped for, even without her there. Once again, Covid restrictions limited how much Luci was able to visit us postpartum, but nonetheless she found creative ways to help ease our transition to new parenthood. We cannot recommend working with Luci enough; she is not only an inspiring teacher and coach, but a simply delightful person who will bring so much positive energy into this special time in your life.
If you are looking for a doula who can be your emotional guide, medical advocate, and coach through the birthing process, then Luci is the perfect fit! Through my birth journey, Luci became more than just our doula; she became our friend. Her support and guidance helped us to have the birth we hoped for. We cannot thank her enough for everything she did to make our journey a wonderful experience overall.
Emotional Guide
Most important of all of Luci’s amazing attributes is her ability to be an emotional guide. Our birth had some unexpected bumps in the road (as I think many do) and when things became turbulent and scary, Luci was there to help calm my nerves and guide me to be confident in the process and confident in my body’s abilities.
I was heading into active labor while I was in the bathtub at the hospital when the nurse noticed that the baby’s heart rate was dropping. By the time they had gotten me out of the tub and to the bed (shaking and dripping wet) there were about ten plus additional doctors in the room telling me that they had to prepare me for a c-section. Luci locked eyes with me as she saw the tears forming and calmly said, “Julia, just look at me, you are strong, and you’ve got this.” She grabbed my hand and drew my attention away from the calamity in the room and into the deep reassurance in her eyes telling me that everything would be OK. Her ability to center me in this moment is a true gift of Luci’s and one that makes her an incredible doula.
Medical Advocate
On top of being an emotional guide, Luci acts as your medical advocate during the labor process. As mentioned above, the process was heading in the direction of c-section very quickly. Luci was able to take on the responsibility of communicating to the medical team the gentle cesarian that I desired and what exactly that entailed, something that my husband and I would have had a very difficult time communicating on our own in the moment given everything that was going on.
Luckily, per below, Luci also taught us how to advocate for ourselves and seek additional information from the doctor. This empowered me to ask if there were any alternative options to a cesarian, which led the team of doctors to consider an alternate route through an amnioinfusion. Due to this, I ultimately was able deliver vaginally!
By acting as your medical advocate, Luci can help you to communicate with the medical team at the hospital as well as advocate for alternate routes during the process. To me, this is invaluable since many of these medical decisions are made very quickly during the labor process. Having someone by your side who understands your preferences and can advocate for you helps to guide the process in the direction that is preferable for you.
Coach
Luci acted as a coach through the birth preparation process as well as labor. We bonded over the fact that both of us rowed crew. It is a testament to her that I would place her next to some of my top crew coaches in her ability to coach me through the labor process. During our initial meetings she was great at laying out the “training plan,” showing my husband and me the moves that we should practice and preparing us for what was to come. Once we were in the hospital, she helped to navigate us to the right positions and coach me through the various stages of labor. Just like you sometimes need a coach to tell you, “now is the time to push it!” Luci navigated me through the stages of labor seamlessly and let me know when I should just focus on being calm and when it was time to PUSH!
Overall, we feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Luci. We hope you have the opportunity to work with her as well! Birth - October 2020
Every time Luci left our house, my husband and I took a short leisure time, to sip a tea and exchange how wise it was to make the decision of asking Luci for postpartum help. We are new parents and know nothing about a baby, and none of our relatives or friends can come to help during COVID. So when our four week early baby could not nurse at breast and we had to do triple-combo feeding (practicing breastfeeding + bottle feeding + pumping for each feeding) day and night, we reached out to Luci for help, in the hope that she could cover one or two feedings once per week so that we could take a long nap to recharge.
We found that a good postpartum doula can do a lot more than just feeding and means a lot more than just a long nap. In one word, she made our home home again. During those early days with a newborn, everything had fallen into pieces. Stuff we brought from hospital was scattered in the living room; kitchen and floor were dirty because we didn’t get to clean them thoroughly before our preemie came unexpectedly; we could barely eat our meals on schedule; and I was hormonal. Luci accommodated all our baby’s needs better than us, talked to me whenever I felt frustrated, had extra time to finish all the cleaning projects we weren’t able to get done before baby was born, and made yummy muffins for us. She put everything together again just by visiting us once per week. I still remember when my husband opened the fridge after Luci cleaned it, he was in tears that “our fridge has never been that clean.” I also started to look forward to her visit each week, which made the early weeks a lot easier for me. We eventually felt we could manage our life again when our baby was about eight weeks old, but we decided to continue to work with Luci on a weekly base until baby starts daycare. In the pandemic when we had no visitors and did not even go out for grocery shopping, to be able to look forward to someone’s visit every week was one of the few things that cheered me up. August - October 2020
Luci Tarr is heaven sent! She is extremely knowledgeable and determined to find and provide answers. Luci helped us prepare for our preterm labor (we were induced at 36 weeks due to medical reasons). With a personalized approach, Luci taught me and my husband what to expect and the various techniques to use during each stage of birth. Luci helped make labor easier even though she was not able to be with us in the hospital due to Covid-19. Labor is a team sport and with each contraction both my husband and I could implement the things that she taught us. The nurses later dubbed me as a "Labor Goddess" - that's due to Luci's help!
Luci's services didn't stop there, she also provided postpartum care which included multiple visits and a delicious homemade meal. More importantly, at times I felt the pressure of being a new mom and Luci was a paramount member of my support team. Just knowing that a responsive, experienced, and caring person was a phone call away was priceless. Luci is comforting, candid, generous, and energetic! I highly recommend Luci and will definitely request her again in the future. Birth - June 2020
As a new father I cannot tell you enough how important it is to begin building a support network early on within the pregnancy. My wife and I reached out to Luci because we felt that all of the videos in the world would not equip us fully for what was about to happen within our lives. Our entire world was beginning to change and Luci helped my wife and I prepare for the birth of our daughter in a way that brought my wife and I closer together. Through relaxation advice, birthing ball techniques, breathing exercises, what to do in the hospital, and so on, I felt prepared to be able to support my wife in the birthing room like I had never expected before moving in to this. I began to realize that Doula’s are not just for the expecting mother. Luci always made certain that I felt fully supported as an expecting father. Luci went out of her way to check in on how my wife and I were bonding. She always brought her wonderful personality to the center of this birthing experience. I would highly recommend Luci for any birthing and postpartum support just as my wife and I had done. Thank you Luci! Birth - June 2020
I don’t even know where to start with how wonderful Luci is. Throughout the pregnancy she was always available for answering my questions. When I was induced, she was right by my side every second for all 45 hours of labor and then she was waiting for me when I returned to my room from the c-section. She wrote down every caregiver’s name, every vital reading, every observation in my labor. She was very in tune with my mental state, always respected my wishes in treatment, and was always so reassuring in my decision making when I was not 100% sure of what to do. She talked me through every contraction with grace and understanding. She walked the halls with me no matter what time of day or night I needed to do so. She also very much respected the time I needed with my husband for it to be just me and him. She took pictures of some of the most beautiful moments in my labor, and I am so thankful for her that those little moments will stand still forever. She was so encouraging throughout the whole process, and she stayed so calm when I needed it most. I know I wouldn’t have had such a smooth experience without Luci. I am so thankful for her, her patience, her grace, her thoughtfulness. Birth - November 2019
I really couldn't have done it without Luci. I would have never had the births that I always wanted to have. They felt impossible in the moments until she made me believe in my body's ability. Luci truly could not have found something she fit so perfectly in. Being a doula is honestly her calling in life.
Births - July 2017 and December 2019