Zarelle Veraquín

I'm an introvert. I wasn't sure I wanted someone in the room who I barely knew. My midwife actually suggested I at least meet Zarelle, so I did — and I almost immediately changed my mind. She wasn't loud or effusive. She listened more than she talked. She asked good questions. During labor, she was present without being in the way, and she seemed to know by instinct when to offer something and when to just be quiet. My partner told me afterward that having her there made him feel less alone too. He could step away for a minute without worrying I'd be without support. That's not something I'd thought about. If you're on the fence about whether you're a "doula person": you might just need the right doula.

We had a detailed birth plan. Unmedicated, delayed cord clamping, immediate skin-to-skin, the whole thing. Then at 39 weeks, my OB found a reason I needed an induction, and everything we'd prepared for felt like it was slipping away. Zarelle didn't try to talk us out of our feelings. She sat with us, helped us figure out what still mattered most from our original plan, and rewrote it for the new situation. By the time we walked into the hospital, we weren't mourning the plan we'd lost — we were excited about the one we had. Our son was born healthy after 14 hours. Nothing went the way we'd imagined. It was still the best day of our lives.

My partner and I were terrified. First baby, no family nearby, and every birth story we'd heard was a horror story. Zarelle changed all of that. From our first meeting, she made everything feel manageable. She didn't sugarcoat anything, but she also didn't let us spiral. When I asked a question she'd probably heard a thousand times, she answered it like it was the first time. During labor, she was incredible — knowing when to coach, when to step back, when to make my partner laugh. Our daughter's birth was hard but it was ours, and Zarelle helped us own every minute of it.