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Specialty: Labor Support

Okkanti’s access framework helps pregnant people find their support systems while ensuring fair compensation for doulas.  The fees you will pay for labor support packages range from $300- $2900, depending on access to insurance, employer plans, and subsidies.  You’ll be informed of your options during your initial consultation.

Janina Shorter

Janina is a certified full-spectrum doula, including labor support and postpartum care. She is a certified Community Breastfeeding Educator and in her 5th year as a Midwifery student, Janina is a wife of 17 years, a mother to 9 children and grandmother to 3, Her work is rooted back to her mother who passed away during childbirth as she has first hand experience the lasting effect of preventable maternal death and the value of taking care of every birthing person.

Before she knew the term doula she was an advocate for supporting birthing individuals for 20 years as the family doula, Janina is passionate about supporting families at all stages, She enjoys gardening, cooking , playing drums and reading. She is currently furthering her education as a student midwife and herbalist. Janina feels called this work and Birthways is a perfect organization to join.

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Strong moms create strong babies. strong babies create strong families. Strong families create strong communities. The only way we can build strength is together.

Megan Trinter

Megan Trinter joined Birthways in 2003 and offers Labor Support and Private Education, as well as occasional Postpartum care. She has provided care to infants and older children and their families since 1999 and is a mother herself.

After graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies with a concentration in Children, Youth & Family Services, Megan interned at Global Yoga and Wellness Center, coordinating programs for pregnant women and new mothers. She also coordinated and attended the Childbirth Assistant Training through the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators.

Megan has attended births at home and at nearly every major hospital in the area. She has been to over 300 births. She has supported a wide variety of families, including those planning medicated and unmedicated births, first-time mothers and families with older siblings, single mothers, water births, and VBACs. Megan brings a deep respect for birth and laboring mothers to her support of the entire expectant family. She is also certified to support HypnoBirthing couples, following training in 2015.

As a Certified Professional Midwife, Megan also brings a deeper clinical knowledge to her work. As a postpartum doula, she has worked with families with premature and multiple infants, new mothers in need of breastfeeding support, and has provided day and overnight care. Her academic and caregiving experiences, as well as her experiences as a mother, make her a great resource for new families. Megan brings decades of experience, knowledge, and skill to her work as a doula.

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Megan brought her great sense of humor, some lovely comfort measures, and the music! She was there for my entire induction and birth, so I really couldn’t have asked for more!

Megan was supportive in every regard. She rocks. We couldn’t have done it without her.

Leah Lemelin

Leah is a certified labor support and postpartum doula, community leader, and care coordinator at Birthways, Inc., serving the greater Chicago area. She is a holistic caregiver and mentor of caregivers. Through her birthwork, she incorporates mind-body practices for an experience of comfort and ease each step of the journey into and through early parenthood.

Formally practicing as a doula since 2016, Leah understands that birth is a natural phenomenon experienced in our own unique way, and the postpartum time is a space that invites intentional pause and mindful care to learn about ourselves, our babies and new reality. As a fellow mother of 2 small people, she intends to bring tailored, non-judgmental and evidence-based support, resourcing the uncertainties of this special time of transition.

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I feel a calling to support women and families moving through the transformative prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum journey. My wish is to be of service to another, honoring wherever they are on their journey and whatever choices they make as a parent.

Rhona Moore

Rhona is a certified Labor Support and Postpartum Doula at Birthways, Inc., serving the greater Chicago area. With over a decade of community-based doula work, Rhona has a deep and expansive source of knowledge, skills, and physical tools to offer expectant and new parents along their journey.

Committed to staying current and well-informed on the changing landscape of maternity care, Rhona has pursued training through various organizations. She is an incredible resource, and will have thoughtful and compassionate responses to your questions.

With her background as a massage therapist and infant massage instructor, Rhona has many physical and hands-on tools for comfort measures in labor, postpartum recovery comfort, and bonding with the baby. She also loves to cook for and with families, sharing a passion for simple, nutritious and delicious meals.

The combination of her personal experiences of motherhood, grand-motherhood, and professional work have supported Rhona’s warm, calming, and reassuring presence as a doula.

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I worked with Rhona prenatally and we talked a lot about what is going on with me and my baby. During the birth, she gave me lots of positions to try and massage. She is the very reason I didn’t get an epidural and I couldn’t have done it without her. She helped me make a massaging ball and helped my partner and godmother massage me during the whole birth. I had to be induced and didn’t know what to expect. I felt so confident having her there. She explained things, got me out of bed, and helped me create a birthing plan and talk to the doctor. Rhona was a godsend after the birth with all her knowledge.

Noshaba Bhatti

Noshaba (they/she) is an experienced trauma-informed, healing- centered, and evidence-based fertility, birth, and postpartum doula in the greater Chicago area. They have over fifteen years of experience providing trauma-informed, client-centered, queer and trans affirming direct services, advocacy, and education in various public health settings. A Full-Spectrum Birth Worker since 2014, they provide informational, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical support during the entire perinatal period. They draw on both evidence-based research and traditional wisdom to support their clients.

In addition to labor support, their expertise includes teaching people the Fertility Awareness Method to create and prevent pregnancies, providing education and support for donor inseminations (ICI and IUI), helping clients select care providers that align with their values, supporting people struggling with infertility and perinatal loss, providing postpartum care and lactation support, and providing education on newborn and infant care.

Noshaba is also a Certified Reiki Practitioner, Intuitive Energy Healer and a skilled Sexual and Reproductive Health Educator. They are deeply committed to reproductive justice and birth justice, and they believe in providing clients with all the information they need to make informed choices that are right for them. Doula clients appreciate their extensive knowledge and experience, compassionate and accessible communication style, and ability to provide comprehensive, holistic, ongoing support, education, and guidance throughout the perinatal period.

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Noshaba is so knowledgeable, caring and supportive. She is a really good listener, she got to really know me and my partner and was supportive every step of the way. Noshaba was a huge advocate for what we wanted, asking questions of medical team to ensure that decisions were consensual and they had space to make choices one step at a time. Noshaba’s touch is affirming and strong and why I could turn towards the pain. I was able to lean into her consistent support in such a vulnerable space. -Irina Z

Harmony Ogungbade

Harmony is a Postpartum, Labor Support, and Sibling Care Doula at Birthways, Inc., serving the greater Chicago area. She brings decades of childcare experience into her work as a doula. Harmony loves supporting expectant parents and families with physical and emotional support, sharing her wealth of information, facilitating communication with the medical care team, and navigating health care systems and supports. She has experience in hospital and home birth settings.

Harmony’s breadth and depth of knowledge on newborn/infant development make her an amazing resource and calming presence amidst the transitions of parenting. Harmony has experience supporting children with special needs, including sensory and developmental challenges. She is warm, friendly, and engaging – we know you’ll enjoy connecting with her!

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I feel so alive in the role of service. I am passionate about parents being well informed and empowered to have a healthy, safe birth. Whenever I have a chance to engage with an expectant or new parent I feel such privilege and responsibility. Babies give me incredible peace and I love learning new things about their growth and development – and oh, that baby smell!

Brit Garling-Brackins

Brit is a certified Labor Support Doula and Perinatal/Lactation Educator at Birthways, Inc., serving the greater Chicago area & bringing years of experience and love for learning to this work as a certified doula.

As a labor support doula, Brit has supported hundreds of clients and still approaches each birth as its own unique experience. With a wealth of knowledge and information about maternity care, evidence-based practices, and area providers/birth locations, Brit will support you in navigating your own preferences and priority for your birth experience through prenatal preparation, day-of support for labor, delivery, and the immediate postpartum time. Brit has supported first-time parents, growing families, those preparing for VBAC or twin arrivals, and brings her calm and skillful presence to whatever may arise. Warm and passionate about this work of caring for new families, Brit exhibits a deep commitment to helping families find what is appropriate for them.

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Brit’s presence was exactly what we needed to eliminate fear and help us focus on bringing our sweet baby into the world.

I cannot overstate how valuable Brit’s support was as we ramped up to the labor and for the delivery itself. It was so great to be able to call her up and get her perspective [in the last week of the pregnancy]. At the birth itself, her physical and emotional support to both me and my partner was so important.

Ruby Daniel

Ruby Daniel is a certified Labor Support, Sibling Care, and Postpartum doula at Birthways, Inc., serving the greater Chicago area. Ruby is passionate about labor support and understands the importance of informing families of their care options in every situation so that they feel prepared and empowered to have an informed, safe, and intentional birth experience. She supports families in celebrating the challenges and joys of pregnancy, and welcoming a new family member.

Alongside her professional qualifications, Ruby is a theater artist in Chicago, enjoys exploring the city and seeing live music, is an avid cook, loves to help take care of family pets, and is more than willing to keep your home tidy and clean. Ruby will also be happy to share her personal experiences with holistic and alternative medicines, herbal remedies, yoga, breathwork, and holistic body practices.

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I am passionate about smoothing the transition and sharing knowledge about the postpartum journey so families are equipped to be successful and handle challenges from day one. I doula so that I can witness, lift up, and facilitate the unique bond between a new arrival and the family they are coming into, while ensuring the parents feel that they’re supported, heard, and not alone.

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