Shelley Scotka, Professional Doula

My wife and I are first time parents and we hired Shelley to be our doula. She supported us through the birth and also visited us three times after we came home.
Shelley consulted with us before the birth and came to one of our pre-​delivery doctor visits. She helped us to fine tune our birth plan that we developed in our Bradley Method class (recommended by Shelley).
We felt amazingly supported by Shelley throughout the actual birth process. We were trying for a natural birth with no drugs. We came to the hospital early due to concerns of our doctor. Shelley coached us by phone on how to handle the process of induction so that we could have the best chance for a natural birth.
When the time came, Shelley came to the hospital to assist with my wife’s contractions and stayed with us continuously for about 30 hours at the hospital, helping my wife manage pain and prepare for the delivery. During that time, Shelley had countless ideas of ways to help reduce my wife’s pain and she worked tirelessly by my wife’s side to re-​position her and soothe her. She advised us in all our decisions with the doctors and nurses. Shelley’s presence allowed me to rest during the labor and I also was able to go home and check on our cat. During that time Shelley slept very little and exhibited such persistence and confidence that I felt we could not have chosen a better support person.
Immediately after the birth, Shelley spent an hour with my wife and son helping him to breastfeed and ensuring that process got started off right.
In postpartum recovery, Shelley stayed in contact with us via phone and helped us through that difficult time as we dealt with more feeding struggles.
Over the course of three at-​home visits, she supported us with encouragement, more advice on feeding, comforting baby, and getting rest for ourselves.
Shelley knew all of the doctors who cared for my wife during our week-​long stay at the hospital. She knew the hospital practices and was able to prepare us for what to expect. Her experience with and knowledge of the Austin OB community was greatly helpful. Her confidence and knowledge of infant care and feeding was supreme.
In short — Shelley is doubtless the finest professional doula you can find in Austin.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Shelley! She was our birth doula for our first baby, born in March. She met with us frequently before the birth, shared resources, and was an overall knowledgeable, calming presence. I especially love that she did not come with an agenda — she genuinely wanted to help us have the kind of birth that we wanted to have. And she did it! She was with us through our whole labor and delivery in the hospital, helped me have a natural birth without any drugs or other medical interventions, and visited us several times over the first few weeks home with baby to help with with any issues we were having. She is, in a word, AMAZING! As soon as I’m pregnant with #2, we’re calling Shelley!

Our birth experience was absolutely perfect, thanks to Shelley! She is a compassionate and loving individual, who provided my husband and I a wealth of information — which is so appreciated as first time parents.
Shelley is an outstanding listener, who is very diplomatic in offering suggestions, solutions and advice. From the moment we met, through the birth and especially during postpartum, she made us both feel empowered and encouraged. She is simply amazing, and I would confidently recommend her to anyone!

My wife and I cannot praise Shelley’s doula services enough. We planned the birth of our first child as a natural labor and delivery. After more than 50 exhausting hours of labor, it ended up with an epidural, Pitocin, and finally an emergency Cesarean. Throughout the entire experience that could have easily turned into a harrowing OMG-​what-​do-​we-​do-​now at every turn, Shelley helped us deftly navigate and carefully evaluate the barrage of information coming from our OB, hospital staff, Bradley childbirth instructor, and visitors. She was always our rock-​steady voice of calm deliberation, patient and cheerful support, and even once showing a firm hand when it was sorely needed. During the aftermath of one particularly emotionally exhausting bout with breastfeeding that Shelley helped us solve, my wife got all verklempt thinking about the emotional and practical support Shelley gave us, saying «It’s like she is our fairy godmother». Shelley’s extensive experience with doctors, nurses, hospital staff (especially at St. David’s Medical Center on 32^nd Street), midwives, acupuncturists, etc. makes her a fountain of knowledge that provided us with exactly the information we needed at the precise time we needed it, so we could make the rapid adjustment to our plans, even after they were thrown into disarray by the unexpected developments in the labor and delivery. All our future children will be delivered with Shelley by our side.