Testimonials, Reviews and Shared Photos from Laura's Clients
I had looked at a number of doulas websites and Facebook pages but none compared to the robust, thorough site of Laura's which covered a ton of info and gave me a true sense of who she is, what she knows, how she practices, and her experience. We met for a coffee so I could learn more about her and I was taken with her combination of warmth and approachability with professionalism and seriousness about her work. Throughout my pregnancy she checked in via text, asking how I was and if I had any questions. I loved our meetings prior to going into labor, as she was super organized and intentional about what we needed to cover. She would bring her laptop and have prepared questions she would ask that gave her the full picture of what I wanted my experience to look like. This paid off during my labor, as she right away told my midwife something about that I didn't want to know how dilated i was, and I had completely forgotten I had told her that. But she had noted it months before and reviewed her notes before meeting me at the birth center (or maybe she just has an excellent memory). Once at the birth center, she was reassuring, supportive, and 110% focused and present. I tell you, this woman is the labor whisperer. Seriously. She knew what to say, what to do, and what not to say or do. She knew when to force feed me oatmeal for god's sake. She helped my husband help me by making suggestions or subtly gesturing to him what to do. Laura was a quiet presence, knew when to talk, when to suggest a different position. She had a bag full of magical aids like homeopathy, essential oils, music, etc. When my midwife got a bit too firm for my liking, Laura was a gentle presence and gave me a knowing glance helping me shake it off. She is just plain and simple gifted for this work, and then brings a level of professionalism and preparation that makes for an amazing combination. Not to mention the most reassuring smile (with dimple!) this side of the Mississippi. - Megan O.
My husband and I decided to start looking for a doula after we found out our baby was breech. After meeting with Laura, we decided to use her because of her experience with spinning babies, her personality, and her knowledge with birthing. Full disclosure, we did plan on using drugs in a hospital for our birth, so hypnobabies was not a major priority for us. This was the best decision that we could have made for our birthing process. She was an amazing resource to go to with questions, she has lots of connections that she was very willing to share with us, and was available anytime that we needed her. She even came to the appointment to have the doctor try and spin the baby! In the end, our little boy was too far wedged in that we were not able to spin him and had to go the c-section route. This was a hard decision for me personally, but Laura was there every step of the way. She suggested a hynobabies track to help prepare me mentally for what would happen, talked us through what our options were with having a c-section (delayed cord clamp, gentle birth for how they can take him out, clear drape so I can see what was going on, essential oils to keep me calm, music playlist, etc), and helped us with our birth plan. She even kept my husband calm in a situation that can be very stressful! Words cannot express everything that Laura did for us during this time. I woud highly suggest that anyone use her for their doula no matter their situation. We will be using her again when we are ready for baby number 2. - Jackie P.
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Laura was our hypnobabies instructor, hypno-doula and placenta encapsulator. She offers a discount for bundling all these services, but I would have chosen her for each service separately regardless!
1. Prior to becoming pregnant, I had heard of hypnobabies. I knew I wanted a natural birth, and because Laura's class was closest to our home, we chose her class. I AM SO GLAD WE DID! Laura has a background in education and is a spectacular instructor. She uses visuals, her class is interactive and overall she makes class fun and engages any type of learner. We all know that things don't always happen as they do in a textbook, and she uses her experience as a hypno-doula to expand on class topics. My husband and I felt confident and excited to birth our baby after taking Laura's class. Her passion for this birthing method is contagious! We will definitely be using hypnobabies again in the future, and while we could go through the course on our own, we will be taking Laura's class again when the time comes!
2. My husband and I had talked about hiring a doula prior to starting our hypnobabies course, and decided we didn't need one. My husband said, "I don't need help supporting you! I got this!" However, after hearing how a doula can support the birthing couple from Laura and other families, the idea became more appealing. Needless to say, we hired Laura as our hypno-doula and can't imagine our birthing time without her. If you think about it, most couples only go through birth a small number of times in their life and every birth is different in its own way. Having someone there who is an expert in helping couples through birth and knowing exactly what you need when you need it was one of the best decisions we made. Leading up to our birthing time, Laura was responsive and organized. She was going to be on vacation near our guess date, and made sure to have a back-up hypno-doula just in case. She had given us that person's name and number prior to leaving, but still went out of her way to check in with us while on vacation. When our birthing time came (Laura was back in town!), It was our plan for Laura to meet us at the hospital. Prior to us heading in, she was available and supportive via phone for over a full day, and provided suggestions that were definitely helpful, productive and put us at ease. Laura tailors her practice to what you envision her role to be. For us, that was primarily deepening my hypnosis during my birthing time. While my husband is great, the excitement of birthing time had us a little off track from what we should be doing from a hypnobabies perspective. When Laura arrived and started starting saying verbal prompts, turned the lights down and making helpful suggestions to me, the change was amazing. While my husband had forgotten the specific details I envisioned (i.e. Lights down low, staying active through waves), Laura made sure everything was in order! Laura knows hypnobabies forwards, backwards and inside out and she provided such wonderful support that my husband would not have been able to provide. She also took some beautiful photos during our birthing time that we would not have gotten otherwise! After our daughter was born, she stayed with us for a couple hours and made sure we got a good latch on our first breastfeeding session. I also really enjoyed the postpartum visit, where we got to debrief our birth. It was all such a blur that it was nice to fill in the missing details! - Kristi L.
1. Prior to becoming pregnant, I had heard of hypnobabies. I knew I wanted a natural birth, and because Laura's class was closest to our home, we chose her class. I AM SO GLAD WE DID! Laura has a background in education and is a spectacular instructor. She uses visuals, her class is interactive and overall she makes class fun and engages any type of learner. We all know that things don't always happen as they do in a textbook, and she uses her experience as a hypno-doula to expand on class topics. My husband and I felt confident and excited to birth our baby after taking Laura's class. Her passion for this birthing method is contagious! We will definitely be using hypnobabies again in the future, and while we could go through the course on our own, we will be taking Laura's class again when the time comes!
2. My husband and I had talked about hiring a doula prior to starting our hypnobabies course, and decided we didn't need one. My husband said, "I don't need help supporting you! I got this!" However, after hearing how a doula can support the birthing couple from Laura and other families, the idea became more appealing. Needless to say, we hired Laura as our hypno-doula and can't imagine our birthing time without her. If you think about it, most couples only go through birth a small number of times in their life and every birth is different in its own way. Having someone there who is an expert in helping couples through birth and knowing exactly what you need when you need it was one of the best decisions we made. Leading up to our birthing time, Laura was responsive and organized. She was going to be on vacation near our guess date, and made sure to have a back-up hypno-doula just in case. She had given us that person's name and number prior to leaving, but still went out of her way to check in with us while on vacation. When our birthing time came (Laura was back in town!), It was our plan for Laura to meet us at the hospital. Prior to us heading in, she was available and supportive via phone for over a full day, and provided suggestions that were definitely helpful, productive and put us at ease. Laura tailors her practice to what you envision her role to be. For us, that was primarily deepening my hypnosis during my birthing time. While my husband is great, the excitement of birthing time had us a little off track from what we should be doing from a hypnobabies perspective. When Laura arrived and started starting saying verbal prompts, turned the lights down and making helpful suggestions to me, the change was amazing. While my husband had forgotten the specific details I envisioned (i.e. Lights down low, staying active through waves), Laura made sure everything was in order! Laura knows hypnobabies forwards, backwards and inside out and she provided such wonderful support that my husband would not have been able to provide. She also took some beautiful photos during our birthing time that we would not have gotten otherwise! After our daughter was born, she stayed with us for a couple hours and made sure we got a good latch on our first breastfeeding session. I also really enjoyed the postpartum visit, where we got to debrief our birth. It was all such a blur that it was nice to fill in the missing details! - Kristi L.
"My family had a wonderful experience with Laura as our Hypno-Doula- it ended up being one of the best decisions we could have made! Our daughter was born via natural water birth on 9/10/14 at Woodwinds Hospital. We discovered at 37 weeks that she was breech and Laura offered great advice on exercises and positioning and lots of encouragement to help flip her. She recommended listening to the Hypnobabies Flip your Breech Baby track and the next day when we went to the hospital to have her turned, we discovered that the baby had turned on her own!
Laura was readily available for us by text and email to answer questions and was so incredibly nice and sweet to work with. She helped me visualize the birth I wanted and it was eerily close to what we had pictured! She is incredibly nurturing and positive and she kept me focused on my Hypnobabies tools so that I acheived the peaceful, joyful birth I wanted. Initially we thought we wouldn't need doula services since we felt we would be well prepared with the Hypnobabies classes. But ultimimately my boyfriend felt he needed someone there more familiar and comfortable with the scripts and physical prompts during my birth (relax and peace cues). Laura provided him with great direction so he was able to care for me by providing water and cold wash cloths (which kept him busy and me energized and hydrated), while Laura was able to work with me on staying calm, relaxed and in hypnosis. This birth was amazing and was a completely different experience from my first birth, which had been so chaotic and had resulted in some unwanted interventions. Laura has also provided excellent post partum care as well as placenta encapsulation. My body feels amazing after giving birth naturally- I had no tearing, very little bleeding and have over all felt very positive and energetic. I would higly recommend Laura to anyone looking for an excellent doula!" - Tara J. |
"Hiring Laura to be our doula during the late winter of 2014 was one of the best (and easiest) decisions Jon and I have made as parents. She is knowledgeable, experienced, confident and supportive. Simply put, Laura is an amazing doula. She introduced us to Hypnobabies, which is what we ended up using as our birthing technique, so that I could have a drug free birthing experience, which I did. She helped us not only find a birthing technique/philosophy that matched our interests and needs, she also consulted with us throughout the pregnancy to help us prepare mentally, physically and emotionally for our new arrival, as this baby was our first! She helped us through some of our fears, and provided ongoing love and support. (How can one possibly even compensate someone for those kinds of things?)
Some favorite memories include our in-home consultations, where we worked through all sorts of emotions together and made plans for the future, and her meetings with me at work to read me my hypnobabies scripts. She also checked-in frequently via text & email to see how we were doing, and she shared resources with us as appropriate. She waited patiently with us for baby to come, and when it was time, she arrived at the hospital at the exact perfect moment of our easy birthing (aka- active labor) and was a total rock star birthing coach for us. She took charge in exactly the way we needed her to, and encouraged each of us every step of the way until baby Dylan was in our arms." - jennifer s.
Some favorite memories include our in-home consultations, where we worked through all sorts of emotions together and made plans for the future, and her meetings with me at work to read me my hypnobabies scripts. She also checked-in frequently via text & email to see how we were doing, and she shared resources with us as appropriate. She waited patiently with us for baby to come, and when it was time, she arrived at the hospital at the exact perfect moment of our easy birthing (aka- active labor) and was a total rock star birthing coach for us. She took charge in exactly the way we needed her to, and encouraged each of us every step of the way until baby Dylan was in our arms." - jennifer s.
"I am so thankful to have had Laura Hanstad as the second doula at my successful VBAC birth! She was such a warm and calming presence and had such a positive attitude. She helped create the supportive, safe atmosphere that I needed and wanted for my birth.
I had studied hypnobabies to prepare for the birth, and she helped me stay relaxed and focused. She also gave the best massages during my labor!
I had a very calm and totally natural birth, and I think having doula support was a big part of that. Thank you Laura!!" - Laura N.
I had studied hypnobabies to prepare for the birth, and she helped me stay relaxed and focused. She also gave the best massages during my labor!
I had a very calm and totally natural birth, and I think having doula support was a big part of that. Thank you Laura!!" - Laura N.
"I didn’t think I needed a doula. My husband and I choose to go with a midwife that would support our choice to have a natural and hopefully intervention-free delivery. We took special baby classes and also a hypnobabies class. I thought we had it covered. However, the closer we got to the birth of our child the more anxiety seemed to build. Would we remember what to do when we get to the hospital? Will I follow through with my Hypnobabies techniques? What if one of us totally loses it?!
With all of these thoughts swirling it became apparent that a doula might be a good idea. That’s when Laura entered the picture. Within 10 minutes of meeting her, our worries, and especially my husband’s anxiety were put at bay. Looking back now, the extra time she took with us to plan and prepare before the birth of our daughter was so instrumental in her successful arrival. Even though we had spent so much time preparing with classes, it was still impersonal. Laura focused on figuring out what experience we desired and customized her approach to fit our needs. When it came time to have our baby, Laura was there every step of the way. She added so much calm and helped me implement hypnobabies during my birthing experience. She stayed with us the entire time and that consistency helped me stay focused, which I believe helped me have a quicker and more comfortable birth. After our birth, Laura took the extra time to check in on us on a regular basis. She also did our placenta encapsulation and provided post-partum support. Her support is continuous and didn’t end with the birth of our daughter. I feel like she has become extended family and I can’t imagine not having Laura as our Doula again in the future. We consider ourselves very lucky to have had the experience we had bringing our daughter into the world with the help of Laura." - Leah G. |
Laura was recommended to me by my Hypnobabies instructor, whom I had originally planned on hiring as my birth doula. Hiring my instructor made sense since we had already met and my partner and I liked her, and the whole interview/search process just gives me anxiety. She ended up not being available, and no offense to her as I'm sure she would have been great, but after our interview with Laura I was so glad things turned out the way they did. I pretty much fell in love. She was so easy to talk to, warm and cheerful, and hiring her was seriously one of the most exciting things I experienced during my pregnancy since I couldn't believe my luck, hitting it off so well on only my second try out of hundreds of choices in the area. Laura did some great things during my pregnancy, helping me with some Spinning Babies exercises and hooking me up with a deal for an excellent massage therapist, plus she prepared my placenta, but where she was absolutely essential was during my home birth. I was taken aback pretty early in my labor, being a first-timer, and was entertaining fantasies about going to the hospital for painkillers. When Laura arrived and got to work, that all melted away. I don't think I could have worked my Hypnobabies without her. And boy did we put her to work. My labor was on the long end time-wise, and Laura was there the whole time supporting me verbally and physically, AND helping my mom out emotionally, plus taking pictures! I had an episiotomy and Laura stuck around to help me get through being sutured. She helped keep my dog calm! At my last post-partum checkup my midwife told me she thinks Laura might be her "new favorite doula" (ssshh don't tell the other doulas!) I honestly can't say enough about how much we appreciated having Laura attend our birth, and when we start trying for another she is going to be the first person we call. - Jennifer S.
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