Services Offered
- Labor Support, 141 births attended, experienced in home, birth center, and hospital births
- Postpartum Support, hundreds of families served, experienced with multiples
- Bereavement, Fertility, Surrogacy, and Termination support
- Childbirth Education, ICEA and Lamaze trained
- Placenta Encapsulation and Belly Binding
Meet Jenna
I came to Portland the traditional way; in a caravan with my college band, but roots grow fast in the Pacific NorthWest and it never didn’t feel like home for me. While I made my living in music for a while, I also put my years of experience as a mother’s helper and au pair to work, employed in many Portland homes providing care for children and support to new parents. Since I grew up a big sister in a large family embedded in a tight knit religious community, in many ways I was raised to be a mother and I’ve always been surrounded by infants and growing families. Because of that background, my expertise in childcare can seem like intuition but it’s actually a set of skills that I love to teach mothers and fathers who find themselves in this entirely new territory.
I’ve watched too many struggle from a lack of modeling and support, and fall victim to the shaming and fear based information that abounds in a society geared away from children and mothers, parents and families. My interest in helping childrearing families has naturally shifted to support families throughout all of the childbearing year because my desire is to build a stronger foundation for the families of Portland to build, grow, and thrive on. I feel so lucky to have found my path in doula work. Where else could I have such a positive impact on individuals and society, that combines my feminist, progressive values and the skills I gained from a super traditional upbringing?
As a trained labor assistant and postpartum doula I strive to be the manifestation of the support a new family would traditionally receive; educating and nurturing new parents, assessing needs and providing referrals within the wider birth community, facilitating better communication and connection between parents and children, and above all caring for every member as a new family is born.
I’ve had the joy of supporting over 140 births as a doula, including VBACs, high risk births, teen parents, planned cesareans, plus size parents, mood disorder affected parents, ESL and bilingual households, families with nontraditional structures, gestational carriers and parents using surrogates. As a postpartum doula I’ve served too many families to count, including supporting multiples, premies, babies in the NICU, parents struggling with mental health, single parents by choice, and many more.
I believe doulas are not a luxury, for many we are a necessity and I have a passion for making doula support more accessible for families and more sustainable for doulas through a scholarship fund: https://www.fullspectrumdoulacare.com/scholarship.html
My work within the birth community also allows me to continue to further study my other passions: music, social justice, and women’s health and body image. I live in SE Portland with my cat, Patrick. In my free time, I enjoy dismantling the patriarchy, undermining capitalism, and playing my favorite pinball table, Medieval Madness, all over town. If you see the initials JLC, you know I've been there.
Education and Training
-DONA Birth Doula Training - Mother Tree Birth, Fall 2015 series
-DONA Postpartum Doula Training - Mother Tree Birth, January 2016 weekend intensive
-Collaborative Practice Advanced Doula Training at OHSU - PDX Doulas, Spring 2016
-6 month Birth Doula Internship - Mother Tree Birth, 2016
-ICEA-Approved Childbirth Educator Training - Doula Love Training Center
-CASC training, April 2017
-Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Professionals- by Jesse Remer and Astrid Castro Jan 2019
-Oral Health Education for Doulas
-Adult & Pediatric CPR/First Aid/AED - American Heart Association Heartsaver
-Herbal Support for Lactation and Infants with Melissa Cole of Luna Lactation, June 2018
-Basics of Plant Medicine with Katrina Bubas Stevens, midwife, of the Village Apothecary, 2018, 2019
-Eat, Pray, Doula Advanced Skills Training 2019 in Ubud, Bali with Ibu Robin Lim, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, and Dr. Sarah-Buckley
-Rebozo Workshop for Coping & Comfort Measures in Labor - Gena Kirby, Aug 2019
-Seahorses and Unicorns: Supporting Trans, Genderqueer, & Gender Nonconforming Clients with Trystan Reese, April 2019
-SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training with Shafia Monroe, July 2019
-Spinning Babies with Nikki Zerfas, Dec 2019-Currently in the process of getting my certification as a Still Birthday Birth and Bereavement Doula
Other Related Experience
-Volunteer Birth Doula with the Gateway Doula Project
-10+ years nanny & childcare experience specializing in infancy
-Independent Contractor with Portland Doula Love 2016-2019
-Mother Tree Internship Mentor 2017, 2018
-Doula Love Mentorship Mentor 2017, 2018
Connect with Jenna
-Facebook
-Doula Match
I came to Portland the traditional way; in a caravan with my college band, but roots grow fast in the Pacific NorthWest and it never didn’t feel like home for me. While I made my living in music for a while, I also put my years of experience as a mother’s helper and au pair to work, employed in many Portland homes providing care for children and support to new parents. Since I grew up a big sister in a large family embedded in a tight knit religious community, in many ways I was raised to be a mother and I’ve always been surrounded by infants and growing families. Because of that background, my expertise in childcare can seem like intuition but it’s actually a set of skills that I love to teach mothers and fathers who find themselves in this entirely new territory.
I’ve watched too many struggle from a lack of modeling and support, and fall victim to the shaming and fear based information that abounds in a society geared away from children and mothers, parents and families. My interest in helping childrearing families has naturally shifted to support families throughout all of the childbearing year because my desire is to build a stronger foundation for the families of Portland to build, grow, and thrive on. I feel so lucky to have found my path in doula work. Where else could I have such a positive impact on individuals and society, that combines my feminist, progressive values and the skills I gained from a super traditional upbringing?
As a trained labor assistant and postpartum doula I strive to be the manifestation of the support a new family would traditionally receive; educating and nurturing new parents, assessing needs and providing referrals within the wider birth community, facilitating better communication and connection between parents and children, and above all caring for every member as a new family is born.
I’ve had the joy of supporting over 140 births as a doula, including VBACs, high risk births, teen parents, planned cesareans, plus size parents, mood disorder affected parents, ESL and bilingual households, families with nontraditional structures, gestational carriers and parents using surrogates. As a postpartum doula I’ve served too many families to count, including supporting multiples, premies, babies in the NICU, parents struggling with mental health, single parents by choice, and many more.
I believe doulas are not a luxury, for many we are a necessity and I have a passion for making doula support more accessible for families and more sustainable for doulas through a scholarship fund: https://www.fullspectrumdoulacare.com/scholarship.html
My work within the birth community also allows me to continue to further study my other passions: music, social justice, and women’s health and body image. I live in SE Portland with my cat, Patrick. In my free time, I enjoy dismantling the patriarchy, undermining capitalism, and playing my favorite pinball table, Medieval Madness, all over town. If you see the initials JLC, you know I've been there.
Education and Training
-DONA Birth Doula Training - Mother Tree Birth, Fall 2015 series
-DONA Postpartum Doula Training - Mother Tree Birth, January 2016 weekend intensive
-Collaborative Practice Advanced Doula Training at OHSU - PDX Doulas, Spring 2016
-6 month Birth Doula Internship - Mother Tree Birth, 2016
-ICEA-Approved Childbirth Educator Training - Doula Love Training Center
-CASC training, April 2017
-Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Professionals- by Jesse Remer and Astrid Castro Jan 2019
-Oral Health Education for Doulas
-Adult & Pediatric CPR/First Aid/AED - American Heart Association Heartsaver
-Herbal Support for Lactation and Infants with Melissa Cole of Luna Lactation, June 2018
-Basics of Plant Medicine with Katrina Bubas Stevens, midwife, of the Village Apothecary, 2018, 2019
-Eat, Pray, Doula Advanced Skills Training 2019 in Ubud, Bali with Ibu Robin Lim, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, and Dr. Sarah-Buckley
-Rebozo Workshop for Coping & Comfort Measures in Labor - Gena Kirby, Aug 2019
-Seahorses and Unicorns: Supporting Trans, Genderqueer, & Gender Nonconforming Clients with Trystan Reese, April 2019
-SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training with Shafia Monroe, July 2019
-Spinning Babies with Nikki Zerfas, Dec 2019-Currently in the process of getting my certification as a Still Birthday Birth and Bereavement Doula
Other Related Experience
-Volunteer Birth Doula with the Gateway Doula Project
-10+ years nanny & childcare experience specializing in infancy
-Independent Contractor with Portland Doula Love 2016-2019
-Mother Tree Internship Mentor 2017, 2018
-Doula Love Mentorship Mentor 2017, 2018
Connect with Jenna
-Doula Match