YOU ARE NOT A SIDE CHARACTER IN YOUR OWN BIRTH

A doula doesn’t deliver your baby and doesn’t replace your medical team. The job is to translate what’s happening in plain language, keep your options in front of you, and make sure you’re heard when decisions get made fast.

Here’s my honest position on it: in a hospital, most of that work has to happen before you’re in the room. Once you’re 6cm and someone’s talking about augmentation, it’s late to be learning what augmentation is. So I don’t attend births — I prepare you so thoroughly that when the moment comes, you already have the words, the plan, and the understanding. That’s what Bedside Birth Prep is.

No — and I want you to know that before you book, not after. My work is everything before the room, so that once you’re in it, you don’t need me. If you also want someone physically with you, hire a local birth doula; I’ll help you figure out what to look for. We’re different jobs and you can absolutely have both.

Both. I’m Jayni Angeli, BSN, RN, RNC-OB, C-EFM, CD/DONA. I work as a labor and delivery nurse and I’m a certified birth doula, which means I can explain the clinical reasoning behind what you’re being offered, tell you what the alternatives are, and translate the language on your chart. Then I step back and stand beside you while you decide.

Then that is what we prepare for. I don’t have a preferred birth. Epidural or unmedicated, induced or spontaneous, vaginal or cesarean: my job is to make sure the choice is genuinely yours, that you know what to expect from it, and that nobody moves you past a decision you haven’t understood yet.

Not at all. Everything I offer is virtual and I work with women anywhere in the US. What I need to know isn’t where you live — it’s which hospital you’re delivering at and who your provider is, because that’s what we build your plan around.

With a free 30-minute discovery call. We talk through where you are, what you’re hoping for, and what you’re afraid of. If we’re a fit, I’ll walk you through what working together looks like. If we’re not, I’ll tell you that too. No pressure, nothing to prepare.

Yes. My one-page birth plan template is free, and it’s the same fill-in-the-blank plan I give my clients: every major decision point from labor environment to the golden hour to an unplanned cesarean, written in language your provider will actually read. It comes with a second page that teaches you how to use it, including the 36-week provider conversation and the BRAIN framework. Enter your email and it lands in your inbox.

No, and I wish I could. Nursing is my job at one hospital, and patients don’t get to pick their nurse — assignments come from the charge nurse based on who’s on, who’s already got a patient, and what your care needs are. If we ever ended up together on a shift, that would be luck, not something either of us arranged.

It’s also a completely separate role. When I’m your nurse, I answer to the hospital. When I’m your birth prep coach, I answer to you. Bedside Birth Prep is the second one — and honestly, it’s the one that changes more, because it happens while you still have time to decide things.