Abra

Meet Abra | Postpartum Doula, Licensed Midwife, Lactation Educator, Multiples Specialist, Sleep Coach

Abra is a seasoned professional, coming to us from San Diego starting a new season of life to call Portland home the past couple years. As a midwife, Abra has been both catching babies and supporting births for many years and has much to offer postpartum families. She became a birth doula back in 2003, and postpartum work soon became close to her heart as well after years of nannying for families with newborns in addition to her birth work. Abra loves supporting the adjustment of new parents, helping aid birth recovery, and the transition to parenthood while encouraging the ever elusive sleep once families have welcomed their babies.

Abra has been a nanny for more families than she can count, including very premature twins coming home on pulse oximeters and oxygen, and has worked with twins born at term and even premature triplets. She has extensive experience helping families with sleep plans and transitioning babies to sleeping longer stretches so the parents can rest and re-calibrate their brains.

Although Abra is a licensed midwife, her passion is in the postpartum period, as well as providing lactation support, and particularly in caring for postpartum parents. She is happy to do some light cooking, making breakfast bowls and fruit and avocado toast plates for families. She is a master at finding available food and making it accessible for parents to eat (rather than watching it be ignored as parents focus all their attention on their babies). She also loves to give that extra care of a recovery sitz bath for new mothers, or set up a newborn spa bath for babies. In general, she sees what needs to be done and gets it done, which is one of her client’s most appreciated aspects of her care.

Now that she is a new mom herself (her first baby was born in April) Abra has a new sense of passion that she brings to work with her, along with her breast pump.

She shares, “I want to normalize women taking time for themselves and their new baby and family and normalize accepting help.” As a caring professional, Abra is loving, and firmly believes in treating people how they would like to be treated. Clients say they love that Abra does the things they need before being asked, as asking for help can be challenging, even when the need is there.

Abra has also acted as a traveling doula/nanny, being able to pick up and go with a family who needs to relocate or are planning a trip or temporary relocation for work or family needs. She loves to be able to support families in whatever their needs propose, and having such broad experience to support families she is happy to be able to accommodate many different schedules.

Abra has experience with colicky babies, parents with perinatal mood an anxiety disorder, and has additional training in lactation support to help her families breast or chest feed their babies, as well as bottle feeding. She is also our resident sleep coach, helping families get more precious sleep.

In her spare time Abra likes to do enjoy nature, and she is especially happy to be in the Pacific Northwest enjoying the cool vibe of Portland and reconnecting with friends she has made on her many trips north. She loves hiking, skiing, camping, and when she can get to the beach, surfing and swimming.

Abra loves the energy of living in SE Portland, and serves families in a wide arc across the east and west sides, as well as Vancouver metro area. We are so grateful for Abra’s extensive experience and her flexibility to serve our families both days and nights, providing supportive care for parents and babies alike.