Our team of doulas & creative visual storytellers

About Wildwood Birth Collective

Of course, we love babies, but let us show you how supporting new families changes the world!

We are a team of professional, certified birth workers supporting pregnant people and their families throughout the perinatal experience. Our trainings are vast and include support in almost every aspect of the childbearing year. Birth work is a calling that each of us has heeded on our own unique paths, but our values are shared and upheld in every part of our work. We have regular community meetings and continuing education events to stay apprised of the most up-to-date evidence-based research to share with each other and our clients. We’re driven to bring the concept of community into reality, especially during the childbearing year, and shattering the real or perceived isolation that so often accompanies becoming a new parent. 

Our Mission Statement: The mission of Wildwood Birth is to provide evidence-based physical, emotional, and informational support and creative storytelling services to support pregnant people and their families in having a safe, empowered, and beautifully documented birth experience. Our vision is to improve perinatal outcomes and to help change the culture around birth: to mitigate trauma, improve health outcomes, and support families to step into parenthood with confidence and a community of support around them. We do this by providing comprehensive education, deep, responsive, and culturally competent listening and presence, and creative storytelling that reveals and celebrates the truth, beauty, and power of birth for all bodies and people. 

Our Core Values:

  • Accessibility. We offer some of the lowest prices in Portland because we believe that all perinatal families who want doula support should be able to have it.

  • Sustainability. Our doulas are compensated generously for their support services. We value strong personal self-care routines, healthy work-life boundaries, and providing a safe space to support each other in our careers.

  • We offer non-judgmental and unconditional support

  • We provide heart-centered, evidence-based information and resources

  • We uplift body image acceptance and celebration of all bodies before, during, and after birth

  • We perpetuate holistic physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health

  • We believe that community support improves wellbeing 

  • We practice transparent, non-violent communication skills and active listening with our clients and each other

  • Our doulas display professionalism, integrity, and reliability

  • We work actively to combat racism, implicit biases, and oppression in systems we work in, within our company and community, and within ourselves

  • We support LGBTQIA2S+ families

  • We support Health at Every Size

  • We support ALL pregnancy outcomes and experiences

We take this work to heart - we realize that who you choose to have by your side during this profound journey is an honor and a great responsibility. We humbly, gratefully, and ecstatically look forward to serving you and your family.

We are certified labor and postpartum doulas through Birthingway College of Midwifery, DONA, and Cornerstone Doula Trainings.

Meet the Team

  • Vera Hyatt (she/her), Portland doula, birth videographer who offers newborn care class Portland

    Vera Hyatt (she/her)

    Co-Founder
    Birth Doula, Childbirth Educator, Videographer
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  • Elizabeth Benjamin (she/her) , doula and portland baby photographer who leads Wildwood's PNW maternity photography team

    Elizabeth Benjamin (she/her)

    Co-Founder
    Birth Doula, Childbirth Educator, Photographer
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  • Zoe Berliner: postpartum doula portland.  Looking for a certified lactation consultant near me?  Zoe is one!

    Zoë Berliner (she/her)

    Postpartum Doula, IBCLC
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  • Harmony Shaunice (she/her): a portland postpartum doula

    Harmony Shaunice (she/her)

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Heidi Long (she/her): a Portland Oregon Doula who also offers newborn photography portland

    Heidi Long (she/her)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula, Photographer
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  • Kimberly Kovac (she/her): lovingly provides birthing classes Vancouver WA

    Kimberly Kovac (she/her)

    Birth Doula, Childbirth Educator
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  • Lauren Constantine (she/her)

    Lauren Constantine (she/her): A Birth & Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator including gentle sleep training

    Birth & Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator
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  • Camilla Rae (she/they) a Portland Postpartum Doula

    Camilla Rae (she/they)

    Postpartum Doula
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  • De’Junique Brown (she/her), a Portland Oregon doula

    De’Junique Brown (she/her)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula
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  • Kim Sabin (she/her) offers doula services and birthing classes portland

    Kim Sabin (she/her)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator, Sleep Consultant
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  • Jordan Monir (she/her), a Portland Postpartum Doula and Sleep consultant Portland

    Jordan Monir (she/her)

    Postpartum Doula, Infant Sleep Specialist
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  • Ari Micek (they/she) a birth and postpartum doula vancouver wa,

    Ari Micek (they/she)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula
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  • Whitney Handrich (she/her), a postpartum doula portland

    Whitney Handrich (she/her)

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Kelly Overly (she/her), doula and  Certified Lactation Counselor Portland

    Kelly Overly (she/her)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor
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  • Jennifer Bernard (she/her), a postpartum doula Vancouver WA and Portland

    Jennifer Bernard (she/her)

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Julia Martin (she/her): postpartum doula portland oregon

    Julia Martin (she/her)

    Birth & Postpartum Doula
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  • Angela Thornton (they/them), a postpartum doula portland or

    Angela Thornton (they/them), one of Wildwood's PDX doulas

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Lakiah Olson (they/she), Portland Postpartum Doula

    Lakiah Olson (they/she), a postpartum doula portland oregon

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Anna Chowdhury (she/her), Portland Birth Doula

    Anna Chowdhury (she/her), a portland doula

    Birth Doula
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  • Sophia Starks-Bailey (she/they), a portland doula with Wildwood Birth Collective

    Sophia Starks-Bailey (she/they)

    Postpartum Doula
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  • Zoe Piliafas (she/her), one of Wildwood Birth's birth doulas Portland Oregon

    Birth Doula

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  • Portland Birth Doulas

    Jen Reed (she/her). Does yoga help with giving birth? Yes! and

    Birth Doula, Yoga Instructor

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  • Senia Lee (she/her): helps organize the Wildwood's doulas, postpartum doulas and sleep consultant Portland

    Senia Lee (she/her)

    Postpartum Support Scheduler

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Our Founders’ Story

On an overcast day in April, before Elizabeth and Vera had ever met, they were in separate hospitals on either side of the city, supporting their first birth clients at the same time. Looking back, this feels like the first sign that their paths were cosmically aligned. As practicum students at Birthingway College of Midwifery, they learned they were the only two students offering birth support in Spanish at the time and connected to discuss being available for bilingual back-up support. Over the course of their first meeting, which was a coffee date that turned into a three-hour lunch filled with easy conversation and endless mutual head-nodding, they realized their values, interests, and goals aligned—and so many of their life experiences, too. 

Vera & Elizabeth took on their first clients together as students, and set to work dreaming up Wildwood Birth and putting in the work to shape it into a reality. Since that time, they’ve supported hundreds of growing families, put together a stellar team of birth workers, have fostered partnerships that broaden their community of support, and are continuing to grow and learn together each day. 

Elizabeth and Vera are:

  • Documentarians and creative visual storytellers

  • Deeply caring and empathetic 

  • Social introverts; calm natured

  • Grounded in evidence-based research

    and informed decision-making 

  • Commonly mistaken for sisters

Our Philosophy

We believe in the power of the undisturbed birth. We trust you; we trust your body. Our ultimate goal is to prepare you to brave the wilds of birth with confidence and be your rock during the unexpected. We bring many skills to the birth room, and we know when to step out of the way and allow the process to unfold naturally. During the postpartum period, we know that there is no one who knows your baby better than you, and we can help to make things smoother. You need sleep, good food, plenty of water, and lots of snuggles with your baby. We’ll prioritize these needs and help clear away the noise so you can focus on what matters.

Before speaking, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve upon the silence?
— Sai Baba

*You may have noticed that we use both “woman/mother” and the gender-neutral “birthing person/parent” on this website. We did this intentionally because we believe in the importance of celebrating and lifting up women and mothers while also celebrating and recognizing that not all birthing people are women. We will advocate for and celebrate you no matter how you present or identify. Thank you for being you.