Abqdoulasbirth Avis 

I unfortunately hired ABQ doulas as my doula service. They did not once check in with me during the time I was contracted with them, and the few times I had reached out I rarely got a response. I had a scheduled induction, and all I got the morning of was a text saying "good luck, see you soon!" She didn't check in once on how I was doing. She never showed or contacted me after that.

I called once middle of the night when they tried placing a cook catheter, but she never answered or returned that call. When things got bad the next day I called telling her I needed support, because the hospital team was trying to force me in a direction I didn't want, she barely even stayed on the phone with me for a minute. There was zero urgency on her part to get to us. In the almost two hours it took her to get to us, I was already in the OR, when less then ten minutes sooner and she could have been there for me. The contract says she has an hour notice to get there. We even called an hour after that initial call, and she hadn't even left for the hospital yet. She lives not too far from my mother who managed to get to us sooner then ABQ Doulas did.

I got out of the OR to see she had sent a joke in regards to my very traumatic first birth, which she had been made quite aware was very traumatic for me. I have PTSD from my first birth and she made a joke of it.

In recovery she stayed for maybe fifteen minutes, with zero support. She sat down and started texting the entire time with someone else. Without giving any advice or support, or even just a hug or a hand to hold, she says she has to go see another client, even though the contract I signed said schedules are cleared for two days, and that she will stay with you after the birth to offer help, guidance and support for two hours. She wasn't mentally present at all for me, as she was texting the entire time and didn't even talk to us.

I hired her because of a truly traumatic birth experience, hoping for some support the second time around, and now I'm left with even more trauma and sadly I paid for that trauma, I paid to lie there in fear, knowing I'm being let down and abandoned by the person I paid a lot of money to be there for me, she was supposed to be my advocate but ABQ Doulas is the reason I will never trust doulas, and trauma is apparently just a joke for them. They were far too quick and eager to take $1300 and provide zero service. I had to text her the day after the birth to tell her I felt abandoned and let down by her. Her response seemed genuinely shocked that I felt abandoned and let down, followed right by her blaming me for not communicating with her, when apparently it's part of Doula training to check in on mother's through out the entire antepartum and labor periods. I guess four phone calls isn't adequate enough attempts to connect with her. She and ABQ Doulas said that her single good luck text was adequate labor support, and then fought to keep my money. She did half heartedly offer to come to the hospital to support me, but she didn't really elaborate on what that would even be since she completely abandoned me for the birth that I had hired her to be there for, and like I'd even want her there to just text the entire time like she did after the surgery. I would have felt better had my doula not shown up at all, then to have her sitting there completely ignoring me. They also didn't schedule my postpartum follow-up appointment per contract when I asked about it.