Hannah Tansel, CD(DONA)

 

For as long as I can remember, my dearest interests and passions have revolved around birth, pregnancy, and babies. I founded my Toledo based doula business in 2024, and consider myself blessed beyond measure to have found such a fulfilling career. Working with pregnant people and their families to help them navigate the birth and labor process, gives me great joy and purpose. Whether taking a medical or natural approach, I believe every birth is beautiful. I operate under the mentality that everyone is entitled to the birth that they believe is best for their body and baby.

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As a mom of two, I have a deeply personal understanding of how different each birth and postpartum experience can be. When I had my first baby in 2019, I had blind faith in the labor and delivery process. I knew what I wanted out of my son's birth, but I underestimated what it took to get there and ended up with an unplanned cesarean section. It shocked me, and I struggled to make sense of what happened amidst the noise of, “At least you and baby are healthy. That’s the most important thing.” Thankfully, I was able to experience the joy of a VBAC three years later with my second baby.

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I was both humbled by and filled with great happiness during each of my own birth experiences. Through them, and a copious amount of research and training, I learned there are endless choices to be made during labor and delivery. In turn, there are endless approaches you can take while making these decisions. If you don't know what you want beforehand or are unprepared to choose, someone will decide for you. This may or may not result in the outcome you envisioned. 

 

I want every pregnant person to feel so prepared for the event that even if something derails their plan, they know in their gut they did all they could do to ensure the experience was the very best it could be. As a birth doula, that desire motivates me to provide genuine physical and emotional comfort to birthing people during labor and delivery, as well as passionately advocate for their birth preferences and medical autonomy. I care deeply about promoting education, empowering families, sharing community resources, and surrounding pregnant people with love.