About Your Doulas
Briana Smith is an Certified Birth Doula, Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, and Placenta Encapsulation Specialist. Her advanced training and certifications include When Survivors Give Birth, Rebozo Use in Labor, Postpartum Belly Binding Professional, Systemic Racism & Implicit Bias in Perinatal Health, and Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness.
Briana received her BS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where her passion for maternal and reproductive health sparked. She went on to receive her MPH from East Carolina University. She has experience supporting couples, single parents, advanced maternal age, VBAC/VBA2C, sexual trauma and assault survivors, high and low risk births, cesarean births, and families who have experienced or are expecting a loss. Briana has extensive experience working as a doula and an educator in all of our local area hospitals, birth centers, and in home. She is passionate about providing evidence based, unbiased education and helping her clients to make their own informed decisions.
Briana's open, direct, and honest communication style paired with her empathic, compassionate personality allows her to be the best advocate and support for families before, during, and after birth. Briana currently lives in Eastern Wake County (though she'll always be a northerner at heart!) She loves the beach, but also loves snuggling up in a blanket with hot chocolate in a log cabin in the winter time (ah, there's her New Englander side!)
At the age of 12, Monica witnessed the miracle of life, when her little brother came into the world. Seeing her mother's strength ignited a passion and piqued her interest to learn about the other birth experiences of her mother and others around me. Monica was born into a large family with 10 siblings, of which, she is the youngest daughter. She was born and raised in Michigan and moved to North Carolina a few years ago with her husband. Before she ever knew the term "doula", she had the pleasure of supporting birthing women in my community. She was formally trained as a Birth Doula in 2019 with Original Instructions School in Asheville, NC with a focus on holistic birthing care.
Monica’s training allows her to provide individualized care to each client based on their needs. From your first prenatal to your last visit after the baby arrives, Monica strives to ensure you are equipped with knowledge and skills so that you can go into the birthing room confident in yourself and your ability to birth and bring the baby home, all the while knowing that you also have extra support. Having supported all types of families and given birth twice, Monica has what it takes to support families, however that may look. Outside of birth work, Monica loves to do yoga, spend time with her children, read, hike/geocache, and sew.