Our Programs

Hello~ my name is Bahja. I am a birth, postpartum, fertility, and soon to be bereavement doula. I have always been fascinated by the human body and what we can do and create with it. I am very passionate about birth work and the social justice element attached to it.  After sitting down with my mom one day and hearing all her stories of birthing 10 children, none of these stories fit the beautiful story that I imagined birth would be. After doing my own research and acknowledging the high mortality rate of birthing people in the BIPOC community I felt a strong pull to do something, so I followed through on that intuition and haven't looked back since.

My goal is to help empower birthing people especially those in the BIPOC community to advocate for themselves and to make sure they have the experience they choose to have from conception to postpartum, and not one that is decided. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do so at Haven~

Hi, my name is Aicha! I’m a birth doula trained through Dona! I’m so glad to be apart of the birth work world. Since I was really young, I’ve always knew I wanted to work with newborns and help deliver babies.As I got older, I realized that doctoring wasn’t the only way for me to still help bring new souls. I'm currently a student at Sac State to eventually become a midwife/ work in the healthcare system to change the way giving birth has become!

I believe Everyone comes in this life to fulfill a journey and that all starts from birth. If there's any way, I can be a part of that journey then that’s exactly where I want to be!

The thought of pregnancy and what it represents is just so beautiful to me. Being a doula gives me a chance to help Mothers have a great birthing experience. My role as a Doula is to be there for the mother mentally, physically and emotionally. I want to help the mother feel amazing and acknowledge all the greatness she just did within those moments of delivering another human being. There's nothing more beautiful than that. I'm so excited to be apart of this journey with you!

Hey! I’m Juanita Weathersby, Haven's Lactation Consultant. I was born and raised in Sacramento. I am a registered nurse and obtained my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from California State University, Sacramento. I grew up within a family affected by health disparities. I also grew up within a family of strong women and men fighting stereotypes and statistics. So since the start of my nursing career I have always dreamed of ways to work closer to my community. I started my doula experience by volunteering at a local hospital and am excited to join the Haven Family. I strive to create a world where we are the most protected, loved, and valued humans in society not only during birth but our entire existence.

Hi, I’m Liz, one of the two founding women at Haven. I am a first generation Mexican-American who was brought up to raise hell around injustice. To date one of my greatest joys and personal successes is raising two young men who also are fierce believers in human rights. Since birth I’ve been surrounded by amazing women who have always made me believe I could achieve anything I set my mind to. Their strength and resilience has motivated me throughout my life. Together with the experience of being a caretaker during my husband’s cancer journey, I’ve come to feel very passionate about patient rights and the need for patient advocacy. Where my heart and experience led me was birth justice. So I’ve embarked on a new adventure with a hope that big changes can happen in our community around birth and birth justice. Birthing my two sons changed my entire life, and really solidified the thought that all women should be able to feel empowered through birth not victimized, traumatized or belittled by it. Sacramento has welcomed us with open arms and we are so excited to be doing this work with so many amazing people.

I’m Heidi and I am the other half of the founders of Haven. I grew up with the belief that girls were strong and could be and do anything they set their mind to. I come from a long line of hard-working women who dig in deeper when things get tough. I have been a chiropractor in Sacramento for the past 19 years. I love to care for women during the prenatal and post-partum periods. Educating families so that they can have healthy, empowered pregnancies and births is very important.
I have three children who continuously amaze me. Giving birth was the single most empowering experience I have had. From that experience I realized that all women should be free to have their desired pregnancy and birth. 14 years ago, I thought I wanted to become a midwife and help women to have better births one at a time. Although that timing ended up being wrong, I realize now that passion was preparing me to invest my time and energy into a place that will hopefully support many more women in the Sacramento community.
In the past year I began to read again about the unfavorable experience’s women were having during pregnancy and birth. I read that the US is 55th in the world for maternal morbidity and mortality. I read the Black women are 4-6 six times more likely to die in childbirth with indigenous and minority women not far behind. I read that women of color are at least twice as likely to experience some serious injury during the time just before birth and during childbirth. These statistics broke my heart and set fire to the simmering passion for helping women start motherhood strong and healthy. Haven is a dream 14 years in the making that is quickly becoming a reality.