Jesse Pournaras
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Reviews (12)
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Review Submitted October 2025I recently gave birth to my first child. Jesse Pournaras was my birth doula. She was so helpful and supportive, and I can't imagine having gone through the pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum experience without her. She's the only doula my husband and I interviewed, because we had such a good feeling after talking to her, and our intuition was right. Throughout pregnancy, whenever I had a question or worry, I'd text or email her, and she'd respond quickly with sound advice that helped put me at ease. I'm 45, and it was a high-risk pregnancy both because I used IVF and because of advanced maternal age. I didn't have a particularly responsive prenatal team (I was supposed to be under the care of a maternal fetal medicine doctor, but somehow ended up instead in the care of a registered nurse, who, while very kind and communicative, often didn't have answers to my questions). It was a huge relief to know that I could contact Jesse to ask her advice in the absence of fulsome, consistent advice from my medical care team. As my induction date approached, we met with Jesse more often in person. She was so funny, down-to-earth, and practical, and she helped prepare me for how the induction would go. (She also gave us lots of advice about newborn care and lactation.) When I developed a complication (mild cholestasis of pregnancy), she helped me consider my options before immediately agreeing to reschedule my induction, but when I did ultimately end up being induced at 37 rather than 39 weeks, she was totally there for me. I always, always felt supported by her and never judged for any of my decisions. My labor wasn't without problems. For instance, the foley balloon, placed for 13 hours, barely helped me get to 3 cm dilated. The on-call resident then wanted to break my water, and Jesse helped me pause to make my own decision. I ultimately agreed, which I later regretted when the fetus started experiencing decelerations and distress. I thought for sure I'd need an emergency C-section. But thanks to Jesse and an amazing nurse who was working that night, the baby stabilized. (The nurse introduced a catheter to put fluid back into my uterus, and Jesse and the nurse put me into many different positions until the fetus stopped experiencing decelerations.) Jesse also determined--way before the attending--that the baby was OP, or sunny-side up. By that point, I'd gotten an epidural, and couldn't easily move on my own. She put me through many side-lying manipulations to help the baby get into the right position. The baby was later born vaginally and not OP. During my labor, which lasted a long time, there were lengthy stretches where there was nothing for anyone to do but wait. Jesse stayed with me the whole time and literally slept on a camping mat on our hospital-room floor, waking up to help and be with me whenever something happened or changed. During pushing, she held me and helped me through the whole process, encouraging me, counting, and helping me get my baby out into the world. When my baby was born, my baby initially had very little tone and had to be revived by the medical team. Jesse kept me calm. She also took tons of photos of the birth and afterward, at our request. Jesse also came for a crucial postpartum visit the day after I returned home from the hospital. Our baby was quite small, and she had lost 11 percent of her body weight by that day. She seemed dehydrated and lethargic and skinny. My husband and I were really worried. Jesse gave us essential breastfeeding advice that turned everything around for our baby in one day; she went from losing to gaining weight, and we didn't end up in a vicious spiral of pumping, etc. We also didn't end up needing formula. Jesse continued answering text messages and offering advice and encouragement well into the first week postpartum (at which point we started asking our pediatrician more questions). In brief, Jesse is a fount of wisdom, good vibes, and compassion. She's funny, evidence-based, an excellent communicator, smart, and understanding. I trusted her completely, and I have no doubt that my delivery and our postpartum experience would have gone radically differently (i.e., far worse) if not for her extremely competent and capable interventions. My baby and I are both far better off thanks to her. (Incidentally, she's also very humble and deftly but subtly deflects praise. Whenever I'd thank her, she'd turn the compliment back around to me.) I can't recommend Jesse more highly, and just writing this makes me teary (probably also because I'm just one week postpartum).
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Review Submitted May 2024I wasn't sure if I should obtain doula services, but investing in support from Jesse was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Jesse is kind and extremely knowledgeable, and she is an excellent communicator. Her support was transformative in three ways: 1. She gave us so much peace of mind in the months leading up to birth by previewing what was ahead for birth/newborn care and by answering a wide range of questions thoughtfully. I found this particularly helpful after struggling with the limited information/attention provided during prenatal visits. I also appreciated knowing that she would be present during labor if my preferred OB wasn't on call. 2. Jesse was an incredible resource to me and my partner and the whole care team during the birth of our son - she was informative and hands-on, helping us understand what was happening and helping us to be as comfortable as possible throughout labor. Jesse was absolutely one of the reasons I walked away from birth with a great experience (along with luck and a great partner/doctor/nurse team) 3. Her lactation expertise was enormously helpful when I was struggling with breastfeeding in the week after birth after the guidance I received from the hospital was extremely overwhelming. She helped me get to a much better place quickly and thoughtfully. We feel extremely fortunate to have worked with Jesse.
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birth doula recommendationJessie Pournaras was incredible (http://www.jessepournaras.com/). She is extremely knowledgeable, patient, supportive and kind. Jessie really helped my partner help me during labor, which was very important to us so that my partner could be involved. She balances being a strong advocate with being very chill and a joy to be around.
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JESSE POURNARASWe had our first baby in September 2020 and Jesse was our Doula. We cannot overstate how fantastic Jesse was, not only as moral support and someone that could guide us through the process, but also as someone that would always be there to help with random questions, to teach us, and to explain all the different elements associated with birth giving and caring for a newborn. We are confident that Jesse’s presence at the day of giving birth played an important role in having the delivery we wanted. She helped us get ready for the day through frequent touchpoints prior to the birth where she really helped us understand what decisions we’ll have to take, and where she tried to understand us and our priorities. On the day of the birth she stayed with us from 4am until 11pm that day, all the way from the water breaking to the point where we went to bed. She actively helped me with positioning during labor (which was praised by the OBGYN when we got to the actual birth), and she helped us understand where we are in the process, what is happening, etc. She also helped us when it came to defending some of our decisions that were challenged by the OBGYN. Specifically, we did not want our baby to get the eye ointment post birth (as we saw little benefit in it), and Jesse was on top of the most recent regulatory frameworks in NY State which allowed us to push back against the hospital staff and doctors that were not aware of the fact that we can exercise our right of informed refusal without any consequences. She was our advocate during times where we had little understanding of the options and where we could have been easily convinced by the medical staff to go a different route than we originally wanted. That in itself is invaluable when your mind is focused on the birth giving / your baby, and everything is new. Since the birth we’ve stayed in close contact with her for all sorts of newborn guidance, lactation consulting, and general questions about fun topics such as frequency of poops etc. Overall, we can not recommend Jesse enough. She is very diligent, reliable, well organized, responsive, professional and always well prepared, but also very friendly, personal, very flexible and incredibly knowledgeable. To know that we had her by our side was instrumental in avoiding a lot of potential anxiety associated with this experience. We have no doubt that should we get another baby, Jesse will be the first to know...
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Review from the 2020 Birthing Experience SurveyJesse was also my lactation consultant. Immediately after birth, she was able to guide the baby to latch. She also came to do an in-home check-up a few days after to make sure that the baby was latching correctly and guided me through first few weeks of feeding. She was always there to advice me on those difficult initial feeding period.
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Review from the 2020 Birthing Experience SurveyI can't say enough positive things about Jesse. She guided us through the insane COVID times and was able to prepare us. She joined us in the laboring room and guided me through the active labor. If it wasn't for Jesse, I would not have had such an easy and quick labor. She is also very active in the community and she is super knowledgeable about pregnancy, laboring, and postpartum.
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Review from the 2020 Birthing Experience SurveyI took private prenatal yoga classes from Jesse throughout my pregnancy, both in person and via Zoom. She worked with me at my level and also helped me develop a short routine that I could perform on my own. I highly recommend her.
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Doula recs?I highly recommend Jesse Pournaras. My 2nd child is due this August and I would not have anyone else by my bedside. She also advocates for mother rights. She launched the petition when NY hospitals banned birth partners back in March.
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2019 Birth SurveyAmazing. 5yrs experience. Over 100births. Highly recommend. Was a lifesaver.
