A New Birth Story

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Alina Betts, Professional Birth Doula providing support for families in the Richmond, VA area

Get the knowledge, support, and confidence to make your birth story an empowering one!

✨Family testimonial✨ Thank you and for inviting me into this space with you. ❤️“My husband Brad and I are so grateful ...
05/22/2025

✨Family testimonial✨

Thank you and for inviting me into this space with you. ❤️

“My husband Brad and I are so grateful we decided to work with Alina for the birth of our daughter and first child. From the moment we met her, Alina exceeded our expectations (even during the times when we didn’t know what to expect!), providing support in a judgment-free way and guiding us to make the decisions that were best for us in our pregnancy, birth, and post partum journey. Alina has a calming presence about her and exudes wisdom in a way that made me instantly comfortable with her. She is knowledgeable about all things pregnancy and labor and provided us with the tools we needed to make informed decisions before, during, and after birth. It was so easy to trust Alina with what was one of the most vulnerable experiences of our lives and we are so thankful that we did.

During labor, Alina was an absolute rockstar. She was right there in the thick of it with Brad and me, guiding Brad on how to best support me while simultaneously helping me both physically and mentally to work through the pain and stages of labor. She knew all of the right things to say at the right times and was constantly coming up with new ways to mitigate the labor pain. She also somehow found time to capture photos of it all that Brad and I will treasure for the rest of our lives.

We loved seeing Alina for our post partum visit. We were very much still in the newborn “what are we even doing” phase and she was patient, kind, and extremely helpful with tips for breast/bottle feeding and soothing techniques.

Alina is intuitive, knowledgeable, encouraging, grounding, and empathetic all at once - everything you could ask for in a doula. Bringing a little one into this world can be an overwhelming process filled with many decisions, but the one decision Brad and I both know we got right was deciding to hire Alina. We would recommend her in a heartbeat to anyone who is considering a doula in their pregnancy/birth journey!”

📸: Shared with permission.

✨Family testimonial✨ “I was interested in having a doula for my birth but had not yet found one when my brother and sist...
05/14/2025

✨Family testimonial✨ “I was interested in having a doula for my birth but had not yet found one when my brother and sister-in-law highly recommended Alina, and she happened to be available. It was the BEST decision I could have made. I felt immediately comfortable from our first phone call. She took quality time answering all of my questions and made me feel at ease and empowered leading up to birth. When I ended up going to the hospital early, she helped me to understand everything that was happening, held my hand, and helped me process as I ended up making the decision to have a C-section. I cannot imagine having gone through the experience without her. She was the physical presence that I needed in addition to my husband. While my son’s birth did not go as planned, I have peace because of how she helped to explain and advocate for me throughout the process. Our postpartum visit was so special and also helpful as she gave great insight while my son and I were learning breastfeeding. And having pictures from Jameson’s entry into the world is a wonderful gift! I cannot say enough wonderful things about Alina—her knowledge, her guidance, and her tender spirit impacted me greatly.”

Shared with permission

This photo fills my doula heart because everywhere you look this amazing mom is SURROUNDED by support. Let me break it d...
05/08/2025

This photo fills my doula heart because everywhere you look this amazing mom is SURROUNDED by support. Let me break it down…

Her partner is behind her giving back massages & counter pressure (yay childbirth classes!) being her physical & emotional rock, and helping her bring on all the oxytocin to get their baby to them as efficiently as possible!

Her mom is in the room, bringing a sense of calm, stepping in when her partner needs to support in a different way, jumping in for words of encouragement and being nearby if ever needed.

As her doula, I’m giving her another physical anchor, so she can pull against me and really sink in and surrender to each contraction, plus encouraging, reassuring and coaching through each build and subsiding of intensity.

Not pictured but 100% present - her phenomenal nurse, giving guidance, emotional support and clear explanations of anything happening medically.

And her amazing midwife who helped lay out options, coach and guide through position changes, and step in to take my camera and capture this sweet moment!

All of that combined supported this beautiful mom’s ability to surrender, trust and bring her baby to the world pretty soon after this photo was taken!

There’s a lot in birth we can’t control but building a team that will hold you physically & emotionally throughout your birth is something you can do!!

Congrats to these amazing parents and happy birthday to my newest doula baby!!

✨Photo shared w permission

So grateful and honored to be present as parents are born. Happy Mother’s Day ✨
05/12/2024

So grateful and honored to be present as parents are born. Happy Mother’s Day ✨

3 months with this smiley little chunk. 🥰3 months also means the end of my “4th trimester,” which has been - to my surpr...
11/10/2023

3 months with this smiley little chunk. 🥰

3 months also means the end of my “4th trimester,” which has been - to my surprise - some of the happiest months of my life.

One reason I wanted to be a doula is to try to help set families up with the knowledge, confidence, and support to have a positive birth experience (no matter what twists and turns come up!) to hopefully lead them into a positive postpartum and parenting experience. But it’s not something we can do alone. When we say, “It takes a village,” it really does.

I feel so lucky and grateful for the village I’ve found - the friends, family, and pros (that have become friends) that have kept us fed, healthy, supported, and loved through pregnancy, birth and into our new life with Hugo.

Some big thank yous that are long overdue:
Porter Nillson- 1st trimester fertility acupuncture, for helping my body work and keeping me calm during a nervous time
VCU Fertility- for being the kindest, most caring IVF team
- Dr. Cara for helping me stay comfortable in pregnancy & postpartum and definitely helping me achieve my VBAC!
- the best doula 😘 for holding my hand (and my butt 😂), for helping be the best birth partner, and for guiding me so I could turn my brain off
Tracie Abrams, Journey Fed - for helping me figure out how to breastfeed my sweet boy💕
- for helping me recognize Hugo’s tongue tie and get the help we needed
Dr. Ethan Puryear - the BEST pediatric dentist/ tongue tie expert
for connecting me to these amazing humans, and for fully supporting me taking time to care for my own pregnancy & baby
And of course, all the family and friends for being right there through the ups and downs of the past few years.

Now back to snuggling❤️

I’ve been taking some time off doula-ing to grow my own family! Loving these early weeks with Hugo Lee. 💕 I’ll be back t...
08/29/2023

I’ve been taking some time off doula-ing to grow my own family! Loving these early weeks with Hugo Lee. 💕

I’ll be back to birth work in early 2024 with all sorts of new, firsthand tips and tricks. 😅 Grateful to my own doula, Hunter for holding my hand literally and figuratively as we’ve navigated becoming a family of four 🙏

🥂 to the “keepers of oxytocin,” our safe spaces during labor, and our favorite supporters. Getting to see the moment the...
06/18/2023

🥂 to the “keepers of oxytocin,” our safe spaces during labor, and our favorite supporters. Getting to see the moment these men become Fathers (for the first or fifth time) is one of the highlights of my job. Thank you for inviting me into this space. ✨

Shared with permission.

Hard to believe this sweet girl is a little over two weeks now! So honored to have been there on her day one. 💖
04/27/2023

Hard to believe this sweet girl is a little over two weeks now! So honored to have been there on her day one. 💖

Loved the wisdom on a recent podcast on the role of the brain in birth. They reinforced that in America, and other plac...
04/12/2023

Loved the wisdom on a recent podcast on the role of the brain in birth. They reinforced that in America, and other places where birth is hospitalized, the predominant feeling for pregnant people approaching labor is fear. Through the media, our culture, and the stories we hear - we expect birth to be an emergency & to be painful. The truth is birth is a normal physiological process and our bodies give us what we need to cope and instinctually respond to the changes of labor.

In short: with the right mindset - full trust in our bodies and a feeling of real safety in our birthing space, birth can be empowering and transformative.

In super short: birthing people’s bodies are amazing. ✨

A little late but still feeling so proud of baby Von and his amazing parents through their beautiful birth 💕
03/30/2023

A little late but still feeling so proud of baby Von and his amazing parents through their beautiful birth 💕

Birth affirmations can keep you feeling strong and positive or give you the change in mindset you need to keep going dur...
03/30/2023

Birth affirmations can keep you feeling strong and positive or give you the change in mindset you need to keep going during labor. Write them down or have your partner read them to you when you need a boost. You got this mama. 💪🏽

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