Gwendolyn Roberts

I’ve been honored to attend births in five Bay Area hospitals and at home and am dedicated to helping families create peaceful, transformative births. My influences include hypnobirthing, Chinese medicine, shiatsu, zen and my practice as a visual artist. I am passionate about helping mamas create the birth that best empowers them, their partners (where applicable) and babies.

I grew up in Pacific Grove, CA aware from my earliest days that I had been born via c-section and that my eyes were curiously open. My mom is a vocal advocate for VBAC (she had to fight for the chance and birthed my sister vaginally just a year and a half after having me) and a strong supporter of breastfeeding.

After babysitting and tutoring in high school I attended New College of Florida, the state honors college, in Sarasota. I completed a BA in literature and religion, worked as an RA and served on the student government and newspaper staff. While there I continued to babysit for a few faculty families and volunteered with the Lullaby League, a corps of volunteers at Cyesis, a school for teen parents. The two years I spent with dozens of infants and that exposure to parenting-education planted a seed that would eventually blossom in my doula work.

After college my partner and I moved to San Francisco where I had an internship in publishing. Following that I worked as an assistant teacher and after-school-programmer at a K-8 school in the Mission. Along with my yoga practice, I love taking a variety of classes and workshops and an introductory class on the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine led me to consider acupuncture school.

I spent a year and a half studying qi gong, tai ji, basic medical Mandarin and natural sciences along with acupuncture and shiatsu. At first as a volunteer and eventually as an employee I worked at San Francisco Community Acupuncture and Nest Integrative Health & Fertility. On a leave of absence from acupuncture school, I attended the homebirth of my good friend and mentor, Melissa Berg, and the course of my professional life profoundly shifted. In the two months leading up to my wedding I took part in the Natural Resources birth doula training, and I haven’t looked back since! I am a novice zen practitioner and volunteer with the Bay Area Doula Project, an avid reader, poet and painter.

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email Gwen
phone: 415-729-5126