If you’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new addition to your family, or have a baby at home already – congratulations on entering the newest chapter of your life! If you’re just peeking around for yourself or someone else, we hope that you’re able to find the information you’re looking for!
As Labour/Birth and Postpartum Doulas*, our role is to guide and educate families through their chapters of parenthood from the beginnings of the actual baby bump, to the figurative bumps of labour/birth and postpartum/parenthood.
We welcome you to contact us if you have any questions!
The amount of friends that gave me (Karena) the above response when I told them that I was pursuing doula work was really indicative to me of how uncommon the word is to those outside of the birth and baby world. To clarify, those friends were thinking of the medulla oblongata, a part of our brain stem that is responsible for breathing, heart, and blood pressure-related functions – much of what a doula can support!
So what is a doula? Simply, a doula is a personal support person knowledgeable in areas of pregnancy, birth, and babies. A doula can keep the calm during labour, and keep the home sane and functional once baby is home. A doula is a coach at the birth, and a companion in the year after the birth. A doula is the sidekick that helps the birthing hero thrive in their journey.
As birth doulas, we help prepare for the arrival of a baby by teaching and demonstrating comfort measures, clarifying birth preferences and possible interventions during labour, discussing preferences to reduce stress during pregnancy and labour, opening the conversation about postpartum life, and more!
As a postpartum doula, we can help keep your home life afloat by assisting with feeding, sleep (both baby and family!), tidying up, older siblings, and providing information on any and all topics… or even just lending an ear!
You can find more information on how we can enhance your prenatal, labour, and postpartum periods in the Services section.
* Please note that we are not a medical/clinical support people, nor do we speak to medical professionals directly on your behalf. *
The name’s Karena (she/her), and I’m happy you found your way here!
I’m a Certified Labour/Birth & Postpartum Doula, based in Edmonton, Alberta. I am the owner of Bumps Upon a Time, a doula agency that comprises of labour/birth doulas, postpartum doulas, perinatal/childbirth educators, and a lactation counsellor. We provide in-person support to families of all structures in Edmonton and neighbouring counties, and virtually worldwide.
In this section, you’ll be able to get a good sense of who we are and whether we may be a good fit!
I’m an explorer, foodie (both cooking & eating), table top gamer, badminton lover, fur mama to a cheeky Keeshond, wife, and mom to an Ox-Aries. I was born and raised in Edmonton as a first-generation Canadian to East & Southeast Asian immigrants.
I am pentalingual (kind of), a knowledge seeker (and sharer!), and I envy those with a green thumb (one of these days, I’ll have a bountiful garden!). I have a Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Kinesiology. My second stomach always has room for dessert.
Co-owner of Nest Integrative Wellness, doula instructor for training organization Doula Canada, Chair of the Doula Association of Edmonton, and Advisory Board member for YBB Connect.
I can communicate in varying degrees in English, Vietnamese, Teochow, Spanish, and German.
I have traveled to ~30 destinations over 4 continents, but as much as I love exploring other parts of the world, Edmonton will always be home. Though I’m a city-girl through and through, I find serenity around mountains, trees, and water. I dream of having a garden full of vegetables, berries, and herbs.
I was fortunate enough to meet my husband early in life. We have been together for almost 20 years, and entered our “happily ever after” chapter in 2016. We became a family of 3 in 2018 when we brought home our fur-baby Nimbus, and expanded our family to 4 with the addition of our human baby in early spring 2021!
I have earned a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Kinesiology from the University of Alberta. It was through my work experience during undergrad that led me to the discovery of doula support. Throughout my life, I knew that I wanted to positively impact lives at the community level. I have volunteered and worked with various community leagues and organizations since my first summer before high school started, and I have worked with young families in various capacities throughout adulthood.
Two of the areas that most interested me in my undergraduate studies were childhood development, and human movement. When I was introduced to the role of doulas, I could see the link between my passions in life coming together. The idea that I could work in the areas that I’m most passionate about, while also immensely helping families welcoming new additions into their family was a dream I didn’t realize could be reality until I learned more about doula support.
Bumps Upon a Time was founded on the idea that everyone has a story and is trying to live the best version of their story as possible. My goal as a doula is to help those moving into the next parenting chapter of their lives flourish and thrive in their new roles, while also helping to provide babies the best start to their own story! Also, I love puns.
I am someone who is inclusive, empathetic, and somewhere between optimistic and realistic. I am organized, flexible, and trauma-informed. I am usually the calmest in a group under stress, but the one laughing the hardest when we’re having a good time. I must have been a shepherd in one of my past lives, as animals have a tendency to flock to me (or, if you believe that animals have a good judge of character, let’s let that speak for itself! 
)
To see what others have to say about me, please read the Testimonials below!
Since 2022, Bumps Upon a Time has expanded to be a team of birth doulas, postpartum doulas, perinatal educators, and a lactation counsellor/educator. By working as a team, our clients gain more support in all aspects qualitatively and quantitatively. Our combined knowledge, skills, and experiences lend to an enhanced prenatal, labour/birth, and postpartum experience for the families that we support. Read on to learn more about each team member!
Full spectrum doula, Childbirth educator
Birth doula, Postpartum doula, Perinatal educator
Indra has always been interested in pregnancy, birth, and reproductive health. She has a certificate in sexual health education, has completed two out of three years of Somatic Experiencing (a trauma healing training), and is completing her Master’s of Counselling.
Indra had considered becoming a doula and perinatal educator for some time, and decided to commit to it upon the birth of her daughter. Her birth went nothing like what she had planned and hoped for, but due to her amazing supports, it was a wonderful birth.
Her hope as a perinatal educator and doula is to offer care, support, information, and space to others so that they have a positive memory of their birth, regardless of how closely it follows their birth plan.
Some tidbits about Indra:
Birth doula, Postpartum doula
Isabelle is a certifying birth and postpartum doula, a Yoga Therapist and mother of two. She is extremely passionate about supporting people in their journey into parenthood and her aim is to help empower others in birth and beyond.
As one of her children was delivered via cesarian and one via VBAC, she knows there is no wrong way to birth a baby and that everyone has a different journey. Birth was completely life changing for Isabelle and she hopes she can offer a space for others to experience that as well. Community and safety are huge values for her in her support throughout this sacred journey.
Isabelle enjoys being in nature, she’s an avid reader and loves traveling in her free time. Enjoying good food, good wine and great music are some of her favourite ways to relax. She is fluent in French and is always looking to learn new things and grow. She is enjoying learning about country living on her new acreage!
Postpartum doula, Lactation educator/counsellor, Certified Breastfeeding Specialist
Katie absolutely loves all things pregnancy, baby and postpartum! Bringing a baby into this world is a precious and momentous life event and she’s passionate about supporting families through this joyous and challenging time. When she was pregnant with her first baby, she realized the lack of support and good evidence-based information out there for new parents and she vowed to be the change! While she was pregnant with her second baby in 2021, she completed her Postpartum Doula Certification and Lactation Educator Certification and got to work helping new families thrive in the fourth trimester. Her specialties include breastfeeding, gentle/respectful parenting and baby wearing.
Katie has been a Registered Nurse for 10 years working with adult transplant patients. She loves educating, supporting and advocating for people through some of their toughest moments. She is also a mom to a vivacious four year old boy and a lively one year old girl who keeps her on her toes! She is nerdy about childhood development and parenting and use all of her “spare time” researching, reading and listening to podcasts. In fact, she has a giant personal library of parenting and baby books which she’s happy to lend out to clients, so if you are curious about anything, just ask!
She loves music, being outside with her littles (they try to do the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge each year!), cooking, and baking elaborate cakes. She play the tuba and used to sing with the Edmonton Opera Chorus! She learned how to fly gliders and single engine planes as a teenager and instructed flying for many years. She was lucky enough to meet her wife through flying and have been happily married for over five years.
Katie is an empathetic listener, compassionate and supportive. She’s also an organized perfectionist with an eye for the little details! Her goal for every postpartum visit is to leave you feeling heard, supported, educated, empowered, tidied, fed, confident, rested and refreshed! She looks forward to helping you on your journey into parenthood!
Postpartum doula
Mavis was born and raised in Hong Kong, then followed her sister to Canada when she was sixteen. She was excited and a little scared when she arrived but the challenge of learning a different language and culture was thrilling. Her command of the English language was not strong, so finishing high school was a struggle and a source of pride to achieve completion. Though her mother tongue is Cantonese, she has spent years immersed in Canadian culture, and working long hours with co-workers speaking Mandarin. Because of these experiences she is comfortable speaking these languages, and her children are trying to teach her some French and Spanish. Sometimes her husband will smile and laugh at her when she speaks to him in Chinese, since he only speaks Chinese food!
Mavis and her husband have two boys who are quickly becoming young men. Part of preparing them for life as an adult has been healthy doses of hockey, kickboxing, homework, and cooking with mom and dad.
Birth doula, Postpartum doula in Edmonton and Calgary
Riley’s path to becoming a doula began at a young age growing up as an identical triplet. Between the many many questions and conversations about being a triplet, a lifelong passion, perhaps obsession, for pregnancy and birth was sparked.
From pretending her dolls were giving birth, to reading pregnancy books for fun at 13 years old, Riley always knew she wanted to turn her passion into a career.
In Nursing school Riley was lucky enough to be placed in obstetrics and gynaecology for her final practicum placement but still didn’t feel like she had found the right mix of passion and career. She continued her search and finally found her home as a Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula!
Riley believes that bringing life into the world is fundamentally a profound moment in the lives of each family, deserving of individuality, freedom, beauty, peace, and strength. There is no “right” way for how a family is made, birthed, or lives.
Some tidbits about Riley:
Postpartum doula
Birth doula, Postpartum doula
Yulia was born in Russia and moved to Canada in 2008 with her mother and siblings. After settling in Manitoba, she met her husband, and together they have two sweet and kind baby boys.
Yulia’s journey to becoming a doula began with her own fertility, birth, and postpartum experiences. These personal experiences highlighted the importance of well-rounded support and deeply influenced her approach to doula work. She is passionate about providing the compassionate and informed care that every family deserves.
Yulia has a special place in her heart for those who might have to labour and give birth without their partners or experience early postpartum alone. Having been there herself, she aims to help others feel less alone during these times.
Some tidbits about Yulia:
We are currently looking for someone to join our team who is:
The ideal candidate matches both descriptors above, though multiple candidates may be considered. If you feel like you might be a good fit, please get in touch with Karena at bumpsuponatime@gmail.com
All services include a free consultation, and we welcome you to contact us if you have any questions!
(in-person)
(in-person)
(local + worldwide support via video & voice calling, text, etc.)
(in-person)
Yes! Consultations for any service are always free.
All clients who live in Edmonton and within the bubble that encompasses St. Albert, Morinville, Fort Saskatchewan, Sherwood Park, Ardrossan, Beaumont, Leduc, Devon, Spruce Grove, and Stony Plain will not incur any additional fee.
We may willing to travel anywhere in Alberta for postpartum clients, given the following terms:
We do not travel for labour/birth clients who plan to birth at a location outside of the described bubble.
Midwives and OBGYNs are medical roles, while doulas are not. The former are able to perform medical tests, prescribe medication, catch babies, and more, while doulas’ roles are strictly non-medical. A doula is there to support the birth giver and their family in every other way – by preparing them for their upcoming labour, providing information and comfort during pregnancy, and being present during the labour to provide support for the birth giver and their other support person(s).
A birth doula supports families prenatally through pregnancy, at/during the labour, immediately after the baby has been born, and touches base within the first few weeks postpartum.
Postpartum doulas provide support for families in their homes once baby has arrived, and that support can look different from one family to another – it’s tailored to each family’s unique situation! Some postpartum doulas (including our team) may offer in-hospital support for families who are recovering from a c-section or have a baby in additional care (eg. NICU), etc. See the answer to “How can a postpartum doula help me?” below in the Postpartum Doula Support section.
Doulas may choose to seek certification with training organizations. To be certified means that an individual has completed a multidisciplinary set of course work online and in-person to learn about pregnancy, labour/birth, postpartum, newborn care, and postpartum care. The course work also requires students to make connections with local and non-local resources that would benefit birthing people and new (again) parents, which encourages doulas to foster many good relationships near and far!
Being certified also means that the doula has an organization that keeps them and their practices accountable. It also gives them a higher likelihood of attending your birth if there are any restrictions at hospitals or birthing centres.
Karena is certified as a labour/birth doula and postpartum doula through Doula Canada.
Dajana is certified as a birth doula and postpartum doula through Birthing Advocacy.
Katie is certified through Doula Canada as a postpartum doula, through CAPPA as a certified lactation educator, and through Lactation Education Resources as a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist.
Riley is certified through Doula Canada as a birth doula and postpartum doula
Indra is completing her certifications through Doula Canada as a birth doula, postpartum doula, and perinatal educator.
Mavis is completing her postpartum doula certification through Doula Canada.
Yulia is completing her birth doula and postpartum doula certifications through Doula Canada
All doulas on the team are insured.
Your insurance/extended health benefits may cover our birth doula and/or postpartum doula services if you have a health spending account (HSA) or personal spending account (PSA), depending on your plan and provider. We’ve had success with clients getting our services covered with Sun Life, Manulife, Blue Cross, and Greenshield.
Our lactation counsellor Katie may also be covered under “Registered Nurse” or “Lactation Support” if your plan covers RN or lactation services.
In our shared care model of birth support, you work with 2 birth doulas and a lactation educator.
The 2 birth doulas will conduct the prenatal visits together, and the lactation educator provides a session for clients to get a foot ahead of their infant feeding journey and goals. The client and the 2 birth doulas have the opportunity to create a group chat on the client’s platform of choice (between WhatsApp, iMessage, and Messenger) wherein any updates or questions can be posed to both doulas, and either one or both will respond accordingly.
The 2 birth doulas share the on-call schedule (usually alternating weeks), with one being the primary doula and the other the secondary. While the primary doula would be the one to attend the birth during their call week, the secondary doula remains vigilant in case the primary doula needs respite or for some reason is unable to attend the birth.
We support births at any location of the client’s choosing, be it at home, hospital, birthing centre, hotel, etc.! A primary care provider must be attending your birth at your chosen location as well in order for us to attend.
Yes, though we may need to call the secondary doula to relieve us if your labour is longer than 16 hours
You can get in contact with us as soon as you find out you’re expecting to ensure we have availability for your birth month!
Otherwise, an ideal time frame to start our services together would be around 20 weeks to 26 weeks, allowing us ample time to get to know one another and to have our prenatal meetings without rushing.
The latest we would be comfortable starting with a new client is 32 weeks – and that’s if we’re fortunate enough for me to have the availability!
“Postpartum” literally means “after childbirth” and typically refers to the time soon after a baby has been born. Some people consider this period to be up to 1 year, while others consider postpartum forever after a baby has been born.
While postpartum doulas are a great support source for anyone experiencing postpartum depression, postpartum doulas can support anyone in their postpartum period! If you have any postpartum mood and anxiety disorders (including depression), it is highly recommended that you seek treatment with a doctor &/or mental health professional, and then get in contact with us for your postpartum support team.
As a postpartum doula, our support for each family looks different, and any of the following can happen each shift:
Our rule of thumb is that a shift should be at least triple the amount of time that it takes us to travel to and from your home.
For example, if it takes us 30mins to drive from our home to yours, the minimum amount of hours I require is 3hrs per shift. If it takes me 45mins, then 4.5hrs is the minimum.
Typical daytime shifts are 4 to 6 hours depending on your family’s needs.
Typical overnight shifts are 6 to 12 hours depending on your family’s needs.
We do, given that we have the availability. We charge 1.5x after 8 hours for both daytime and overnight shifts.
Any overnight shifts that go past 7:00am will be counted under the overnight rate. Any time during daytime shifts that go past 7:00pm will be counted under overnight rate.
Some examples:
Out of courtesy, we would appreciate at least 24hrs’ notice for a shift request (subject to availability).
Shift requests with less than 24hrs’ notice are subject to a $50 short notice fee (and still subject to availability and ability to rearrange any prior commitments).
Ideally, shifts would be booked at least 5 days ahead.
As long as we have the availability, we are happy to book as far out as you would like. A deposit is required to officialize any sort of booking (even if tentative on exact dates).
Some book services as soon as they know that they are pregnant, some book in second or third trimester, and if lucky enough, some book in the midst of newborn throes. The earlier you reach out, the better!
Re-booking and cancellation terms apply.
Yes we do! You will need to book this type of support (ideally) no later than 30 weeks into your pregnancy, though the earlier the better!
Typical support would start with some preparations before your estimated due date, then soon after baby is home (whether baby was born at home or elsewhere), and can be up to 5 days a week, with flexible hours of support. You may be supported by more than 1 doula depending on the amount of support you desire. All typical fees and rates apply.
Meals are all cooked within your home, and the cost of groceries are the responsibility of the client. We’re happy to help meal plan to tailor a menu for your postpartum confinement period.
We’re flexible with adjusting the support to your needs – our support can be as traditional or modern as you would like. We encourage you to contact us so that we may discuss how we can support you during this time!
Karena built this website from scratch on WordPress, and maintains it herself.
Yes, absolutely! You can email Karena at bumpsuponatime@gmail.com with the description of your mentorship request and she will let you know her fee for your request.
Packages range from one-time mentoring sessions to weekly, monthly, and quarterly sessions.
Do you have a question that wasn’t already answered in this section?
I welcome you to fill out the contact form above and I will follow up with you as soon as possible!
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Photo credit: Leah Rempel Photography To the birthing person who has a supportive partner and/or family flying in to be with you, and/or ecstatic friends who have been waiting
We have an on-going collection of online and in-person resources. You can view them by topic/category in the drop-down “Services” menu in the main menu, or visit the individual pages via the buttons below.
We are a group of birth doulas, postpartum doulas, and a lactation educator.
In-person support takes place in Edmonton, AB and the surrounding areas of Sturgeon County, Parkland County, Strathcona County, and Leduc County.