About Your Doulas
Briana Smith
Briana Smith is an Certified Birth Doula, Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, and Placenta Encapsulation Specialist. Her advanced training and certifications include When Survivors Give Birth, Rebozo Use in Labor, Postpartum Belly Binding Professional, Systemic Racism & Implicit Bias in Perinatal Health, and Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness.
Briana received her BS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where her passion for maternal and reproductive health sparked. She went on to receive her MPH from East Carolina University. She has experience supporting couples, single parents, advanced maternal age, VBAC/VBA2C, sexual trauma and assault survivors, high and low risk births, cesarean births, and families who have experienced or are expecting a loss.
Briana has extensive experience working as a doula and an educator in all of our local area hospitals, birth centers, and in home. She is passionate about providing evidence based, unbiased education and helping her clients to make their own informed decisions.
Briana's open, direct, and honest communication style paired with her empathic, compassionate personality allows her to be the best advocate and support for families before, during, and after birth. Briana currently lives in eastern Wake County (though she'll always be a Northerner at heart!) She loves the beach, but also loves snuggling up in a blanket with hot chocolate in a log cabin in the winter time (ah, there's her New Englander side!)
LaToya Castro
LaToya is a Dona trained doula that assisted in her first birth almost 20 years ago. From the first birth she knew she was drawn to the birthing process. She graduated from Appalachian State with a BS in Computer Information Systems and NC State with MA in Business and Marketing Education. She taught for 15 years in the public school system. Latoya has birthed five daughters, whom she homeschools and devotes her time to. She is committed to being an educator, advocator, learner, and to service.
After reflecting on her experiences with labor and delivery from her five births, she felt drawn to working with families to have their optimal birth. She firmly believes in educating birthing people on their bodies, babies and the birth process. She believes that every family should have the birth they desire, if possible. In addition to being a mother and a birth worker as her career, she has joined forces with a non profit doula organization providing pro bono services to families in need. Working in the school system, she has seen the lingering effects a traumatic pregnancy and birth can have. She has vowed to make a difference from the womb and beyond.
Latoya believes that being a doula is the next step in her maternal journey. She believes in going back to the basics in all things, even in labor and delivery. People have been equipped for the beautiful task of labor and birth, and she wants to help families find their strength and voice through the process.
Monica Bowman
At the age of 12, Monica witnessed the miracle of life, when her little brother came into the world. Seeing her mother's strength ignited a passion and piqued her interest to learn about the other birth experiences of her mother and others around me. Monica was born into a large family with 10 siblings, of which, she is the youngest daughter. She was born and raised in Michigan and moved to North Carolina a few years ago with her husband. Before she ever knew the term "doula", she had the pleasure of supporting birthing women in my community. She was formally trained as a Birth Doula in 2019 with Original Instructions School in Asheville, NC with a focus on holistic birthing care.
Monica’s training allows her to provide individualized care to each client based on their needs.From your first prenatal to your last visit after the baby arrives, Monica strives to ensure you are equipped with knowledge and skills so that you can go into the birthing room confident in yourself and your ability to birth and bring the baby home, all the while knowing that you also have extra support. Having supported all types of families and given birth twice, Monica has what it takes to support families, however that may look. Outside of birth work, Monica loves to do yoga, spend time with her children, read, hike/geocache, and sew.
Marquetta Matthews
Marquetta is a wife and mother of 7 beautiful children. She began her journey of becoming a doula in 2017. She is very passionate about birth work, it gives her heart joy to be able to assist in welcoming a brand new life into this world! She prides herself on being a voice of reason, an advocate, a coach, cheerleader and comforter with a nurturing spirit. She does believe that emotional support is the core necessity of a successful birth.