Our Team
SEM Premier Doulas is a team of experienced and passionate birth and postpartum doulas in South East Michigan. Scroll down to meet our team members.
erin, owner
Certified Postpartum Doula (CAPPA)
Certified Perinatal Nutrition Educator (Doula Nutrition Academy)
Erin has worked in the birth and baby world since 2009, when the birth of her first baby shone a startling light on the lack of support in our birthing culture and she was inspired to make a career change. She began as a birth doula and was honored to attend over 150 births. A couple years later, she began offering postpartum services to the families she worked with and fell in love with supporting new families.
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In 2014, she and two other amazing birth doulas founded SEM Community Doulas, becoming one of the first doula teams in South East Michigan and creating a sustainable work model for birth doula work. This idea of supporting each other in order to better support birthing and new families would become the core value for the rest of her work.
In 2016, Erin shifted away from supporting birthing families in person to focus on supporting postpartum families. Since then, the team has grown - by the number of doulas on the team, the locations they serve, and the number of families they work with! Now Erin leads an amazing team of doulas, each with their own unique specialties and experiences, and Erin helps to ensure that all the families they work with have the best possible fit.
Erin became a perinatal nutrition educator in 2020, combining her love of supporting new families and her love of cooking delicious, healthy food. She now offers meal prep as a stand-alone service, tailored to fit families’ nutritional and dietary needs, as well as the reality of their busy lives.
Erin has spent most of her life in South East Michigan and lives in Livonia with her husband and three kids. They often attend events in Ann Arbor and Detroit and love to explore all the neighborhoods in between. Erin is a Hope Advocate and a Parent Mentor, advocating for families with a child with Down syndrome. She loves traveling, cooking, yoga, reading (although she has more time for audiobooks lately), and hosting friends and family, especially during the summer. The way to her heart is a hot cup of coffee and asking about her kids.
rachel
Postpartum Doula
Placenta Encapsulator
Aromatherapist
Rachel has been a doula since 2015. Her passion to become a doula came after the birth of her last baby that left her feeling the need to provide the support she felt she lacked in her experience. Once learning what a doula could provide, she took the plunge and became a certified birth doula with DONA International. After a year in the birth world, she became certified in Placenta Encapsulation to add to her providable services. Even before becoming a birth doula, Rachel had a love of aromatherapy and essential oils.
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She is a certified aromatherapist for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum and offers an array of homemade apothecary items for those needing extra support in all realms of pregnancy and after.
In 2018, she became a postpartum doula after witnessing the amount of support parents need AFTER birth. This became an area of passion she never expected it would, and she now solely provides postpartum support, be it in home or providing encapsulation services or healing home remedies. She loves working with all types of families, and learning about different cultures is a plus for her. She also has a knack for organizing and being able to come into the homes of new parents that need extra support getting their daily systems in order. If you need extra eyes and hands getting those nurseries in order, she’s your go to!
Rachel resides in Livonia with her husband and four sons. She enjoys yoga, gardening, plants, and spending time with her family when she isn’t supporting new families.
heather
Certified Elite Postpartum and Infant Doula (ProDoula)
Labor and Lactation Educator (CAPPA)
Social Media Guru
Heather has spent most of her career working with new families in one capacity or another. She began as a nanny in 2009 and transitioned to postpartum doula work in 2014. Over 15 years of working with infants has taught her quite a few tools and tricks, and she loves passing them on to the families she works with. She especially loves helping first-time parents who are eager to learn their own way of doing things, and her gentle, confident demeanor is particularly great for anxious parents.
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Heather is also finishing her perinatal mental health certification through PSI.
Heather welcomed her first baby in 2020 and her second at only 32 weeks gestation in 2022, giving her a unique and personal understanding of preemies and medically fragile babies. She dreams of one day having hobbies when her kids are older, but for now, she spends her free time managing SEM Premier Doulas’ social media and watching bad reality television.
Grace
Certified Birth Doula (Lifespan Doulas)
Certified Postpartum Doula (CAPPA)
Grace attended her first birth at 11 years old when her sister invited her and her mom to her birth. She then stayed at their house for two weeks, helping in those first postpartum moments. She absolutely loved seeing the miracle of birth and then helping her sister with her niece. She didn’t know it then, but that experience would inspire her to become a doula years later.
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Grace has a passion for physiologic birth, educating families, and supporting them during one of the biggest transitions of their lives. People are not meant to do parenthood on their own, and the research shows that having support, like that of a doula, leads to a better overall birth and postpartum experience.
Grace lives in South East Michigan with her husband and their sweet cat, Marshmallow. In her free time, she enjoys running, going for a hike, painting, or listening to a good podcast. She is also exploring birth photography and teaches childbirth education.
LaTonya
Postpartum Doula
Birth Doula
Postpartum Nutrition Educator (Postpartum University)
LaTonya began her journey in birthwork in 2019, training for postpartum care through CAPPA. The following year, she trained with recognized postpartum nutrition expert, Maranda Bower. With the postpartum families she works with, LaTonya focuses on postpartum nutrition and cooking, something she loves in her personal life as well.
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Later, LaTonya expanded her knowledge with birth and labor support through DONA and again in 2023 with CommonSense Birth Institute, which included an emphasis on trauma-informed care. In February 2024, LaTonya earned her certification from Survivor Moms' Companion training, a program designed to support birthing folk coping with trauma.
LaTonya has two grown daughters and two amazing granddaughters. LaTonya is a writer with published work. In her spare time, she paints with pastels and is currently looking for salsa dance classes. She is a radical crone enjoying this stage of her life!
JAcquie
Postpartum Doula
Jacquie began her postpartum doula career over 10 years ago with DONA. After a cesarean birth with her first baby, she was able to have a VBAC with her second. Her experience inspired her to lead her local ICAN group and sparked her passion for working with people recovering from all types of birth. She also loves working with multiples and helping first-time parents to find their rhythm and confidence. Jacquie has an early childhood special education degree and teaches potty training and other toddler needs.
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She also has specific experience helping with sleep schedules, for singletons and multiples, breastfeeding and bottle feeding, and baby wearing.
Jacquie has been married to her amazingly supportive husband for well over a decade. She has three extremely active sons, who love athletics, so she spends most of her weekends at the hockey rink, lacrosse field, or baseball field. When she’s not homeschooling and attending her children’s sporting events, Jacquie loves reading and gardening.
Annie
Certified Birth Doula (CAPPA)
Postpartum Doula
Annie has a passion for providing personalized support and compassionate care to families along their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey. She got her start in the birth world after attending a CAPPA labor doula training in 2019. Through working with birthing families, Annie soon realized she was missing most of the story - what happens when baby comes home - and sought out the tools and training to provide continuing support through the postpartum window through CAPPA’s postpartum doula training in 2021.
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Annie now loves getting to work with families before, during, and after birth. She loves watching people become parents and aims to provide helpful skills and support to empower them along the way. In addition to reading (or listening to) any baby book she can get her hands on, Annie stays up to date on doula knowledge through attending conferences; she attended a Spinning Babies training in 2021.
Annie has also trained in Anusara Yoga in 2022. In addition to enjoying her personal yoga practice, Annie likes to drink coffee on the porch and visit with loved ones. Annie loves working with clients who are interested in learning more about the process of birth and who want to understand their newborns and what they’re asking for. Annie says the best part of birth and postpartum support is watching her clients gain confidence and feel empowered to make decisions for themselves and their babies. She currently resides in Dearborn with her partner. Clients love working with Annie because of her calm presence and reassuring demeanor; she is able to read the room and adapt to each family’s unique needs.
Margaret
Certified Postpartum Doula (LifeSpan)
Placenta Encapsulator
Certified Lactation Counselor
Margaret’s birth to her first baby in 2012 entirely opened her eyes to the lack of support for parents in today’s society and inspired her to train as a birth doula in 2014. Since then, she’s also become a certified postpartum doula, placenta encapsulator, and certified lactation counselor. Margaret puts her whole heart into her work and especially loves working with first-time families, encouraging them to trust their instincts and seeing them become more confident parents. She knows that becoming a parent is such a life-altering experience and experienced support can make all the difference.
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She’s grateful to be a part of that support and loves seeing the relief in parents’ eyes when they overcome hurdles, whether it’s lactation related, sleep related, or learning how to swaddle.
Margaret lives in Grosse Pointe with her two kids, Avery and Alex, and they’re all big Harry Potter fans. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, reading, and planning her next vacation. She is currently enrolled in Macomb Community College’s nursing program and plans to soon support families as a labor and delivery nurse.