Interview with Olga Proskuryakovac

Spotlight Series Topic: Postpartum Support That Changes Everything: Inside a Doula Agency with Olga Proskuryakova

Guest Name: Olga Proskuryakova

Guest Credentials: Birth and Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator, Breastfeeding Counselor and Closing the birth ceremony specialist, Founder of MotheRetreat

Discussion Details: Dr. Leslie Wakefield, PT sits down with Olga Proskuryakova, founder of MotheRetreat, a doula agency providing highly trained birth and postpartum doulas to support families through pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Olga shares how her own early motherhood experience—marked by exhaustion and lack of support—led her to build a service dedicated to ensuring other women feel cared for, rested, and truly supported during one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.

We explore what doulas actually do, the difference between a doula and a night nurse, and how having the right support can dramatically change both the birth experience and postpartum recovery. Olga also shares how her team is trained, how she thoughtfully matches families with the right doula, and why creating a “village” is no longer optional—but essential.

More than just a conversation about services, this is a powerful look at the impact of having the right people in your corner—and how that support can transform the transition into parenthood.

Benefit of Watching: This interview offers a clear, real-world understanding of how the right postpartum support can significantly improve a mother’s physical recovery, emotional well-being, and overall experience of early parenthood. Viewers will learn what doulas actually do, how they differ from other types of help, and when to seek this kind of support. It also provides valuable insight into how building the right “village” can reduce overwhelm, improve bonding, and create a more supported, sustainable transition into life with a new baby.

Address of guest’s business:
800 SE 4th Ave #800a, HALNDLE BCH, FL 33009

Leslie Wakefield: Welcome to the Wellsprings Health Referral Spotlight Series. This is where we get to speak with some of our referral partners and give you access to get to know them and understand more about what they do. Um, today I am with Olga. She is a birth and postpartum doula. She’s a child birth educator, a breastfeeding counselor, and a closing the birth ceremony specialist, but she is also the founder of MotheRetreat, which is a doula referral agency. and she has all the best duelas, knows all the right people, and can fit families with the right support staff for their birth and after. She’s a mother of two. She’s had both a medicated hospital birth and a home birth. So, she really comes in with a lot of personal experience as well as professional experience. Olga, thanks so much for talking to us.

Olga Proskuryakova: Hi, Leslie. Thank you for having me here and uh hi to everyone. I’m happy to share my knowledges and my experience with all of you.

Leslie Wakefield: Can you talk a little bit more about your personal background because this type of work working as a doula it it’s very particular. I mean it’s quite demanding. What got you into that?

Olga Proskuryakova: After I gave birth to my first child, I absolutely fell in love with this uh line of work, with this field, with birth itself. And also I was struggling quite a bit as a woman in labor without support. I didn’t have any uh professional support from Doula and after birth too. Um and I was overwhelmed and exhausted and sleepdeprived and I was very anxious. So I didn’t even had a chance to enjoy my motherhood, my first child. Uh and I felt that it’s not right. So I combined this call uh from the bottom of my heart to um improve someone else experience and to enjoy being a part of new life coming into this world. So this is how I pretty quickly uh made a decision to become a doula and I did my training, got my certifications and I started to work as a burst duela first and I never stopped when I was pregnant with my second. I was working till uh 9 months and I was two months postpartum when I got back to work because I was addicted to birth.

Leslie Wakefield: And what led you to start the agency?

Olga Proskuryakova: Oh, I was not enough already for all families that started to contact me and needed help. So, I slowly was building a team. Um, and we grew to duelas of we are 15 uh now in our team and we need more. We need more doulas because our community needs more help, more professional and reliable um women who can support them during such a vulnerable uh an important time of their life. This is a time when really women need a village, but a lot of us don’t have access to that naturally and so we have to create one.

Leslie Wakefield: And how how might a doula fit into that?

Olga Proskuryakova: Yes, it does take the village. But nowadays, our lifestyle is very different. Uh we migrate a lot. We immigrate a lot. Our families and friends are far from us. However, our needs as humans are still the same. We need help. We need support. We need rest. We need uh nutritional food. Um and uh we need professional um advices. So this is exactly what professional doula bring to your home. When she come and support you after birth, we support families overnight. When doula come to your home overnight, she take care of the newborn and she help mom with breastfeeding session. If mom is breastfeeding, if not doula feed baby herself and as a result, mother has way more rest and she’s more functional during the day. she can born with her with her baby. Breastfeeding is her priority now because she’s not in a survival mode. Their relationship with her part with her partner is way better. So, everybody is enjoying this moment as much as possible. Um, it’s not always rainbows and unicorns, but we try to make it as smooth as possible. this transition into parenthood and daytime doula when she comes she also uh provide a lot of education and emotional support because mother’s hormones are up and down and we provide safe space uh for all this uh moments and we’re also a mother helpers besides of being an expert when we come to your home we’re also an extra hands we can make nutritional meal for you we can do meal prep we can do some light cleaning dishwashing machine loun laundry. We can hold your baby when you want to have a peaceful shower or you want to nap or you need to go and see.

Leslie Wakefield: Don’t get crazy. New moms get showers.

Olga Proskuryakova: Yeah, they even brush their teeth at teeth at 5 p.m. But if you have a postpartum do support, you actually can enjoy your hot coffee in the morning.

Leslie Wakefield: And not to go back to Well, I hope you don’t mind going back to you personally, but you mentioned that your first experience, which is what led you to become a doula in the first place, was not ideal. If you had had a doula, what would what difference would that have made for you personally?

Olga Proskuryakova: Great question. So, I was uh aiming to have unmedicated hospital births and I wasn’t able to to achieve it uh 100% because I didn’t have a doula. I underestimated uh duelist contribution into experience and and uh the outcome. I knew about doulas. I even interviewed two. But um I I I just didn’t do the move. I thought that it’s a waste of money. I have my partner. I have my OBGYn. That kind of mindset I had. Um and yeah, um I didn’t know what they what what was happening during my birth. I didn’t know about routine uh interventions for my baby. When my baby was born, uh, nobody squeezed my hips during contractions. Nobody helped me with positions during labor. Nobody support me emotionally. My partner was with me, yes, but what man knows during birth. They don’t know how to support the mom. When doulas with parents, we support both parents and we guide the partner as well. We help partners to feel useful and be helpful so they could also be a part of the team. So because I didn’t have this uh support I was not able to achieve the course that I wanted. Um and yeah my postpartum I already mentioned that I was sleep deprived constantly and tired and and anxious. So my second experience was way better. It was completely different. I was a doula myself pretty experienced by the time and I hired a duel for myself because during birth you’re just a vulnerable woman. Um and um I was I achieved the birth that I wanted and I was able to enjoy my baby way more. I was more chill, more relaxed. Um I had my my hired village because I’m an immigrant. My my family also is not uh from here. Uh I hired my village and I’m very grateful for all the people who work with me during this time. I hire a postpartum doula to watch my baby. When I went to my first birth after I gave my my I gave birth to my second child. So, it’s a community and my I remember how my second she didn’t want to take a bottle. She was exclusively breastfed. But I was not worried. I knew that the postpartum duel that I called to take care of her, she would be able to feed her and she was able to feed her. So, yeah, we take care of each other. It’s a cascade. um of care that we provide to each other.

Leslie Wakefield: How um how is what a doula does different than let’s say um a baby nurse? Sometimes people always say well I just need a baby nurse but I I know that that’s different.

Olga Proskuryakova: Yeah, it’s also a very common question. Uh most people know word uh night nurse. Um and uh the difference in the level of uh expertise that person bring to your home. Night nurse does not have any certification. Postpartum doula does have certification and we as a company we also require other um documents like uh liability insurance CPR certification and um we run background check and we also do our own skill assessment evaluation for every person who join our team. We want to make sure that everybody meets our standard of support that we provide because yes, you may have a certificate, but does it mean that you really know what you’re doing? So before we uh see the performance, we never sign up any duel to a family and night nurse. Um, I’m sure there are great night nurses too, but most of the time I hear stories from families who reach out to us and telling us almost last minute that their night nurse cancelling them. Night nurses don’t have contracts. You don’t have anybody else to go and complain about night nurse. Um, and they’re here only for the baby. They’re only taking care of the baby. They are not knowledgeable about breastfeeding. they don’t know how to take care of the mom. They don’t know the difference um in recovery after vaginal birth or after section birth. Um so imagine if you calling uh postpartum doula to your home, she bring expertise and extra hands. And when you have night nurse, she only bring her hands.

Leslie Wakefield: Yeah. And with you guys, the additional benefit is anyone that comes from you has been trained by you and there’s a standard of care that is above just a regular doula, but something that you set for the company. Correct.

Olga Proskuryakova: Yeah, we recently um uh launched the doula school and now we train duelas as well. We know exactly Thank you. We know exactly what our families need and we want to train women to become the doula that we uh need for our families. And uh we also provide for doulas who have certifications from other uh from other organizations. We also do a few hours hands-on training with our senior doula. Uh so she knows uh the way we support families. We have our inner uh documents uh the way we operate as a team. Um and there is a certain way we handle different situations and of course the care that we provide also must be in a certain way.

Leslie Wakefield: How would you match say a mother or a family calls you? How would you match the right family to the right doula in your service?

Olga Proskuryakova: I’m very involved in my team. I know them very well and this is why I personally do um every meeting one-on-one with each family who is contacting us. We do online uh virtual meeting and I learn about this family and then I see who would be a better fit for this uh particular family among available duelas.

Leslie Wakefield: Um do you work with families that have more than one kid in the house? Can the doula help with other children or is that outside of their scope?

Olga Proskuryakova: Absolutely. Yes. And this is very common request because parents concern is that they’re not present for their oldest kid when they having a newborn. And yes, doulas can help with older kids. If u mom needs doula to help uh to uh feed the oldest before they go to preschool or daycare, uh doula absolutely can help with that. and she can put oldest baby oldest child to sleep. Whatever is the priority, we are here for the mom. If we need to take care of the baby, we will take care of the baby. If we need to take care of the mom, we take care of the mom. If we need to take care of the oldest, we take care of the oldest.

Leslie Wakefield: And how do you work with or do you work with other specialties? So, I know you can work in the hospital or also in the home. So, I take it to me and you work with obstitricians as well as midwives.

Olga Proskuryakova: Yeah, we work with everybody. For us, it doesn’t matter where women decide to give birth. 99% of our families are hospital um patients, but we do have uh moms who give birth in birthing center and home birth. Um and we also are recommended by our local um um medical providers, doctors or midwives or other specialists. Um, and we are the first who would probably see the problem after mom give birth because we’re here with her. We come to her house and we refer them out to a specialist. If um the family needs to see the specialist, if we see that baby needs to be seen by a chiropractor, we can give a referral. If mother is struggling with pelvic floor issues, we give mom a referral, if mom needs to see um a psychologist, we also give a referral. Depends on the situation.

Leslie Wakefield: Mhm. And then let’s say a mother is interested in working with a doula. She’s setting up a birth plan. Um say she has her team. So she has uh her obstitrician, she has a lactation consultant on standby. What is something that you would recommend that she do to plan to prepare herself or support herself postpartum in addition to having a doula?

Olga Proskuryakova: Well, the the foundation is rest. This is number one thing. And if she already has a postpartum overnight doula, she already solved a ton of issues that could come. Uh the second one is nutritional meal that so she needs to discuss with her family who will take care of this part and other household choices. So communication with other members definitely help and um manage expectations uh who will be responsible for uh every part of it. Um, other than this, I would probably work with her mindset to take it slow. It’s an art to sit still, give yourself time to heal and take it easy, not be putting pressure on yourself. Uh, I think we as a society struggling with this big time. But this is exactly the key for the recovering and uh, healing uh, after having a child. The more support you have, the more help you have, the more comfortable you feel and the easier is your uh time. So take as much help as you can, but it must be a peaceful help, not stressful help. Sometimes we have family members who only can stress us out.

Leslie Wakefield: Yeah, that’s true. or they having family that’s coming in to help out and now they have a house full of people to entertain and everyone just wants to hold the baby and no one’s taking care of them,

Olga Proskuryakova: right? So, you need to be mindful who will be coming to your home and what’s their purpose. Uh you also can sign up for uh meal prep um company that deliver food and that’s how you also can make sure that you are well fed. It’s another to how to make your life easier.

Leslie Wakefield: How long do people usually keep? So, you have a a birth doula who will be with you for your your labor and your delivery and then how long on average do you see families working with a postpartum doula if they take one?

Olga Proskuryakova: On average, it’s two months. As we know, medical postpartum is six weeks. Um and uh most families choose to have uh two months of support with five to seven nights a week. And if they don’t have any family member to help them, they also add daytime help. We had families who stick to us for 9 months, 6 months. We had families who only were able to have two weeks of support. So it really depends on the family of their priority and how much are they willing to invest in their postpartum period.

Leslie Wakefield: You you do what you can and you put your resources where you where you can.

Olga Proskuryakova: That’s why it’s it’s it’s better to prepare way before for having a baby and for your postpartum and uh really put aside some amount of money that you want to invest in your mental and physical well-being.

Leslie Wakefield: Mhm. I I feel like once the baby comes, all of the good plans go out the window and all of our good intentions to take care of our physical and mental well-being also go straight out the window and our everyone’s focus goes on to the baby. But I suppose if you’ve set that up in advance and you have someone in place facilitating that for you, you don’t have to work so hard to make sure it happens that there’s somebody else making sure it happens.

Olga Proskuryakova: It’s a big difference. It’s a game changer for sure because we know as doulas we we trained, we have experience, we know mother’s needs, we know the reality. Um, and we know her deep desire to be seen and to be taken care of too. Uh, because you’re right, everything is around baby, not her anymore. you kind of lose yourself for a good amount of time. Uh because the sentry is your baby. So, we’re trying to balance it out.

Leslie Wakefield: It’s really nice. It’s beautiful. And women who can access your service are very lucky. That’s how I met you. Just in case anybody’s wondering how do we know each other, I met Olga because she helped me postpartum and it was a game changer. And um we we had some challenge and it was I don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t have that help because we were creating a village to a certain extent. Um, so I know personally I really appreciate it and that’s why I’ve always been so interested and I’ve been a big proponent of if you can having a doula either with you during the delivery or certainly afterwards.

Olga Proskuryakova: Thank you for your kind words. I was honored to be a part of your journey and see your family growing and still to see uh your son uh around. Uh it’s so nice that we stay connected.

Leslie Wakefield: Yeah, it’s um it really is. You know, you talk about having a community within the doulas, but when you know, I feel like you never forget the people who helped you during that time and we’ve managed to stay in touch, which has really been a a wonderful gift.

Olga Proskuryakova: That’s exactly also why I I started this career because I wanted to do something so meaningful that people would remember how I made their experience better, how I changed the experience. So I I really wanted to do something that changes people life. That was my first call, my motivation, why I started. Um, besides that, I was struggling uh myself with this experience. It’s it’s a very rewarding profession. Very rewarding. Every doula that is in our team feels the same. We bond very special connection with each family that we work with and uh we’re very honored and grateful that they choose us, that they trust us. Um it’s the most important time and most important thing in your life that you trust us with.

Leslie Wakefield: And what you guys do is absolutely a calling.

Olga Proskuryakova: It’s uh you got to be a very special person and be absolutely committed to it. For sure. And this is why it’s so um hard to find a professional doula because it’s it’s not an easy profession. You really have to be dedicated. Um and then it’s not for everyone. The schedule is all over the place. You never know when mother give birth. You never know when family would be discharged. What going to what going to happen next. So you have to be comfortable working with the known and you have to have this very solid mental state to keep everybody else staying in the household because they’re going nuts with the new baby.

Leslie Wakefield: For sure. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Um, what I’m going to do, if it’s okay with you, is put links to your business in the notes. Um, and then I assume on your website there’s a form where people can reach out to you if they’re interested in working with you or in hiring one of your doulas.

Olga Proskuryakova: Absolutely. Yes, Leslie. And thank you very much for um adding link uh to this um video. And I would be happy to to meet and talk with uh anybody who is interested in making their experience better.

Leslie Wakefield:  And some thanks Olga.