Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Katya Healy Daily

Guest Credentials: Owner, Doula and Postpartum Team Coordinator

Discussion Details:

In this episode, we sit down with Katya Healy Daily, the passionate founder and birth doula behind Madam Doula, to talk about a calling that sparked way back in high school. Katya shares how she has grown her practice into a powerhouse team of birth and postpartum doulas, offering premium add-on care from massage and childbirth education to vital overnight support. Tune in as she dives deep into the essential “fourth trimester,” breaking down why fiercely supporting a mother’s healing and well-being is the ultimate key to a thriving family.

Benefits of Watching:

What You’ll Learn & Why You Need to Watch:

Ditch the Birth Anxiety: Demystify the labor room by learning exactly what to expect, how to prepare, and how to replace fear with total confidence.

The Power of the 4th Trimester: Discover vital, overlooked recovery and wellness strategies to heal your body and protect your mental health after the baby arrives.

The True Value of a Doula: Learn how having a professional advocate by your side physically and emotionally reduces medical interventions and empowers your partner.

A Menu of Modern Support: Explore how curated add-ons—like prenatal massage, specialized yoga, and overnight care—can create a seamless, customized safety net for your family.

The Big Takeaway: A stronger, well-supported mother means a happier, healthier baby. Tune in to learn how to actively build the ultimate postpartum dream team!

Address of Guests’ Business:
Madam Doula
1509 Autumn Ridge Cir,
Reston, VA 20194

Hi. Thanks so much for having me today. I’m excited to be here.

Yes. I’m excited to have you here today. Katya, do you mind just introducing yourself and Madam Doula?

Yeah, absolutely. So, I am both a birth and postpartum doula, and I have been doula-ing for the last, soon to be six years this June. Somewhere in this mid-June.

Okay.

And I’ve done over 150 births. I’ve done births all over the DMV. I’ve been to a lot of hospitals, birth centers, and done a good chunk of home births. My team is a wonderful mix of people from very different experiences, different personalities, but all professionals who are super passionate about-

Mm-hmm

… supporting families, birth and postpartum care, and providing compassionate, holistic, evidence-based care.

That’s wonderful. I wanted to just share one unique fact about you that many people might not know. Katya wanted to be a doula in high school, and checked out all the DONA certification books, and then decided no one would take her seriously as a high school doula. So, the passion was there to begin with, very early on. She went to college and totally forgot about her dream until she was midway through her master’s program, and her husband asked her, “What would you do if you couldn’t do anything?” And she said that’s how she discovered her passion for her doula work. So that’s– Go ahead.

Yeah. It’s actually funny because it’s one of those memories that I forgot until I had taken my training and was doing the doula work, and then I was like, “Oh, right. You had found this description on a website,” and then went to the library. So, it was definitely something I was maybe, one could say, meant to do, just had to get there.

So, can you talk to me a little bit about what led you down the path of owning your own business?

Yeah, absolutely. In doula work, everybody has to technically own their own business. There’s very few employment-based opportunities as doulas. I think there’s starting to be a little bit more now, but when I started-

Mm-hmm

… you really were basically contracting for other agencies, or doing your own business, or doing both. So, it was never like business ownership wasn’t a choice. But for me, I never really wanted to do the bulk of my work as contracting. I really wanted to build my own business.

Mm-hmm.

I’m not sure that when I started this, I really understood what that meant. I just was like, “Yeah, I’m going to build my own business.”

Mm-hmm.

And so I started from a place of like, “Let’s see what sticks to the wall.” And it kind of, through time, things grew organically. I never planned to grow my practice and be anything other than a solo doula, but-

Mm-hmm

… I kind of very quickly took on a partner, and then eventually was like, “I don’t want to do postpartum work anymore because doing overnights is hard for me.” But I was like, “It’s so important, and I really want to keep offering the services to family,” and that’s how I organically grew out my business from a solo and partner practice.

Okay. And now, how many employees do you have, or how many doulas do you have in your business?

Yeah. Because we’re a contract-based business, they’re not employees, but our birth team currently has, outside of myself, we have five people who serve on the birth team. And then we have, I think, another nine or 10 postpartum doulas. I’m having a hard time answering because we’re currently doing interviews and adding some more people to our team. We’re always kind of fluctuating and growing-

Yeah

… to meet needs. But yeah, our total of us, I think, right now is 17.

Okay. That’s amazing.

Yeah.

Tell me a little bit about the types of customers that you serve.

Yeah. We work with a lot of different people. I think doulas aren’t for any specific type of person.

Mm-hmm.

I think they’re, on the birth side of things, we’re really working with people who are looking to have positive birth experiences, empowered birth experiences, are interested in evidence-based care or holistic care, and having a supported experience. So, I think on the birth side of things, those are usually the words I hear from people on interviews who are looking to work with doulas.

Mm-hmm.

On the postpartum side of things, we’re working with people who are looking to have a supported postpartum experience.

Mm-hmm.

Postpartum care is definitely an investment. And so I think it’s people who are worried about their sleep or who are like, “Hey, I don’t have a support system, but I want one.” Or are like, “I have a support system, but my support system can’t cover this gap.” And so that’s where we kind of come in and fill that need.

That’s wonderful, and I think that’s an area where a lot of women, they have their babies, and they might have a little bit of help from their husbands or maybe their extended family, but there is a space where I feel like there’s a gap where they really need that support. Whether they’re returning into maybe the workspace, or maybe they need a good night’s recovery sleep. So, for you to be able to provide those options for women is just wonderful. Very well needed. Very much needed. Can you talk to me a little bit about how postpartum is kind of overlooked, and how does your fourth trimester support look like to ensure the birth person isn’t forgotten once the baby’s there? So, talk a little bit more about the postpartum experience.

Yeah. I think for us, our business is uniquely, we really are both birth and postpartum.

Mm-hmm.

So, an entire half, if not sometimes more than half of our business line is totally focused on postpartum care. And even the birth side of things, we already start discussing what does postpartum care look like at your first prenatal appointment.

Mm-hmm.

So, with us, postpartum care looks like we’re there for the whole family. We’re there to support you, your baby, your partner, and whoever else is kind of in the mix. Every family has different goals and different needs. Mm-hmm. So different people hire us for different reasons, but let’s say, what are the things that we bring to somebody, like the whole circle that they could pick from, right? Daytime support, all of our doulas have some level of lactation training. We have quite a few doulas who are CLCs, so certified lactation consultants.

Mm-hmm.

If you don’t want to breastfeed, that’s fine. We’re also supportive of any type of infant feeding that you would like to do. As long as you’re feeding your baby-

Mm-hmm

… we’re happy to support you and do what we can to make that a positive experience. On the side of caring for mother, we’re there to talk about postpartum healing. We give referrals. We cook meals. We help tidy the house, encourage you to rest.

Mm-hmm.

We’re there for emotional support. We’re not mental health professionals. We don’t make ourselves out to be, but we are there to be a friend. There’s people who I’ve worked with who the entire time they’re sleeping, and then there’s people who the entire time are chatting, and so it’s very much based what fills your cup, right?

Mm-hmm.

For some people, they just need to know that they have somebody that they can trust to hold their baby and do some chores while they’re taking a nap, and for other people, it’s like, “I really need that hot meal,” or, “I just really need to talk to somebody about my birth or-

Mm-hmm

… how breastfeeding is going,” or-

Mm-hmm

… “How my interactions are with my parents or my in-laws, and what do you think, and how can I manage this?” And so, we’re there to provide, I tell people it’s like, in theory, what village support used to look like. I read a book where it was about a settler in the Great Plains, and I think when people came to this country, their care really changed because people lived so far away.

Mm-hmm.

And her village still came for her, and they came from the town out to her little homestead-

Mm-hmm

… but it was a much shorter-lived visit than kind of what would have been-

Mm-hmm

… had she been in the old country. And so I think it’s that, but without the judgment of, I think, family support. Some people do have wonderful families, and I’m not a critic of family support. I think family support is super great, but sometimes people, I think, can feel judged by their family and the decisions that they’re making, and so it’s nice to have somebody who can give you just like, we have evidence, we have resources for you, but we don’t have opinions on what you should do.

Mm-hmm. I love that. I love the fact that you provide that village because I do feel like moms nowadays are raising kids with their family members being further apart, or maybe some are in the sandwich generation where they might be taking care of their parents while they’re raising kids. And so for the mom to have that period of creating some space for self-care for herself, I think in the long run is going to help her stress levels, and her care for her child, and her care for herself so much more. Mm-hmm. So, love that.

I should also say, we do also provide belly binding and massage-

Mm-hmm

… and some of those more traditional postpartum care services.

Mm-hmm.

So we do offer those for people who are interested, and nourishing meals that are really focused on recovery. So we have people who will pull more traditional recipes to ensure that they’re super nutritionally dense, and good on the digestion.

That’s wonderful. Can you tell me a little bit about your prenatal and pregnancy services?

Yeah, absolutely. So prenatally, we generally do one to two prenatal appointments with our clients. We offer monthly check-ins, kind of like continuous contact. Our goal, I think there’s first-time parents and then people who have already had babies, and a lot of times those two services look similar, but different, right? With first-time parents, we’re really trying to figure out what do you want, right? And a lot of parents on the calls are like, “I don’t know what I want.” And that’s okay. We’re here to help give you information so that you can figure out what vibes with you. I think with second-time parents, a lot of times they’re like, “This went well. This didn’t. This is what I want this time.” And so we’re more in execute mode, so, “Okay, so you want this this time. Let me get you the resources you need to make this happen, and let’s go forward.” We also are very focused on providing people with childbirth education classes-

Mm-hmm

… helping them find the resources they need to feel supported. So, whether that’s acupuncture, chiropractic care, PT-

Mm-hmm

… mental health professionals, parent groups. Whatever it is that’s going to help make that experience feel more fulfilled and prepared, and empowered, that’s what we’re here to do.

So how do you feel that, I know you guys have a lot of positive Google reviews and testimonials with the people who have been working with you. What do you see is the outcome when somebody has worked with you, worked with your doula services, either during their pregnancy and postpartum? Are you seeing something different in the labor and delivery process?

Yeah. I think most of the time, one of the things that I’ve noticed as I’ve continued this job is majority of the people who I work with are really happy with their birth experience.

Mm-hmm.

There are obviously some outliers and some things we can’t control, and I want to give space and acknowledge that, because at Doula, we’re not magical, unfortunately, and there are some things that are outside of our control and our abilities. And I would really say the impact that we have on somebody’s process is being a guide. Ultimately, this process is about parent empowerment and discovering your own kind of like-… your own power within this process, that’s the magic, right? The clients themselves are the magic in this, right? And we’re just there to kind of help guide them where they need to go.

Mm-hmm.

But as a whole, I’ve seen a huge shift in the way we prepare people. The fact that when I started, I had a hard time being like, “You really have to take a childbirth education class, and you really should have a lactation consultant in your pocket,” right? And now that I have the confidence, my team has the confidence to say these things, we see that more of our clients who want to breastfeed can breastfeed.

Yeah.

Our clients who have specific types of births that they want, tend to be a lot closer to having what they would like. A big component is also helping people pick providers and birth locations that are in line with their goals.

Mm-hmm.

And then not being in situations where what your provider wants is here, and what you want is here.

Mm-hmm.

That creates a lot more of a chance that people don’t have the birth that they want, right? So being able to have those conversations, provide the resources and the education so that people can feel like they have a voice during their experience, like they know what’s going to happen. And it’s also interesting, I think some of the birth culture in the DMV has changed and shifted over the last five, six years. It’s not everywhere, it’s not with every provider, but things that used to be a really big fight aren’t always a fight, and so that’s really nice to see.

Mm-hmm. I love what you said. You said you empower the person, and I think women sometimes go into the whole birthing process being scared, not knowing, this a whole new world that they’ve never been in. Feeling empowered during your birthing experience, I think that that is really important for the woman to feel during their pregnancy, feeling that support. And that’s amazing that you guys provide that.

Yeah, and I think when doing this work, I think people can get into feeling like they need to save their clients, and they need to do these things, and it’s like, our clients are adults.

Yeah.

We’re just as much of a problem if we’re saying that we’re saving them from certain things. It’s our job to share information and to-

Right

… be a listening ear and to give perspectives, but it’s just as much our job to accept our clients’ decisions and be supportive of those decisions wholeheartedly-

Mm-hmm

… because what we think is, to some degree, irrelevant.

Yes. So if someone wanted to get started with you, can you tell me a little bit about what would be-

Yeah

… the process of getting started with you?

Yeah. The easiest way to get started with us is to submit an inquiry. We’re trying to stick with the times, and so we have an automated email that comes out that gives a scheduling link. So if you reach out, you should be able to schedule an initial consultation within minutes of reaching out. I usually have availabilities Tuesday through Thursdays, 10:00 to 5:00 PM, and there’s always an option to schedule outside of those times if needed. And generally, the process is starting with a discovery call, because that gives clients an opportunity to meet me, for me to gather their information, and then from there, they’ll usually meet a doula available around their due date based on their needs.

Okay.

Yeah.

Can you maybe tell us a little bit about your staff? Or maybe introduce your staff?

Yeah, I would be happy to. I’m going to pull up the webpage so that I make sure not to miss anybody.

Yeah.

So, I’m like, oh, it’s going to be a long intro. So, I’m going to give my first two shout-outs to Kim and Mary. Mary has been with me the longest. She actually was originally with me when I was running a partner practice, Mary Ghyabi. She’s a really fantastic postpartum doula, CLC. Birth doula, too, but doesn’t practice anymore, so she does a lot of our daytime postpartum work. And then Kim Stinger has been with us since, I think the beginning of 2023 or 2022. It’s hard for me to keep track. But she’s super talented. I would say is doing a really good chunk of our births now. She also does our placenta encapsulation. She teaches our fabulous hello birth classes. And then also does some fill-in postpartum care as well as our massages and our belly binds. So she’s really got a lot of wonderful skills and does a lot of great work. We have Lauren Stanphill and Lacie Faber. Both Lauren and Lacie have… Actually, it’s funny. So Lauren joined our team last year, so she was kind of part of this, it used to be Kim and I, and then she was kind of part of our expansion, our growth, and she’s done a really great job taking care of clients and helping families navigate their birth experience. Lacie actually was my client-

Oh, wow

… two years ago. Yeah, two years ago. And afterwards she was like, “Oh, I’m becoming a doula.” And when I was looking for more people who I could trust to grow my team, I was like, “Lacie, would you do me the honor of coming to work with me?” And, she’s super fabulous. And I’m really excited about also having Amelie Gislot. She’s a childbirth education instructor as well as a yoga and fitness instructor who has now decided to expand into doula work.

Mm-hmm.

And so she’s about to start taking births this fall. And so she’s really, really fabulous. Should I keep going? I can’t tell if I –

Keep going, yeah

… got too many team members.

Keep going.

We have Siena Butler. She has been working for, I think, eight or nine years now. She herself is a mom of three. Has NICU experience with her first. She brings a really, just this. And she also has traditional postpartum care training, and Ayurvedic training, and she brings such an awesome, just mellow vibe to her work and I think, I know she just helps people feel so calmed and so cared for. She does both daytime and nighttime support. We have Maricar Hornilla. She is also a postpartum doula.

Mm-hmm.

She’s so talented. She has a really great background in childcare experience. So she does really well working with… Not all doulas work well with families who have other children, and she’s really fabulous. She does both daytime and nighttime support. She also does consultations for registries, so helping people organize their registry, as well as postpartum planning sessions. And fun fact about her, I think she also teaches baby sign language and does some baby massage. Yeah.

Oh, I love that.

So super cool.

Yeah, very.

And then we have Danelle Willemse. She’s a newer doula to our staff, but an experienced doula who’s also a CLC. Really passionate about her work, and good at being prepared, and helping families navigate both day and night care, so she’s really great. Let’s see. I’m like, where do I… Okay, and then we have Leigh. Le De La Vega. She is actually doing both birth and postpartum-

Mm-hmm

… and does some of our both daytime and nighttime care. She’s actually studying to be a midwife, so that’s a really cool experience that she brings-

Yeah

… to the team.

Yeah.

Isabelle Tchatchoua. She is also a newer add to our team, but comes to us from another team in the DMV. She owned her own daycare until 2020. Has five kids of her own, and after 2020, decided to transition into doula work, and she’s also a certified lactation consultant. So I’m really excited about having her as a new member of the team. Dalia El Far. She’s joined our team late 2025. But comes from another DMV team, and has decades of childcare experience, and kind of wanted to transition into the postpartum field, and cooks phenomenal food, and just really, really loves on the people she works with. We have Amanda Tice, another one of our postpartum doulas. She’s super. She’s really passionate about navigating postpartum care. She’s great. She’ll bring bottles, and wraps, and different things for people to kind of try and test out. She’s super prepared and is really good at providing resources. And then we have Courtney Schultz, and she’s actually a birth assistant for two different local midwifery practices, Hearthside Midwifery and Loudoun Healthcare and Homebirth. And she does some birth and mostly postpartum for our team.

Okay.

And so she brings her experience, her nursing experience, her birth assistant experience-

Mm-hmm

… in helping people transition and come home.

Mm-hmm.

And then we’ve got Rebekah Atwater. She is a lactation consultant and postpartum doula, and she’s, again, another wonderful professional who’s super passionate about what she does and has a lot of good information to share with clients. As well as Barbara Robinson, who uniquely is also a sleep consultant, so she’s got a really cool set of skills. And I’m trying, I’m like, “Have I missed anybody?” Hopefully, I haven’t missed anyone. Yeah, so that’s kind of the bulk and core of our team, and we are hopefully going to be adding another two to three postpartum doulas, because there’s only so many postpartum hours you can work.

Yeah.

And there’s a really big demand, I think, right now. There is some expansion of benefit coverage that we’re starting to see, and so I think as we see that grow, the demand continues to grow.

Okay. That’s wonderful. I didn’t know that. That’s good to know.

Yeah.

So, your staff is going to love all those shout-outs.

I know. I’m like, “Oh, I hope I didn’t miss anybody.” I’d feel so bad.

All right. So tell me one thing you wish every pregnant person knew about their body’s capability before they hit the delivery room.

I think it’s really about the same things that I think we, as women, struggle with in general. Which is just like, you can do this.

Mm-hmm.

You’re not going to be able to control this experience, but you can absolutely navigate it with dignity and respect, and be treated well, and-

Yeah

… and pick people who are going to treat you well.

Yeah.

And there are some things you can’t control about birth.

Mm-hmm.

But there are a lot of things that you can control, and there are a lot of things that you can prepare for in postpartum.

Yeah.

And so I think everybody, when they get pregnant, just gets all the trauma dumping from people-

Yeah

… right and left, right and left, and I think there’s very little… Just allowing people to have their own experience and encouraging them to pick a provider that makes you feel comfortable.

Mm-hmm.

Pick a hospital or a birth location that reflects your values and your goals.

Mm-hmm.

You can do this.

Mm-hmm.

So just remembering that- There’s a lot of good resources out there.

Mm-hmm.

And you are the driver of this process, and really, everybody here should be there to support you while you’re pregnant. And so if anybody isn’t, just gently push them off the bus.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Thank you. Goodbye.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you so much. Yeah. I’ve learned so much about you and your team. You’re a wonderful resource in this community, and such a talented team. You provide so many services for women who really need this type of support. And I like what you said, you don’t know what’s going to happen, but being as empowered as you can and having the people around you that are going to support you is the best place that you can put yourself.

Yeah, and if I can say one more thing.

Yeah.

I think something that can be helpful is when people plan for their weddings, they set aside 20, 30, $40,000-

Yeah

… a lot of times.

Yeah.

And that’s great. I’m not going to hate on that because I know a lot of birth people are like, “Ah, you would spend this much money on this and then not on this.” I get it. But comma, value this experience, too. Because the way you start this experience is the way you enter into your parenting journey.

100%.

And so if you feel held, if you feel empowered, if you feel supported, you’re going to be able to start your family on a good foot. And yes, you might not be able to make your birth experience exactly the way you want to, but when you come home, if your partner has no leave, if your family’s not there to support you, right? That’s a hard situation. And I would say that postpartum support isn’t necessarily cheap, but you also can do smaller amounts of support, stretch it, and make sure that you have a support system to help you transition. And you can put these things on your registry. There is nothing wrong with asking-

Yeah

… for cash. You can say, “Fund towards postpartum services.”

Yes.

“Fund towards meals.” All of these things are to look creatively at the resources you have. And when I talk to people, I ask them questions because my goal… Yes, there are people who want five nights a week, and that’s great for them, but that’s not realistic for everybody. And we understand that, and we’re happy to say, “Okay, what resources do you have? What resources don’t you have? Let’s meet you there. Let’s make the best bang for your buck suggestion.” If you’re like, “My budget is $3,000. This is what I have. This is the support system I currently have,” we’ll make suggestions to help fit within your needs and within your budget so that you can craft that experience. And we even make suggestions like, “Do you have friends who you can have do a meal train for you? Who do you have that’s in your trusted circle that can fill in the gaps?” We’ll have those conversations. So I guess I just wanted to end on, I think it’s hard to spend money on yourself in that way.

Mm-hmm.

I think people really struggle to be like, “Yes, I’m going to spend money to have somebody come cook and clean.” And there are a lot of weeks where I’m like, “I need a postpartum doula. I need somebody to come cook me a meal-

That’s me.

… and tidy my house and talk to me because I need to process my emotions.”

I’m like, is there a perimenopause doula out there?

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean?

I think it’s like we really thrive when we feel held and we have that camaraderie and that friendship.

Yeah.

And so basically just a shout-out to you don’t have to have the largest budget in the world.

Mm-hmm.

You also can ask for that. It’s okay to ask people and say like-

I like that

… “I don’t need 15 blankets. I need somebody to come cook me a meal.”

Yes.

So that’s kind of this next cultural shift that I’m hoping to see, is people investing in themselves-

Mm-hmm

… and having that be something they’re comfortable to do.

100%. 100%. I love that you shared that. Thank you so much.

Yeah.

And thanks for joining me today.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Take care.