My name is Jana and I’m originally from Germany. That is pronounced Yana because it’s Slavic. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one mispronouncing it. I even let the baristas at Starbucks choose their own spelling so they won’t say “Jenna” when it’s time for my coffee. But I digress.

I live with my husband Jon, my daughters Maya and Elliott, our sons Leif and Wilder, plus our dogs, chickens, and lizard in Claremont, CA. I have a very picky and eclectic taste in movies, TV shows, and music, and I love me a good true crime or birthy podcast. In my downtime, I make sourdough bread and other baked goods and I used to sell knitted hats inspired by the show Firefly and other nerdy things on my Etsy shop Knerdsworld. I also used to spend a good amount of my time and money at thrift stores… you know, before I had a baby and little left of either resource.

The year 2016 was a year of challenges for me as I switched career paths and decided to become a doula and hopefully eventually a midwife. I have my BA and MA in Psychology from Germany and an MA from Azusa Pacific University in School Counseling, however, I never felt like I had found “the thing for me” and that changed with my first own birth in 2015. The experience I had made me extremely passionate about all things pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and wanting to support women through that process in any way they need - sometimes that is with education, sometimes with hands-on support, and sometimes just by holding space and witnessing their power. For my second birth in 2017, I chose the perfect birth team, including a wonderful doula, and I was able to achieve my main goal, a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), by simply trusting my body and my baby and staying confident and assertive about my rights. My last two births were powerful and unforgettable experiences at home that you can watch on this very website.

Now I want to help birthing people achieve that feeling of confidence, protected space, and empowerment that I felt back then, no matter their choices in childbirth, as long as they are made with exactly those attributes. I want to support them through the life-altering experience that is childbirth, fill in where ever they feel a need, and guide them if guidance is wanted. I sure wanted all those things and was lucky to have made the right decisions the second time around, knowing what I know now. Birth truly is magical!

If any of this sounds just right for you, then please consider me for your journey! I would love to witness you following your Birth Instincts and just being the powerful force of nature that we are, and be there for you, your birth partner, and your new tiny but surprisingly fully functioning human.

My photography journey actually began a long time ago, as I discovered that I loved taking pictures of my travels, events, and people in my life. Back then, it was just a cheap early digital camera, but once I got my first DSLR from my husband I was smitten. I started taking it everywhere, including the births I was attending. Then, in 2018 and especially 2019 I started expanding my portfolio to other things besides birth, such as family and portrait photography, then maternity and breastfeeding as well as newborn. Get the common thread? Birth is still weaving its way through all of my work because creating new life and thus expanding and transforming our own selves as well as our families and the world, is everything.