Hoola Doula

From Hoola to Doula…

WELCOME! My name is Carissa Williams, and I am the Hoola Doula! ⭕️ I am a Certified Birth Doula & support births in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia area. (Based in Roswell, serving a 45-minute radius.)

I absolutely LOVE Birth & believe YOU were Made for This! Birth is Powerful, Sacred, Wild, Beautiful, Supernatural & Transformative 🌿 Supporting and Empowering Mothers is my PASSION 🙏🏼

What’s up with the “HOOLA”? I started a nonprofit ministry called Hoola for Happiness back in 2010 and traveled the world (20+ countries) teaching hoop dance and spreading JOY, mostly working with impoverished communities and vulnerable young women 🦋 I set this rewarding mission to the side when I became a Mother. God has a funny way of bringing our Passions back around in Perfect Timing! Now it’s come FULL CIRCLE ⭕️ 

I had an opportunity to support a friend in labor back in 2017, and that experience changed my life forever. After two beautiful empowering births of my own supported by an amazing doula, my passion grew to serve women and their growing families through pregnancy, birth and postpartum support. During my 3rd pregnancy, this passion blossomed into action. While this is a job for me and a way to support my family, I see this work primarily as a MINISTRY and an opportunity to SERVE mothers and families during a Joyful, yet Challenging season of life. Even if I’m not the right Doula for you, I’m happy to point you in the right direction and encourage you in your Motherhood and birth decisions.

My goal is to make sure YOU have the birth of YOUR dreams, with YOUR wishes and desires affirmed and supported, every step of the way. I have had experience supporting births in several different Atlanta hospitals, the birth center, home birth, water birth, unmedicated/natural (much more experience), medicated/epidural (less experience), VBAC, induction and C-section. Each birth and each story is UNIQUE and SACRED and POWERFUL, and I would be so honored to be a part of your beautiful birth story.

Hoola pregnancy stretching/exercises & postpartum hoop workout classes are available in my home dance studio for clients. Contact me to set up a FREE consultation to see if I would be a good fit to support your pregnancy & birth journey🤰🏻 I can’t wait to meet you and hear your story!

Birth Doula Support Package: $1100

My Birth Doula services include:

🌿Free initial consultation (virtual or in-person in Roswell)

🌿Unlimited text/email support & resources/referrals throughout pregnancy

🌿At least 2 prenatal meetings (1 home visit)

🌿Birth plan preparation + access to my library of handouts & books to aid in planning + Digital Client Workbook with tons of resources

🌿Exercises for labor prep + Hoop for You ⭕️

🌿1 FREE Hoola stretch/workout/labor position prep class in my home dance studio

🌿On-call 24/7 at 38 weeks of pregnancy

🌿Physical and emotional support throughout labor & birth + up to 2 hours postpartum

🌿Use of my Labor props/ tools

🌿Photos (non-professional) & notes during labor & birth to aid birth story processing

🌿Postpartum home visit within 1-2 weeks + a yummy meal

🌿Emotional & spiritual support throughout the whole journey

🌿 Some things that bring me happiness & JOY (do we share anything in common?):

• My Christian/Catholic Faith (I’m a convert & LOVE Jesus!) 🙏🏼

• My Amazing Husband & weekly date nights

• My 3 Funny & Adorable Little Girls 🌸🌸🌸

• My incredibly supportive Mama & Church community ⛪️

• All things Birth & Babies, including a good birth story🤰🏻

• Seeing others come ALIVE 🔥

• Long Hot Baths with Aromatherapy 🛁

• Movement & Stretching & Hoop Dance ⭕️

• Coffee ☕️ & lots of it!!!

• Cooking food with lots of spices 🌶️ (I learned how to cook in India and spent a total of 3 years there!)

• Time outside in nature, especially sunsets 🌅

• Prayer & Worship 🎶

• Making Homemade Kombucha & Teaching Others 🍺

• Vacuuming (totally serious about this one)

• Making new friends & Cherishing old ones ♥️

• Overcoming obstacles 👊🏼

Hoola Doula Values

• FREEDOM: Empower women to have the birth of their dreams/ their desires, needs and choices heard and respected.

• PRESENCE: Walk alongside and BE present with mothers in moments of waiting, suffering, difficulty, triumph and JOY.

• COMPASSION: Moving beyond empathy into action, with kindness and concern for my clients. Compassion, Latin originating from “compati,” literally means to suffer with. 

• KNOWLEDGE: Faithfully accompany mothers on their pregnancy & birth journey by providing excellent resources, evidence-based information and helpful support.

• JOY: Birth can be filled with joy! Joy is my personal buzzword. Happiness is an emotion, but Joy can be present even in suffering, as it is a choice and condition of the heart. Remembering to always sprinkle in doses of happiness, humor & fun along the journey, with deeply rooted JOY as the goal. 

• MOVEMENT: As a hoop dance instructor and fitness teacher, I offer my clients a Hoola Prenatal Stretch/Workout Class and take-home pregnancy exercises (plus a handmade travel HOOP!) ⭕️

• SPIRITUALITY: My Catholic Christian faith grounds and guides me in everything I do. It is my Reason for Hope and my Source of Strength. I hope to be a prayerful companion and support partner to every family, regardless of their religious background or spiritual beliefs. I pray each person I encounter will know their dignity, worth and value- and believe they are unconditionally loved and seen- no matter what.