Community Based Doula Program

Having a doula can help you have a more positive birth experience and transition into parenthood. HMHB’s Community Based Doula Program makes doula support accessible. The program’s design is specifically to help decrease disparities and improve outcomes for our communities of color in Hawai’i.

Meet our team of doulas below!

HMHB Doula Team

Chelisse Okamura

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Aloha! My name is Chelisse and I am Native Hawaiian, born and raised here in the islands. I have 3 kind, beautiful boys and a fun loving partner. I found my passion for birth work through my own children. My first birth was emergent and traumatic while my second birth was calm and healing. I realized that through my own births, how supported you feel through the process makes all the difference in the world. How you’re made to feel while you birth, imprints in you and is something that you will remember for the rest of your life. My goal is to help birthing people feel secure and educated in their births.

Amber Ward

Birth and Postpartum Doula

I am a passionate parent of two, military spouse and yogi! I am an advocate for creating birth spaces that center the voices of birthing families. Pregnancy is a delicate and emotional time and so is the healing we experience afterwards. I hope to guide, comfort, and support families on this marathon of childbirth with knowledge, compassion, and transparency. I want birthing individuals to feel empowered and for the birthing experience to be everything they envision it to be. I understand that things don’t always go according to plan but my goal as a doula is to ensure that when they don’t, you have choices and feel respected.

Sarah Michal Hamid

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Aloha! I am a doula who came to this work through advocacy and organizing for reproductive justice. I believe that mothers and birthing people deserve to feel honored, safe, seen and comfortable, and as a doula I seek to center the pregnant person and their wellbeing. I am guided by the needs of the mother or birthing person and feel honored to support mothers and birthing people throughout their pregnancy journeys. I love to collect earrings, eat mangoes, swim, make watercolor paintings and watch reality TV!

Jasmine Merritt

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Jasmine’s passion for serving the people in her community led her into the field of birth work. Jasmine is a student midwife (Phase 2) , birth and postpartum doula and placenta encapsulator from Montgomery, Alabama. She currently resides in Honolulu, Hawaii where she is studying to become a midwife at National College of Midwifery and apprenticing under Selena Green, CPM at Hale Kealaula Midwifery. Growing up in the Deep South, Jasmine was introduced to the importance of supporting women throughout birth from an early age. Her passion for womenʻs health and aiding women in understanding the power of their voice has shaped her love for becoming a midwife. She became interested in doula work and HIV/ AIDs advocacy after working in her community and understanding how representation matters and the statistics of the maternal mortality rates for women of color in the United States. When not at a birth, Jasmine enjoys her pets, gardening, thrifting, hiking, and enjoying the nature of the island!

Ebony Smith

Birth Doula

I am Ebony an certified birth professional. Decicated to UPLIFTING and EMPOWERING families through their pregnancy journey. As a certified Birth Doula, Trauma-Informed Prenatal Yoga Instructor, and Birth Photographer I provided a holistic and healing approach through your pregnancy and beyond. Often times women not only birth children but during the process birth a new version of themselves. I have years of experience that will help EMPOWER YOU to have a DYNAMIC BIRTH! Let me support YOU during this LIFE CHANGING JOURNEY.

Tiana Hodzic

Birth & Postpartum Doula

Hi I’m Tiana! I am in love with the human experience– the raw, the real, the intimate. I have found that leaning into the juiciness of our experiences is a doorway into aliveness and freedom, as well as a path back home to ourselves. Pregnancy, childbirth, and the transition into parenthood are experiences that are perhaps some of the most raw, pushing us to our edge. This is what drew me to becoming trained as a labor and postpartum doula as well as a prenatal yoga instructor. I feel called to work within these spaces, inviting the reconnection of the self to our bodies and intuition. I believe in empowered choices and following the lead of the birthing person in order to be of service in the best way I can. I feel honored to hold space and be a support on this beautiful journey. When not working, I love to sing, dance, play in the water, hike, paint, read, travel, and spend time with those I love.

Danielle Willis

Birth and Postpartum Doula

My name is Danielle. I’m a mother of 4 and come from a huge Trinidadian family where I began my love for pregnancy, birth, and children. My grandmother had 9 children whom she birthed at home at her house was always filled with love and laughter. I was always so excited when our family was blessed a new life and even more when I began to have children of my own. Through my motherhood journey I realized how important having a village of support was and through my 3/4 traumatic birth experiences I was pulled to doula hood with a drive to help other mothers have an advocate and a support person to help them have the birth experiences our bodies were made to have. I was always at my friends and families sides for advice or even just an ear as they entered motherhood. I am also a photographer and found that even my love for photography leaned towards my path for helping mothers as I captured maternity, birth and milestone photos. Once I finally took a leap to become a trained doula as my path began to ensure me that this was what I was meant to do. I am excited to continue my journey to be with mothers during this sacred time in their lives.

Tanya Smith-Johnson

Birth and Postpartum Doula, HMHB Policy Director

I have been involved in maternal health, caregiving and birthwork for the past 27 years. I have cared for mothers and babies as a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy, CNA, doula and midwife . Mothering and caring for other mothers and their babies is my passion. Improving families’ outcomes and experiences is the work I have been called to do. I am the mother of 6 and active duty Navy spouse to my husband of 20 years. I enjoy cooking , traveling, homeschooling and exploring the with my children.

Pennie Bumrungsiri

Birth and Postpartum Doula, HMHB Program Director

I have been offering hands to maternity care since 2012 and incorporate years of international development work in health and poverty eradication into the sensitivity of care I provide. My advocacy roles in South and Southeast Asia, South Africa, Latin America and the Hawaiian Islands, have encompassed beginning and end of life cycles as a doula and hospice volunteer. I love to travel, spend time with family, cook, craft and believe strongly in nature’s medicine.

Jacquelyn Ingram

Postpartum Doula, HMHB Program Director

In 2016, I was a part of the first indigenous full spectrum doula training in Algonquin Territory, while pregnant with twins. I believe ceremony and culture belong in transformative life experiences and I advocate for informed choices and reproductive justice. I am a life long learner, currently studying maternal mental health and certifying in childbirth education. I currently reside on Oahu with my husband and three young children. When not in a global pandemic, I love to travel and volunteer, but equally enjoy healthy cooking and local beach walks.

Kari Wheeling

Birth and Postpartum Doula, HMHB Clinical Services Director

My work with mothers and babies spans 20+ plus years as a birth and postpartum doula, breastfeeding counselor, RN and now APRN. I live in Makiki and am the mother to a teenager. Being chosen to support families during a very special time in their life is truly a gift. I enjoy getting to know the families, and becoming an extended part of their Ohana. My husband has spent over 20 years in the food industry and is a really good cook, so I enjoy eating whatever he makes!