Meet Marlee & Megan Malone-Franklin

Supporting families with diverse backgrounds and values since 2014, we love offering personalized care for each family we work with.

We tailor our work to help meet our clients’ individual needs - from birth preparation classes, to doula support for labor and birth, to in-home support and care during the newborn/postpartum period.

We believe EVERYONE deserves inclusive, trauma-informed, and judgment-free support and advocacy during the perinatal time!

People who are members of oppressed groups who want to have a pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience where they feel seen, heard, comfortable, and safe

Advocacy, antiracism, and trauma-informed support are key parts of our practice as birth workers. We do everything in our power to support clients who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color to have as positive and safe an experience as possible as they navigate a medical system that is intrinsically unsafe for them in so many ways. We are also members of the LGBTQIA+ community and are passionate about supporting others in the queer and gender-diverse community to receive competent and safe perinatal care.

People giving birth in a hospital who still want to have a more holistic, whole-person experience (whether or not pain medication is planned or used)

We love helping our hospital clients (the majority of our clients) create a warm environment within the hospital setting as much as possible. We also have a heavy emphasis on facilitating effective communication between our clients and their care team. Creating space for our clients to make decisions that feel right to them is really important to us, as is advocating for their wishes to be honored as expressed. And of course - all of this is in addition to the physical and emotional support we provide that even the most well-meaning medical staff just can’t guarantee because the system is set up for them to be caring for multiple patients at any given time.

Parents who have experienced a long or challenging fertility journey (including pregnancy loss, infertility, assisted reproductive technology, surrogacy, and more)

We’ve also worked with parents who are pregnant after loss(es) and parents expecting babies who may have complicated medical situations. We understand the anxieties and the complex (and sometimes contradictory) emotions that can arise in these situations. We offer strong, compassionate support and advocacy to help parents get the care they need to feel as safe and comfortable as possible.

People experiencing medically complicated pregnancies

We’ve worked with many families who have been given the label of high-risk, and we understand the confusion and anxiety that often arises in these kinds of situations. Throughout pregnancy, birth, and the early newborn period, we love helping these families feel heard and supported as they navigate not only the life changes that come with pregnancy and having a baby, but also the medical challenges that may arise along the way.

Too often, our services are least accessible to those who most need support.

Accordingly, we offer a sliding scale as we are able to those who qualify for Medicaid, SNAP benefits, TANF, or WIC, or are otherwise experiencing financial hardship. We prioritize people who are members of oppressed groups, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Our Pay It Forward fund allows clients with more resources and financial privilege to help us increase the number of people we can work with who wouldn’t otherwise have access to this kind of support and guidance during such an impactful time of their lives.

If you are able and would like to help increase our ability to offer classes and support to those who wouldn’t otherwise have access, you can leave “gratuity” on your invoice. No amount is too small!

Growing up, I adored helping my mom care for my three younger siblings and loved to organize activities for not only our family, but all the other families on our block (hello, recreating Disneyland in the front yard!). I had a magical childhood that still inspires me today.

Caring for other people and seeing them thrive is one of my greatest joys, and when I learned about the work of birth and postpartum doulas, I was hooked then and there!

I love walking with families, especially through those raw, early, new baby days. I specialize in normalizing the vulnerable and challenging experiences of birth and new parenthood, and helping families strategize to find gentle rhythms that work for them.

Favorite podcasts: Savor | Harry Potter & The Sacred Text |  Stuff You Should Know  |  Stuff You Missed in History Class

Ways you can work with Marlee:

• Birth preparation classes (including our online self-paced lactation course)

• Birth support

• Lactation & infant feeding consults

• Sleep counseling

• Postpartum support

I am a serious planner. I like to know what's coming next and how I can prepare for it in pretty much every area of my life.

I’ve found that like me, many expecting parents are thirsty for realistic preparation for what birth and parenting can bring. It is a privilege to share what I have learned (and continue to learn) about birth as a rite of passage, and to support parents through the life-changing experiences that come with welcoming a new baby.

In addition to birth work, I use my doula skills to help nonprofits expand their impact by improving their database software.

Favorite podcasts: Terrible, Thanks for Asking | RadioLab  |  More Perfect… But I’ve mostly been into audiobooks recently.

Ways you can work with Megan:

• Birth preparation classes (including our online self-paced lactation course)

• Birth support

• Placenta encapsulation

• In 2017 we rescued a cocker spaniel who turned out to be pregnant… a few weeks later we had a puppy home birth on our couch! (Yes, we kept one of the puppies!)

• We also have two Siberian cats, Merry and Pippin. And yes, they get along great with the dogs!

• The rotation of TV shows we watch over and over again are Schitt’s Creek, Heartstopper, Ted Lasso, The Office, Friends, Parks & Rec, and New Girl

• We love going to museums. We have a print of a painting from the Carnegie Museum of Art hanging in our office.

• We got married twice. In 2013, our “real” wedding took place before California’s Proposition 8 was overturned so we couldn’t be legally married. Later that summer after the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Prop 8, we got “civil married”.

• In addition to birth work, Marlee is an artist and Megan is a professional choral singer. We both identify as multipotentialites (people who have multiple passions in life) and love meeting others who share that identity!