About Us

Welcome to Seattle Doula Partners!  We are glad you found us and our little corner of the Internet.  We invite you to read a bit about us, our background, and our approach to doula work.  If you are seeking a doula and think that we may be a good fit for you, please reach out to us for a complimentary interview.  We look forward to hearing from you and to the possibility of supporting you for your birth.

Doulas Autumn and Jocelyn

Our Name & Logo

Our business was founded in 2013 under the name Ohana.  The word ohana means “family” in Hawaiian, and refers to one’s inner circle of both family and close friends. Both Autumn and Jocelyn have connections to Hawaii; Autumn lived there, and Jocelyn’s sister is a longtime resident in Honolulu.  We loved the meaning of ohana as a community that provides support, especially during parenting.

As we embarked on a journey of anti-racist learning as white people a few years later, we realized that although we both have connections to Hawaii, using the term ohana constituted cultural appropriation because neither of us is Native Hawaiian.  We made the decision to change the name of our business to Seattle Doula Partners and completed the brand shift in 2021.

Both of us grew up in the Seattle area and love this part of the world, so focusing our new brand on this special part of the Pacific Northwest made sense to us.  Artist Amber Mabe designed our new logo, which is rich with symbolism about birth, our practice, and the natural beauty of our area.  For example, we believe birth is a lot like trekking up an unknown mountain path.  You never know what twists and turns you will encounter, and it helps to have companionship and an experienced guide.   Your “mountain doula” may not have climbed your particular mountain, but we’ve accompanied lots of other birthing people up their mountain and can help you navigate yours.   We’ll leave it to you to draw other parts of your own symbolism from our logo, and are happy to talk more about what it means to us!

Our Team

Jocelyn Alt

After starting her career in health policy and planning to go to medical school to become an OB/GYN, Jocelyn took a doula training in 2006 and realized she had found her life’s calling. She loves the process of getting to know expecting parents and their hopes and fears about birth and early parenting, and supporting them along that journey.

Jocelyn brings to her doula work an interest in both the scientific and emotional/spiritual aspects of the birth process. She stays up to date on current research related to birth and enjoys digging in to the evidence around different medical practices with clients who are interested. Jocelyn similarly enjoys working with clients to process the many emotional, identity, and relationship changes and challenges that can come up around birth. She has training in a variety of Birthing From Within techniques for emotional preparation such as storytelling, the labyrinth of birth, experiential preparation, and sound therapy. Jocelyn’s own spiritual practice is woven together from her heritage and her spiritual seeking process and includes threads of Judaism, Quakerism, progressive Christianity, and Earth-based reverence and ritual.

Jocelyn is also a bereavement doula, supporting parents whose babies die in utero or in infancy. Jocelyn has a special place in her heart for this work as well as supporting families who have experienced past losses, miscarriages, or challenging fertility journeys.

Jocelyn is the Lead Doula of the Swedish Hospital doula program, and has advised medical centers and doulas around the country on starting hospital-based doula programs. She has a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. She is certified as a doula through the Pacific Association of Labor Support. Jocelyn lives near Seward Park in Seattle with her partner and two children. In addition to supporting birthing families, Jocelyn enjoys hiking, kayaking, biking, yoga, hosting dinner parties, and eating dark chocolate.

Autumn Duckworth

Autumn’s passion for birth evolved from her love for athletics, health, and wellness. In 2006, she graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Nutritional Sciences, obtained her license as a Registered Dietitian, and worked in WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) clinics in both Washington state and Hawaii providing nutrition counseling and breastfeeding education. She also had the privilege of volunteering at a maternity home in Puyallup as a dietitian, staff assistant, mentor, and birth mother advocate. The more she worked with pregnant women, the greater her desire to become a birth doula was ignited! Doulas of North America (DONA) International certified Autumn as a birth doula and shortly afterwards she became a Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC). She has been serving pregnant and nursing mothers throughout King and Pierce County for over 8 years.

Autumn was born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in the suburbs of Seattle. Her life is richly blessed as a follower of Jesus Christ, wife, mother, birth doula, dietitian, and lactation counselor. In February of 2011, she married her wonderful husband who encourages her to pursue life to the fullest! They have established roots in Kirkland, Washington. Her husband’s job as a Project Manager and her occupation as a Mother of three and Birth Doula keep them fairly busy. However, in their free time, they enjoy eating at new restaurants, cooking, kickboxing, hiking, watching Cutthroat Kitchen by the fire, reading, leading a Bible Study, volunteering with their Church, traveling, hanging out with extended family, and taking their kids to the park. Autumn looks forward to meeting each of you and supporting you in bringing your beautiful miracle into this world!

History of Seattle Doula Partners

We opened our doors under the business name Ohana on January 2, 2013 in Evanston, IL, just north of Chicago. The company started as two doulas — Jocelyn Alt and Giselle De la Rosa — with a vision to provide a place where expecting and new parents could find personalized, high-quality education and support as they prepared for and welcomed a new baby. To realize this vision, they grew the team to 15 people, including birth doulas, childbirth educators, parent group facilitators, prenatal yoga teachers, parent coaches, and therapists.

In June 2014, Jocelyn moved back to her hometown of Seattle.  Autumn and Jocelyn met each other shortly thereafter at a doula conference.  Together they launched the second branch of Ohana and began focusing more fully on doula services.  In the summer of 2015, Jocelyn changed the structure in Chicago from a centralized organizational format to one in which the team members now take clients through their own private practices. To inquire about any of the services the team offers in Chicago, please contact the appropriate Chicago team member(s), listed here.

In 2015, Jocelyn was hired as the Lead Doula to build and run a hospital-based birth doula program at the Swedish Medical Center locations in Seattle, Issaquah and Edmonds.  In 2016, the program added subsidized free doula services for low-income families.  In 2017, the program added Bereavement Doula services, and in 2019 they added Postpartum Doula Services.  The program now has over 60 doulas contracted in the three roles.  For more information about hospital consulting services, click here.

Jocelyn and Autumn continued to deepen their own doula practice in a partnership model.  They changed the name of the business to Seattle Doula Partners in 2021.  See “Our Name & Logo” above for more history about that.

Client Reviews
Testimonials
"I have no doubt that Jocelyn Alt made my natural childbirth possible."
"I credit my successful VBAC [Vaginal Birth After Cesarean] at age 39 mostly to the support of Autumn and Jocelyn."
"Having Autumn there with me was an immeasurable gift. She was a deep well of quiet strength, experience, and knowledge."
"Having Jocelyn & Autumn on the team boosted our decision-making and confidence. Their knowledge & experience stands out."
"They were incredible at 'reading the room' and being able to tell how much or how little attention I was needing at the moment."
"Working with Jocelyn and Autumn was a pleasure. They were attentive, compassionate and engaged from the first time we reached out to them, to even now, weeks after the birth."
"Jocelyn has magic hands! My pain just seemed to melt away with her massages."
"It was so great to have been able to meet and work with two doulas."
"The thing I appreciated the most about having Jocelyn at my birth was her natural ability to put me at ease."
"I really can’t rave enough about how Jocelyn helped me help my wife."
Image Gallery
Check out pictures of us at work and with our wonderful clients (all posted with permission of course!) View photos