Today we’d like to introduce you to Dani Kohanzadeh.
Hi Dani, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Over the past eight years and still, my work has been hyper-focused on Friday night Shabbat dinner, overseeing the engagement team at a nonprofit org (onetable.org) where we think a lot about ritual, community, and belonging. Along the way, I’ve had a lot of practice thinking about what helps teams thrive, what makes people feel empowered while trying something new, and how different people learn when their hearts and minds open up in a nurturing environment. My work at OneTable has taught me so much about elevating special moments through ritual, acknowledging the magic of rites of passage, and supporting people in cultivating resilience through vulnerable tender moments. The start of my curiosity in birth work felt so random — it was as if someone had taken over my mind and made me obsessed with a topic I’d really barely thought about before. But, looking back now, I see how it’s so <i>not</i> random.
I woke up one morning in 2020 and the thought had entered my mind: “I need to take a birth doula training” I barely knew what a doula was, but the word wouldn’t leave my brain. I landed in Ana Paula Markel’s birth doula training in 2022 and I think I cried happy tears throughout the whole thing; if you’ve had the chance to learn from APM, you know she’s magic and beyond that, learning to be a doula made so much sense. I had walked in basically following a random impulse to learn, and was walking out knowing this was going to be a much longer path for me.
My world shifted again as I prepared for the birth of my own baby boy in April 2024, with Ana Paula supporting us as our doula and an incredible local team caring for us through pregnancy and labor. I knew in my bones the feeling of being held, informed and seen throughout that experience, even as labor and birth and postpartum were so hard, the support I had around me helped us get through those thresholds feeling whole. I think a lot about that as I show up for my clients now — how to give them that feeling and reality of support, especially as they face all that birth brings up.
In some ways I want to say I’m really practical as a doula: I’m eager to nerd out about the stages of birth, the impact of labor hormones, and different positions we can get in during labor. But in other ways, I know birth is about so much more than we usually give airtime to as a society, birth is kind of a microcosm of everything that comes up in life. I put my energy into helping my clients feel steady, supported, and empowered. That combination of the practical and the deeply human is what keeps me lit up in this work.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t think anyone really enters birthwork expecting an easy road — it involves you physically, emotionally, spiritually. Being on-call means surrendering control of your calendar, your sleep, and sometimes your own routine and rhythms. I have to work intentionally on my own health and boundaries so that I can sustain this work with energy and presence.
Even in the challenge, I know that each birth will teach me something new, not just about technique or technical knowledge, but also about patience, humility, resilience. That said, I’m also continuously taken aback by how naturally this work has unfolded for me. I’m lucky to have incredible mentors and colleagues cheering me on. That sense of not being alone in the work has been essential.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I’m a birth doula based in Los Angeles, and I work with clients who want to feel informed, supported, celebrated, total main-character energy at their birth; doesn’t matter where you’re planning on giving birth, I see the value in having a doula by your side. My work is grounded in knowing that this is really a very old role. For much of history, basically no matter the location on the globe, women received emotional and physical support during childbirth from other women in their communities, relatives, local experts and midwives — people with wisdom, lived experience or the most nurturing touch who could give them the support they needed at birth and in the days beyond. I’m not the first to talk about the decline of “the village” but if there is anything anyone reading this to consider, it’s actually not about me in specific — it’s about the importance of finding or cultivating that village-ness wherever we can, most especially as we’re giving birth and building families.
I support clients all over LA. If you feel excited to bring me on as your doula, I’ll be there to provide steady, nurturing, and continuous care — from our first prenatal visit, through your birth, and into those tender postpartum days. My website covers the nuts and bolts (I built it myself and am unreasonably proud of it given my total lack of web design background!), but the truth is that my work is really built around being adaptive; everyone approaches birth differently. The best way to know if I’m the right fit is simple: reach out for a call.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
It’s less about what I wish I knew and more what I remember all the time as I do this work: Follow your curiosity, even if it’s just at the pace of putting one foot in front of the other.
Prioritize your own well-being as much as you can.
Pick up the phone, lean on others, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Contact Info:
- Website: danidoula.com
- Instagram: instragram.com/danidoulalosangeles
Image Credits
Kelle Ramsey
