Severine Avendano (she/her/hers)

Severine has been a community labor support and postpartum doula for a few years. Additionally I am also a FANA trained professional, a BABY TALK trained professional, Mental Health Youth First Aid specialist, Spinning Babies trained professional. Her background as a special education professional and as a Family Engagement Specialist and Doula in an Early Head Start school in their Birth to Three Program she has gained the knowledge to learn how to better care for families and their children. She enjoys taking classes and courses that pertains to: birth, labor, postpartum, fostering positive relationship, mental health, infant mental health, trauma informed and others to further her knowledge and education.

Severine was born and raised on a farm in Strasbourg, France. She met her Guatemalan/American husband and decided to move to Chicago at 21 years old. Married for 22 years, she has 3 boys, (20,19,17) all soccer players. She speaks French, Spanish and English. They are a trilingual family household. As a family they love to travel, they love camping, going on road trip, hanging out together. She also love walking, gardening, listening to music, being in nature, reading and relaxing.

In their own words:

My motto is to make a difference in people’s lives and to help others to the best of my abilities. I feel that being a doula represents what I believe in: to be caring, to be compassionate, to show empathy, to listen, to provide emo- tional and physical support. A doula creates a bond that is indescribable with the families in a very short amount of time, the mothers and/or the partners, in their most vulnerable stage in life, a stage that is unknown, unpredictable and where nature will play its part. It is such a privilege to be part of the fami- lies’ birthing journey. It is an exceptional feeling and I treasure each birth that I go to with “love”. I have the chance to make a difference in people’s lives one family at a time, one birthing person at a time, one partner at a time, one baby at a time and I hope to keep on making a difference.

What clients say:

“Severine helped me navigate the whole experience. She gave me all the information even with things i didn’t know i needed during pregnancy and in my postpartum recovery.. ”-Stephanie C.