Elizabeth Mangum-Sarach – expert

As the Director/Owner of BirthFocus, Elizabeth is also grateful to continue to provide labor support doula services to the women and families of NYC. Ideally, Elizabeth attends one to two births per month while she balances running the practice and offering mentoring services to the doulas. As a Clinical Social Worker, Elizabeth worked for close to a decade in the NYC foster care system primarily focusing on women’s issues, adolescent girls, and family and couples work. Inspired by a desire to affect the lives of pregnant young women even more effectively, in 2004 Elizabeth chose to pursue a path of midwifery. The first step was to attend a DONA Int’l doula training course where she met Ilana Stein (the founder of BirthFocus). Shortly thereafter she realized that benefiting women through the role of being their doula was her true calling. Since, Elizabeth has attended 100+ births of all varieties, ranging from catching a baby at an unexpected homebirth to attending to a single mom in the operating room as she birthed her son via a cesarean section. Elizabeth prides herself in her ability to offer a calming presence, to listen to the needs of expecting women (and their partners), and to hold the space for women to make informed choices to have the birth of THEIR choice. She offers relaxation/visualization techniques for women before, during, and after birth; comforting touch for management of the sensations of labor; and believes that birth can actually be FUN and a very positive experience. Elizabeth volunteers on the Advisory Boards for the Museum of Motherhood in NYC (E. 84th and 1st Ave.) and Village Birth International, an organization dedicated to providing trainings for midwives/doulas in Africa. When not attending births, you might find Elizabeth walking her chocolate lab, Franny, practicing yoga, or on a motorcycle/camping trip with her husband.