Exceptional Doula Care and Holistic Healing in Cache Valley

My name is Katie Noall and I’m the owner of GraNOALLa. I chose that name because 1) it’s a cute pun and 2) who doesn’t love crunchy, yummy, healthy granola? Fun fact: I was actually eating granola when the name of my business was born! Meant to be! I am a Birth Doula and Foot Zone Therapist serving Cache Valley and the surrounding areas.

Back before birth work was a part of my life, I graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in Linguistics and a minor in TESOL. I later returned to school at Utah State University and earned an additional BS in Communication Disorders and Deaf Education. My direction was Speech Language Pathology, but God invited me down another path.

And I must admit, I like this plan better! The aforementioned skills have actually come in handy, though, as they have been employed in building our homeschool. That’s an ever-evolving process as we expand ourselves and seek to structure our home to be a place of peace, learning, transformation, and love. My husband and I have been married for 9 years and we have four incredible children (currently 8, 5, 3, and 1) and we love spending our days together cooking, exercising, reading books galore, playing with magnets, puzzles, blocks, flashcards, (you name it), tidying up, growing our brains, and much more!

I became interested in birth work after the birth of my first baby girl, Hazel. We didn’t have a Doula at her birth, but my husband earned his title of Daddy Dude-la (he’s even got a shirt to prove it!) as he supported me through 8 hours of active labor. I had an intense, but overall lovely water birth at a birth center. One of the Hypnobabies hypnotic suggestions is "every 20 minutes feels like 5 minutes to you". It was incredible how powerfully that embedded into my subconscious. I was shocked to discover that hours had passed when I periodically became aware of the clock (and also noticed the room getting brighter as the sun rose). To say that I felt like I could accomplish anything when Hazel was finally in my arms is an understatement. Full disclosure: I also felt for a short time that I never wanted to do that again! (haha) But there's more (3 babies more) to the story...

Almost three years later, I gave birth to my first son, Maverick. His birth was also a water birth at a birth center. This birth was different though because we did have a Doula! It being my second baby shortened my labor time, but I know having my amazing Doula there had a significant impact on it as well. His labor was 3 hours! He holds the title for my biggest baby (8 lbs 10 oz), but his birth was so peaceful and intuitive. It was after his birth and experiencing the positive influence a Doula can have on a birthing mom and family that I KNEW I wanted to become a one. I completed my training through DONA in April 2021 and am now a DONA certified Doula and a Certified BRM (Body Ready Method) Pro!

For my third birth, we chose to do a home water birth. Now with my training, it took a minute to shut off my "Doula brain" when labor started so that I could find my flow. We invited the same Doula to be present at this birth and everything went beautifully! With Lawson, I labored for 2 hours before he was born peacefully into my arms. One part of his birth that really stands out in my mind is "breathing him down". And that's really what it felt like! I've never experienced a long pushing phase, but Lawson's was especially serene. I had really practiced the "J Breathing" from Hypnobirthing and wow, did it pay off.

We welcomed our fourth sweet baby, Evelyn, earth side in the same home, same room, with same birth team as our second and third. Her labor was slightly different than the others. Contractions began hot and "burny" in the wee hours of the morning but quickly spaced out and were mostly mild and very inconsistent for the next 7-8 hours. At that point, my incredible Midwife suggested we do "shake the apple tree" and my water broke during it! That gave little Evelyn just the space that she needed to back out of the pelvis enough to settle down in at a better angle. Labor picked up immediately and progressed very quickly. Based on my sensations and just knowing how I labor, I estimate that I was only 2-3 cm when my water broke. She was born an hour and 45 minutes later!

I've worked for and been blessed with peaceful, transcendent birth experiences. My heart is so full! And so is our house, so although we are done having our own babies, I continue to foster this passion for birth through my work as a Doula. I've come to know for myself that this service to women is a branch on my “Life’s Work” tree.

I am a firm believer in the power of the mind AND heart and have personally experienced the transformational effects of belief, faith in oneself, and fearless love. These beliefs are what guided me toward Hypnobabies for my own births. Belief work, mental, emotional, and spiritual preparation, and meditation are just a few of the practices that I really emphasize in my practice. I also strongly encourage them to take a childbirth education course of their choice if they haven’t already done so. I know from experience that there must be tools - physical and mental - available when the time comes!

Another service I offer as part of my Birth Doula package is Foot Zone Therapy. I became a Foot Zone Therapist in April of 2016. I express gratefully and humbly that throughout the years, I have seen and felt so many beautiful things that have strengthened my belief in this important work. Not the work of Foot Zoning itself, but in the work of healing hearts! And I am not the one doing the healing on my clients. THEY and the Divine do it using THEIR agency. What a powerful thing! It is my personal belief that one of our main purposes in life is to heal the wounds in our own hearts. And I believe we live in a universe that uses our everyday experiences and interactions to conveniently MIRROR back those unhealed areas to us. To become ever more conscious of this fact is both an opportunity and gift.