My Role as a Doula
I accompany women in labor to help ensure a safe and satisfying birth experience. I draw on my knowledge and experience to provide physical, emotional, and informational support to women and partners. I am independent and self-employed. As your doula, I am working for you, not for your caregiver or the hospital.
Note: I am not a medical professional and do not preform clinical tasks or give medical advice.
On-call Period
I consider my on-call period for a birth to be from 37 weeks gestation forward. At any time in this point my phone will be kept on loud for your contact information that you have provided and I will be ready to attend your birth with full confidence and support.
Prenatal Meetings
We will have 2 prenatal meetings to review your vision for your birth and to talk in detail about your preferences regarding your birth. I will ask about your knowledge of the birth process, and can provide information and education as needed. I will want to know your own personal ways of coping with pain, fatigue and difficult situations, and what internal resources we can draw upon to assist you with the birthing experience. We can practice pain coping techniques, labor positions, and come up with affirmations for your birth. I will want to know how you and your partner foresee working together, and the roles of others who may be attending the birth. We can discuss together what fears and concerns you have regarding the birth.
My role is to help you have a satisfying birth as you define it. The more we explore this in advance, the better I will be able to fulfill this role.
Pregnancy
I am available via phone, text or email during your pregnancy, and encourage clients to call or text after prenatal appointments and anytime they have questions or updates. Once we enter the on-call period, I encourage clients to check in with me every few days to let me know how they’re doing. If you don't remember to check in, I'll reach out to you.
When Labor Begins
We will discuss in prenatal meetings what you expect to want during labor, and will also evaluate by phone once your labor has begun, and you know more what your needs are.
When you think labor has begun, call me and let me know as soon as possible, and I can begin making arrangements for attending the birth.
I will then plan to check in every few hours by phone, so I can provide information, ideas for comfort techniques, and reassurance through early labor. It is up to you to decide at what point in your labor you want me to come and be with you. Once you make that choice, I will generally be there within an hour, and will remain with you for the duration, until after the birth.
When you are in Labor
Comfort techniques: I can offer help and advice with comfort measures such as guiding your breathing, enhancing relaxation, encouraging movement, suggesting effective positions for labor, doing massage, aromatherapy with essential oils, using acupressure, lending my TENS unit, and using a rebozo for pain management and to help baby get into optimal position.
Advocacy: I can assist with gathering information about the progress of labor to make sure you have the information you need to make informed decisions about your birth. I can also serve as an advocate for your needs with medical staff.
Emotional support: My most critical role is providing continuous emotional reassurance and comfort.
After Birth
I expect to remain with a client for 1-2 hours after birth, until you are comfortable, and the family is ready for quiet time together. I can also help with initial breastfeeding.
I am available by phone, text or email to answer questions about the birth of your baby.
If you desire additional postpartum support, we can arrange postpartum hours to be added to your support plan.
Fees
The total fee for these services is $850.
As a trained professional, I do ask fair compensation for my services. However, I also truly value the positive benefits of doula care, which is why I attempt to make my prices as affordable as possible.
I accept cash, paypal, and zelle and am happy to set up a payment plan. I do request all fees to be paid before my on-call period (37 weeks) to ensure payment is fufilled before labor begins. Accommodations can be made if you need an extension to your payment plan.
Failure of a Doula to Provide Service
I will make every effort to provide the services described here. Sometimes this is impossible for unforeseen reasons. If, due to a circumstantial emergency, I am unable to attend your birth, my backup doula will be available to serve you for the birth and her payment will come out of my compensation at no extra cost to you. I have not missed a birth thus far and do not foresee any predictable emergency that could not be handled in a timely fashion, so rest assured that this would be a very rare and unlikely circumstance. In the event that my non-attendance is due to not being contacted for the birth, and at no error of my own, my fees are to be considered non-refundable as I have reserved and dedicated this on-call time period specifically for you and your birth and made arrangements to do so. If you need to cancel my services ahead of time before the birth for any reason, a compromise on fees will be met to cover the services that I have already provided to you at that point and nothing further will be due.