~Services~

Labor Support Doula $400 (includes birth class, prenatal appointments, and lactation support)

Your doula will meet with you prenatally to get to know you and to understand what is important to you about your birth. You will discuss ways you can work together to achieve your goals. She will help you get the information you need to make your own decisions. In labor, she will help you be more comfortable and confident though reassuring communication, massage, comfort measures, and positioning. She will stay with you throughout labor and in early postpartum time. She will visit or call you in your home to go over the birth and answer any questions you may have.

Postpartum Doula

For 3 hours a day for 3 days ($20/hour for additional days or hours). Your postpartum doula will help ease the transition into parenting or expanding your family. She will help you with breastfeeding questions, help set up your room and baby items effectively, cook one meal per day, do light housework and laundry. She can also help with older children as they get to know the new baby.

Childbirth Classes $100

This comprehensive class is available in a 6-week format or can be changed to meet your needs. It covers nutrition, exercise, stages of labor, comfort measures, newborn traits and breastfeeding.

Refresher Class $75

For those who have already had a baby and taken classes, this one day class will bring to mind all the things that you learned last time around.

**Please call or email me for service fees. Fees are flexible and may vary.

~Questions to Ask a Birth Doula~

*What training have you had?

*Tell me about your experience with birth, personally and as a doula.

*What is your philosophy about birth and supporting women and their partners through labor?

*May we meet to discuss our birth plans and the role you will play in supporting me through birth?

*May we call you with questions or concerns before and after the birth?

*When do you try to join women in labor? Do you come to our home or meet us at the hospital?

*Do you meet with us after the birth to review the labor and answer questions?

*Do you work with one or more back up doulas for times when you are not available?

*May we meet them?

*What are your fees and your refund policies?

~Statistics of having a doula~

26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section

41% less likely to give birth with a vacuum extractor or forceps

28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia

33% less likely to be dissatisfied or negatively rate their birth experience

~What is Support?~

Support is unconditional...

It is listening...

not judging, not telling your own story.

Support is not offering advice...

it is offering a handkerchief, a touch, a hug...caring.

We are here to help women discover what they are feeling...

not to make the feelings go away.

We are here to help a woman identify her options...

not tell her which options to choose.

We are here to discuss steps with a woman...

not to take the steps for her.

We are here to help a woman discover her own strength...

not to rescue her and leave her still vulnerable.

We are here to help a woman discover she can help herself...

not to take that responsibility for her.

We are here to help a woman learn to choose...

not to make it unnecessary for her to make difficult choices.

~What is a Doula?~

The Greek word doula means woman caregiver. We now refer to a doula as a trained and experienced labor professional who provides the woman and her husband or partner continuous emotional support, physical comfort, and assistance in obtaining information before, during and after childbirth.

A birth doula...

...recognizes birth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life

...understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor

...assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth

...stays by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor

...provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, an objective viewpoint, and assistance to the woman in getting the information she needs to make good decisions

...facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner, and clinical care provider

...perceives her role as one who nurtures and protects the woman's memory of her birth experience