Build Your Team for the Best Birth Possible!

Doulas help make birth better!

A doula is trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to their client before, during, and shortly after childbirth to help them achieve the healthiest, most satisfying experience possible.

They nurture, support and offer expert guidance for families during their pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum time. Research shows birth doulas improve outcomes for families!

A great medical team will absolutely provide you support! But they are first and foremost there to attend to the medical needs of you and your baby and to ensure safety. This is why we make such a great team! Doulas are a nonmedical support focused entirely on your physical and emotional wellbeing.

Research has shown significantly improved physical AND psychological outcomes for pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people, their babies, and the entire family!

Research shows that people who use a birth doula are less likely to need Pitocin, less likely to have a cesarean birth, less likely to use any pain medication, and more likely to rate their childbirth experience positively.
(https://www.dona.org/what-is-a-doula-2/benefits-of-a-doula/, https://www.dona.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/DONA-Birth-Position-Paper-FINAL.pdf, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6483123/)

Physical Support
Doulas are a bit like Mary Poppins with her magical bag! We attend birth with our own special tools to help provide comfort, but our most important tools are probably our hearts, hands, and heads! We will share ideas for positions for both comfort and labor progression, as well as other hands-on techniques like breathing exercises, touch, counter pressure measures like comforting touch, counter pressure, and encouragement. Often doula's are able to use their skills to help a baby reach an optimal position for birth! In the immediate period postpartum, a doula will support the family with breastfeeding and bonding.

Emotional Support
Doulas help families to feel supported, easing the emotional experience of birth and also helping to create a space where the hormones of labor can work at their best. Whether a birth is completely unmedicated or medically very complex, every family can benefit from nurturing and connection at this tender, incredible time in their lives.

Partner Support
Whether it’s a romantic partner, a friend or another family member like the baby’s grandma, the birth partner’s experience matters in birth. Our doulas are there to support every birth partner in being as involved as they’d like with the birth. Physical and emotional support make a huge difference for everyone involved.

Evidence-Based Information and Advocacy
DONA International doulas are trained to help families connect with evidence-based resources so they can ask great questions and make informed decisions about their births. Our doulas serve as a bridge of communication between their client and their providers, lifting them up to help them find their voices and advocate for the very best care.
(https://www.dona.org/what-is-a-doula-2/benefits-of-a-doula/)

Your doula is a very specific and separate part of your birthing team! We do NOT replace your partner/friend(s)/family member(s). Together we form an optimal team that can holistically support you!

Your personal support system know you intimately and will have very special and unique effects on you during your pregnancy & labor! This is GREAT. Having a trained professional present means they get to focus 100% on being that special support for you.

Doulas know "birth speak." We can help you and your partner understand what is going on, as well as identify coping measures best suited for different parts of labor.

We can help remind your partner how to use information/techniques they may have learned in childbirth class, give your partner breaks and support so they are fueled and fully present for you, and we will remind you if a recommended course of action differs from your birth preferences. This gives you space to think about your options and potentially advocate for yourself and your baby!

SO much happens over the course of labor & delivery. You and your partner should be focused on yourselves and your baby/babies! A doula will document your birth with can help significantly during the postpartum period or when you are trying to remember everything that happened!

Doulas also provide community resources & referrals, hands on education, and support throughout your pregnancy (depending on when you hire yours). They can help you apply what you learn from your own research or childbirth class, and help you process information you may receive during a prenatal appointment with your care provider.

Unless you need specialized care prenatally, prenatal appointments can be as short as 15 minutes! We are there for unlimited text & email support, in addition to prenatal meetings, to help you! This is not only great for your emotions, but can enhance your confidence and relationship with your provider as you bring really meaningful questions to your appointments.

No. A childbirth class does not replace a doula, nor does a doula replace a childbirth class. Childbirth education and doula services COMPLIMENT each other.

We HIGHLY recommend taking a comprehensive childbirth course, or at least a refresher course if you have birthed before. In our prenatal sessions we will build on what you learn in class (and what you research on your own), to help you practice and apply the information and feel empowered & educated to make informed decisions around your pregnancy, labor & delivery, and postpartum. Doulas certainly provide education & resources, but prenatal sessions will not provide the breadth of education you will receive in a childbirth class.

Some doulas are also trained childbirth educators (like me!). If this is the case, they may offer a comprehensive childbirth class as a part of a package or as an add on service.

Just like a doula is not a replacement for a childbirth class, a childbirth class is not a replacement for a doula. While you will get the information you need to make informed decisions and learn coping techniques, etc. in a class, a doula will be present to help you integrate what you learn and use the skills and information most effectively throughout pregnancy and birth, as well as provide continuous physical and emotional support during labor, delivery, and first couple of hours postpartum.

Emotional Support
The transition into new parenthood can be vulnerable, and postpartum doulas are experts in emotional support, active listening and encouraging their clients to follow their own hearts. Empathy, a hug or even a good laugh together can do so much for a new parent!

Evidence-Based Information and Support
Postpartum doulas are trained to understand what new babies – and new parents – truly need. The doula helps with soothing techniques, offers lactation or bottle feeding support, and explains normal newborn behavior and postpartum recovery expectations.

Practical Support
It’s all hands on deck with a new baby, and postpartum doulas can help the days go by more smoothly by helping with the baby’s laundry, doing the dishes or preparing simple, nourishing meals.

Partner and Sibling Support
A new baby means transition for everyone, including parents, grandparents and little brothers and sisters. Postpartum doulas understand what everyone needs, and part of their role is to help the entire family adjust and settle in.

All families benefit with a postpartum doula on their team!

The process for both birth and postpartum doula services is the same:
Step 1: Interest Form--
More detailed than our general inquiry form, this gives us an initial idea of your philosophy, care team, location, dates, etc.
Step 2: Initial Consultation--
Birth and postpartum are transformative periods of life where you are most vulnerable. It is of the upmost importance to us that we are the right fit for each other! This is an opportunity to meet, ask questions, get to know each other, and share more about what it would look like to work together.
Step 3: Contract--
If the fit is right, we sign a contract so that you can secure your dates and services! Support starts as soon as the contract is signed and 50% retainer is paid.