Hiring a Birth doula
Hiring a birth doula to support you throughout your pregnancy, labor, and birth can be one of the most empowering and helpful things you can do as you become a parent. Birth doulas offer incredible emotional and physical support, while providing experience and information to make sure your birth is everything you wish for it to be.
How does hiring a doula work? There are many steps involved and although birth doulas are here to eliminate stress and keep you calm, sometimes hiring a doula can be stressful itself. You want to find someone who meshes well with you and your partner’s personalities, someone who you trust, someone who is experienced, and someone who is dependable. Keep reading to learn the steps to hiring a doula and how it works once you are in a contract with a birth doula.
Full disclaimer, this is a general step-by-step guide, some doulas work differently, but this is a good place to start to understand the industry.
research for hiring a birth doula
The first step in hiring a birth doula is research. There a few different things you might want to focus on when conducting your research: your birth preferences, doula types of support, prices.
Before hiring a doula, it’s important to know what your preferences are, know what kind of support you are looking for, and the price you are willing to pay for it.
support you need:
Many first time parents hire a doula because of their experience with birth. It can be comforting having a non-medical professional supporter that has supported many births. Plus, birth doulas know that birth is unique to each individual, their services are not one-size fits all. With this in mind, it can be helpful to dig deep within yourself and figure out what support would help YOU best. And then, find the doula who matches that, not the other way around.
types of doula support:
Some doulas have more experience with home births vs. hospital births, whereas, others may have expertise in supporting high-risk individuals or teen parents. While reading websites or doula bios, be sure to check out if they have a specific area of expertise that appeals to you.
Doulas also have a breadth of backgrounds. It can be helpful to know other careers they may have come from. This can show you what is most important to them and how they will communicate with you. Doulas offer different packages that include unlimited hours of labor support and then others may only support you up to 10 hours. There are no wrong choices, it only matters what will help you the most.
doula prices:
Many birth doulas have sliding scales or payment plans, plus many insurances are starting to reimburse for doula support. There is no need to worry too intensely about prices. There are volunteer doulas at some hospitals and donation based services for folks who need it. But if you do have the ability to shell out a pretty penny, make sure you get your moneys worth. Some doulas offer many different types of services, be sure to make sure you are picking the services that mean something to you!
Most doulas require a deposit or retainer fee. This goes towards your total payment, but essentially holds your due date for the doula so that she doesn’t take too many clients around that time. The second portion of the full payment is normally required before the birth of your baby, often around 38 weeks of pregnancy. There are definitely payment plans out there so don’t be afraid to ask. Additionally, adding a birth doula to your baby registry is a great way to help supplement the cost!
interviewing and signing a doula contract:
Once you have completed your research, it is time to interview and hire a doula. Some families only interview one doula and others may have talked to 3 or 4. Trust your intuition, you will know when you have found the right doula.
Interviews can be stressful. It is helpful to come prepared with questions and topics of discussion. And remember, at the end of the day, this person you are interviewing will be there for your first moments with your child, it’s okay to be picky. Know that your doula will be interviewing you as well; no doula wants to get into a birth where they think it would not be a great match. Be ready to answer questions about yourself! It is a great idea to talk about your ideal birth experience and then ask the doula how she could help support that.
P.S. be on the look out for a blog post coming soon that gives you questions, topics, and information for the interview!
signing the contract
Now that you have interviewed either one doula or a couple of doulas, it’s time to say yes and sign a contract. Each doula will some kind of variation of a doula-client agreement or contract. This contract includes modes of contact, pre-natal appointments, payment, and commitment for labor and birth support. If other services are included such as placenta encapsulation or birth photography they will be mentioned in this document or a separate agreement.
Each doula has a different time when they start being on call for you. Often, there is unlimited communication after signing a contract for questions, concerns, and anything in between. Many doulas support being on call for the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after you due date. Other doulas may be on call beginning at 36 weeks. Either way, on-call times and back up support in case of emergencies should also be included in the contract.
Remember that this is your support and a service for you. If you have questions or concerns about the contract be sure to raise them.
pre-natals after hiring a doula
Prenatal meetings are a great time for you to get to know your doula better, talk about topics that came up with your medical provider, and begin to prepare for labor and birth.
comfort measures:
Birth doulas have specialized training that make them experts in attaining comfort and relaxation throughout contractions or surges. They have great techniques whether it be breath-work, positions, and movements that get you in a positive mindset and reduce pain or discomfort.
Some clients come in with a strategy, so if you are one of them talk with your doula about this. It could be the Bradley Method, Hypno-birthing, or Lamaze style. Whatever it is, your doula can help you make the most of your preferred birthing method.
education:
Many birth doulas are childbirth educators, some have specific training in the phases and stage of labor. Pre-natal appointments are used to talk about questions you may have and go over what labor might look like for you. If this is a second, third, or even fifth baby, these educational moments can be used to discuss what worked previously and where you would like more support.
emotional support:
Many times we won’t know what we might need ahead of time. During your pre-natals, your doula will get to know you personally. Connection and trust is key to a supportive environment. In pre-natals, your doula and you can discuss what calms you regularly and what you look for when you are stressed or overwhelmed. You two can come up with ideas together and as always learn and adapt throughout labor.
birth preferences:
Birth preferences have been mentioned earlier, but let’s define them here. Your birth preferences are in place of a birth plan, which can feel more rigid and account for some disappointment if things don’t go the way you had “planned”. Birth is unpredictable, but we can have preferences for the environment, providers, and care that is being given. For example, you may want to move around as much as possible during labor, but your provider wants to monitor your baby’s heart rate. We can discuss how to bring this up with your provider by thinking about intermittent monitoring, a cordless monitor, or thinking of positions and movements to do while being monitored. It’s all about flexibility and choosing the best option for you and your family with what is presented.
Your doula can help give scenarios that make figuring out your preferences easier. During a pre-natal your doula can go over interventions and give you all the information to make informed choices and relate them back to you, your background, and contextualize the decisions with you.
Hired Labor and birth support
Finally, we get to the core reason why you are hiring a birth doula: Labor and Birth support. Here, we are diving into what it might look like for you logistically speaking with hired labor support from a birth doula. The emotional, physical, and informational support will change based on your needs, but the logistics are fairly streamlined across the doula world.
unlimited hours of support
Most doulas still offer unlimited hours of support, we will address different hours next. With unlimited time, you will text and/or call your doula when you think you are going into labor or if there is a scheduled event like a planned cesarean or induction. Your doula may talk on the phone with you to determine if this sounds like labor is kicking in and come to meet you.
Based on your specific contract, your doula may come to your home during early labor and drive with you to the hospital as labor progresses. On the other hand, some doulas plan to meet you at your birth location, whether that be the hospital or a birth center. If this is the case, your doula will often call or text with you and provide support virtually until she meets you in person.
Your doula will stay with you until the birth of your baby. If you have hired your birth doula for postpartum work, then she may stay longer after your beautiful baby arrives. Generally, most doulas regardless of time limits, stay around 1-2 hours after your baby is born. She is there to potentially start breastfeeding if you and the baby are ready. Your doula will often stay to congratulate you, take lots of photos, and help you wrap your head around the journey that just took place. After that, the doula you hired will leave you and your partner to soak in all those precious first moments with your child.
limited hour contracts
If you signed a limited hour contract, this will look a little different. With limited hours, the doula that you hired will join you when you feel you need the extra support. For example, some doulas offer 12 hours of labor support. No one can estimate how long you will be in labor for. There are precipitous labors that go quickly in 3 hours or prodromal labors that can last days. Your doula will still provide support over the phone until she arrives, but will wait until you need extra hands. There are cases with prodromal labors that your doula will come to check on you, offer some ideas to speed labor up, and then check in periodically via phone.
what happens in a limited hour contract if you have not given birth yet and reached the hour limit?
Thankfully, this does not happen often. There may be discrepancies across various doula practices. What is seen most often is that your doula will give you a heads up, hopefully, two hours before your time “expires”. Some will have the option to stay longer with additional fees such as 50 dollars an hour for every additional hour. If your doula is part of a co-op or team of doulas, someone else might be able to step in and provide additional support. This is something to think about when hiring your doula.
Limited hour contracts can be great for many folks because when your doula arrives your energy is refreshed and recharged. It can be incredibly helpful after you hit a wall because your doula changes up the pace and can renew your mindset with positive affirmations and new ideas for comfort. Similarly with unlimited hours of support, your birth doula will stay for an hour or two after your baby arrives.
Advice from a birth doula
From my own experience as a birth doula, I find that every family has a unique and different idea of what support will look like for them. Some families have called me to go into the hospital while they are 1 cm whereas other families had quick labors and called me in support during pushing. Know that both of these scenarios are right and correct for that family. There is no one-size fits all.
Hiring a birth doula is a very intimate and personal service. They are there for you in emotionally charged, anxious and nervous, excited, and vulnerable states. You may not know your doula super well going into your birth, but believe me, you and your partner will come out of your birth connected to your doula. Hire someone you can trust, someone that calms you, and the timing will come into place.