Birth Doula Services
What is a doula?
The word "doula" comes from ancient Greek, meaning "a woman who serves". Throughout history women commonly supported each other's births to provide unwavering love and ancient wisdom. Today doulas provide physical, emotional, and informational support to birthing individuals and their families during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. They work alongside the birthing person and their partner to help create a positive birth experience.
Why should you have a doula?
The birth of your baby will be an experience you will always remember. Having a doula present to support you will help you and your partner feel safe, comfortable, and confident in your abilities to birth your baby and make informed decisions about your care.
Studies have shown that having a doula present at your birth can improve perception of pain and provide shortened labour times. It has been proven that doulas also decrease the use of epidurals, cesarean rates, synthetic labor augmentation, and forcep assisted deliveries.
"If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical not to use it." - Dr. John H. Kennell, American Professor of Pediatrics
What do we provide?
All of our doula packages come with a complimentary meet and greet appointment in person, by Zoom, or by call to determine if our services are the right fit for you. Once we have decided to work together we can determine which package best suits your needs, or build you a custom package. Our packages are each a unique combination of prenatal and postpartum visits as well as attendance at your birth.
Prenatal appointments are usually 2-3 hours in length. We cover a variety of educational topics such as birth preferences, labour progression, comfort measures, newborn care, and more. The length of these appointments allow time for questions, hands on support and practice, and relationship building. Prenatal appointments allow families to become comfortable with their doula and build a beautiful trusting bond.
On your "birth day" your doula arrives whenever you need her and stays until 2-3 hours after the birth of your baby. During the birth your doula will work behind the scenes to ensure you and your partner have everything you need to feel safe and supported. She will provide both physical and emotional support as you work with your baby to bring them earth side. If situations arise that require you to make medical decisions about your care, your doula will help to provide you with evidence based non-biased information so you and your partner can feel confident making an informed decision.
Postpartum visits are also 2-3 hours each, and are meant to provide stress-free support in the early postpartum period. You can use these visits for anything that would help you and your family during the busy newborn phase. Some families like to share their thoughts and feelings about the birth, ask questions about newborn care or breastfeeding, take a nap or a shower, prepare food, or have their doula do some light housekeeping. These visits are meant to help you feel loved and supported so you get to decide how you want to use them.
Please note that HST will be added to package prices and presented in your contract. Birth doula services can be covered under some insurance plans. Ask us for more details.