I have heard varying reactions to what I charge. Everything from “Wow, that seems like a lot of money” to “Really that is it for all that you do?”.
If you are a numbers person you might sit down with your calculator and attach a value to to the tasks that we would do for you when deciding whether or not to hire a doula. I could argue that some ways we support might be impossible to attach a numerical value but you could try. We know that each individual values things differently. One person might feel that their gender reveal party is more important to them than the outcome of their birth and another might feel differently. Here are a few of the ways that we support our clients;
- On-going availability throughout pregnancy for resources, questions, holding space for your experiences.
- Personalized birth and postpartum planning. Everything from knowing what to expect at your birthing location, how to advocate, comfort measures, strategies to thrive once baby is here and anything else that YOU need support with. This is VERY different from reading blogs and books. This is for you and your family and addresses your needs and wants. We come to your home and spend roughly 3-4 hours with you. Plus time on calls, answering emails and texts.
- Being on-call for you from approximately 37 weeks until you have your baby. This means that we organize our lives so that when labour starts we are there for you virtually and then in-person. This is challenging and requires a lot of effort. In some cases, our lives are put on hold. We don’t know with certainty when we will be needed so we are constantly checking in and ensuring that you feel supported throughout.
- In-person support for you and your partner from the time that you need us until several hours after birth. This is often the part that people attach value. They wonder “how long do I think I will be in labour for” and divide our fees by this number of hours. But this is not reality. This is when we are completely dedicated to you. All other meetings, visits, family responsibilities are on hold for us and we are there for you.
- Since births usually require us to be awake and alert through the night, it can some times take us days to recover. More cancelled events for us in the hopes that we get enough rest before our next client goes into labour or that we are needed for someone else.
- During the postpartum time we are there for you to reassure you, answer questions and do follow up visits. There aren’t many alternatives for this type of support and people tend to underestimate how challenging this time is and how important it would be to having someone like a doula on your team.
Doulas are almost always independent contractions who are self-employed. We have various operating costs like website, insurance, gas, mileage, etc. And we have less obvious costs like certifications, trainings, paying the employer portion of our CPP. If we cannot pay for these items then we can’t continue operating as a doula.
So, yes you can sit down with your calculator and figure out how much you value birth doula support. OR, you can think about how it would feel to have ALL of this support, feel that you were taken care of throughout the most important time of your life, have someone with you for immediate chest feeding help (very rare!) and then reflect on how much that is worth to you.
