I’m often asked why a doula is “So Expensive” And I suppose if you have never broken down the pieces or really know how much time is involved maybe you would think that. Ridge Meadows Doula Services Charges $1200. Here is a breakdown of our expenses.
Consultation/Interview- we consider this free, we are willing to share as much time with you as you need to ensure you get a good idea of who we are. We explain our philosophy, the advantages of a doula, our experience, our beliefs on birth and we let you see a part of our sparkling personalities. When we are hired we give you immediate phone and email support. Some families email every day, this is great— it helps build our relationship.
Prenatal #1– This is a 2-hour commitment with 2 doulas, the birther and her partner. We learn how the pregnancy has been going, how involved your partner wants to be, we build a birth plan in detail, we talk about the ins and out of a hospital or home birth and we go through our doula bag.
Prenatal #2– This is also a 2-hour commitment with 2 doulas. We explore your hopes and fears of births and work through them individually. We go over and practice comfort measures and teach you how to use our tens machine. Then we remind you to switch gears, we talk about after baby is born… Freezer meals, guests or no guests, breastfeeding etc.
The birth– For RMDS there is no right or wrong time to call us, it is when you need us.
Sometimes we come over, tuck you in and read on your couch.
Sometimes we come over and once everyone is settled we fall asleep also.
Sometimes we hook up the tens machine and remind you of the birth you are wanting.
Sometimes we come over and we start massaging and hip squeezing right away.
Sometimes you are rocking it on your own and we remind you of it.
Sometimes we meet you at the hospital.
Sometimes we come and start setting up the birth pool right away.
When we are there we support you for as many hours as needed. We have had births in 4 hours and births in 50 hours. We don’t leave right when a baby will be born, so we plan for the long haul. When we plan we arrange childcare, throw a meal in the slow cooker, we miss soccer practices, doula night outs, birthdays with friends and families. It’s our life. Our phone is on and we go to bed early, we skip the glass of wine, we make sure our car has gas and we have our doula bag by the front door. This is the doula life. And this is part of the job.
Postpartum Visit- This visit is many things. We often talk about and celebrate the birth. We help with breastfeeding, teach you first bathing techniques if needed, let you shower while we hold baby. We don’t expect a cup of tea, heck, we will get YOU a cup of tea. We want to connect, support, and encourage you. This takes time, 2 hours-ish.
So yes, doulas are expensive, even after all the hours we are with our clients we go out and we spend our money educating ourselves by taking additional workshops and classes.
Why do we do it? Because we love it because we believe every woman deserves to have informed choice, because birth matters!
Happy Birthing, Nicole