What is a postpartum doula?
A postpartum doula provides non-medical physical, emotional, educational, and family support to people following the birth of a baby for up to 12 weeks. Your postpartum doula has completed training approved by DONA International. Your doula will draw on professional training, knowledge, and experience to make sure that you have the information you need to make informed decisions as they arise in the postpartum/newborn period. Your postpartum doula can provide reassurance and perspective to you and your partner (if applicable), offer information on postpartum and baby care, assist you with self-care recovery as well as newborn feeding and lactation (if applicable), make suggestions for family roles and adjustments, and help with household organization (including preparing occasional light meals, grocery shopping, laundry, tidying, and dishwashing). Your postpartum doula is independent and self-employed.
Before birth:
If Atala Doula Services is not your birth doula, your postpartum doula will meet with you (and your partner and/or other family/friend support, as applicable) one (1) time before birth to become acquainted, to explore and discuss your priorities and any fears or concerns, to develop/review your postpartum plan, and to plan how we might best work together. Your doula will also want to discuss any health, household, and/or cultural considerations.
The fee for this prenatal session is $125. You and your doula may also decide on other meetings, to be billed at the standard postpartum doula hourly rate as outlined in your contract.
You and your postpartum doula will want to remain in touch by phone/text and/or email/secure messaging regarding any postpartum questions/concerns or changes to your expectations for postpartum doula support.
After birth:
If you are seeking postpartum doula services and have already given birth, your postpartum doula will meet with you (and your partner and/or other family/friend support, as applicable) for an intake session before starting to provide postpartum doula services. This intake will be similar to the postpartum doula prenatal visit discussed in the Before Birth section. The fee for this intake session is $125.
When to contact your doula:
Please contact your postpartum doula while you are in labor if you will need postpartum doula support within the first day following your birth. You may wait until after your birth to contact your postpartum doula if support is to begin no earlier than 24 hours following the birth. If you are within the included service area, your doula usually needs 1 to 2 hours to get to you from the time you ask the doula to come; additional time may be needed if you are in the extended service area. If necessary, you and your postpartum doula will also decide where to meet—at your home, hospital, or birthing center.
Communication:
Doula response times for client-initiated communications
This section outlines the general expectations regarding how promptly your doula will respond to your communications. Your doula will always aim to respond in a timely manner and to meet these response times. Your doula will keep you informed of any known situations when your doula may not be able to respond within the expected time. On occasion, there may be an unexpected reason that causes a delay in response time.
- While not on-call for your birth and/or following the completion of your postpartum doula support contract, your doula will respond to your text/email messages within 48 hours, but typically in less than six (6) hours.
- During the on-call period and following your birth, your doula will respond to text/email messages within three (3) hours between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Messages received after 9 p.m. may not receive a response until after 9 a.m. the following morning, so please CALL your doula if you need a faster response.
- While not on-call for your birth and/or following the completion of your postpartum doula support contract, your doula will return your call (if not answered initially) within 24 hours.
- During the on-call period and following your birth, your doula will return your call (if not answered initially) within two (2) hours.
Doula-initiated communications to client
This section outlines when you can expect to receive communications from your doula. These are the general guidelines your doula will aim to follow, but the timing may vary.
- Your doula may provide an email/text/secure message follow-up after visits, particularly if additional information or resources were discussed.
- Your doula may send an email/text request for your testimonial about your experience within one (1) month from the start of your postpartum doula support services.
- Your doula will send an email/text request to complete a survey/evaluation within 2 weeks from completion of your postpartum doula support contract.
What doulas do NOT do:
Your postpartum doula will NOT:
- Diagnose medical conditions or perform clinical tasks, such as blood pressure checks, taking temperatures, examining stitches/incisions, or other similar tasks. Your postpartum doula is there to provide only non-medical physical and emotional support. Your doula will refer you to a healthcare provider when appropriate.
- Make decisions for you. Your postpartum doula will help you get the information necessary to make an informed decision.
- Take over care of your baby or be responsible for the care of your baby while no other adult care providers are present. Your postpartum doula will assist you in learning to care for your baby’s needs and can provide temporary care while you or other adult care providers sleep, shower, eat, or similarly tend to your needs while remaining nearby.
- Perform heavy housecleaning, such as mopping, cleaning bathtubs, or yard work. Your postpartum doula may provide light housekeeping services only.
Reserving your doula services:
Once you have signed this agreement and your postpartum doula services contract, and either remitted payment online or paid the retainer (see Payments section), your postpartum doula will be on-call once you are 38 weeks pregnant so that your doula will be available to you as requested, and the time for your postpartum doula services as outlined in your contract will be reserved.
Your postpartum doula will work for you on a pre-determined schedule, subject to availability and mutually agreeable hours. You can reserve time online at https://ataladoulaservices.com/for-clients/schedule-doula-time/, or by contacting your postpartum doula via phone/text/email. For billing purposes, the hour begins when your postpartum doula arrives at your home at a previously arranged time. If your doula runs errands for you on their way to your home, the hour begins when your doula arrives at the first stop.
If your doula is on-call for birth doula services for another client, attendance at their birth will take priority over postpartum doula scheduled work. In this event, your doula will inform you as soon as possible and will either reschedule your support time or attempt to find a replacement doula at no additional cost to you.
Schedule changes:
Understanding that your postpartum doula support needs may change after the birth or your baby/babies, Atala Doula Services agrees to be flexible in the event you desire more or less postpartum doula support hours. Please inform your doula, with as much notice as possible, if you decide that you need less care than was originally discussed. Additional care is subject to availability.
Early termination of your agreement:
If you wish to cancel this agreement prior to your postpartum doula prenatal/intake visit, Atala Doula Services will issue a full refund for all payments rendered for postpartum doula services.
If you decide to cancel this agreement after the prenatal/intake visit but prior to receiving postpartum doula services, the retainer fee as outlined in your contract will still be owed to reflect your postpartum doula’s commitment to be available to you as well as your commitment of payment for securing postpartum doula services; Atala Doula Services will refund any payments in excess of that amount.
If you decide to cancel this agreement after postpartum doula services have been received, the retainer fee as outlined in your contract will still be owed as well as payment for all hours of postpartum doula support you have received; Atala Doula Services will refund any payments in excess of that amount.
Failure to provide service:
Your postpartum doula will make every effort to provide the postpartum doula services described in this agreement and your contract. Sometimes, this is impossible (for example, with a pre-term delivery prior to your doula being on-call). In the event of unpredictable scheduling conflicts or illness, your doula will attempt to secure a qualified replacement doula to provide services for you to avoid any disruption to your previously scheduled support time, or will reschedule the support time if you prefer.
If failure to provide postpartum doula support is due to your doula’s error, there will be no charge for services, and Atala Doula Services will issue a full refund for all payments rendered for postpartum doula services. If your postpartum doula does not provide service because you fail to contact them or because the environment for postpartum support jeopardizes your doula’s health and/or safety, full payment must still be rendered. If your postpartum doula is unable to provide service due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control (natural disaster, state of emergency, pandemic, etc.), you will owe only the retainer fee as outlined in your contract, and Atala Doula Services will refund any payments in excess of that amount.
Fees:
Standard postpartum doula services fees are outlined here: https://ataladoulaservices.com/services/postpartum-doula-services/. Specific details of the fees you will be responsible for are outlined in your postpartum doula services contract.
Payments:
Payment Options
Online payments are preferred using the Shop/Service Payments page found here: https://ataladoulaservices.com/product-category/doula-services/. Online payments are processed via Stripe or PayPal.
Payments will also be accepted via cash, check, money order, Venmo, Square, or other payment transfer application upon request. The prenatal/intake fee ($125) and the non-refundable retainer, specified in your contract, must be paid in order to secure postpartum doula services. The retainer fee will be applied to the final portion of support hours as outlined in your contract, and the remaining hours will be calculated upon the last day of work in each week and payment in full is due upon receipt of that week’s invoice.
For doula services covered by insurance, you may not be responsible for remitting payment directly to Atala Doula Services; details of any payment expectations will be specified in your postpartum doula services contract.
Payment Plans (online payments only)
With online payments, Atala Doula Services offers an easy monthly payment plan option via Paythen (processed via Stripe). Payments can be broken up into 12 monthly payments for totals up to and including $1000 or 24 monthly payments for totals over $1000.
If you opt to utilize PayPal for your online payment, you may be offered the option to divide your payment into installments via PayPal’s Pay Later option.