A postpartum doula can be a key source of comfort and education in the early days of your postpartum journey. Some of the tasks that a postpartum doula can assist with include newborn care (feeding, bathing, diaper changes, putting to sleep, soothing), light housekeeping, assistance with meal preparation, emotional support, and more.

Whether you choose to breastfeed or bottle feed at night, your nighttime doula can bring your baby or pump to you and take care of everything else (including diaper changes, cleaning/sterilizing bottles and pump parts, and soothing baby back to sleep). This can give you an opportunity to still receive a significant amount of rest at night, which we believe is critical to your mental health and wellbeing.

If your postpartum doula cannot attend your scheduled shift due to illness or any other unforeseen circumstances, we will try our best to fill the shift with another doula on our team to ensure that you still receive support. You are more than welcome to reschedule your shift if you would prefer to stick with your original doula. 

Any changes to your scheduled doula support will be subject to your doula’s availability, and will depend on the amount of notice given. We will try our best to accommodate changes to the extent possible, however if we are unable to support you, we will refer you to others who can.

It’s never too early to start planning for your postpartum journey (…okay perhaps before getting pregnant is too early ☺)! We recommend booking at least a few months before your due date, as doulas can be quite popular, and their schedules do fill up! However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t reach out if you have already had your baby and require more urgent support – we will try our best to support you, or find someone else who can.

The ideal time period for postpartum doula services is the first 3 months postpartum. If you require support beyond this, feel free to inquire and we would be happy to discuss further.

Although we wish the answer to this was a resounding yes for everyone, it is dependent entirely on your specific plan. We will provide any documentation you may need to support you in making claims, and we highly encourage you to inquire with your insurance provider to see if these services could be covered.

We completely understand that this can be a tough decision, especially if you have never had a doula before! We recommend having an in-depth discussion with your partner and/or other family members to determine how much support you will have during your postpartum period (especially the first 3 months). Be sure to discuss what that support will look like (Cooking? Cleaning? Help taking care of baby or an older child? What about nights?) Also consider any other circumstances that may be unique to your family. Once you have done this, determine your specific support needs and pick the number of hours that you feel comfortable with – and take a look at our sample schedules on our Packages page for some ideas! We can discuss this further in our initial consultation.

Hiring your postpartum doula through an agency rather than independently has multiple benefits, including the following: (1) back up support in case your doula has an emergency or is sick and unable to attend your scheduled visit, (2) reassurance that all team members have gone through a thorough screening process including background checks, proof of certifications, references, and so on, (3) the ability to raise any concerns you may have to the agency, (4) the ability to book multiple services at one time, and (5) being able to line up more support by having a team of doulas rather than one doula.