Doula Services

As a Dona International-trained Birth and Postpartum Doula, I offer a comprehensive range of support and educational services for birthing parents and families through their entire perinatal journey. Pregnancy, giving birth, and the postpartum period following birth are transformative times, filled with excitement, joy, and anticipation, but also a seemingly-overwhelming amount of information and occasional challenges.  

A Doula is there to support the birthing person, their baby, and family in these transitions by providing knowledgeable, calm and non-judgemental, culturally-aware, and reassuring compassion and assistance throughout pregnancy, the birthing process, and the weeks or months of early parenthood.  Though different from a clinical care provider such as a doctor or midwife, Doulas are trained birth professionals who work alongside your care provider and serve an essential supportive role in preparing for labor and delivery, or in assisting families with the many adjustments to parenting a new baby.

Prenatal (before and leading up to birth) and postpartum (after birth) experiences are intricately-connected, and I am trained by DONA International as both a Birth and Postpartum Doula, and can offer packages combining the two sets of services, or separate them depending upon a family’s needs.  I firmly believe that Doula services are critical in our increasingly-changing culture surrounding modern birth, and that everyone deserves access to these benefits. Therefore, as with any of the services offered by Thomarzy, rates for Doula services are considerably lower than market-value.  I also offer the possibility of sliding scale fee; please contact me for more detail if this applies.  Please see below for package rates or hourly options.

So, what exactly do Birth and Postpartum Doulas do?

A Birth Doula serves as an additional birth partner to help the birthing person navigate the process of preparing for and giving birth, regardless of the birth setting, and develop a plan to encourage as calming, healthy, and fulfilling a labor and delivery as possible.  We will meet two times prior to your anticipated birth to discuss your hopes and preferences for how the birth will ideally progress, develop or refine a formal birth plan if you chose to have one, create or refine a check-list of supplies to have on hand for the big day, and develop a plan for how you would like me to support you during the stages of labor and delivery.  During the labor and delivery process, I will be there by your side to support, nurture, and encourage you, provide non-invasive soothing and coping techniques, be an extra set of hands to support your primary birth partner, and be a calm source of communication during the birthing process.

A Postpartum Doula best embodies the age-old tradition that “it takes a village to raise a child”.  When a new baby arrived in times-past (and in many cultures to this day), the birthing person and family could expect a series of extra “helping hands” around the house, pitching in on anything from to looking after the baby for a while so the birthing person could shower or sleep, to meal preparation, to mitigating an overflow of excited visitors, to ensuring the birthing person take the time they need to recover from the marathon of pregnancy and birth.  These days, with our increasingly-busy lives, most new parents might be able to count on, at best, a couple of weeks of support from eager family members…perhaps even at the cost of added stress!  Postpartum Doulas are loving and caring, neutral, trained birth professionals who are there to support new parents after the little one has arrived.  

They provide a broad range of resources ranging from newborn education, such as swaddling or burping, helping the birthing person monitor any potential Perinatal Mood Disorders, providing evidence-based research resources on questions that might arise, or providing base-line guidance on breast or bodyfeeding.  A Postpartum Doula can even help with simple household tasks that will give the new parents a break, such as organizing a meal train, handling the occasional load of baby laundry or dishes, or even occasionally watching older siblings or looking after household pets.  My favorite way to describe a Postpartum Doula is as one who neutrally “parents the parents,” all while providing evidence-based postpartum infant support…and the occasional cookies and movie-night with the family’s other children, or back-rub for the recovering birthing person.  

The Birth and Postpartum Doula services are purchased separately, though I welcome considering obtaining both for continuity of care.  I also offer a range of additional specializations for which my Doula clients receive significant discounts.  As a Licensed Massage Therapist and Registered Yoga Teacher, I offer complimentary, experienced massage options during the labor and delivery process, 50% off of prenatal massage during pregnancy, as well as a 50% discount on massage and yoga instruction, postpartum.  Finally, and just as an extra bonus, I am also a Certified Dog Trainer specializing in canine/family structure, and am happy to offer complimentary consultations and discounted training plans, with the exception of aggression cases which I can assist in referring out, to help Fido adjust to the new family.

Birth Doula Package: $900. Includes two prenatal visits and attendance at the birth.

Postpartum Doula: $25/hr, minimum of 4-hour shifts. Overnight options are available at $30/hr, minimum of 8-hour shifts.