Hiring a postpartum doula provides essential physical and emotional support during the first weeks with your newborn. This guide will help you find the best match for your family’s needs.
What is a postpartum doula?
A postpartum doula is a trained professional who provides non-medical, emotional, physical and educational support to newborn families.
How to find a postpartum doula:
- An internet search
- Doula directories like DoulaMatch
- Referrals from friends who’ve used a postpartum doula
- Through well-known certifying organizations such as DONA or ICEA
- A referral from your care provider: birth doula, midwife, obstetrician, pediatrician, childbirth educator, or lactation consultant
Should you hire a postpartum doula?
Yes, absolutely! Postpartum doula support enhances all postpartum experiences.
For first-time parents, a postpartum doula offers calm guidance through the early days of newborn care. Even experienced parents benefit from the reassurance, recovery tips, and lactation support a doula provides.
When families face a more difficult start after a traumatic birth, a doula brings hands-on support, clear guidance, and steady emotional care.
How long should you book your postpartum doula?
Postpartum Doulas typically provide care from birth through 12 weeks.
Many believe it’s beneficial for parents welcoming a new baby to have support during this time; I would agree.
This is what I tell my friends…
If you absolutely want to go it alone, the first three days at home with your newborn are the bare minimum for booking. During these first days, you’ll face many new experiences, and have many questions.
Having a postpartum doula gives you immediate access to support for questions like:
- The best way to diaper around the umbilical cord stump
- How to tell if your baby needs another burp
- How to best position your baby to latch for nursing
- How to mix formula
- What herbs to use in your sitz bath
These are just a few of the questions a doula in close proximity may answer for a family in search of answers.
Two weeks is a wonderful time to have care. Hormones are fluctuating, feedings are frequent, families are finding their rhythm, and babies may experience growth spurts.
Six weeks, the traditional postpartum period, is another magical time for doula support. With the ups and downs of new parenthood, intermittent sleep, feeding, birth recovery, and newborn care, doulas guide families in creating the consistency and predictability needed for everyone to feel confident, well-rested, and supported.
Supporting Your Entire Fourth Trimester
Twelve weeks covers the entire fourth trimester. Having a doula during the first three months after birth gives a family time and support to create their new normal. It allows space for trial and error with sleep, routines, and parenting ideas. By this stage, a baby’s sleep and feeding patterns are usually more predictable.
Research shows it takes about a year for a mother to recover physically and emotionally from childbirth. By the end of the fourth trimester, mothers are on their way toward this milestone. With the support of their doula, they can connect with mother’s groups and other resources to guide them forward.
Should you hire a postpartum doula to work days or nights?
A daytime doula usually provides support from 4-8 hours per day. Daytime doula support often includes nourishing meals, processing the birth experience, lactation counseling and helping the family establish and implement a rhythm.
Night doulas usually work 8 hours per night and some offer care up to 12 hours per night and in some instances 24-hour care. Overnight doula support offers almost everything daytime doula support does, along with on-site sleep support and education in the best way to manage nights with a baby.
What services do postpartum doulas provide?
When hiring a postpartum doula, remember that each doula has their own strengths and areas of expertise. Many offer services such as:
- Belly binding
- Virtual support
- Parenting guidance
- Lactation education
- Birth story processing
- Support finding your community
- Assisting with post-birth recovery
- Postpartum meal planning and preparation
- Pumping instruction, milk storage and organization
- Educating families about infant sleep and sleep conditioning
- Helping mother and baby with feedings, both breast and bottle
- Demonstrating newborn care techniques: diapering, bathing, dressing, swaddling and soothing an infant
- Teaching families about the Ayurvedic postpartum tradition of 40 days or six weeks of rest for bonding and healing after childbirth
- Referrals to other care providers: lactation consultants, postnatal massage therapists, carseat technicians, etcetera
A Note on Virtual Postpartum Doula Support:
Virtual doula support offers the same level of care and personalized education as in-person visits. Technology and increased awareness of doula benefits allow us to support families worldwide.
Depending on a client’s preference, we communicate via phone, text, email, FaceTime, Zoom, and Signal. We create a warm, supportive experience over the phone, and video visits bring us virtually into your living room.
During these visits, we get to know you and your family. We listen, answer questions, and offer recommendations just as we would in person. We may demonstrate swaddling, advise on breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, or suggest the best diaper wipes and popular pacifiers.
How are postpartum doulas trained?
Postpartum doulas are trained through on the job mentorship from a more experienced doula or midwife, professional workshops or online classes led by a doula or birth organization and on the job training.
What is postpartum doula certification?
Certification occurs by choosing any number of well-known and respected organizations offering a certification in the birthing community.
After completing the training and assignments required for certification, a doula also agrees to work within the postpartum scope of practice defined by that organization.
One organization is known for issuing lifetime certification. Most organizations, however, certify for three to four years. Renewal usually requires completing approved continuing education classes in the field..
Do you need a ‘certified’ postpartum doula?
I’ve been certified as a postpartum doula for over a decade, yet my own doula was uncertified. She is a mother of three with decades of experience supporting families.
I chose her because I felt at ease in her presence, and she listened patiently to my goals. We’re still in touch today, and she’s since become a midwife.
The most important thing is choosing a doula you feel comfortable with.
How does a postpartum doula differ from other newborn care providers?
A postpartum doula is trained to mother the parent so they can mother their baby. We’re present for the parent as much as for the baby. We support and educate the entire family.
A Newborn Care Specialist, sometimes called a Night Nurse, is not a medical professional, but is trained to care for newborns. They often provide nightly care for 10 to 12 hours, seven days a week, and many live-in. Their work often focuses on getting a baby to sleep 12 hours a night by 12 weeks.
Keep in mind, these titles are only monikers. Many postpartum doulas are experts in newborn care and sleep conditioning. Some newborn care specialists also nurture the parent as much as they care for the baby.
When you interview, focus on what you want from postpartum care. Be sure the provider you hire is skilled in meeting your family’s needs.
A note on the terms Baby Nurse or Night Nurse
Most caregivers who use these titles outside a hospital, medical practice, or doctor’s office are not medical professionals. Licensed nurses have completed education, clinical training, and passed a national examination.
Check your state’s Board of Nursing to see if your caregiver is licensed to practice. Most states have an online verification system. Enter their name, and the credentials will appear.
What questions should you ask a postpartum doula before scheduling an interview?
- Are you available during my due date?
- Do you support clients in my area?
- Do you offer day or night support?
- Are you CPR certified?
Things to think about during the interview:
- Are they listening?
- Are you being heard?
- Do you feel seen?
- Do you feel comfortable with this person?
- Do they have experience or training in the areas that are of particular importance to your family?
Other things to consider when hiring a postpartum doula:
- If you’re planning to breastfeed, you may want to consider someone with experience supporting nursing mothers
- If you’re interested in Ayurvedic postpartum, you may want to consider someone trained in food preparation and rituals around the first forty days
- For families who’ve had a baby in the NICU, you may want to consider someone with experience in that area
- For families welcoming twins or multiples, here you may want to consider someone who has knowledge caring for two babies at one time
Are you getting the idea? Focus on your priorities and main concerns.
There are many wonderful and experienced postpartum doulas available, so it is entirely possible to find one who is the best match for your family.
Making Sure It’s a Good Fit
These are a few common scenarios I’ve heard from clients …
- They hired a great person recommended by a friend. The caregiver is doing an excellent job with the baby, but the parents have many questions and want to actively learn newborn care. Unfortunately, the caregiver is not teaching or answering their questions.
- Things have gone well, but when the parents planned to leave the house for a couple of hours, the caregiver said it was outside of their scope of practice to be left alone with the baby.
- One night the parents checked the nursery and found the baby asleep in the bassinet and the night doula was sleeping too. When asked in the morning, the doula said, “I rest when the baby is sleeping.”
Setting Clear Expectations from the Start
There isn’t a bad guy in any of these scenarios, what these demonstrate is a breakdown in communication or unmet expectations. Meaning, both parties, the caregiver and the family entered into unclear agreements.
How can you make sure these challenges don’t happen when hiring a postpartum doula?
Start by asking for a complete list of included services and any limitations.
When a doula shares what postpartum care includes, they are drawing on their scope of practice and area of expertise.
If you don’t see what you need on the list, ask about it. Every family is unique, and every request is considered to provide the highest level of support and care.
The Cost of Hiring a Postpartum Doula
The rates for hiring a postpartum doula vary. Costs depend on several factors, including 1) experience, 2) training, 3) service expectations, 4) overtime, and 5) weekends. Prices can range from $0 to $100 per hour or more, depending on whether you hire someone new to the field or a seasoned professional.
What to do before choosing your doula?
- Interview at least 2-3 doulas. You may love the first doula you interview, but it doesn’t hurt to explore your options.
- As a suggestion, prior to booking the doula of your choice, speak or email with some of their references, either past clients or professional colleagues.
- Ensure you understand the terms of the service agreement: Start date, end date, cancellation policy, scheduling and payment.
- Ask questions about anything you don’t understand.
If you feel that hiring a postpartum doula could benefit your parenting journey, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Whether you are interested in booking me or simply seeking guidance in selecting your support team, I am here to help every step of the way. Take the first step by contacting me directly today.
Good luck and enjoy this special time in your life!
