Hired a doula!

JuneBug0611

I was kind of late to research doulas and thought I wouldn't be able to find a good one at this point, but I recently heard word-of-mouth about an available doula who sounded really good (she first trained as a massage therapist, then got into pregnancy massage, then became a certified doula) and so I had an appointment with her this morning.  She answered every question "correctly" (for what I am looking for), even very open-ended questions like, "What is your style in the hospital room?" and "How do you see the role of you versus the husband in coaching?"  And I just clicked with her and really liked her!

And then after she left I was looking over the contract, and it's such a "kind" contract.  So many contracts seem so one-sided and like they're written to screw the person purchasing services (I know it seemed that way in our wedding contracts), and this one just seems so FAIR -- like she only keeps the retainer fee (which also covers prenatal support) in the event of precipitous labor, and she only charges 1/4 of the doula fee if you need to have a c-section and she's not allowed into the OR... even if she has been helping you labor for 12 hours before they decide they need to do a c-section.

So happy!  This takes a lot of the pressure off remembering all the things we learned in Bradley class.  She'll be there to remind us and make suggestions, and DH can just focus on providing emotional support.  Yay!

hannahruth32

I always wondered how it work if you ended with a section. That's really neat and she sounds great!!  Hope things go well for you!!  My mom is an OB nurse but I ended up with a section.  I even went to Lamaze classes she taught when I was 15 and doing Junior Volunteer work,lol. She is so great!!  What an added bonus your doula has a background in massage!!  That would be fantastic!!