I LOVE THAT YOU FOUND ME!
Thank you taking a few minutes to find out if I could be the doula for your family! I hope you found my profile on DoulaMatch or were given my name by one of my wonderful previous clients. If you found me through Google, wow! I am so excited to get to know you better, and look forward to hearing all about your plans as you welcome your baby home. Here is where I share doula services, prices and helpful direction to make your search efficient and helpful.
Ask About Benefits AND Insurance
You need to know the difference between fertility benefits and insurance, so the time you spend on websites like mine can be meaningful to your birth and/or postpartum recovery. So, before you read about me or any other doula, be sure to understand what may be available to you…
Fertility benefits are a perk offered by many highly rated businesses that include banks, financial firms, health care giants, and niche forward-thinking employers. They are separate from your insurance and can be used by spouses or partners who have their own health insurance. Personal experience with my clients indicates that almost half of the HR representatives do not know and/or share that these benefits are available to you. More than a few people found me after a co-worker told them about how wonderful it was to have doula costs reimbursed through fertility benefits – this includes lactation, day time help or overnight care!
If you see names like Maven, Proginy or Carrot in your HR materials, take note and go directly to the provider of your benefits to see what your company provides. Examples of companies that offer benefits include PNC, SquareSpace, and JP Morgan.
For a more complete list, Read this article about 53 Companies with Fertility Benefits!
Once you know fertility benefits you have, you can search for a birth or postpartum doula that meets the criteria required for reimbursement! If you find that your company does not have them, make a suggestion to your point of contact.
A full-spectrum doula can be part of your parenthood journey between conception, delivery, and arrival home in an affordable, accessible, and professional role.
What Brought Me to This Amazing Job?
Like many other people and some of my own clients, I did not know about doulas when I had my first child almost 30 years ago. Fortunately, The Childbirth Center in Englewood open my eyes to a better way to give birth, and it included the warm, compassionate and woman-centered approach of midwifery care, partnered with doula support. The midwives were amazing, connecting me with an accompanying doula for my 2nd, 3rd and 4th births.
Experiencing birth with midwives is life-changing. Almost 20 years of that transformational experience, I worked on becoming a full-spectrum doula. Doulas were often associated with “crunchy people,” who gave birth at home. Today, people who want to give birth in a hospital understand what statistics tell us about induction, c-sections, and intervention. Taking a doula will enhance your birth team by supporting all of the other roles – partners, husbands, mothers, OB’s nurses, PA’s and friends – the VIP’s of you circle. Through education and consistent presence during labor, a birth doula’s goal is meant to be a compliment, never a replacement for love, professional medical advice, or maternal intuition.
Thanks in large part to the benefits we spoke about earlier, postpartum recovery with a doula has become accessible to more families. Most of my clients choose the support that they feel is most important, birth and postpartum services do not need to be combined!
The clients who choose me often seek access to as much information and support as possible, making decisions for themselves throughout the pregnancy, in labor, and in postpartum. Most of my clients give birth in a hospital, so I have experience at Englewood, Valley, Pascack Valley, HUMC, Overlook, and Morristown, and several in NYC, but others choose a freestanding birth center. I enjoy an independent relationship with my clients by not attaching myself to an OB practice or agency, and taking a limited number of clients each month.
When I serve birth clients, it is with total faith in your ability to decide what feels right, accepting and advocating for your wishes without reservation. As a doula, my goal is to support you however possible, protecting your space so that when you hold your baby, you feel empowered, respected and in control.