Another Sample Doula Contract

What does a Doula do?

• I give you information about labor and birth to help you make informed choices.
• I help you talk to nurses and doctors about your treatment to make sure your needs are met
• I provide emotional support during labor and birth.
• I make suggestions about how to help your labor progress well, and to help you have a healthy birth. This might include suggestions about eating and drinking, changing positions often, being active during labor, finding the best position for delivery, etc.
• I help with comfort techniques: rubbing your back, using heating pads on sore spots, bringing cool cloths or warm blankets, encouraging use of a warm bath or shower, helping with breathing techniques to reduce pain, and so on.

What are things a Doula does not and can not do?

• Provide medical care, such as checking baby’s heart rate, checking dilation of cervix.
• Provide medical advice. I can give information about typical pregnancies, and what helps in most labors. I can not make any medical diagnoses about your particular situation.
• I do not make decisions for you. I help you get the information you need, but the decision is always up to you. Communicating your choices to medical staff is also your responsibility, but I can help you find the opportunity to ask more questions of the staff.

What services does a Doula provide?

• Prenatal visit: We get together once before the baby is born to meet you and talk with you about your plans, and hopes, and fears for the birth.
• Labor and birth: When you think you are in labor, you call me and we talk about what you can do to help move labor along and be as comfortable as possible. You choose when in labor you want me to come and be with you (some women want me there during early labor, some choose to wait until they are at the hospital. Definitely if things are getting painful, call me before you call for pain medication, as I can often suggest other things to help). I stay with you through the rest of labor and birth, until an hour or so after the baby is born.
• Postpartum visit: After the baby is born, I will do a postpartum visit. We’ll talk about how your physical recovery is going and how the baby is doing, and I will help you with breastfeeding and other questions you might have.

How to Contact Me: The best way to reach me is to call my cell phone at (425)xxx-xxxx. When I am on-call for your birth (from two weeks before your due date up to two weeks after your due date), I will almost always have my phone with me. If I am away from my phone for some reason (like if I’ve gone swimming with my kids) I check it for messages at least every two hours. My home phone number is (425)xxx-xxxx, but it always best to try the cell phone first.

During the on-call period for your birth, there are a few times I will not be available for your birth. I will be out of town from noon on April 5^th until 6:00 pm on April 7^th. If you go into labor when I am out of town, you should call my backup Doula, Jane Doe, at (206)xxx-xxxx. She will do her best to be available for your birth.

What I ask of you: When I agree to work with you, I am agreeing to be available to you at all times during the on-call period (with the exceptions listed above) and this can mean giving up other activities, or not taking other clients who need a Doula. I ask that you respect that, and if, at any time, you choose not to use me for your birth, call me and let me know. I also ask that during your labor, you listen to my suggestions, and be willing to try a variety of things to help with labor progress and pain relief.

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Client Janelle Durham, Doula