How It Works
Interested in having a doula, but feeling confused about when everything happens and how it all works? here’s your step-by-step breakdown from start to finish:
Step 1: The Consult
Your free, no obligation meet + greet can be booked for online or in-person. This 20 minute consultation gives us a chance to briefly discuss your pregnancy, how you envision a doula and photographer fitting into your Calgary birth experience, and review additional service options. The consult will be followed up with an email detailing next steps, should you choose to proceed. If not, no sweat! I promise not to stalk you on facebook or email you obsessively. You’re pregnant, you’re busy, and you know what makes you feel good and what doesn’t. If this birth concierge relationship is the right choice for you, you’ll know where to find me!
Step 2: The Contract
Once you’ve decided that adora is the doula for you, it’s time to complete the paperwork that makes things officially official! This includes reading and signing your service contract [ which outlines roles and responsibilities for each of us ], completing a confidential client intake form, and submitting your retainer fee of 50% by e-transfer or credit card. Once these three steps have been completed, your due date is guaranteed with adora and I am immediately available to answer your emails or text messages, or to drop everything when you start to experience signs of labor.
Step 3: Bump-dates + Prenatal Check-ins
You are welcome to stay in touch as often or as little as makes you comfortable during your pregnancy. For some clients, that means weekly texts or social media DMs, or tagging adora in their bump-date photos. Others get in contact only when they have new information to share or have a specific question. As your professional birth resource, I’m happy to hear from you as often as you like and in whatever way makes sense - text message, email, phone call, DM, facebook tag or inbox, or a little bit of everything!
Somewhere between 30-34 weeks we will sit down together in your home for your Prenatal Check-in where we will discuss how your pregnancy has been going, things that are top of mind going into your labor and birth, and any worries that we can work through together. We will also define your birth preferences and use those to build your “birth plan.”
Your final payment of 50% will be due by e-transfer or credit card at 36 weeks.
Step 4: Labor + Birth
As you get closer to your due date, it’s a good idea to stay in contact a bit more frequently, making note of small changes you’re experiencing or symptoms that may indicate birth will happen soon. Once you recognize that labor has started [ or when there’s a formalized plan in place for you to have a baby! ] you should phone me ASAP [ an actual phone call is always safest, especially if it’s at nighttime! ]. We will decide together, based on your birth plan and what is happening in the moment, where and when it makes sense for me to join you, whether that’s at your home, the hospital, or elsewhere.
I will stay with you throughout your labor, birth, + immediate postpartum period [unless otherwise requested]. After your baby is born, I will take some family photos and ensure all of you are getting some hydration and nutrition before I leave you to rest for the day/night.
Step 5: Postpartum + Beyond
After your birth, I will check-in with you after approximately 24 hours by text message. You will receive an email of 3-5 sneak peak photos in case you’d like them for your birth announcement, and within a few weeks of your baby’s arrival, I will email your full gallery of birth photography. If you would like to have a postpartum visit to discuss your birth, meet + greet with baby, or ask any more questions, you may reach out and request one at no charge. I’m very conscious that the first weeks and months after birth can be hectic, physically uncomfortable, and full of visitors and challenges, and a visit with me certainly does not need to be a major priority, unless you wish for it to be!
After our final visit, whenever that may take place, some families remain birth + baby besties who I talk to regularly; others send me Christmas cards once a year or don’t keep in touch at all. The next phase of our relationship is completely at your discretion, but no matter how often we do or do not chat, you will forever be a member of the #adorablebabyclub, and you’ll always have my ear for questions, referrals, or concerns whenever you need it. And, I’d love to work with you again in the future or meet your friends who also need the support of a Calgary birth professional!