Wait… a Postpartum Doula? Is that a thing?

Almost without fail, when someone hears what I do, they say something like, “Wait, a postpartum doula? What’s that?” And when I tell them what a postpartum doula is, they consistently say, “I wish I’d known you when my babies were little!”

But it’s not really a surprise because when I was pregnant with my first baby, I read up on everything, even the benefits of hiring a birth doula, but I had no idea there was even such a thing as a postpartum doula.

When I had my son, we were living in Japan, near a US Navy base, and there were just a few birth doulas in town who were totally booked up by the time I had arrived. I knew how lucky we were that my mom was able to stay with us for the first 6 weeks after my son was born.

When we were planning her trip, my husband was concerned that 6 weeks might be too long to have a houseguest but I told him to wait and see. "You just wait!" I said!

And of course, she was a lifesaver in those early weeks with our fussy and alert baby, and once she’d gone home, it suddenly felt like two people were not quite enough to care for our particular baby who seemed to cry quite a lot and sleep so little.

Like most parents, we managed, and it's all too easy to brush it off as 'a hard time, but we got through it' when in fact, I would have benefited a great deal from more support, and I know I am not alone in thinking that more help ought to be available for new moms in the early weeks and months with their babies!

What kind of doula?

I first found out that there even was such a thing as a postpartum doula while I was attending an information session about how to get certified as a birth doula. My own baby was about a year and a half old and I was feeling disappointed about some interactions I’d had with brand new moms in my area recently.

What happened was that whenever I visited a friend who had just given birth, if I was delivering a meal, or helping her figure out how to get her baby into her baby carrier, all my visits started out just the same. 

She’d answer the door and welcome me in with apologies: “Sorry about the mess… sorry about the kitchen! Sorry about all the laundry everywhere… and I’m sorry… I haven’t been able to get a shower or get out of my PJs!”

It happened over and over! And even though I offered to stay longer and help, no one ever accepted. It seemed awkward for these new moms to accept my help and impolite for me to try to change their minds.

And that’s how I found myself at a meeting about how to become a birth doula. I wanted to make myself useful to new parents who were struggling to stay on top of things.

This was where I first heard about postpartum doulas and what a huge difference they can make!

What is a Postpartum Doula?

A Postpartum Doula is a support person or companion who helps you after you have had a baby.

They are specially trained to support you as you recover from childbirth, and help you adjust to your new life with a baby. A postpartum doula also helps you get to know your baby and learn how to look after them.

A postpartum doula can also help you look for information, support, and other resources you might need in the early weeks after you’ve had a baby and are running on so little sleep. In a lot of ways, they’re like an extra set of hands and an extra, well-rested brain for your family.

What does a Postpartum Doula do?

In short, a postpartum doula helps you in the early weeks after you’ve met your baby, whether that means helping with your recovery from pregnancy and childbirth, or helping you as you get to know your baby and how to look after them.

Some postpartum doulas are also childbirth educators who can help you prepare for a meaningful and satisfying birth experience. Others are also birth or labor doulas who can support you through your birth experience. There are postpartum doulas who are also lactation specialists or postpartum doulas with extra training in maternal mental health and wellness or baby sleep.

But even doulas without additional certifications are often a wealth of experience, information, and support as you prepare for your baby’s birth day, and in the early weeks after your family has grown. They are dedicated to your health and wellbeing as a new parent, as well as that of your new baby.

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Before you have your baby:

A postpartum doula can help you organize your baby things, plan meals, or get the supplies you need to make those early days with a baby a little easier.

They can also help you make a postpartum plan so that you have important information handy and can help you make certain decisions ahead of time so that you aren’t left struggling to do so when you are feeling tired and fuzzy in the newborn stage.

Once you are settled in at home with your baby:

A postpartum doula can come to your house a few days a week for several hours to check in with you, see how you are doing, hold the baby while you shower and nap, or to spend some dedicated time with you as you sort out your feelings and talk through your experience as a new mom.

Most in-home postpartum doulas are happy to do some tidying and light cleaning, cook your family meal or two, and generally make themselves useful around the house so you can continue resting and feeling taken care of.

There are also postpartum doulas who specialize in overnight support to help feed, change, and soothe your baby in the nighttime hours so that you can get a little more sleep.

A virtual postpartum doula will support you through regular video calls and plenty of text support.

During your virtual visit, a postpartum doula can watch you as you feed your baby and offer helpful feedback. They can help you put together a strategy for soothing your fussy baby, for sharing baby care with your partner, or for setting things up for bath time. They can also walk you through how to decide whether to call your doctor about something unusual.

Curious about your doula’s scope of practice? Check out this blog post ☝️

A virtual postpartum doula can check in with you as often as you’d like, either with a video chat, phone call, voice messaging, or text messaging. Like an in-home postpartum doula, a virtual doula is a soft place to land in the tender early weeks with your baby. They offer emotional support and encouragement and they are a great source of information about your recovery and baby care.

A great postpartum doula is there to help you without their own bias or agenda. Many new parents find that visiting family and friends are great, but that there are complex layers of expectations and sometimes judgment they did not expect and struggle to manage.

Your postpartum doula, however, just wants to see you healthy and taken care of as you settle into your new identity as a parent.

When should you get a Postpartum Doula?

You should connect with a postpartum doula in the second or third trimester of your pregnancy. This way, you can get to know each other and your doula can help you get ready and feel totally prepared to meet your baby. Most postpartum doulas support new parents through the first 8-10 weeks with their babies.

But even if you’ve already had your baby and you are realizing you could really use the help, reach out and see if a doula you like has availability to look after you and your family. Ask for the help you need and see how they can help you.

Who needs a Postpartum Doula?

I’ve helped first-time parents, and second-time parents. I’ve helped families who moved back in with their parents when they had their baby, families who had their own moms stay with them for several weeks, and families with no access to help because of lockdowns and travel restrictions.

As an in-home postpartum doula, I often made myself useful holding the baby so that parents could take the time to look after themselves. I cooked a meal, cleaned the kitchen, and folded laundry. If this kind of care feels dreamy and meaningful to you, I highly recommend finding a local postpartum doula for your family!

But even when I worked in families’ homes, I spent quite a lot of time sitting with new moms while they explained how their day had been, what the pediatrician said at the last appointment, what had been difficult, felt confusing, or made them feel emotional.

And I do a lot of that now in my virtual doula care. I don’t get to hold the baby anymore but instead, I get to focus on holding the new parents.

We talk about whether it’s time to reach out to a lactation specialist, or how to tweak naps for more restful sleep, or how to deal with the feeling that nothing ever gets done and every day feels like chaos.

For these parents, it is incredibly helpful to have an upcoming appointment to look forward to for extra help, extra insight, and extra encouragement. It feels like a calm moment in the storm. A chance to regroup, refocus, and make a plan for the next day.

So if you’re not worried about hands-on baby care but you would feel a lot better knowing you had someone trustworthy and experienced you could talk to anytime, let’s connect!

A postpartum doula is there to help you, so what do you need help with? If you’re not sure what kind of help you need but know you don’t want to go into the first few weeks with your baby alone, reach out to a doula you like and talk it through with them. They’ll help set you up with support that allows you to feel confident and looked after.

How are doulas trained?

Trained and certified doulas belong to their certifying organization or association, but the work of doulas is not regulated in the United States and one does not need to be certified (or even trained!) to call themselves a doula.

It is up to an individual doula to choose their certifying organization based on the criteria they find important, whether that means attending a weekend workshop in-person and then completing coursework for several months afterward, or else attending online classes to meet the requirements for their desired certification.

Some organizations require adherence to fairly strict guidelines about feeding support or baby sleep advice, while others focus on supporting the efforts of parents with a wide variety of preferences, cultural norms, or parenting practices.

Doula Course Work

Nearly all doula certifications require an aspiring doula to complete a substantial amount of course work in areas of specialization like breastfeeding, newborn care, physiology of the postpartum body, nutrition for new parents, and maternal mental health topics.

Students might need to write reflections, work through assignments and reading lists, and support several clients while being mentored ahead of certification.

Some certifications involve regular meetings with mentor doulas or trainers but requirements vary. This process can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on the specific requirements of the training and the time a student doula can commit to the process.

There are several excellent certifying organizations in the birth world and their number is growing all the time. Some require a yearly membership fee, or recertification every few years in order to maintain good standing with their certifying organization. Most offer specialized training in related roles such as childbirth educator, birth doula, postpartum doula, or lactation educator. 

Requirements and reputations vary, but some of the more well-known doula training organizations are DONA (Doulas of North America), CAPPA (Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association), CBI (Childbirth International), ProDoula, Innate Traditions, and Birth Arts International. I certified with CBI but this is not a question I’ve ever been asked by a family who is ready to hire me.

And this is probably because what most new parents need from their support team even more than a clearly posted list of qualifications is a feeling of connection, warmth, and understanding.

The early postpartum period is a vulnerable time for your family, and knowing that someone is looking after you, listening to you, and supporting all your efforts with your new baby is crucial.

Connect with a Doula!

Ready to connect with a doula and set yourself up for a more confident and more nurturing fourth trimester?

The easiest way to try out postpartum doula care right away is to sign up for my Prepping for Parenthood course. If you’ve got 2 weeks or more to go you can:

• prepare yourself - your needs, your absolutes, your dreams, and your happy habits for the postpartum period

• get your meals, baby gear, and stations organized and ready

• go over baby basics and safe sleep practices

• learn what other kinds of birth and baby professionals are out there to help you.

  Find out more and get signed up by clicking right here.

Wishing you so much health and strength in your journey to parenthood!

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