13 - What is a Postpartum Doula?

In this episode of the Birth and Baby podcast, Lindsee and Doula Deb explore the transformative role of postpartum doulas in supporting families during the transition into parenthood. We discuss how postpartum doulas provide essential care—from baby care and meal prep to emotional support and light chores—helping parents navigate the early days with confidence and calm.

You’ll also learn about the benefits of having a postpartum doula, including increased self-confidence, reduced risk of mood disorders, and greater success with breastfeeding. Plus, we offer tips on finding and hiring the right doula or exploring alternative postpartum support options.

If you’re committed to making the most of your postpartum journey, this episode is a must-listen!

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Overview
01:15 - The Importance of Postpartum Support
02:11 - What a Postpartum Doula Does
03:07 - Benefits of Having a Postpartum Doula
05:22 - Assistance with Household Tasks
07:42 - Non-Judgmental Support
09:31 - Cost and Finding a Postpartum Doula
13:34 - Alternative Support Options
18:46 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts


Links to Resources:
The First Year Support Program: https://www.douladeb.com/the-first-year
FREE list of postpartum providers you should know about: www.douladeb.com/postpartumprofessionals
How to determine how much postpartum support your family needs: https://www.douladeb.com/blog/how-to-decide-how-much-postpartum-care-you-will-need
Questions you ask your postpartum doula in an interview: https://www.douladeb.com/blog/fifteen-questions-for-your-postpartum-doula
Preparing for Parenthood Workbook: www.douladeb.com/workbooks

Thanks for tuning in! 🎧✨ Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of the Birth and Baby podcast! Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Click here to send us a message or email us at birthandbabypodcast@gmail.com. Until next time, be gentle with yourself and remember—you're doing an amazing job! 🌟

Deb Jimenez @ Doula Deb LLC: www.DoulaDeb.com, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter.

Lindsee McDonald @ Wildflower Birth Services: www.WildflowerBirthService.com, Instagram, Tiktok.

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your physician for any medical questions. The views expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the hosts. Reliance on any information provided is at your own risk.

Transcript

Welcome to the Birth and Baby podcast, where we dive into the real talk you need. The stuff people don't always tell you about. We're here to answer your questions. No matter how weird and to help you feel empowered and excited about giving birth and raising your babies. We're here to share a passion with all things pregnancy, birth and parenting, and to help you navigate this wild and wonderful journey with confidence and joy. Whether it's prepping for birth, mastering breastfeeding and postpartum, or getting those much-needed Z's, we've got you covered.

I'm Lindsee, a childbirth educator, doula, proud mama of four, and your birth and baby bestie. And I'm Deb, your ultimate birth, postpartum, and sleep doula, and a mom to two incredible kids. All right, let's dive in.

Welcome back to the Birth and Baby podcast. I'm your host, Doula Deb, and my co -host, Lindsee. How are you today, Lindsay? I'm good. How are you today? I'm doing well. I'm excited to talk to you today about postpartum doulas. I want to share a little story about how I stumbled upon the amazing world of postpartum doulas. It all started when a good friend of mine introduced me to the idea. I was totally taken back by the concept of helping families during such a big moment in their lives.

Watching families navigate the uncertainties of parenthood and then seeing them blossom into confident parents is something that really speaks to me. I absolutely love seeing the incredible transformation they go through. Whether it's their first baby or they're adding another little one to the family, families who work with postpartum doulas often find that the transition into parenthood is a lot smoother. Postpartum doulas offer crucial support not only to the new parent and the baby, but the whole family.

They can really take a load off their partners, allowing them to truly savor the special time instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the responsibilities of being a parent. So let's jump into today's topic and discover what a postpartum doula really is and how they can help turn your worries into calm, confident parenting. Okay, so I wanted to share a quote that really captures what postpartum doula is all about. And this is by Lauren Porter. She said, new mothers need to be mothered.

To be nurtured and cared for by a support network that assists with physical recovery from birth, transition into infant care, and the immense psychological leap into a new role. In many cultures, it's been a beautiful tradition for the community to come together and support a family after the arrival of a new baby. Unfortunately though, in our modern society, we don't always prioritize or recognize the importance of this special time. Everyone is so busy with their own lives,

That it can be hard to offer this kind of support. That's why it's really important for us to reach out and create our own community of support to help us through this precious time. It's a tough time as families adjust to life with a new baby. Both Ternambulas are there to help everyone, not just the new mom or baby. They can take care of things like baby care, preparing and cooking meals, light chores, so that the partners can focus on bonding with the baby and supporting the new mom without being overwhelmed.

Research shows that having a postpartum doula can really make the transition into parenthood so much easier. It can increase satisfaction and lower the risk of mood disorders. With their support, you'll feel more secure and cared for, leading to increased self -confidence. And we all know that confident parents raise confident kids, right? Plus, a postpartum doula's help can lead to fewer postpartum mood disorders like depression and anxiety and greater success with breastfeeding. I mean, who wouldn't want a postpartum doula hen you can have such great outcomes with their support, right? If you're wondering what exactly a postpartum doula does to get these amazing outcomes, let's talk about it. 

A postpartum doula offers amazing support to new parents that provide education, companionship, helping the families navigate the ups and downs of newborn care, and whether you need guidance on breastfeeding, bottle feeding, or soothing techniques, a postpartum doula is there to support both parents. They offer understanding and non -judgmental support, respecting your parenting choices and empowering you to trust your instincts. Let's take a closer look at each of these points. All right, if you've ever heard of a postpartum doula, most people immediately think of the household support. Most postpartum doulas will help you with light housekeeping so you can focus on what's most important, caring for the birthing person through their recovery and bonding with your newborn. Some things a postpartum doula can help you with are tidying up your home. So straightening up like the main areas, emptying the diaper pails, light cleaning dishes. They can hand wash or load none of the dishwasher. They can clean infant supplies. So clean and tinsing bottles and pump parts, pacifiers, nipple shields, anything like that. They can prepare snaps and hydration. So when you feed the baby, we bring a healthy snack and fluids like tea, electrolytes, water, anything like that. And we can help with meal prep. So preparing and cooking simple meals. There's comfort levels with this. So it really depends on who's hiring the postpartum bullet and the postpartum bullet themselves. But you can talk about that before ever hiring one. They can help with laundry. So washing, drying, folding, and putting away laundry. But they don't do like heavy cleaning, moving, or pet care typically. 

So I know what you're thinking. I can keep up with my house, I don't need a doula for that, but bear with me. First, the better thing parent will be on bed rest for a while, so their partner will be doing all the brunt of this work. But here's the deal, it's not that you can't do this household stuff, it's just that you should be bonding and resting with your new baby, not tidying up your house or cleaning bottles. But maybe you might have the supportive family or house cleaner or friends that come over and help you with that. That way your can focus on other things like education and support. Postpartum doulas are super knowledgeable and keep up with the latest info and safety guidelines. Some like me offer prenatal postpartum prep sessions or classes while others provide support and education once the baby arrives. A good doula knows that all knows all about postpartum recovery, taking care of your baby, managing the household and the ins and outs of being coming a new parent. And it's crucial to find a doula that gives you evidence -based information. Trust me, relying on evidence -based info for postpartum recovery, baby care, and postpartum mood disorders is really important for a safe and healthy postpartum period. With an in -home postpartum doula, not only will they provide you with evidence -based information on safety and various techniques, but we can also model how to care for their babies.

Often, we demonstrate techniques and shadow you as you build your confidence when caring for your baby, led with the following swaddling, and comforting, changing diapers, bathing and feeding. Now, did you know that postpartum doulas can actually help you overnight? Yeah, it's true. This is one of the most popular types of postpartum support. In addition to doing all those other amazing things, overnight support for a doula means that they take care of your baby so that the new parents can get some much needed rest without any interruptions. Some doulas even specialize in teaching healthy sleep habits and educating parents about infant sleep, but not all of them do that. So you can ask your doula if they provide this type of support. So that brings us to another important distinction between any support and the support of the postpartum doula. Postpartum doulas are there for you without passing judgment, providing you with non -judgmental support as you navigate the world of parenting. This means that we respect your parenting choices.

This can be really empowering, especially when new parents are bombarded with advice from family, friends, and others, which can sometimes come with lot of emotional weight. We can offer you helpful resources and stand by you as you determine what's best for you and your family, and then encourage you to make your decision in a positive way.

But what if things don't exactly go as planned? What if your baby isn't feeling feeding well? What if you're struggling with your mental health? What if your recovery isn't as easy as you thought it would be and requires a lot more support from various providers who can help you with these problems? What if you know something is wrong, but you can't quite figure it out because our brains don't work well when they're sleep deprived, right? Your doula can come in with fresh eyes and well -supported temperament to help you with whatever is needed. They can tell you what's normal. And what type of support you need from what type of provider. A well -connected doula will already have those referrals ready for any problem that comes up. Each family will have different needs, so various referral sources are needed to refer them properly. Typical local resources may include lactation consultants, therapists for postpartum mood disorders, pelvic floor, craniosacral therapy, chiropractors, acupuncturists, new parent groups, classes on childbirth education, infant care, postpartum recovery, CPR, meal prep or meal services and grocery services, child care providers, sibling doula support, pet care, and even house cleaners. If you want a free list of these postpartum providers that you should know about, go to my website at http://www.douladeb.com/postpartumprofessionals and I'll provide you with a list of all of these professionals and a space for you to fill in ahead of time your local resources. So when or if these problems come along, you will have someone to call. That's so helpful. So out of all the things that we already discussed Deb, what do your clients find most helpful about the support you offer as opposed to Haram Dula? You know, it's funny. The main reasons people hire me is not what you'd expect. While I do help with the household and sleep support, which is the main thing people come to me for.

The best part of my job is having those heart to heart conversations with families about becoming parents and handling the challenges that come with the changes in their family dynamic. And they are just surprised that that's the most beneficial thing that they didn't even expect from my services. mean, it makes sense. makes me think of like one of the very first questions I ask when I have a doula consult with someone for their birth, no matter what is like, what is your dream birth look like and what do you not want to happen?

So like it's the same thing for postpartum. I love that. I love that you ask these tough questions to figure out really like to look ahead and explore. Yeah. also when we are working together and we haven't done that prep work, those things come up anyway. And those are the things that I help with figuring out the best way to manage after, even though we haven't planned ahead for that. and it helps them having a third party talking through it.

When sometimes these are really tough conversations to have with your partner because that's little scary. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that's important to remember about postpartum support is that when you have a postpartum doula visiting regularly, it really is like having a built -in companion and friend, right? Like we're there to be like your best friend, to schedule to come and visit with you regularly to give you that space to vent, decompress and take a breather.

And as a bonus, we offer specialized education and advice. The truth is, having a baby is not all rainbows and butterflies, and we're here to support you through all of it.

So, postpartum doulas might seem like fairy godmothers, but their services can be costly depending on where you live. In the Pacific Northwest, I am, rates can range from $40 an hour to $75 an hour due to their specialized training and resources. The goal of a doula is always to work themselves out of a job as quickly as possible so that they can go on to help more families. Some doulas also offer sliding scale options, military raids, or even package discounts if you pay for a certain amount of hours up front. The tough thing is that unfortunately, most insurance companies do not cover the cost of this postpartum care. However, there has been some success in insurance coverage of perinatal services. So submitting those invoices to your insurance can really help show how important the support is and eventually get it covered by insurance. Yeah, I think it's bizarre that they don't cover it because it's so helpful. Like research shows how much it can improve health and overall wellbeing of parents and babies. But you know, it is what it is. So if your insurance doesn't cover it, how will you pay for postpartum care? It can get expensive quickly. Figuring out the amount of postpartum care you need is complex and begin to identify the support you already have. So some families may only need one or two visits from a postpartum doula, while others, such as those with like multiples, they might require much more support than a typical family.

Trying to figure out your personal needs during your postpartum period is something that I do help people with in my postpartum prep or my preparing for parenthood sessions. I suggest asking yourself and your partner the following questions to determine the kind of help you may need postpartum, just to see if a postpartum do -over would be appropriate and how much support you might need. You can find these questions and so many more things to prepare for your postpartum and my preparing for parenthood workbook.

And I'll include a link down below and it's http://www.douladeb.com/workbooks.

So the things to consider when hiring a postpartum doula is how well do you do with stress? How well do you do with little sleep? How much sleep do you require? How much family and community help do you already have in place? And how can you utilize that in the best way? The things that you already have in place, how helpful will that be? For example, some families that help is not going to be super helpful or maybe they can focus on meal prep because they love helping cooking. While as other families, other moms or grandmas might be more into baby holding. You have to work that out with each person that is offering help and if it does feel helpful to you. Based on your needs and your current support system, what support should you prioritize? Do you want to prioritize a cleaning service so that you don't have to worry about that? meal prepping or a postpartum doula who can provide a variety of things. Do you anticipate needing hands -on household support or do you want to focus on sleep support because you really need the sleep to keep your mental health in check? This will determine whether you might need a doula during the day or overnight. Make sure to check with your insurance coverage to see if they will pay for a postpartum doula and if so, how much and how do you go about arranging that?

And then after you figured out all the places that you have the current support and how to supplement that with other services coming in, what is your budget for support services and how can you maximize that? It's something that I do with my clients is we determine here's your budget for all of your care. You need X, Y, and Z support.

Let's front load it in the beginning. So you get lots of support in the beginning and you can recover more quickly, or maybe you want to spread it out because you know sleep is really important. And so you spread it out as far as you can, maybe a couple of times a week to kind of keep the maintenance. You determine that based on what your needs are. These questions and more are posted on my blog on how much support you need. And that's at http://www.douladeb.com/blog.

And I'll link that below. So after learning about all the benefits and ways a doula can help you, perhaps you're considering hiring a postpartum doula. Fortunately, there are several ways to find one. I would start by asking for recommendations from healthcare providers, friends, or family members who may have used one. Personal referrals are always the best, but some online resources like doulamatch.net can also help you find doulas in your area. Interviewing potential doulas is important to make sure that they align with your family's needs and values. If you need help with what questions to ask in an interview, visit Deb's blog for a complete post about it. The link will be in the show notes, but also it's www.douladeb.com/blog. If you don't have access to or you don't have the budget for an in -home postpartum doula, I do have an offering that I just started recently in this program. It's called the First Year Support Program. It offers monthly and weekly consultation options for families needing guidance and support during the first year of their baby's life. It's designed to provide expert advice and compassionate support empowering you to take control of your postpartum journey. While I may not be able to do your dishes or change your baby's diaper, I will help you decipher if your baby's poop is normal. And I'll probably ask for a picture too. Additionally, I can assist you with determining if you're getting enough sleep and help strategize to get more in -home support with what you have. You can also count on me to provide a listening ear while we work through any challenge that comes up.

As a special offer for our podcast listeners, I'm offering a 15 % discount off your first month of support. You just need to the code podcast15 when you sign up. This code will be available until the end of August, 2024. Feel free to reach out to me personally if you miss this offer and I can inform you of any other available discounts.

This program can be a lifeline, especially for partners who might feel overwhelmed, providing them with the resources and support that they need to be effective and loving caregivers. Okay, so the key takeaway that I want you guys to take from this episode is that help is available for families after having a baby. You don't have to do this alone. A postpartum doula can be an essential part of your support network and your village helping to ensure a smoother transition in the family. My hope is that you learn something about the type of care a postpartum doula can provide in your postpartum period. Because our society doesn't build in this support, now more than ever, postpartum doulas are crucial in supporting families through this often challenging time. Remember, help is out there. You don't have to navigate this journey alone. And if you're curious about finding postpartum support or you feel that you need help, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you so much for listening and tuning into today's Birth and Baby podcast episode. And for more information about any of the services mentioned in this podcast, just visit my website, Duladab .com or my Instagram at Duladab .com. And my website for child love education is www .wildflowerbirthservice .com or you can find me on Instagram at wildflower underscore birth services.

And don't forget to use the code podcast15 for a discount on the first year support program. Until next time, take care and remember you got this!