Sometimes you might wonder what on earth determines a postpartum doulas fees. Is there a mysterious doula-sorting mechanism that assigns each doula a score? Do luck, chance or, random fluctuations in the weather play a role in the price you get quoted? Or you just maybe thinking “Argh! Why are doulas so expensive!!”
Well we’ll try and explain a little about how doulas work – and also add the disclaimer that we don’t speak for all doulas.
We doulas tend to be a fiercely independent bunch (kind of like the moms we work with)! In addition postpartum doulas have a secret – we believe that the ‘something’ that we provide is priceless. After all – as anyone who has had a postpartum doula will tell you – the comfort and reassurance that a postpartum doula provides is only disguised as help with dishes and laundry! So there you have it – it’s a priceless service, that is felt in the heart and cannot be quantified in terms of money.
And yet postpartum doulas are also a tremendously practical bunch! We must make a living, take care of our dependents, save for the future, pay taxes, buy health insurance, business insurance, afford continued training and education, pay association dues, etc etc etc…
And so we must charge for our time – that much is clear. Yet we are indepent as – previously stated – and we also have a tendency to be mavericks. We want to offer our services to everyone who asks; but at the same time we are well aware of how valuable the ‘something’ that we provide is. Hence each doula works with what she needs to support herself, what she can offer in terms of her time and comes up with an amount that she deems is reasonable without pushing her into penury (or into more penury than she can stand).
Thus we all have slightly different rates, different flexibilities with our rates and it all seems a little magical and mysterious. It’s not and it is. All cleared up?
Life Circle Birth International 