What Does a Postpartum Doula Do?
A Postpartum Doula combines their training in postpartum physiological care, newborn development and feeding, and mental health with a warm and reassuring presence to help you care for your body and your baby after birth.
DC Birth Doulas offers a variety of postpartum support packages to fit your individual family’s needs and include a 1:1 consultation to identify what those needs are.
Our introductory packages are designed to help you transition home from the hospital, provide you with additional support and rest during your initial postpartum recovery period, and introduce you and your family to new parenting skills.
Larger packages can help families build on new skills and create healthy routines, begin establishing good feeding and developmentally appropriate safe sleeping habits, and troubleshoot changes during early infant development leaps so that when our time with you is over you feel ready to move forward with confidence.
Additional packages can be added to provide extended overnight support and coaching later in the postpartum period later as parents return to work, ensuring everyone in the household is getting enough sleep, while supporting important infant feeding and developmental milestones.
Each of our doulas have additional specialized training in lactation, infant feeding, sleep training, baby wearing, and/or multiples support. We will work to match you with a primary doula based on your geography, shift requests and individual support needs.
Some families wonder what postpartum support looks like. Here are some examples:
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Care for your postpartum body - get guidance from your doula on how to use tools and techniques as you recover, such as a peri bottle and sitz baths.
Infant feeding - get support in breastfeeding, bottle feeding or combination feeding; ask questions about your breast pump and bottles; and get ideas for feeding positions and burping baby.
Infant care - get ideas for infant sleep and soothing and tips for bathing your baby
Self care - get some rest, go for a walk outside, take a shower, eat or join our postpartum peer circle while your doula takes care of your baby.
Baby products - get support on baby wearing (those fabric wraps can be tricky), changing station set-up, and other baby products that you have questions about.
Infant development - get some advice on how to recognize, prepare for and move through normal developmental milestones.
Overnight shifts - this is a great time to catch up on sleep! If you are breastfeeding, the doula can be responsible for diaper changing and getting your baby back to sleep. If you are bottle feeding, you can let the doula take full responsibility for those eight hours! Doulas can also fold baby clothes and wash bottles during those hours.
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Please check out our FAQ page for more information on commonly asked questions.