Doula Services

We are experienced doulas who work together as a team to support your family. We attend births in Greensboro, Burlington, and Winston-Salem. Our desire is for you to have the best birth experience possible because we know that this will yield better outcomes - physically and emotionally - for you and your baby. Evidence based studies show that doula support leads to lower rates of c-sections, less need for Pitocin, lower use of epidurals, and more positive emotional outcomes for parents. We believe that birth is simply better when you have a doula. When your birth experience is positive, this sets you up well for the postpartum time. You may desire a completely unmedicated birth. Or you may hope to get an epidural to use as a tool to help you have a vaginal birth. We have experience supporting all kinds of births - first time parents, parents of multiples, parents who have already had one or more births, inductions, scheduled c-sections, VBACs, IVF pregnancies and births, and more. We get to know you well in pregnancy so that we can support your hopes for your birth. Our hope at Growing Families is for your birth experience to be a positive one that you treasure.

Pregnancy
During your pregnancy, you can reach out to us to schedule a virtual doula consultation. At the consultation, we get to know one other. We discuss your hopes for your birth. We answer your questions. Ultimately, we see if our services are a good fit for your family. If you decide to hire Growing Families, we remain in touch through the pregnancy - always just a text or phone call away. After the virtual consultation, you will have two more meetings with us (one with each of the two doulas on call for you in Growing Families) and these meetings will be in-person unless you prefer to meet virtually. During the prenatal meetings we help you become educated and informed about the options and choices you have in birth. We also help you and your partner know how to advocate for yourselves. We value frequent communication with our clients in pregnancy.

Birth
Once you begin having signs of labor, we want you to be in touch with us right away. We help you navigate the early stages of labor before it is time for you to go to the hospital. We remind you of positions for you to do in order to encourage your baby to be in a good position for birth. Once we join you, we work with you, your partner, your nurse, and your provider (your midwife or doctor) to support you. We have built great relationships with midwives, physicians, and hospital staff at our local birth locations through the years and that helps everyone on your birth team to work together well. We use tools in our doula bag (massage oil, snacks, a TENS unit, a fan, LED candles, or a warm rice pack) to help, but the most important thing we bring is our calming and reassuring presence. The difference between a doula and anyone else who is supporting you is that we only work for you (not the hospital) and you are our only focus during your whole birth. The consistent emotional and physical support that a doula brings is priceless. While we are not birth photographers, we do document the birth by taking lots of photos.

Postpartum
Once your baby is born, we remain with you for 1-2 hours. We help establish initial breastfeeding. We celebrate with you! Once we leave your birth, we are still available via text or phone for whatever you need - new mom questions, baby questions, and of course for lactation support since one of our doulas, Jessica, is also an IBCLC (lactation consultant). We have a postpartum visit with you within 1-2 weeks of your birth. We are available for questions and support for as long as you need us after your birth.

Fees
The fee for doula support is $1,150. This includes 24/7 access to us during your pregnancy, three meetings in pregnancy to get to know you and prepare you for your birth, unlimited support during your labor and birth (no matter how long your labor is), and a postpartum visit. A deposit of $400 is due at the time of hiring Growing Families and the remaining $750 is due by 37 weeks of pregnancy. We offer repeat doula clients a $100 discount.