Frequently Asked Questions
“How are you handling Covid-19, and will the pandemic affect my ability to have a doula with me during labor?”
Our whole doula team is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and we will be happy to share our vaccination cards with you if requested. We are continuing to take the global pandemic very seriously and prioritize the health and safety of our clients above everything else.
As of right now, all of the local Pittsburgh hospitals are allowing doulas to accompany patients as an extra support person in Labor & Delivery. If you’re unsure that your delivery location will allow doulas, we recommend talking with your care provider. UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital and The Midwife Center for Birth & Women’s Health are allowing two support persons in labor, plus a doula.
– Last updated October 2021 –
The short answer here is, absolutely! It’s true that a person planning for an unmedicated delivery will likely need extra hands-on support from a doula, but it’s also true that everyone who is giving birth benefits from having a constant, trained support person. A doula provides all four pillars of labor support – emotional, physical, informational, and advocacy. It is our job to support you, your needs, and your decisions, and our support does not change based on what you choose or why.
Absolutely not! We work with your birth partner so that they can be as much of a part of the labor experience as you want them to be. It’s really, really hard for partners to see the person who they love be in pain, and it can be really overwhelming for them to want to help but not know how. We help to ease those anxious moments and show your partner when and where they can do the most good for you. In fact, a lot of our time in prenatal meetings is spent learning about how you and your partner support each other so that we can use the relationship that you have to enhance your experience!
No, there is not. Typically we’ll join you after you’ve hit the “active labor” phase, but once we’re there, we stay until 1-2 hours after the baby is born. We have supported births that are 2 hours long, births that are 42 hours long, and everything in between. If you choose to work with both of us, we may swap midway through a long labor so that you’ll always have a fresh, well-rested doula.
Sometimes we can, but other times we can’t. At UPMC Magee, doulas are almost always allowed to accompany you and your partner into a surgical birth, unless it’s an emergency. Other local hospitals (such as West Penn and Jefferson) are less likely to allow us into an operating room, but we have been able to squeeze in before! Whether or not we can join you in the OR itself, we stay with you for extra time postpartum in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit to make sure that you’re recovering okay and are meeting your new baby.
At this time, doulas are not usually covered by traditional insurance plans, so we do not work with your insurance company. However, if you have an insurance plan with an HSA or FSA you can typically use those funds to pay for a doula! We have also had some clients be successfully reimbursed by their insurance company for childbirth education. We suggest talking directly with your insurance provider to see if that’s something you’re able to do.
Yes, we can! We are very familiar with Hypnobirthing, Hypnobabies, the Bradley Method, Lamaze, and many more. We’ll do a deep dive into your particular method during our prenatal meetings, and offer suggestions of how we can supplement it as well.