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Originally Posted by AugustLia23  My "day" job is as a postpartum doula. I also do labor support(birth doula). Plus I have had and will again have a home birth. I think in many ways, a PP doula is different for those who've had a hospital vs. a home birth. In my experience, many of the 1st time moms I work with, who have hospital births, are really looking to learn what baby caretaking is all about. Especially when the birth has been complicated for whatever reason. These moms are looking for support to find their way in parenting. For homebirth moms, they are looking for the more practical aspects of care, such as cooking, laundry, cleaning(I do very light cleaning, ie. sweeping).
PP care can definitely be helpful for either mom, and if you have no useful family support, I definitely recommend a PP doula.
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Well, i think that since i would be a first time mom and i have never been around newborns before, I would think the live-in newborn care help would be great. I guess I kinda would need in the capacity as like a how-to newborn help (breastfeeding consulting, diaper changing, iding cues, etc). But what if I good extensive baby parenting class could take care of that? I dunno. But i think i would feel weird having them clean and cook for us unless absolutely NONE of our family could fly in and do those things for us. However, at this time, we cant garauntee anyone would be able to come and stay long enough to do that for us, so a pp doula may be the ticket.
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Originally Posted by Sihaya Hi BrownLioness! I am planning a hb and hiring a pp doula. The person I am hiring could also act as my birth doula if I wanted one, so you might not neccessarily be hiring two separate people. Also, depending on the person, they might give you a break on rates if you hire them for both birth and pp.
What AugustLia said about hb moms needing more practical help, like cooking, cleaning, etc. is definitely true for me. I just want to know that DH will have clean underwear and we won't starve without having to deal with all the baggage that having family help out brings. Our parents are all 5 minutes away from us and that's a big part of the reason why I'm choosing a pp doula. For our families, "helping" is just an excuse to come and interrupt our babymoon and fawn over the baby. I want the doula there so we can say "Actually, the doula is taking care of that, but if you'd like to come by and see the baby, you're welcome between 3 and 4pm on Tuesday." That way, we don't have people dropping by for hours under the pretense of cleaning or doing laundry.
As far as the cost, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my pp doula (who is in the process of being certified, so most likely offered me a discounted rate) will only cost about $100-150/week and I plan on having her come every day for 1-2 hours. I was under the impression that a pp doula would be $1000s of dollars, not $400-500 for the whole month!
HTH!
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HAY Steph! This sounds like my family...i think they would bogard just to be able to get QT with the baby instead of help around the house...aint that a blip!? I did some researching since I posted this thread and i did see how inexpensive they actually are which eases my mind a lil bit. I would really really love it if I could get a doula that could do both birth and pp tho.
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Originally Posted by jrwlewis I looked into a pp doula. My husband is going back to school and I have a 2yo dd. The pp doulas I spoke with focus on mom and baby and the bonding relationship - which I think is great but not for me. I want someone to help with my dd and do the dishes. One doula spoke about holding the baby so I could get rest and this bothered me. I don't want someone else holding my baby for the first week. I've decided to hire someone to clean my house and a sitter to help with dd.
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Yea, im definitely not up for that, cause I would want hubby to be the one to hold the baby while I rested/showered/went to the bathroom/etc. My doula would be there strictly for HELP with the baby, not to takeover.
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