It’s 3:00 am and you’re awake.
Awake because you’re pregnant and your baby is kicking, their elbows making strange lines across your belly.
Your mind races with questions or worry or wonder, and about all that it means to be a parent.
And then a thought barges in and demands your attention: Can I do this?
We get it. And we promise: Yes, you can.
Wildwood Birth's Portland Doula Team
Your Portland Doula Team
Everyone needs a little help sometimes. Especially when undergoing the most impactful, profound transformation there is in life - becoming a parent.
As your doulas, we will offer you an empathetic, non-judgmental, unconditional support system throughout pregnancy, birth, and the fourth trimester.
We believe that how birth happens, matters. As your Portland doulas, we will help you to make a plan, and to plan for the unexpected.
We promise to ensure, to the best of our abilities, that you have a good experience of giving birth, and that from day one, you feel empowered to step into parenthood smoothly and assuredly, with a strong community surrounding and supporting you.
We believe that every birthing person deserves a doula who:
champions your empowerment with evidence-based information to help you make the best decisions for you and your baby
knows how to support you through the challenges and celebrates with you the many joys
listens to you, trusts you, trusts your body, your baby, and your intuition
Our birth doula team works… as a team!
Some of our doulas work in a solo practice, and some of us work in a partnership model (Collective Care). Either way, our professional, certified birth doula team works as a team to support you. We share knowledge, information, and resources with each other to ensure that each family’s unique needs are best attended to. We also are each other’s built-in back up, so in the uncommon case that your doula is attending another birth, a Wildwood doula would step in to support you until she became available to join you.
Doula Services & Covid-19
Wildwood Birth is adapting our doula services to the changing landscape of birth as hospitals continuously change their policies around labor support and other policies that affect birthing people and partners. We offer a hybrid of virtual and in-person meetings based on current and shifting safety conditions.
Our entire team of doulas is vaccinated. We also practice caution by taking care in our own lives, wearing masks, washing our hands frequently, and following CDC recommendations to stay healthy.
Our Birth Doula Packages
We offer 10% off of creative services like birth photography and birth videography when you bundle them with a birth doula package. We are also happy to offer payment plans.
We are currently offering two doula packages:
The first package is focused on childbirth classes and newborn care classes.
The second is that of a birth doula support which is different and separate from childbirth education.
Please read below for more information.
Childbirth Classes, Breastfeeding Classes & Newborn Care Classes $149-$500
Topics covered: Childbirth Classes, Breastfeeding, Newborn Care Classes, and Sleep Training Baby.
Birth Doula Support
$1,700 - $3,000*
At least four hours of prenatal appointments
At least two hours of postpartum appointments
On-call support from 38 weeks through 6 weeks postpartum
Early labor support at home, and help deciding when to go to the hospital or birth center
Labor support at home, the hospital, or birth center throughout labor and usually about two hours postpartum
*the rate varies for each doula, depending on experience.
Why is our birth doula price a range?
Our birth doulas each have their own rate based on their level of experience. We have created additional resource to answer the most common questions about doula pricing. Please get in touch if you have any other questions about our birth doula pricing.
What happens at prenatal & postpartum doula consultations?
Each prenatal and postpartum appointment included in our Birth Doula Support package is a private meeting between you and your doula where you can ask any questions you have about childbirth and newborn care.
Prenatal Appointments
Four hours of prenatal appointments are included with our birth doula support package. These prenatal consultations will cover (but are not limited to):
physiology of birth
hospital procedures
developing your birth plan, or birth preferences
comfort measures
medications
postpartum plan
preparing for feeding
Postpartum Appointments
Two hours of postpartum appointments are included with our birth doula support package. These postpartum doula Portland consultations will cover (but are not limited to):
birth processing
newborn care
breastfeeding
sleep training
all of your postpartum questions
Schedule your free birth doula consultation today.
We look forward to connecting with you and learning how we can best support you during these wild and exciting times.
“Wherever you are in your journey, we’ll meet you there, and walk with you the rest of the way.”
PDX Doula Support: What does a doula do?
Doulas provide physical support
Touch — massage, acupressure, or with a rebozo
Hydrotherapy — warm shower or birth pool
Applying heat or cold for desired temperature
Creating a calm environment through music (or silence), adjusting lighting, and minimizing outside noise or talking
Assisting with walking, swaying, changing position
Offering water, ice, food, other comfort items
Doulas provide emotional support
Continuous presence throughout labor
Verbal encouragement, praise and reassurance (“normalizing” the experience)
Mirroring the birthing person’s experience and matching the feeling and tone
Remaining calm and steady, showing a caring attitude
Empathizing with the birthing person, supporting what they want
Talking through fears and self-doubt with birthing person and their partner
Re-framing circumstances to help birthing person view themselves and their situation more positively
Processing the birth story postpartum - empathizing and clarifying when appropriate
Doulas provide informational support
Multiple, thorough prenatal meetings to discuss all aspects of childbirth
Help with creating a birth preferences document to provide to care providers
Providing resources and evidence-based information for making decisions throughout pregnancy and childbirth
Guiding birthing person and their partner through labor with relaxation, breathing, movement and positioning techniques
Helping explain medical procedures before or as they occur, facilitating communication with care providers
Answer your questions about birth plans, home births and water births
Doulas provide advocacy support
Asking the birthing person what they want, and unconditionally supporting their decision
Encouraging birthing person and their partner to ask questions, verbalize their preferences, and creating space to make unpressured decisions
Amplifying the birthing person’s voice if she is being dismissed, ignored, or not heard by the care providers “Excuse me - I believe she is trying to say something, I’m not sure if you heard her…”
“...supporting the birthing person in their right to make decisions about their own body and baby.” - www.evidencebasedbirth.com
“Birth is an opportunity to transcend. To rise above what we are accustomed to, reach deeper inside ourselves than we are familiar with, and to see not only what we are truly made of, but the strength we can access in and through birth.”
The benefits of Portland doula support
Evidence-based improvements in birth outcomes:
39% decrease in unplanned Cesarean birth
15% increase in the likelihood of a spontaneous vaginal birth
10% decrease in the use of any medications for pain relief
Shorter labors by 41 minutes on average
38% decrease in the baby’s having a low five minute Apgar score
31% decrease in the risk of being dissatisfied with the birth experience
