Our service provides LISTINGS OF TRAINED AND CERTIFIED DOULAS PROVIDING PRENATAL, BIRTH, POSTPARTUM AND NEWBORN SERVICES TO ALL WOMEN ON THE CENTRAL COAST OF CALIFORNIA

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of knowing your birth support resources including Childbirth Education to prepare you and your partner in combination with a Birth Doula. In addition, a Postpartum Doula can offer you personalized, consistent postpartum support and assistance as you adjust postpartum. Our Service will provide up-to-date listings and contact details of local doulas with their short personal biographies, training and experience, and other specialties.  Our Service works together to provide referrals to your geographic area and a consistent level of care in back-up doula services.  Our doulas work together to stay current on local birth resources and classes that can enhance your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience.

Our Recommended Procedure is for you to browse the directory and select two or three doulas to contact and talk with on the phone for a short time. With each doula who is available during the month around your estimated due date and who you feel is a good connection, ask to arrange a free video meeting to discuss your needs, fees and the hiring contract process. It is customary for a doula to receive half of the fee upon hire, with the balance due around 38 weeks pregnant but feel free to discuss with them any specific requests you may have. Our Managing Mentor Doula is also available by e-mail to answer any questions you may have after you read through our doula bios and as you interview doulas.

What Doula Service Typically Includes:

These services may vary slightly depending on which Doula you choose; however, they all include an initial interview free of charge. When you hire your Doula, you will be expected to sign a contract outlining expected services and expected payment of fees. The standard is that one-half of the fee quoted will be due upon hire; the other half at the time that the Doula goes on call for you -- 38 weeks is the typical time frame.

Contracts will include two or more doula visits during your pregnancy to discuss your birth/health experience, hopes and desires for your birth, and your options. We offer help while you formulate your own birth plan. In addition, your doula support will include specific birth and labor practice to help prepare you and your partner with comfort techniques and to plan for environmental and emotional factors which will help you feel safe and relaxed in labor. 

DOULAS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT YOUR PREGNANCY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE AND TO OFFER YOU INFORMATION OR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

Each Doula will be on call for your birth from two weeks before your baby's estimated due date to two weeks beyond it. They will be on 24-hour call for you, meaning that you may call day or night when you believe your labor may be beginning. At that point, you and they will decide together whether text and/or phone contact are most helpful, and they will be in regular contact with by any of these modes you prefer following your baby's birth and over that first 24 hours.

In addition, your Doula will connect with you by text, phone, and/or in person during the first week after your baby's birth to see how you are doing together as a family, to offer you referrals to community resources if you would like them, and to talk about your birth experiences with you. Postpartum Doulas may also be requested at this time if you have not arranged for a Postpartum Doula before the birth.

OUR DOULAS OFTEN WORK IN TEAMS, PROVIDING YOU WITH A BACKUP DOULA SHOULD AN UNEXPECTED SITUATION ARISE.

We look forward to serving you and your families' needs, to supporting you during your pregnancy and childbirth, and to helping you welcome your new baby.

If you have any further questions about our Listing Service or about our Mentor Doula Service, please reach us via our Contact page. 

Disclaimer & Grievance Policy:

We are not an agency, and we do not bond nor employ doulas, nor will we be held accountable for their actions. We have asked all of them to agree with and sign the Doula Scope of Practice and the Doula Code of Ethics as a condition of their listing membership.

You may contact the Mentor Doula if you ever do have an issue with any listed doula as we do have a Grievance Policy in place.  Open and sensitive communication is key to resolving misunderstandings and/or training improvement. Any upheld grievance will result first in counseling and re-training with the doula. For serious/intentional violations of the Scope of Practice or Code of Conduct, appropriate action would include removal of the Doula from our SLO Doula Connection Membership Listing Service as determined by the Mentor Doula. By entering the grievance process, both client and doula agree to abide by the decisions of the grievance committee, with no right to sue for damages.

Founder:  Terri Woods, CLD | Evidence Based Birth® Instructor (Retired) | CAPPA Faculty Labor Doula Trainer (Retired) | Blessed Childbirth & Doula Services

Co-Founder:  Jennifer Kinnear, CD(DONA) | Bradley Method® Childbirth Instructor | Jennifer Kinnear Doula Services

Note: We also happily accept more compliments and testimonials!