While the medical staff is there to primarily focus on yours and your baby’s physical health and clinical tasks (along with all the other pregnant and laboring families), a doula is dedicated to your family alone. They are specifically trained to educate, advocate, and provide comfort for both the mom and the partner.

They are the familiar face that you have known throughout your pregnancy whom you trust and who knows your family and your preferences. They help you know what questions to ask, offers suggestions on comfort and movements for optimal fetal positioning, and is there to help you and your partner navigate all of the unknowns that can come up throughout this special and vulnerable time.

Professional doulas support (outside friends or family) has been studied many times! Just some of the amazing benefits include:

• 39% decrease in your chance of having a cesarean birth
• 31% decrease in the use of Pitocin in labor
• 15% increase in having a  spontaneous vaginal birth
• 34% decrease in negative birth experience as a whole
• 38% increase in newborn APGAR scores
• 34% higher rate of successful early breastfeeding relationships

Doulas are also an amazing resource for partners! Check out this article on 15 powerful ways that doulas support partners.

Saltwater Doulas does not have any requirements or penalties for long labors. While we try to equip you with information and resources to be confident on your own in your home in early labor, we are here for you when you need us whether it’s via phone call, facetime, or our physical presence. We do not require you to be a certain centimeter dilated for us to come and we NEVER charge after a certain number of hours. We do our best to be there for your family from the time you need us until you have your baby.

If labor is particularly long and a doula has been there for a significant amount of time (~16+ hours) and they feel like they need a break, or if they are with another family or sick when you go into labor, another qualified Saltwater Doula will meet you for support. We have never left a family without the support they need!

Some insurance plans (such as Tri-care, Mass Health, and a few private insurance providers) offer partial reimbursement for doula support services.

There are also some employers who carry reimbursement benefits such as Carrot Fertility Maven, or Progyny). We encourage everyone to check with their insurance provider and their company as well as their partners to see what they have access to. 

Saltwater Doulas also offers flexible payment plans and sliding scale doula support. We are happy to accept HSA/FSA cards and our gift card link is a great way to get money towards support and classes from your baby registry!

What we mean when we say we are on call starting at 38 weeks is that once we have a family in their 38th week of pregnancy, we are no longer taking trips or vacations or going places that would not allow us to get to our client in a timely manner (typically within 2 hours of them requesting our presence). That being said, if you went into labor at 35 weeks or 37 weeks, we would still absolutely be there for you because we understand babies come whenever they want!

If you were to go into labor exceptionally early and your doula happened to be away or with another family in labor, another qualified Saltwater Doula would meet you for support or to cover a portion of your labor until your hired doula could get to you.

Our team is amazing! There are always multiple doulas willing to step in and help!

We support any and all kinds! Home births, hospital births, births with epidurals or without. We support planned and unplanned cesareans and literally everything in between. There is ALWAYS plenty of ways a doula can help support you and your partner physically, emionally, and educationally no matter how your baby enters the world.

While the medical staff is there to primarily focus on yours and your baby’s physical health and clinical tasks (along with all the other pregnant and laboring families), a doula is dedicated to your family alone. They are specifically trained to educate, advocate, and provide comfort for both the mom and the partner.

They are the familiar face that you have known throughout your pregnancy whom you trust and who knows your family and your preferences without needing to explain. They help you know what questions to ask, offer suggestions on comfort and movements for optimal fetal positioning, and is there to help you and your partner navigate all of the unknowns that can come up throughout this special and vulnerable time.

You often times can’t choose your provider when you go into labor and you can almost never choose your nurses. The doula is the only person in your labor room, outside your partner and family, who you know personally and who is dedicated to your family alone. No changing shifts, no other patients, just you!

Your partner is not your doula. Doulas and partners fill very different roles and as doulas we KNOW there is no way we can ever take the place of the comfort and safety that your partner will provide you in labor. 

That being said, there is a reason why they call it a birth TEAM! While we already know the benefits of a (professionally trained) birth doula (see the FAQ above!), there are also many ways that doulas can support partners through the pregnancy and birth experience too, many of which you probably haven’t even thought of! 

Having a supportive and involved partner is amazing and so needed, but often times their experience is brushed aside as everyone focuses on mom and baby. A doula is a wonderful way to ensure the partner is able to be fully present, offer suggestions on how they can help you, make sure they are able to take care of themselves too, and help facilitate an intimate experience in which they are able to truly enjoy the birth of their baby too.

Check out this amazing blog post by Riverbend Birth that highlights the sometimes forgotten ways that doulas can support partners too!

15 Powerful Ways that Doulas Support Partners During Labor

Choosing a doula is deeply personal, and one of the biggest benefits of working with Saltwater Doulas is that you’re not just hiring one person — you’re supported by an entire, highly experienced collective.

Nearly all of our doulas are professionally certified and maintain continuing education credits for recertification every three years, ensuring our support is current, evidence-based, and grounded in best practices. Many of our doulas have been supporting families for 5–10 years, and we regularly learn from one another through ongoing team education and collaboration.

Our agency is intentionally diverse in background and expertise, with doulas bringing experience in areas like body and pelvic mechanics, lactation, massage therapy, personal training, mental health, nursing, paramedicine, and more. Because of this, when you work with one of us, you truly get the mind of the group. We’re almost always able to connect families with resources, information, or specialized insight — quickly and thoughtfully.

We’re also a close-knit team. Backup doulas are always guaranteed within our own vetted agency (not sourced last-minute from Facebook groups), so you can feel confident knowing your care is consistent and reliable.

Most importantly, families trust us. With over 100 five-star Google reviews, our community consistently shares how supported, informed, and cared for they felt during their birth experience — and that’s something we’re incredibly proud of.

If you’re looking for experienced, collaborative, and deeply supportive care, we’d be honored to walk alongside you!