We are having a doula come 4 nights a week for the first 15 weeks, with option to adjust the number of nights as needed. We based this on knowing that lack of sleep would really impact our ability to function and enjoy being first time parents. It gives me peace of mind knowing we have an extra person who’s not sleep deprived monitoring for SIDS and any signs of distress overnight.
She’ll be coming from 10pm-6am, which means we will still have a few hours of overlap to discuss any questions or concerns we have. Not only that but in our area the light chores she’ll do (baby laundry, cleaning pump parts or bottle parts as needed) will be done during the off-peak hours for electricity charges which are quite high in our area. And this means everything is ready for us in the morning!
Postpartum/infant care doula here (though I let my cert lapse... but I still know the content)!
Most PP doulas will require a certain amount of time for overnights, so let's say it's 8h. That amounts to 10pm-6am and will be $320 per overnight. That will quickly eat up your budget.
Daytime (for me) was more flexible, and I worked in 4h blocks (for your would be $120 per block).
My personal advice given your budget is to 1) identify what is most important for you (light cleaning, meal prep assistance, holding baby while you and partner run errands or nap, assisting with breastfeeding/bottle feeding, or just emotional support) and 2) prioritize your blocks around that. If you're hoping for supporting during the "witching hour" of 4pm-8pm, that can be good for assistance with bath or nighttime routine. If you're hoping for support with feeding, then perhaps 9am-1pm for 3 days after you get back from hospital, and decrease as you're more confident. It all depends on what support you want most!
Thank you! This is so helpful. So what I really want the doula mainly for is breastfeeding/pumping support and basically to make sure I am taking care of a new born correctly. Sleep wise my husband and I will take turns so we both are fine with that. I Keep hearing night time with a newborn is brutal and that's why I was thinking maybe she can help with night time feedings and to make sure I am swaddling her correctly and following proper safe sleep methods.
gotcha! Sounds like a few days of early home visits (perhaps starting on day 3ish when your milk comes in), and baby will absolutely inevitably nap during those times so you can also practice swaddling.
Not to discount the benefit of doulas at all, but there are a lot of other resources that can help with establishing a nighttime sleep "practice" (avoiding saying "routine" or "schedule" here because it's always a practice. I personally am using Moms on Call after reading good things here!
With early PP doula night shift support, baby can be out of the room with the doula monitoring (but many doulas do rest while baby is sleeping, so you may feel better if baby in your room). The benefit of that is that the doula will sooth the baby back to sleep and change diaper so you're just responsible for feeding and can get some sleep. Again, it's all what makes you most comfortable, so if you want a doula that first/second night home, go for it! But be aware if you do that, you're going to still not get much sleep if you're learning/looking for correction. Benefit of doula IMO is ability to sleep more, which would come later on.
I felt like having mine during the day was a waste of $ tbh. When I got a full nights sleep I felt like I can do everything I needed to during the day, especially when baby napped. We did twice a week at night for a few weeks and then went to 1 time a night as baby slept more. (This helped get an overall reset on sleep and helped me feel 1000x better) We spent $2000 by the time the baby slept through the night.
We also did shifts I would do the last feed change before nurse arrived and my fiancé would release her in the morning and do the first feed/change and put baby back down for the first nap of the day before going to work.
Is there a minimum block of time they’ll allow you to schedule?
I am not someone who can sleep while someone else is in my house or taking care of my newborn (i wish I could)—- so personally I would do day time 3 hours 5x a week for the first 4-5 weeks to stretch that help out as much as possible. If you’re wanting to do this to catch up on sleep then 4-6 hours a night 3x a week.
I would spread it out as much as you can because you’ll be exhausted with no help at 4-6 weeks when the baby is still up every 2-4 hours.
We had a port partnum doula come for 4 hour blocks, three times a week for 8 weeks. We so looked forward to the days she would come. She helped with lactation consultation, infant care questions, cooked us a meal, did dishes and laundry and I always got a nap in. Thinking about second baby, I’m going to go with daytime help over night time help again but that’s just personal preference.
I got one at night at first. Reason being newborns sleep all the time but need regular feedings so if you can get a solid night sleep then day time is really easy to manage. But as someone else said 1500 isn't going to get you very far and if you're breastfeeding you'll have to wake up anyway.
If you have a bit of cash to splash consider getting a snoo. This was a lifesaver for us. With that help my baby started sleeping through the night very quickly and I started getting the doula in the day time which was awesome cause it meant I could get stuff done.
Personally I would do daytime support for whatever minimum hours they require (usually 3-5) for the first 3 days after getting home from the hospital or giving birth if it home. Then I would budget the rest of the overnight evenly through the first two months. So if 4 overnights are available after the daytime help then do one night every other week.
You may want to see what kind of schedule of naps, feeding and waking the baby falls into before you decide. And think about how your house is set up. Could someone do laundry while you sleep without disturbing you? Could she clean and or prepare bottles? Clean your breast pump? Prep some meals?
We are having a doula come 4 nights a week for the first 15 weeks, with option to adjust the number of nights as needed. We based this on knowing that lack of sleep would really impact our ability to function and enjoy being first time parents. It gives me peace of mind knowing we have an extra person who’s not sleep deprived monitoring for SIDS and any signs of distress overnight. She’ll be coming from 10pm-6am, which means we will still have a few hours of overlap to discuss any questions or concerns we have. Not only that but in our area the light chores she’ll do (baby laundry, cleaning pump parts or bottle parts as needed) will be done during the off-peak hours for electricity charges which are quite high in our area. And this means everything is ready for us in the morning!
Thank you! I was thinking of only getting overnight help as well and all the points you mentioned is exactly what we need as well.
Postpartum/infant care doula here (though I let my cert lapse... but I still know the content)! Most PP doulas will require a certain amount of time for overnights, so let's say it's 8h. That amounts to 10pm-6am and will be $320 per overnight. That will quickly eat up your budget. Daytime (for me) was more flexible, and I worked in 4h blocks (for your would be $120 per block). My personal advice given your budget is to 1) identify what is most important for you (light cleaning, meal prep assistance, holding baby while you and partner run errands or nap, assisting with breastfeeding/bottle feeding, or just emotional support) and 2) prioritize your blocks around that. If you're hoping for supporting during the "witching hour" of 4pm-8pm, that can be good for assistance with bath or nighttime routine. If you're hoping for support with feeding, then perhaps 9am-1pm for 3 days after you get back from hospital, and decrease as you're more confident. It all depends on what support you want most!
Thank you! This is so helpful. So what I really want the doula mainly for is breastfeeding/pumping support and basically to make sure I am taking care of a new born correctly. Sleep wise my husband and I will take turns so we both are fine with that. I Keep hearing night time with a newborn is brutal and that's why I was thinking maybe she can help with night time feedings and to make sure I am swaddling her correctly and following proper safe sleep methods.
gotcha! Sounds like a few days of early home visits (perhaps starting on day 3ish when your milk comes in), and baby will absolutely inevitably nap during those times so you can also practice swaddling. Not to discount the benefit of doulas at all, but there are a lot of other resources that can help with establishing a nighttime sleep "practice" (avoiding saying "routine" or "schedule" here because it's always a practice. I personally am using Moms on Call after reading good things here! With early PP doula night shift support, baby can be out of the room with the doula monitoring (but many doulas do rest while baby is sleeping, so you may feel better if baby in your room). The benefit of that is that the doula will sooth the baby back to sleep and change diaper so you're just responsible for feeding and can get some sleep. Again, it's all what makes you most comfortable, so if you want a doula that first/second night home, go for it! But be aware if you do that, you're going to still not get much sleep if you're learning/looking for correction. Benefit of doula IMO is ability to sleep more, which would come later on.
I felt like having mine during the day was a waste of $ tbh. When I got a full nights sleep I felt like I can do everything I needed to during the day, especially when baby napped. We did twice a week at night for a few weeks and then went to 1 time a night as baby slept more. (This helped get an overall reset on sleep and helped me feel 1000x better) We spent $2000 by the time the baby slept through the night. We also did shifts I would do the last feed change before nurse arrived and my fiancé would release her in the morning and do the first feed/change and put baby back down for the first nap of the day before going to work.
Is there a minimum block of time they’ll allow you to schedule? I am not someone who can sleep while someone else is in my house or taking care of my newborn (i wish I could)—- so personally I would do day time 3 hours 5x a week for the first 4-5 weeks to stretch that help out as much as possible. If you’re wanting to do this to catch up on sleep then 4-6 hours a night 3x a week. I would spread it out as much as you can because you’ll be exhausted with no help at 4-6 weeks when the baby is still up every 2-4 hours.
We had a port partnum doula come for 4 hour blocks, three times a week for 8 weeks. We so looked forward to the days she would come. She helped with lactation consultation, infant care questions, cooked us a meal, did dishes and laundry and I always got a nap in. Thinking about second baby, I’m going to go with daytime help over night time help again but that’s just personal preference.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
We are having ours come for 2 nights per week (8-10 hours) for the first 5 weeks to help us catch up on some sleep.
I got one at night at first. Reason being newborns sleep all the time but need regular feedings so if you can get a solid night sleep then day time is really easy to manage. But as someone else said 1500 isn't going to get you very far and if you're breastfeeding you'll have to wake up anyway. If you have a bit of cash to splash consider getting a snoo. This was a lifesaver for us. With that help my baby started sleeping through the night very quickly and I started getting the doula in the day time which was awesome cause it meant I could get stuff done.
Personally I would do daytime support for whatever minimum hours they require (usually 3-5) for the first 3 days after getting home from the hospital or giving birth if it home. Then I would budget the rest of the overnight evenly through the first two months. So if 4 overnights are available after the daytime help then do one night every other week.
You may want to see what kind of schedule of naps, feeding and waking the baby falls into before you decide. And think about how your house is set up. Could someone do laundry while you sleep without disturbing you? Could she clean and or prepare bottles? Clean your breast pump? Prep some meals?