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POLICIES

Doulapalooza! & Doulas in the Park Requirements:

  • All Birth and Postpartum Doulas are required to attend at least two Doulapalooza's every month or Doulas in the Park. Dates can be found on both internal and public calendars. Failure to meet this requirement may result in termination of the contractor's agreement with ATX Doulas.

  • Arrive all DP 15 min early to help set up.

  • This is our time to interview with clients and potential clients. This is a great place to market your services and build a work community with the other contractors.

  • If you cannot attend please notify an owner privately not on GM

 

Being prepared - know our clients

  • Birth and Postpartum Doulas must read clients Needs Assessment before call shifts or going to a client’s home for a pp visit

  • Check Client Notes for extra information - PP and Birth

    • Best to do this before call shift for birth doulas

 

Privately contacting birth clients:

  • We encourage all of our doulas to communicate with our clients as often as they want. We ask a few things

    • Please communicate through the google voice app. This will save confusion on what number they should call when in labor and if anything weird goes down we have some notes on it

    • Use your ATX email

  • If a client is in early labor over night it is fine to give your personal number but you need to make sure they know that if you do not answer immediately they need to call the doualine.

 

Friends & Family policy:

  • Each Doula can choose to provide her services for up to five friends or family annually. The F&F would pay the current package price and the rotation will be backup.

  • Each Doula may take private free (no trade or bartering) clients so long as she can get her ATX Doulas shift covered

    • Keep the team posted on these clients.

 

Split births

  • Typical reasons to split a birth

    • Mama stops laboring all together

    • Family emergency

    • Over 24 hours and no end in sight

  • Each doula will submit an SR for the birth with her total number of hours with the family, she will be paid hourly for her portion of the birth

    • Doula 1 hours + Doula 2 hours = Total hours

    • Total hours / amount paid out for the birth = hourly

 

Missed births or unhappy clients:

  • It’s very uncommon but if a doula misses a birth on her accord or if she receives a negative review and a refund is requested the ATX Doulas owners have the discretion to make a decision on payment to the contractor and refunds  

PROCESSES

Answering phones on call day: Google Voice

  • Put yourself on phones before your call shift,

    • You can take the doula off that is not on call for longest time

    • If Primary and Secondary doulas are both called to a birth, Secondary is responsible for letting the owners know. (Check the Google Calendar to see which owner is "on duty")

  • Leave phone on and nearby at all times when on call, have working phone

  • Respond within 2 minutes to calls, texts

  • Answer phone calls right away “Hello, ATX Doulas, this is _____”

  • Topics

    • Postpartum

      • If a call comes in for postpartum you can ask them to fill out the PP Needs Assessment

      • Tell them about Doulapalooza

      • Notify Postpartum Manager of client’s name and little notes

    • In labor

      • Triage the mama

      • We love to meet them at home if possible

      • We want to be there before they get an epidural, AROM

    • Potential Client

      • Talk about our services

      • Tell them about Doulapalooza

    • Business things

 

Answering phones/texts on non call days

  • It’s nice to have the support of the team… if you are free and have some great input to a text then chime in! Let the client know who it is…

 

GroupMe expectations

  • Keep up with GroupMe, we find it best when people check in a few times per day

    • Doula Chat - whole team, anything goes. This is our “water cooler”. This is where we get to know each other… please feel free to ask questions and share life experience. Seriously, the more you share the more everyone knows you the stronger our team is.

    • Birth - birth team: mainly about clients and birth

    • PP Doulas - postpartum team: pp scheduling and pp chat about client

    • Schedules - birth team: just schedule related

    • Payments - everyone: payments only

    • Placenta  - placenta team: coordinating

  • Important times to communicate on GM

    • After taking a call

    • When you’re heading to a birth

      • Updates on the birth

      • When baby is born

      • When you leave

    • If you're at a post-birth or postpartum and a client has questions and you need some more resources

    • To brainstorm how to reply to an email from a client

 

Leaving a birth (before baby arrives)

  • Ask the team before leaving a birth before baby is born

  • This RARELY happens.. It is a very gentle decision and the other members of team should be participating in this decision. Seriously, we have had a doula leave to "run a quick errand cause mom got an epi", miss the birth and try to cover it up.... not cool.

 

Emails

  • Check regularly, maybe once per day 5 days a week

  • Everyone is required to reply to emails, this is how our clients get to know us better and it pulls your weight on the team. Primary should answer emails on their on call day.

  • Amelia sends out Early Labor Tips and Third Trimester emails. This will be scheduled on the internal calendar

  • If a client is being induced, send the Induction email and update client notes.

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ZOOM: We have created 2 accounts for the team to use for ATX business. They are "Pro" so you are not limited to 40 minutes and the other limitations that come with the "Basics". 

  • When you join a Doulapalooza or team meeting do so with your personal ZOOM.

  • Here is how we see this working:

    • Doulas@atxdoulas

      • PW: 2LongLegs!

        • This account is for the Doula on-call. It is for Virtual Doula support. This way you can login without getting kicked out if you are supporting someone during labor.

    • info@atxdoulas

      • PW: 2LongLegs!

        • This account is for all of you to share for classes: Birth Plans, Infant Care, BF... Postpartum support... that kind of thing. Since this is a shared account you will need to look at the meetings scheduled first, before scheduling with a client.

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Getting shifts covered

  • Always update the calendar

    Swapping shifts is best

    Backup doula has priority

    Ask on GM for coverage

    Get help from owners if needed


Scheduling classes: Birth Plan, Infant care, BF101…

  • Amelia rotates through and sends you folks to schedule these with

    • Add to the calendar

    • Add the date to Client Notes and add any notes you take at the class

    • No need to cc the whole team on scheduling convo with client

  • Always upload Birth Plan’s to the client’s folder

  • After Birth Preferences sessions, send an email to the team with more detailed info about the client and their partner 

 

Holidays/Vacations/or just a break

  • If you plan to be out of pocket then please add it to the google calendar

    • This helps if there is a birth storm or someone is needing coverage, then we do not have to ask you a million times AND we won’t get pissy if you’re not replying

 

Client Notes 

  • Update after calls

    • Potential clients

    • Current clients

  • Update after attending a birth

    • Birth stats

    • Baby’s name

    • Birth date

    • Fun facts and notes

 

Process for attending birth

  • Answer call “ATX Doulas, this is ____” or call back within a few minutes (2-3…)

    • Always ask the team for help with phones if you are temporarily unable to answer

  • Triage the client

    • Name

    • Due date

    • Care provider

    • Water in tact?

    • GBS +/-?

    • First baby?

    • Make a plan… will you be meeting them immediately or checking in…?

  • Update the team immediately in GM with the plan and what’s going on

  • Meet the client

    • Once they ask for help with tell them we will be to them within and hour

      • Make sure you have your bag and ball with you on your call day

      • Childcare is set up

      • Snacks ready to go (for like 24 hours)

  • Notify the team when you get to the client a simple “parking” is great!​​

  • Keep the team up to date on GM during the birth

    • If you meet at their house let us know when you head to the hospital/birth center

    • Let us know after vaginal checks if you want, pushing… we are here to cheer you guys on!

  • Tell the team when baby is born!

  • If it is a C-Section we work hard to get into the OR with mama, sometimes it works...

  • Help mama with first latch

  • Always “VBAC Bitches!”

  • Let us know when you take off

 

Inductions

  • On occasion a client will need a “tuck in” this is when the doula on call on the induction day will meet the client at the hospital and get them settled and feeling ok during the beginning of the induction process. This is typically 2ish hours and the birth pay covers this time. The doula will go home until the client needs her for labor support

  • Typically we check in with clients in the morning (8-9am) and stay in communication with them while the induction is ramping up.

  • Explain the process and notifying us so we can get there before an epi is requested

  • Pro’s of delaying AROM

  • Ask them to call or text little updates like “going up on pit, still not feeling anything..,”

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Process after attending a birth

  • Email Postpartum Tips & Tricks (cc team). There is a C-section on too... 

    • Use the one in google drive, this is a living document so there are updates regularly

    • Within 24 hours

    • Send to mom and partner, emails in client notes

  • Fill out Birth Stats

    • Online form (basic)

    • Client notes (more in depth)

  • Schedule post-birth visit (not all clients have a post-birth visit so check in client notes)

    • General topics:

      • Process the birth

      • Breastfeeding

      • Sleep

      • Pooping (yay!)

      • General feelings and wellbeing

      • Postpartum help

      • Baby wearing...

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