DOULA SUPPORT

Someone in the room whose only job is to care for you.

Continuous, non-clinical support through pregnancy, labor, and the days just after, in Orlando and across Central Florida.

What a doula does

A doula is not medical. I do not check dilation, monitor a heartbeat, catch a baby, or give medical advice. Your midwife or your doctor does that, and they are good at it.

What I do is stay. I am the person who is there for the whole thing, through shift changes and second winds and the hour at 4 a.m. when everyone else has gone quiet. I bring counterpressure, position changes, water, a cold cloth, a steady voice, and an accurate memory of what you said you wanted back in month seven.

I also support your partner. Partners at birth are often doing something they have never done before, with no training, while frightened. A large part of my job is standing next to them and saying, quietly, that this is normal, and here is where to put your hands.

How photography and doula work fit together

These are usually two people. Sometimes they are one, and I have learned how to do both without either one losing out.

When I am your doula and your photographer, you get one familiar person instead of two, one relationship built over months, and a set of photographs made by someone who was close enough to support you through every part of it. I know how to keep the camera moving even when my hands are on you, so you still get full coverage.

If you would rather have a separate doula so you can have two people fully present, I keep working relationships with several doulas in Central Florida and would be happy to send you referrals.

What is included

• Two prenatal visits, in your home when possible, ninety minutes each.

• Help building a birth plan.

• Phone and text access from the day we sign through two weeks postpartum.

• Continuous support in labor from active labor until one to two hours after birth.

• Early feeding support, and a referral to an IBCLC if you need more than I can give.

• One postpartum visit in the first two weeks.

If your birth changes course

Induction, an epidural, a transfer, a cesarean. None of these end my job. Physical and emotional support, advocacy, and information stay constant through all of it, no matter where we are or how the birth is going, helping you ask questions and hear answers when you are exhausted, and staying with you through the parts that were not the plan.

Doula support packages start at $1500

AVAILABILITY

To keep from being spread across multiple due dates, I take on just one to two doula clients a month, alongside my photography births.

WHERE

Orlando, Winter Park, Sanford, Apopka, Mount Dora, Clermont, Lake County, and the surrounding Central Florida region.