Breaking Down Birth Doula Fees
If you charge $800 per birth, this is a simple breakdown to consider:
- Time with parents – 5 hours (prenatals and phone calls)
- Time at birth – 10 hours (sometimes much longer, sometimes much shorter, but 10 is a midline average).
- Time in postpartum – 3 hours
- Postpartum visits if you offer 2 – 3 hours
- Driving time – 3 hours average.
- Prep and research time – 2 hours
At 26 hours, you’re rate is approximately $30.77 an hour.
The above example only takes the amount of time you’re spending into account. This doesn't include your other business expenses or the (non-deductible) costs that are incurred that affect your family (such as childcare) and your well-being as a result of attending births. Self-care is critical for you, especially if you attend a particularly long birth. Do you need someone to care for your kids so you can catch up on your sleep? Does it help you to get some body work done? Do you need to talk to someone if the birth you’ve attended was rough? What helps you rejuvenate yourself after a birth?
For doulas-in-training
As a new doula, it is reasonable to charge an amount that will help to cover your basic expenses such as gas, childcare and meals. This is especially important if it would otherwise cause hardship for your family if you did not charge anything. It will be much easier for you to dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to your clients when your basic needs are being met. In addition, clients may place more value and take you seriously when there is an exchange of money for services, even if it is a minimal amount.
There’s no one right way to charge
There is an infinite number of ways you can structure your pricing at different stages of your business. Your philosophy, current financial situation, business goals, and even your personality will play a role in helping you determine the best way to set up your rates.
Your rates play a part in reflecting your self-worth. Know that you bring tremendous value to pregnant people at a birth, no matter how much experience you have.
I’d love to know how if you’ve broken down your rates, what you discovered in doing so, and whether you intend to make any changes. Come join me on the Inspired Birth Pros Facebook Group to talk shop!
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Thank you for this post. I would add to the list of expenses, since these are integral parts of running a business and we cannot understand a true balance sheet without factoring in all of the costs of running our business:
OVERHEAD:
* web hosting costs
* web design and development costs – even if we self-design, our time spent on this is worth a fee – this is time not spent attending births or drumming up new clients
* computer costs
* office supplies
* printed materials – business cards, brochures, handouts for clients, folders for clients
* marketing – including time spent plus any advertizing costs if applicable
* client gifts (some doulas present a gift after the birth)
* personal health insurance – as small business owners, no one pays our way unless we benefit from being on a spouse's plan
* office space – even if this is space in our own home, we still pay for it as part of our business expenses
* telephone service – wireless communications – could we be doulas without access to phones and texting?
* continuing education fees – conferences and workshops; obligatory for many of us to keep our certifications current and simply to keep our skills current
* THE MANY OTHER COSTS I'm not currently thinking about
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Thank you, Cynthia, for the additional list. You bring up a good point that there are so many costs involved that should also be considered when determining rates. Analyzing one's income statement (income less expenses) over a period of a month to a year will give one a much clearer picture as to whether rates need to be re-evaluated and adjusted, based on profitability and how much one wants to be making. The article was addressing more of the direct costs of working with a client, but surely, overhead expenses definitely must be looked at as well.
Thanks for this great post. I am going to share it will the doulas in my area, Rochester, NY. It is very important to consider the time you spend per client and and how that adds up to an hourly rate… I have been practicing 9 years, have 4 kids personally, have 10 years experience with professional lactation support, am trained as a childbirth educator and have spent most of my life around babies small children and new moms thanks to a very large extended family. I've been learning and studying about childbirth for 20 years! So it's important to me to place a reasonable price for the high value of my service… I am very experienced! It's taken me a long time to feel comfortable charging $600 per birth. I may be one of the highest in my area. (not the highest) . Really, I should charge more but I don't know if the local market would bear it.
To add to the list of things I do, I now supply all my clients with a billing statement they can send their insurance company. I am having to speak with the companies and supply additional paperwork. I think I'm the only doula in my area who is doing this although I am trying to get others to do it too so families can get our fees paid for and then we can start charging better fees. It's going to be a long road.
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Ellen, first of all, thank you for all the work you have done over the past decade+! It's great to hear that you are helping your clients with insurance reimbursement. There have been a lot of wonderful people working on making this possible, and although it will take time, it will eventually become more common and that will really help build a reputation of professionalism for birth workers.