Episode 241 Why You Need a Doula and How to Pay for One + Kaitlin with Be Her Village

“Doulas are great. How do I get one?”‘Hope you’re rich, bye!’“Wait, now I can’t have one?”We are so happy to be joined once again by our friend, Kaitlin McGreyes with Be Her Village. Meagan and Kaitlin talk all about the benefits of doulas and what they love most about being doulas themselves. Not only that– they also talk about how to actually afford one. Every mama deserves continuous support during her labor and birth. Kaitlin has created the platform to make it a reality. Additional LinksBe Her Village WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsThe VBAC Link Facebook CommunityFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Hello, hello you guys. It is Meagan from The VBAC Link and guess what? We have our friend, Kaitlin from Be Her Village, back. I am so excited to have you, Kaitlin. Kaitlin: I am so excited to be here, Meagan. Thank you so much for having me. I love this little friendship that has burst out of our VBAC love and our desire to get everybody their VBAC. Meagan: I know. Our passion around birth. It’s just so cool to see how people from different parts of the world can connect so deeply. I just adore you and love you and I do hope that I get to meet you one day soon in person. Kaitlin: Oh, for sure. We’re going to make that happen. Meagan: Oh my gosh. Last time we shared her VBAC story and this time we are going to be talking about doulas. So if you didn’t know, we are both doulas. Obviously, we are very passionate and heavily involved in the birth world. We are going to talk about, okay great. That’s wonderful. We know about doulas. Now what do we do? We are going to talk about that today so if you are wanting to know more about doulas, the stats around doulas, and how to pay for a doula, you want to hold on and listen to this episode. Review of the WeekBut of course, I have a Review of the Week so we are going to get into that and then we are going to talk all about wonderful doulas. This review is from txliberty92 and it was in 2020 and it says, “From Fear to Confidence.” It says, “When I found out that I was pregnant for the second time, I instantly felt so confused about how to birth this baby. I had heard so much conflicting advice about repeat cesareans and just wanted to hear the facts and hear from people who had been down this road before. I am now 36 weeks into my pregnancy and prepared and totally confident in my upcoming VBAC. I don’t know if I would ever have gotten to this point without this podcast and community.” Oh, that makes me so happy. Txliberty92, if you are still listening, because that was in 2020. That was three years ago. If you are still listening, write us at info@thevbaclink.com and tell us how things went. And hey, we want to share your story. Be Her VillageMeagan: Okay. Let’s talk about doulas. First of all, I think it’s fun to talk about why us doulas become a doula because I know that when I was in high school, I knew I loved babies. I always wanted to babysit. I always wanted to be close to a baby, holding a baby, and then through high school, I was like, “I would love to be a labor and delivery nurse,” because hello, they get to be close to babies and hold babies all of the time, right? And then I started having babies of my own and learned more. I decided that I did love the idea of becoming a labor and delivery nurse but to be honest, I hate math. That’s literally one of the reasons why I decided not to become a labor and delivery nurse because they have to do so much math. Kaitlin: There is so much math in nursing, yes. Meagan: So much math and I just hate it so much. For those listening, you guys, I actually had to take Math 1010 three times. Kaitlin: Oh my goodness. Meagan: That is how much I hate math. I hate it so bad. I suck at it. I hate remembering it and still to this day, I’ve been a doula for over 8 years and I still have a hard time. I have to Google how to calculate mpu’s every single time because I hate math. So that is something that steered me away, but the thought of being able to love and support and educate and hold space for somebody and not do the math–Kaitlin: Sign me up. Meagan: It sounded amazing. It sounded so amazing. So through my first birth, after my undesired, unplanned C-section, I definitely had more of a passion for birth, and then after my repeat and learning more about doulas, I was like, “Yeah. This is it.” I remember the fire lit inside of me that day just like, “This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to love people. I’m going to support people. I’m going to educate people and let them know what their options are.” I have loved it ever since and I am so glad to be here today. So where did your fire ignite?Kaitlin: Oh my goodness. My fire ignited from my VBAC actually. I love that your story was like, “I always knew that I wanted to work with babies and mamas.” I had no idea. I was a special ed teacher in New York City. My husband still works as a special ed teacher in the school where we met when we were 22. That was the path. It was getting out at 3:00, working with kids, and feeling good. It was not being a maternal healthcare advocate at all. It was not doula work. It was not changing the baby industry. It was just not any of that. But then I went and I had a baby. My first birth, as you can listen to on the other episode, was on a spectrum from underwhelming on some days. I would reflect that it was underwhelming and other days, it was full-blown traumatic. It really depends on where I am in my head space. But it was kind of awful and the C-section wasn’t what was awful about it. It was how people treated me. It was the powerlessness. It was being dictated to and people making decisions around me and not acknowledging me as a human being and as an adult, grown-ass woman who could make decisions about myself and my body. Meagan: We’re having another human, right? Kaitlin: Right? How dare they. How dare they disempower me so quickly and then less than two years later, I had this incredibly different VBAC experience that was transformative before the baby ever came out of me. It had nothing to do with the vaginal side of it although that was amazing and kickass and I totally recommend it. But it was really about how I went in. I researched. I decided for myself that I wanted a VBAC first off. I hired a doula. I hired a VBAC-supportive provider, a doctor actually, and I just walked into that birth powerful and in charge. I ended up having a vaginal birth which was spectacular but that was the fire in me. It was sort of, “Wait a minute. How can I have two completely opposite experiences over the past two years?” So that was where I was just like, “I think the doula was a big part of it,” because I took childbirth education. I hired midwives. I did the things I was supposed to do and the doula, having someone in the moment when you’re in that crucible where you’re just being challenged and tested and you’re in crisis, for many of us, and where you have this deep desire for your baby to be safe and for you to be safe yet you know. You know because you’re listening to The VBAC Link. You know that this system is sort of rigged against us. How do you make sense of all that? The answer for me was in my doula. I knew that I needed to become a doula so that I could help more people. I have to be totally transparent. I definitely started out with a little bit of a savior complex. I was like, “If you hire me, I can save you from trauma,” which is not true or healthy for any of us. Meagan: It was probably you coping with your trauma. Kaitlin: Absolutely. There was this idea that my doula saved me in my birth so I could save somebody else. But it’s true in that sure, we can have an incredible impact but we can’t save anybody. You can’t just hire a doula and like, “Okay, that’s it. It’s done.” You have to hire a doula and work with them and ask questions and still be very much an active participant in your care. The doula is the tool to learn how to advocate. The doula is the tool to set yourself up for success and that was why I got into it because I just thought, “Man, I have had two completely opposite experiences and I want to help more people have the second one, have the empowered one, have the voice, have built the team around myself.” So I thought, “I’m going to be a doula.” Little did I know how that would all end up but it’s just amazing. It’s the best thing there is. Meagan: Yeah, exactly. I would have never told you when I was becoming a doula, or it was nine years ago in September. Right now when we’re recording, it’s almost June. So almost nine years and I would have never said, “Oh yeah, in nine years, I’m going to have a podcast and be a VBAC advocate and educator and all of these things.” I never would have guessed that, but man. I am so grateful for this journey and where it’s led us. You know, we talked about that. Doulas are there to help you. They’re not there to rescue you. I think sometimes even I would say if I would be really honest. I was kind of like that too. I would have a client where they would be going in having these really deep goals and I was like, “I am going to make sure that happens.” I would go in and then sometimes if they didn’t happen or if births went differently or we had unexpected events or something like that, I remember going home and I remember feeling like I failed as a doula. I felt like I failed them. Kaitlin: Yeah. Oh, it’s a horrible feeling. Meagan: A really bad feeling. For your birth workers listening, it’s important to know that you are there and you love your clients but we can’t save everyone. Just like the clients that are hiring us need to know that we’re not there to save but we’re there to help educate, guide, love, and help you facilitate the things that you need along the way. It’s just an extra crutch. Kaitlin: Yeah. I feel like it’s really the work of labor and birth happens in the pregnancy. That’s why you should get your doula as early as you can because it is in your doula’s ability to help understand what your true desires are and help keep you connected to them because one of the things so many of us do and I’m speaking really about myself here too. I’m projecting my own experience. We abandon ourselves. We know what we want. We know that we want XYZ for our birth and then we sacrifice ourselves because as mothers, this is what we do. We sacrifice our time and our energy and our bodies for our babies but that gets used against us sometimes. It’s really great to have somebody dedicated to your team that can sort of continue guiding the entire experience back to you back to those original goals, back to that original desire, and reminding you of what is possible and helping you stick to that. Then if you have to shift away from it, they are helping you navigate that shift in a way that feels intentional and purposeful and that you are emotionally able to shift as well so that we avoid that feeling of, “I don’t even know what happened. I felt like I got hit by a bus and now I have a baby and I’m not sure how it happened.” We can’t control a lot of things that happen in birth and doulas can’t control them either which is a journey we go on as professionals. But we absolutely can help people navigate their births in a way that feels empowering regardless of the medical factors that end up happening. Meagan: Yeah. One of my favorite parts about being a doula is actually helping the partner along the way because I mean, obviously, Mom is the star of the show. She’s having the baby and she’s a very important person. She’s definitely the MVP in that room but guess what? So are these partners. It’s so fun like you said to circle around and help these partners feel more a part of birth as well because they sometimes have that same feeling where all of a sudden they are like, “Oh my gosh. My wife has a baby. What just happened?” So it’s so nice to help dads and birth partners feel more involved and more connected and in control in a way of their own birth experience as well because it is their birth experience too. Kaitlin: Absolutely. I would argue that doulas are more for the partners in a lot of ways than they are for the birthing person. I personally didn’t hire a doula for my first birth and I regret it. I can say pretty blatantly and bluntly that I regret it because I was afraid that it would take away the intimacy. I was afraid that it would be too many people and that I wouldn’t have this intimate with my partner but what ended up actually happening is that my partner was so panicked by this mess of labor and by his wife being in so much pain. He wasn’t of any help to me. I mean, he was as much help as he could have been. I’m not trying to attack my partner but he was really in this place of being a deer in the headlights. I was flipping out. He was a deer in the headlights. Everything was going wrong and he didn’t have the tools. He had never done it before and that’s in a birth that was very stressful. Even in a birth where you’re not in a medically-induced place, it’s still really hard to have the entirety of the responsibility of this experience to see your partner who is for the most part– this is a little stereotypical, but it’s true– the women who are giving birth are making the lists and they’re choosing the doctors. They’re setting up their doulas. They’re doing all of the things and they’re making a birth plan. They’re dotting every i and they’re crossing every t and then what happens when they go into active labor? They retreat. Their minds retreat into their bodies and then all of a sudden, they’re not communicating much of anything which can be really disorienting to a partner who feels to them that they need to keep their partner and their baby safe. This creates this feeling of alarm and can really not make the whole thing not feel good for everybody. When we have a doula that can come in for the partner and normalize the entire birthing experience whether it’s in the hospital really medicalized or at home during early labor to transfer or have a home birth, it’s so cool to have somebody who has walked this path before to be able to tell your partner, “Hey, this is all fine.” To have someone not react when you have somebody vomiting or contracting or shaking or all of these things that happen in the throes of labor, can be so relaxing. What is does is that it helps the partner then join his woman or his birthing person with intention and with this presence without all of the anxiety. It actually creates this beautiful expression of love. Not to mention, it’s so cool to have someone show you how to touch your partner. One of them when I was teaching childbirth, I remember he was half joking but he was only half joking. He was like, “I just want you to teach me how far away to stand from her,” because he was just so nervous about the whole thing. It’s like, imagine having someone come in and be like, “Hey, when she does that, just press here,” and it’s like ooh. You get to learn and have a coach that helps you take on that care. It’s the opposite of what so many of us think, myself included, was that a doula would replace my partner or get in the way. Really, what we do is help partners get more hands-on in such a helpful way. Meagan: Yeah. Exactly. My husband was really not keen on the idea of hiring a doula. He was like, “I’m not good enough? You’re going to replace me?” That’s where he snapped too. It’s like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s not like that.” But it wasn’t until we had a doula that he was like, “Whoa. Okay. I see what you do as a profession. I love this and we would never do this again without one.” So yeah. Doulas are there for you. They’re there for your birthing partner, but guess what, you guys? They have actual stats on how impactful doulas can be. That is so cool to me to think that there are stats on the profession that I do. It sounds silly. Kaitlin: It’s science. It’s science. Passionate science. It’s science. Meagan: There are actual statistics that what I do and what I love is helpful. Okay, so let’s talk about them. Doulas can decrease pain medication so epidurals, fentanyl, and stuff like that by 10% which seems little, but if you think about all of the people giving birth. Kaitlin: 10% is huge. Meagan: 10% is huge if you have 24-hour labor or more. I was 42. Yeah. It’s wonderful. There’s a 38% decrease in the baby’s risk of a low 5-minute APGAR score. Kaitlin: And that, I really want to pause on that because that’s a really big deal. The APGAR is your sign of life. That’s literally like do you have muscle tension? Are you pink which means there’s oxygen coursing? Do you have a pulse? It’s literally, is this baby thriving? The APGAR is an enormous measure and what’s wild about this is that doulas are not medical providers. We’re not medical providers. I can understand the epidural being applied. It’s like, “Yeah, we have some tools and tricks up our sleeve to help you manage pain. That makes sense to me.” But influencing an APGAR? This means that if you hire a doula, a non-medical provider, whatever magic thing that we’re doing is not really magic. It’s just being present and helping people advocate for themselves, can have health impacts on your baby. That’s wild. Who we’re not touching, who we’re not making medical decisions on. We have no medical training and yet we’re impacting medical outcomes. That’s a big, big, big deal. Meagan: It’s pretty stinking huge. In this study, it doesn’t necessarily single out doulas. It’s continuous support which guess what doulas do? Continuous support. Kaitlin: Yeah. Well, no other provider is doing that. Meagan: No. I mean, they’re in and they’re out. Midwives and OBs, we love them all. Kaitlin: Yes, we do. Meagan: But they can’t. They can’t. Kaitlin: The system is not set up for continuous support. Absolutely. Meagan: They can’t. They might be in there for a little bit but then they’re in and they’re out. So a 31% decrease in the risk of being dissatisfied with the birth experience. Kaitlin: That’s a big one. That’s a big one. Meagan: You guys! 31%. So one of the things that I love about being a doula– I mean, there are a lot of things– but I want someone to walk away from their birth, even if it didn’t happen exactly how they wanted on their birth preference sheet or birth plan, to have a good experience. I want them to look back and say, “You know, I didn’t get this or that or this happened and wasn’t my ideal but overall, that was an amazing experience and I’m happy with my experience and I don’t reference my experience as traumatic,” and just have an overall better view on their birth. Kaitlin: That’s the thing though. We all know there are uncontrollables but having respect and feeling in control and feeling like you were part of your birth in a powerful way has ripple effects and implications well beyond that day of your birth. That’s a huge metric and that’s really, really important. Meagan: Yeah, huge. Another one, I think, that is really cool is that they have one showing continuous support such as a doula can shorten labor by 41 minutes. Kaitlin: Um, yes. They shorten labor. They shorten pushing time and reduce your risk of C-section or surgical birth, forceps, or vacuum, up to 25%. I think there is a saying and I’ll have to find the quote but it’s like, “If doulas were a drug, it would be unethical not to use them. It is clinically proven that continuous support by a non-family member– that’s the doula part, right?Meagan: Yes. Yeah, I want to talk about that. Kaitlin: Yes. Continuous support by a non-family member is wildly impactful not just on your emotional experience but on your pushing time, your laboring time, your surgical birth risk, and your baby’s health. It’s really something that every single person in the United States deserves to have. I also want to just put this other steed in here that doulas are not the cause of surgical birth. We are not the cause of longer labors or lower APGARs. We’re not the root cause of these issues but we are one of the solutions that our healthcare system is looking at. It’s hard to talk about this because I do want to talk about how doulas are awesome. Everyone should have a doula. Meagan: They’re seriously so awesome. Kaitlin: But we are very much also a bandaid on a broken system so yes. We’re all currently giving birth in this system so we all should have access to doulas and that’s part of the work that we’re both doing is getting people connected to the doulas in their area and getting people connected to the funding to pay for them because that’s sort of the elephant in the room. It’s like, “Okay. All of these doulas are great and they’re highly impactful.” You listen to a podcast like this and it’s like, “Oh, that’s great. How do I get one?” It’s like, “They cost $2000 out of pocket. Hope you’re rich, bye!” It’s like, “Wait, now I can’t have one?” It’s all a really messy stage in the American maternal healthcare system that we’re in right now, but the idea of having a doula or not having a doula when you think about what we all think about as we are preparing for our birth is, “What’s best for my baby?” It’s best for your baby to have a doula-supported birth both for their health and for their parents’ health and their parents’ experience. If anyone’s on the fence about it, I hope that this will spark you into researching and talking and looking into it because there are a lot of misconceptions about doulas. They are for everybody even if you are planning a C-section. Even if you’re listening to this podcast because you’re like, “I don’t know. VBAC’s not for me.” Even if you’re listening because you’re a hater. Doulas are for everybody. They’re for every kind of birth. You can plan a C-section. You can plan an epidural. You can plan a home birth. You can plan a birth in the middle of the woods and a doula can be really instrumental in being an advocate for yourself throughout that. Meagan: Yes, and I have been to scheduled C-sections. I had two and I wish that I had a doula to be there. So I love that you were talking about, “Okay, wait. We know that doulas are awesome.” Sorry guys, but doulas are awesome. Kaitlin: But we are. Meagan: Okay, where do we find them? There are websites all over. You can search “Doula Near Me”. The VBAC Link has specific VBAC doulas. You just go to thevbaclink.com and search “Find a Doula”. Type in your zip code and boom.But yeah, then what? Then what? How do we pay for $2000 doulas? Kaitlin: Yes. $2000. I’m in New York. $2000 is kind of run-of-the-mill. Medicaid is covering $1900. They’re paying out for doulas. That’s just the cost of doulas in New York. It really varies according to market but it’s expensive. If it’s an $800 doula, then that means the salaries in the area and the cost of housing and everything else in that area is low. I think it’s safe to say that it is a heavy lift for most people to be able to access a doula and not just a doula, but all of the other care that comes with it as well. Postpartum care, tongue tie clips, breastfeeding care, pelvic floor care, maternal mental health. How many insurance companies are covering those things? There’s just an enormous amount of funding that needs to happen in order for us to get the care that we deserve, the baseline of care that is happening in other countries for other mothers. One of the things that I love to talk about because it’s sort of my life’s work–Meagan: Listen how to solve this problem!Kaitlin: Drumroll, please! It’s really your baby registry. It’s using Be Her Village which is what I created. It’s our platform, our baby registry platform so that you can use this event where all of your loved ones are opening their wallets. They’re going to buy you thousands of dollars of gifts. Literally, the stats are 12 billion dollars divided by almost 4 million babies. It’s a lot of money, a lot of money being spent by communities and well-meaning, well-intentioned, so generous– everyone wants to support a new mother. Everybody does. But right now, you can just go to baby stores and get a bunch of baby stuff. I don’t know. We’ve all bought gifts before and I guess the swaddles can help but it’s not the same as knowing that this gift is going to be impactful. One of the best things that we’ve done is we’ve created this platform where you can register for and find the practitioners in your area– the doulas, the lactation consultants, the pelvic floor specialists, the childbirth education, the acupuncturists– everybody who is supporting mothers in their birth and their postpartum time. You can find them and add them directly to your gift registry.Your friends and family can send you funds, cash, cold-hard cash to pay for them so it’s totally flexible. We’ve had $165,000 funded on our platform so far just from communities who are generously opening up. It is such an amazing tool and funding opportunity that is already happening. We already know about baby showers. They’re happening. We already know how to use a gift registry. What if we use it to pay for doulas? What if we use it to pay for that care? It’s really, really cool so I just highly recommend every single person that’s listening to go to Be Her Village. Click on our shopping guide. Click to get started. If you’re a doula, add your services there. We’re reclaiming the baby shower because the baby shower has become this place where we get carloads of boxes where we get all of this stuff. For me, I had to haul it back to my tiny apartment. I’m like, “Where am I going to fit all of this stuff for my baby?” I was living in New York City at the time and we’re really saying, “You know what? Moms need stuff for their babies, sure. We’ll find them and how to pay for them but there’s this real need for care for ourselves.” It’s like the conversation we just had. Who doesn’t want a doula after listening to that? Who doesn’t want a doula after knowing the stats of how impactful it can be? What better gift than to say to someone, “Hey, I’m going to help you find that so you can have a better health outcome and so you can have a better experience so your entire transition into motherhood can feel better than it would have otherwise.”Meagan: Absolutely. I’m going to pull it up. Seriously, it’s so easy. This website is so incredible. You can go and create your registry. You can shop for services. You can give your gifts. Anything, right here. Also, there is virtual. That’s something too. Doulas and birth workers, if you are offering virtual courses, help people find your course so they can get more educated. They can go more prepared. There are tons of virtual services. You can go in. There’s childbirth education. There’s a fourth trimester. There’s restoring your body. There’s heart and mind. You guys, this is such an amazing platform. To say I’m obsessed is an understatement. It really is an understatement to say how much I love this platform and how genius you are for creating this space for people. I didn’t hire a doula with my second baby because get this. You’re going to laugh out loud. Everyone’s going to die. I thought that $150 was too much at the time. Kaitlin: Oh gosh. Meagan: We didn’t have a lot of money. Kaitlin: I get it. Meagan: Yeah. Kaitlin: Meagan, it’s all so backward. We have our babies when we’re making the least amount of money. Then when we have a baby, for many of us, you stop working. At least temporarily, if not for a long time. Meagan: You do. Yes. Kaitlin: You get squeezed financially and at the earliest time in your career. You’re barely established and who wants to wait to be established? I’m 39 and I don’t even feel established right now. But it shouldn’t be that we have to choose how much care we receive because of our income level or because of the disposable income that we have. It’s not enough. My doula cost $1200 and that was nine years ago. It was the same amount as my mortgage. Meagan: Right. Kaitlin: It was a huge lift for us but luckily, I knew. I was so driven for the VBAC. Actually, my VBAC approach was to do everything the opposite. I didn’t take the childbirth education. I hired an OB instead of a midwife. I hired a doula instead of not. But it’s a big, heavy lift and we have to start thinking about not just, “Can I afford it?” but “I deserve this. How do I do this?” So we have to be more creative as a collective. It’s really cool. This baby shower is sort of this untapped area that we’ve just been going to for decades. You go. You buy the stuff at the store. You give it to parents. They return half of it. It’s this thing that we’re doing on repeat and I think it’s time for some serious evaluation about, “What do we actually need? What does a mother actually need?” If you were to make a list, which we do. We have the top ten things you need on your registry and none of them can be found at a store because it’s all about support and care from the community which often looks like professionals as well as friends and loved ones and family members and neighbors. Meagan: Absolutely. I am so grateful for what you do. I encourage everyone. If you are looking to hire a doula and you’re just not sure or the funds are hanging over or maybe a postpartum doula. Maybe you’re really needing that support educationally or whatever it may be, this is the place for you to go and check out. You could even hire a birth photographer if you’re wanting to capture your birth. I mean, you guys. They have everything. So definitely, definitely, definitely check them out at behervillage.com. We’re going to make sure to have all of the links in our show notes. Go to Instagram. Follow Be Her Village. You’re amazing and I’m so grateful for you. I’m so grateful that your births have taken you on this journey honestly, just like I have with mine. It’s such an honor to be sharing this space and this beautiful community with you. Kaitlin: Thank you, Meagan. I feel the exact same way. I’m really, really grateful for you. As much as I hate that we have had these hard birth experiences, it’s all worthwhile because of how we are using it and how we’re using it to help the next person, so thank you for that. Meagan: Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan’s bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands