Terms of Service

What is a doula?: The term “doula” comes from the Greek word for a “woman who serves”. A birth doula is a professional labor assistant who accompanies women in labor to provide emotional support, physical comfort, and facilitate communication with caregivers to help clients feel fully supported and satisfied with their birth experience. Birth doulas can provide reassurance and perspective and help with relaxation, comforting touch, positioning and other techniques for comfort. What doulas do not do:

As a doula, we do not:

• Perform clinical tasks such as blood pressure, fetal heart checks, vaginal exams, etc.

• Make decisions for you. (we will help you get the information necessary to make an informed decision)

• Speak to staff instead of you regarding matters where decisions are being made. (We will discuss your concerns with you and suggest options if appropriate, but you or your partner will speak on your behalf to the clinical staff.

Cancellation and Failure to provide services:

We will make every effort to provide the services described here. Sometimes this is impossible (for example, a rapid labour). If our failure to attend your birth is due to our error, there will be no charge for our birth services and we will refund half your fee (the remaining half is for the prenatal and postpartum visits). If it is due to your failure to call us, no refund is issued. Birth can be a very unpredictable event, and although we will provide physical and emotional comfort to be best of our ability, we cannot guarantee you a problem-free birth. Because we have booked a spot in our doulas’ schedule to be available to you for the month of your due date there is no provision for cancellation of service within 60 days of your due date. Over 60 days we will refund minus an administrative fee of 25% of unused services (prenatal/postpartum visits are 50% and birth is 50%)

Liability and Confidentiality

The client will indemnify The Birth Doula Program and Discover Birth Inc and its team doulas against professional loss, damage, costs and expenses which may incur as a consequence of any act, omission, negligence or default of the doula in connection with or in performance of the services. Discover Birth is also involved in the training of other doulas/childbirth educators and advocacy in the community to increase the awareness of safe choices. As part of that work we would like to have permission to discuss the particulars of your prenatal, birth and postpartum experience. Clients’ names are never used when discussing this information unless the apprentice will be working with you. We would like permission to share information about your plans and goals specifically with the other members of our practice. This information is always considered very confidential. By signing this release you agree to the above use of information related to the services provided to you by Discover Birth and its sub-contractors.

COVID-19/Coronavirus

We are closely monitoring changes that are occurring during the pandemic. Here are some guidelines for our clients to be aware of:

• If doulas are restricted at the hospital level we recommend you request special permission from the hospital administrator to have your doula present. You can also contact the Birth Doula Program manager, who will be happy to reach out to administration on your behalf. If they are not allowed into the hospital, they will be happy to support you at home in early labour until you choose to go to the hospital. They will be able to support all home births as usual as permitted by the midwifery team. Clients with midwives may wish to consider this option. Doulas not permitted entry to the hospital can provide Skype/Facetime/Zoom virtual support throughout the entire duration of the labour. Refunds are not available due to hospital restrictions.
• Prenatal visits may take place virtually by request of clients or their doulas.
• If you or your family members have any symptoms of Coronavirus (confirmed or suspected), or have been in contact with someone confirmed as having the virus please contact your doula or the main office immediately to discuss options for the continuation of your care. We may need to adjust our offering or substitute the doula caring for you. 

Any questions or concerns can be directed to us via our contact page.