Questions?

As birth doulas, we provide emotional, educational, and physical support to the birthing person during labor and delivery. We can also facilitate communication with the staff to ensure that you have the information you need to make informed decisions regarding your baby’s birth. We can provide reassurance and perspective to you and your family, make suggestions for labor progress, and help with relaxation, massage, positioning and other techniques for your comfort. We are independent and self-employed, and as such, are working for YOU, not your caregiver or place of birth.

A doula doesn’t perform any clinical tasks like fetal monitoring or cervical checks. We’re there to work alongside your clinical team, not instead of them.

Ideally, it allows them to feel safer, be more present and confident, and increase their overall ability to focus on the laboring person. A doula isn’t there to take the place of a partner (and in fact, we really don’t want to be your only support person!), our presence should make space for your support people who know you best to have tools in the moment that will be effective for you.

You’re in the right place! We all have an abundance of experience in birth of all types. Our role is always to provide you with information and listen to your goals, we trust that you are the best person to make decisions about how your baby needs to be born. Our methods of support may differ depending on what your birth looks like, but our level of investment and care will not.

Honestly? Vibes. Of course education and background are important, and a history of supporting pregnant and postpartum people is pretty essential. The part that can’t be emphasized enough is the relationship building that goes into the process. Your doula is someone that will likely see you at your most vulnerable places at some point (or many points) along the way. Crying, bleeding, naked, overwhelmed or scared. Can you text them a picture of something in the toilet and ask if it’s your mucus plug? Can you trust them enough tell them you feel like you’re failing as a parent? Will they be able to learn your cues enough to know when it’s ok to make a joke during a tough moment?

All Tend doulas have years of experience working in the perinatal field as well as our own lived experiences of pregnancy, birth, postpartum, feeding, and navigating parenting. We trust each other implicitly to take care of each other and to show up for each other’s clients in the event it’s needed. We each limit our client load to ensure we can dedicate enough time and energy to the clients we’ve committed to, and rarely have to use back up support. In the event your chosen doula can’t attend your labor (reasons such as illness or overlapping labors, for example) then another Tend doula will support you in their stead. Your original doula and your backup doula will both continue the care relationship into postpartum.

We are located in the Richmond, VA metro area and also serve surrounding areas of Henrico, Chesterfield, Glen Allen, Midlothian, and Hanover. We have ample history of supporting births in all of the area hospitals including Henrico Doctors Hospital, VCU, and St Mary’s. We also have experience working with many of the homebirth and birth center midwives that attend births in RVA. Part of our role is to work cooperatively with your team, and help advise you on which provider and birth location may be the most aligned with your goals for your pregnancy and birth.

If you live outside the Richmond Metro area please inquire about rates for travel or virtual support.

Birth doula support typically costs $2,000, with half as a deposit and half due at 36 weeks gestation. We offer discounted rates for repeat clients, alternate payment plans, as well as sliding scale rates if available. If cost is preventing you from having doula support, please reach out to see what options are available to you.

Payment can be made via credit card, check, or cash. Many HSA or FSA plans will also reimburse you directly for doula services. Currently we aren’t able to accept any direct insurance payments since reimbursement rates for insurance coverage are abysmally low and would not allow us to have a sustainable income. Our doulas have previously worked with supplemental benefits such as Carrot, Progeny, and Maven. If you’d like to see if your benefits could be used, we are happy to help you in that process.

HOPEFULLY NOT. Our communication during your pregnancy is our chance to build trust and rapport that will be invaluable during labor and postpartum. We want to hear from you- how you’re feeling emotionally, physically, logistically. At minimum we’d like to be in contact as often as you see your care provider, and we want to be alongside you for education and emotional support all along the way.

A postpartum doula is a non-medical support and caregiver during the postpartum period. A postpartum doula provides evidenced based information on topics such as infant feeding, emotional and physical recovery from birth, parent-baby bonding, infant soothing, and basic newborn care. The postpartum doula is there to help a new family during the recovery and adjustment period after birth or when a new baby joins the family.

It's generally never too early to start your search for a doula. If you are expecting a baby (or babies) it can take time to discover what your plan is for your labor, birth, and postpartum- working with a doula early means we can provide resources and support along the way while you’re deep in your decision making process. Birth doulas can book quickly and Tend doulas take a restricted number of clients to ensure we can provide the most in depth and present support to our clients. While we occasionally will have last minute openings for people who are in the third trimester, it is most common that we are contacted in the first trimester or early second trimester.

You can also contract a postpartum doula as early as you’d like- or just contact us to see what that might look like for you and your needs. Postpartum is forever, and we love to work with families wherever they are in their postpartum journey.

At Tend we take your privacy very seriously. We understand that information about fertility, pregnancy, miscarriage, or abortion is being gathered and used in new ways and that there are many valid concerns about keeping that information confidential. Our CRM platform is HIPAA compliant, including our video conferencing software. Our emails and document storage are done via Proton which uses zero-access encryption to prevent your information from being accessed or scanned. We are always happy to use messaging platforms such as Signal as needed for regular communication. If you have any other security or privacy access needs please let us know.

Our logo was created by Hania of https://wombatwisdoms.com/.

Most of the photos on our website were taken by us, a few by our client’s birth photographers, and all are shared with explicit client permission. We will never post a photo of you or your baby without explicit consent.