Yes! While many midwifery practices are holistic in their care, their primary focus is on your medical care during pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum. During pregnancy, your visits with your midwife will be highly centered around your medical care, while with a doula, we will focus on many different topics that will help you further prepare you for labor and birth. During your birth, you will have the midwives there to focus on providing you with the medical care needed to keep you safe, while your doula can focus entirely on providing emotional and physical comfort throughout your labor and birth.

A midwife is a medical provider. They medically care for you throughout pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum period. Doulas are not medical providers. We focus on providing emotional and informational support throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Rather than offering medical care, we are there to support you, help you feel prepared and confident in yourself, and offer you comfort techniques during labor.

Yes. This is something that I am very passionate about as I am a trauma survivor myself. Trauma informed care is something that I am continuously weaving into my practices as a doula. I understand deeply how unique each individual's experience of trauma can be, and do my best to recognize the unique needs of each person I work with. Some of the ways trauma informed care is practiced in my work is: -obtaining consent before providing any hands on support, and respecting when consent is not given -inviting you to say no to any of the tools or practices that I offer you in both our prenatal work together and while supporting you in birth -offering a trauma informed birth plan worksheet in paper and pdf form so you have the option to work on it discreetly if you wish -doing my best to notice and listen to how you are doing throughout our work together so I can provide you with the support you need to feel safe. I am also VERY stern on advocacy, especially when it comes to touch, female only birth spaces, and privacy.

I can be! During prenatal visits, I will introduce you, and anyone else who will be supporting you, to a variety of advocacy tools that can be used during prenatal visits with your provider and in the birth room. We will also go over what our advocacy roles will be throughout your pregnancy and birth journey. Some people prefer their partners to be their main advocates while others wish for me to take on that role. I am happy with whatever feels best to you!

The people you choose to welcome into your birth and postpartum journey are important members of your support team! I want to support them in not only feeling confident in supporting you, but also in making sure they are doing well also. One of the main principles within my doula work is that one cannot give from an empty cup. This is why my own wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of your support team are so important to me! You will find that your support team/birth partner is just as integrated into the care experience as you are. They are encouraged to be actively involved in any prenatal preparations, and I will check in on how they are doing throughout birth and in any postpartum visits we have together. You can consider me the overseer of your birth team, making sure everyone is doing okay so we can all work well in serving you the best we can.

I like to tailor my services to my client's needs as much as I can, within reason of course. Some clients like to have a set schedule that looks the same from week to week. As long as the times chosen are available, I can accommodate it. For clients who like more flexibility, we will schedule visits on a week by week basis. The first week of services will be coordinated over phone, text, or email once you are ready to start working with me. Moving forward, I will check in with you before I leave on the last visit of each week and inform you of my availability and we will schedule that way.

While I primarily offer daytime postpartum support, I am willing to provide short term overnight support to help my clients catch up on sleep. If this is something you are interested in, you can feel free to bring it up either in the consultation or as we are working together. If you find that you need more regular overnight support that I cannot provide to you, I am happy to connect you with an overnight doula who can give you the support you need.

Clients can choose to have a visit anywhere between 3-6 hours depending on their needs and what I have available. I generally find that 3-4 hour visits are best for most people, although families with multiples tend to benefit from longer visits.

If you are not sure how much postpartum support you will need, you can book my services for the minimum amount of required hours (12) which will cover four 3-hour postpartum visits. At some point before the end of your fourth visit, we will check in on how you are doing and if you feel you will need more support. Please understand that if there is a demand for my postpartum services, you may only have a limited amount of availability to choose from if you decide to extend services past the contracted hours you've signed on for.

Sleep shaping is great for helping young babies build healthy sleep habits. Sleep shaping typically includes giving your baby opportunities to practice self soothing in very small increments and creating healthy sleep habits and routines while still meeting all of your infant's developmental needs. You will still provide your baby with all the feedings, cuddles, and reassurance they need in their early months. Please keep in mind that it takes a few weeks before your baby will fall into any semblance of a sleep routine. Newborns typically experience something called day/night confusion because their body is not in sync with the times of the day as ours are. Feel free to contact me to learn more about sleep shaping!

YES! Cry-it-out (the Ferber method) is only ONE of many sleep training techniques. There are many other sleep training options that allow you to gently guide your child into developing healthy habits that help them to fall asleep independently.

I always recommend that clients consult with their pediatricians before starting any sleep training plan. Typically, it is recommended not to start sleep training until at least 3 months. Please note that sleep training is NOT the same as night weaning. You will always be providing your child with the nourishment they need for their health and development. Night weaning is something I recommend you talk with your child's pediatrician about since a sleep consultant cannot determine when your child is ready to drop feeds.

Rhode Island insurance: Birth doula services and a limited amount of postpartum doula services are covered by insurance in the state of Rhode Island. In order for doula services to be covered, the doula you hire must be in network with the insurance you have. I currently accept RI Medicaid insurance and am working on accepting other Rhode Island insurances. If you have an RI insurance other than Medicaid, I can provide a super bill for reimbursement. (updated Feb. 2025) Massachusetts insurance: State MassHealth insurance is currently the only Massachusetts insurance that covers doula services. Like in Rhode Island, the doula you hire must be in network with MassHealth for the services to be covered. I am not currently in network with MassHealth, but hope to become covered in the future. If you have another Massachusetts insurance other than MassHealth, you can submit a reimbursement form that I can provide to you, but reimbursement is NOT guaranteed. (updated Nov. 2024) Carrot: Some employers offer the Carrot program which covers doula services. They do have rather strict requirements of which doulas they cover. My birth services do meet these requirements. **To my knowledge, sleep consulting services are not covered by any insurances in any state.