Postpartum Doula Support
The postpartum period is a time of healing, adjustment, and learning. Whether you’re welcoming your first baby or adding to your family, you deserve support that extends beyond birth. Postpartum doula support provides practical assistance, evidence based education, and compassionate care so you can focus on your recovery, your baby, and your growing family with confidence.
What Is Postpartum Doula Support?
Postpartum doula support is designed to help you navigate the weeks after birth with practical assistance, emotional support, and evidence based information. While you’re adjusting to life with a new baby, I’ll help create space for you to rest, recover, and build confidence in your new role.
Every family’s needs are different, so our time together is tailored to what feels most helpful. That might mean newborn care education, preparing a nourishing meal, helping you process your birth experience, folding a basket of laundry while you feed your baby, or simply offering reassurance during a season of tremendous change. My role is to support your whole family while keeping your recovery at the center of our work together.
What You Can Expect
Every postpartum experience is different, and the support you receive should reflect that. Before we begin, I want to understand what your family needs most. Together, we’ll create a plan that supports your recovery, your confidence, and your transition into life with a new baby.
Some visits may focus on newborn care and feeding support, while others may be spent preparing a meal, helping with light household tasks, processing your birth experience, or making sure you have the opportunity to rest. As your needs change, so will our time together.
There is no “right” way to recover after birth. My goal is to meet you where you are, provide practical support without judgment, and help you feel cared for during one of life’s biggest transitions.
How We’ll Work Together
Initial Consultation
Our first meeting is an opportunity to get to know one another and talk about what support would be most helpful for your family. We’ll discuss your recovery, your goals, your concerns, and how you’d like our time together to be spent.
Early Postpartum Visits
The first days and weeks after birth are often a time of healing and adjustment. During our early visits, we’ll focus on your recovery while helping you settle into life with your new baby. Whenever possible, I encourage families to prioritize rest using the 5-5-5 approach as a flexible guide rather than a rigid expectation. Together, we’ll find realistic ways to support your recovery based on your family’s unique circumstances.
Personalized Support
Every visit is tailored to your family’s needs. One day we may focus on newborn care education or feeding support. Another visit might include preparing a nourishing meal, folding laundry, caring for your baby while you shower or rest, or simply offering reassurance during a challenging day. As your needs change, so will our time together.
Ongoing Guidance
Questions don’t always come up while I’m in your home. Throughout our time together, you’ll have text and email support so you can reach out whenever you need guidance, resources, or reassurance.
What’s Included
Every family’s needs are different, and our time together will be tailored to your individual goals.
Postpartum Doula Support may include:
- Newborn care education
- Infant feeding support
- Emotional support and reassurance
- Birth experience processing
- Light household tasks
- Nourishing meal preparation
- Evidence-based education and resource recommendations
- Referrals to trusted community resources when appropriate
- Text and email support between visits
Support is always tailored to your family’s needs. Every visit looks a little different, depending on what’s most helpful to you that day.
$800 Investment
Payment plans are available
Need additional support? Extra postpartum hours are available at $45/hour (three-hour minimum)
Who Postpartum Doula Support Is For
Postpartum doula support is for anyone who wants additional support after bringing home a new baby. Whether you’re recovering from a vaginal birth or a cesarean birth, adjusting to life as a first-time parent, or balancing the needs of an older child with a newborn, support can make the transition a little easier.
Postpartum doula support may be a good fit if you:
- Are welcoming your first baby.
- Are growing your family.
- Families bringing home a baby through adoption or surrogacy.
- Are recovering from a difficult birth or cesarean.
- Have limited family or community support.
- Parents navigating a NICU transition home.
- Are a teen parent.
- Are a single parent.
- Simply want another set of experienced, compassionate hands during the postpartum period.
Don’t see yourself on this list? Please reach out. Every family’s story is different, and I’d be happy to talk about how postpartum support can be tailored to your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Postpartum support can begin as soon as you return home from the hospital or birth center, though some families choose to start a little later. Together, we’ll create a schedule that fits your family’s needs.
No two visits are exactly alike because every family has different needs. One visit may focus on newborn care education, while another might include preparing a meal, folding laundry, washing bottles or pump parts, or caring for your baby while you shower or rest. Together, we’ll decide what feels most helpful each time I visit.
Absolutely! I support all feeding choices without judgment. Whether you’re breastfeeding, chestfeeding, pumping, formula feeding, combination feeding, or still deciding what works best for your family, my role is to provide evidence-based information and practical support.
Ready to connect?
The postpartum period was never meant to be navigated alone. Whether you’re preparing for life with a new baby or already feeling the weight of those early weeks, I’d love to learn more about your family and the support you’re looking for. Let’s schedule a free consultation and talk about how postpartum doula support can help you feel more rested, more confident, and more supported.
Gillian Riffe | Pittsburgh Birth & Postpartum Doula 