2024
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LicensingUser ReviewsMystery Shopping CallsOur goal is to connect people with the best local professionals. We scored San Francisco Doulas on more than 25 variables across five categories, and analyzed the results to give you a hand-picked list of the best.
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= Featured ProviderDOULAS by the BAY is a doula company based in San Francisco Bay Area, California that specializes in birth, postpartum, sleep, and breastfeeding support, and placenta encapsulation. Shakila Marando, the owner, is a trained birth and postpartum doula who has worked as a doula for more than 20 years. Shakila Marando is a certified lactation educator and sleep consultant.
(26)Doula Jinny offers professional doula services to expecting moms in Richmond and the surrounding areas. The doula offers nonjudgmental and compassionate care for every family's unique birthing goals, needs, and preferences, has extensive knowledge on topics from hospital procedures to home birth, and can handle everything from labor support and community resources to signs of postpartum depression, breastfeeding, and infant care. Postpartum doula care covers food preparation, errands, and help with siblings, and placenta services are also available including for capsules, salves, tinctures, broth, placenta prints, and even an umbilical cord keepsake. The provider is a professionally trained birth doula, postpartum doula, newborn care specialist, and placenta encapsulation specialist, and information regarding payment, rates, and gift certificates can be found right on Doula Jinny's site.
(21)Birthing Babies, owned by Deanna Jesus, CD, has been providing a variety of doula services for families in San Francisco for 14 years. Jesus is a certified birth doula who believes that those who are expecting should be the ones to decide on their childbirth, so she educates them on the different aspects of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She offers support and guidance in birth plans, labor, breastfeeding, and newborn care. She also helps families facing miscarriage and stillbirth.
Caroline Kerherve is a lactation consultant and doula located in San Francisco, California who serves mothers, their partners, and families. This provider offers lactation and postpartum services, delivering complete prenatal and postpartum care. She also offers group sessions for her clients, the Caroline New Moms' Circle. In 2010, Caroline Kerherve became a postpartum doula through the American Association of Doulas, DONA International.
(1)Lenaya Kimball is a doula located in San Francisco, California who serves mothers and families in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Her services include labor support and postpartum support. Labor support includes prenatal visits, 24/7 on call service, and during birth and after birth services. Lenaya Kimball has undergone both birth and postpartum doula training with Doula Trainings International.
The Birth Garden is a doula service company in Oakland, California, supporting mothers and their families in the Greater East Bay Area since 1990. They deliver private and small group prenatal education and labor practice, serving clients in their homes and on their preferred schedules. Anna Hurty of The Birth Garden is a highly experienced doula.
(15)Martina Smolova, CPD, is a doula in San Francisco, California who serves families in the entire San Francisco Bay Area. This experienced doula offers postpartum doula services and continuing newborn care. Her services include breastfeeding and nutritional education, and physical and emotional support for mothers and their babies. Martina Smolova is a certified postpartum doula through Childbirth International. She is also a professional photographer.
(17)Bay Area Night Doulas is a doula company that provides support to mothers, babies, and families in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Their services include postpartum care, breastfeeding support, sleep education, infant massage, family adjustment assistance, and access to local resources. All of their doulas are Infant CPR certified, current on their vaccinations, and cleared with negative TB tests.
(25)Trinity Night Doulas is a doula company located in San Francisco Bay Area, California that supports families throughout the entire birth process. During the 4th trimester, these doulas provide non-medical nighttime support, including maternal recovery, lactation and general feeding support, newborn care, infant soothing techniques and massage, family bonding, sleep training/education, access to information and community resources. Trinity Night Doulas is comprised of a team of professionally trained postpartum doulas.
San Francisco Doula Group is a community of doulas based in San Francisco, California, serving the Bay Area since 2003. This doula provider features both birth and postpartum doulas who consistently participate in their continuing education programs. San Francisco Doula Group is comprised of highly trained and experienced birth and postpartum professionals.
A doula is a trained professional who gives informational, emotional, and physical support to a mother (and potentially others) going through pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion, stillbirth, birth complications, and more. While most doulas work with clients for reproductive health conditions, some doulas also help with other life experiences, such as hospice or terminal illness.
You don’t need a certificate to be a doula, although this can help your career by verifying legitimacy. Regardless of a certificate, you do need to complete training through a qualified doula training program. The program usually takes between three and five days. After training, most programs require you to attend a few births with paperwork to prove your attendance.
The annual salaries of doulas in the United States range from $28,000 in smaller towns to $96,000 in major cities. A doula’s salary can depend on their experience, where they work, and how much work they take on. Most doulas handle an average of four births per year.
The national average hourly rate for doulas is $45. Additionally, doulas charge a “flat fee” per birth that can range from $600 in small cities and towns to $2,000 in larger metropolitan areas. As a doula gains more experience, they typically raise their rates to reflect their expertise.
Most insurance providers don't cover doulas. However, some states offer coverage for birth doulas under Medicaid programs. To check if you have coverage, contact your insurance provider directly. It's also essential to ask for more details, such as if you get partial or full coverage, if there's a maximum, and if you have to work with a certified doula.
