Accessible Postpartum Doula Support for All
We are now offering sliding-scale and donation-funded pro bono doula services to qualifying families.
Accessibility: A Wildwood Core Value
Bringing home a newborn and navigating early parenthood for the first, or the third, time presents tender and unique challenges for any family — but those challenges are multiplied when facing financial hardship at the same time. At Wildwood Birth, we know that every family deserves birth doula and postpartum doula support, no matter their financial circumstances (and especially when life is piling it on).
While we work for and wait for insurance mandates and an adequate social safety net that ensures doula support for all, we are proud to offer a scholarship program to make Wildwood birth and postpartum doula support accessible to those who would otherwise struggle to access these essential, life- and outcome-changing services.
Accessing scholarship-funded doula care
Life is hard, it’s thrown you some curveballs, and on top of that, we live in a time in which, for most people, it’s increasingly difficult to get by. But time keeps moving us forward through the seasons, and in this season of your life, you’re experiencing the profound joys and new challenges of welcoming a brand new babe. You know you need help, you’ve heard about the amazingness of doula support, but you know you can’t swing it. We at Wildwood want you to have the support you need, and we’re now able to offer subsidized or sliding scale doula support to a limited but growing number of families in need. And if your needs don’t line up with our availability, we’d love to point you to other resources to help access the support you deserve.
People also ask…
Please fill out the form to apply for pro bono postpartum doula support.
Funded by our caring community
The idea to create a doula support fund was initiated by a former Wildwood client who asked if she could donate unused postpartum doula support visits to families in need. Brilliant! Her generosity inspired us to offer this same option of kindness to other Wildwood families if, for whatever reason, they did not use all of the visits they initially booked.
We of course would be happy to take donations from any former Wildwood client, or any caring community member who would like to contribute to the wellbeing of Portland families. Any amount donated to the fund will be applied directly to covering the cost of “The Essentials” package (16 hours of support) for a family in need.
Many of the doulas on our team have also generously volunteered hours of service to this cause, so we have a rolling bank of hours available to support families in our community.
Determining need
Many developed nations have government programs in place to ensure postpartum support to all parents, regardless of income. Until the United States follows suit, families are forced to pay out of pocket for doula services. Although doula support is a worthwhile investment, it is a specialized service and by many standards is not inexpensive. This makes it challenging for some folks to afford, and impossible for those who struggle to pay rent and bills, or purchase the basic necessities for their families.
The growing tree analogy* described below illustrates how we attempt to determine need, as we intend to reserve the donated funds to those who fall into the “sprout” category.
*adapted from “The Green Bottle Sliding Scale: A Tool of Economic Justice” by Alexis J Cunningfolk.
Sliding-scale Postpartum Support
We want to also acknowledge that there are many families who fall into “The Sapling” category of financial circumstances from our tree analogy above. For those families, we are proud to offer a discounted postpartum support package called “The Essentials.” See below for details! Please also be aware that some insurance companies will also reimburse some or all doula support. Head over to our page on insurance reimbursement for more information.