Magnolia Birth Doula Services

12/11/2025

Late last night I was blessed in helping a family welcome their second baby in a beautiful vaginal birth. Mama listened to her instincts & pivoted her plan to fit her needs. And she was so right in doing so! Happy birthday little one!

12/08/2025

This week I am putting together a series of posts to try to explain all of the factors that go into doula work that can affect our pricing.
This one is huge! Doulas tend to come to you! In your home! I consider this an important piece of my work. I cater to your needs. No needing to lug your kids around to an office that isn’t kid friendly. Or making you leave the coziness of your home when you’re super pregnant or freshly postpartum. You get to sit in the comfort of your own home, wearing whatever you want.
But all of that driving means doulas need reliable transportation. As well as funds for gas, maintenance, & repairs for their cars.
I put roughly 25-30k miles on my car each year. In fact, I never owned a brand new car until I became a doula. But it became a necessity because my high mileage cars couldn’t take all of the driving required for this job without lots of costly repairs.
This piece of being a doula is vital. Seeing people in their homes allows them to relax & really open up. You can know so much about someone based on where they live. Being invited into someone’s home really enhances the intimacy of our relationship. Ensuring I’m paid fairly allows me to continue to afford to do this for clients.

12/06/2025

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of comments being said/made critiquing the prices that doulas charge. Maybe these thoughts are fueled by misconceptions about what doulas do & so I thought I’d put together a little series to explain some unique traits of doula support that are factored into our pricing structure.
There are few people who work in birth that stay continuously with a family during the birth process, especially if birth is happening in a hospital. Hospital staff & providers tend to work shifts &/or work on rotation. Homebirth midwives & doulas are unique in that we tend to be with clients through the entire process of labor & birth. Meaning we could potentially have long shifts for indefinite periods of time.
Doulas tend to provide phone support in the early parts & many times join families in active labor & remain with them throughout the entire birthing process after that.
In the 10 years I’ve done doula support I have never had so many long births in a row. But from 11/2-12/5 I provided 169 hours in in-person birth support. 102 hours of that total were from 3 births. November was actually supposed to be my quiet month. But some babies were early, some late. I provided backup support. The 169 hours does not include phone support or breaks I took to go home to sleep. Nor does it include any visit times or phone support that was outside of labor.
And if a doula herself can’t stay the entirety of labor, like if she needs to rest, many times a backup is provided at the cost of the doula.
There’s no way for a doula to know how long she will be at a birth. Our pricing structures tend to be a flat fee. And that flat fee not only has to cover the hours of support we provide during pregnancy & birth but costs incurred while we are with families, which include:
💕childcare costs for an indefinite period of time
💕food bought during the birth
💕supplies used during birth
💕gas & wear & tear on our cars traveling to & from clients home & the birth space
💕possible lost work if the doula must have another job
💕possible backup support either for your birth or another birth
Doulas make a difference because we know our clients & provide continuous support. We gladly do this work but this element can come at a steep price for us.

12/06/2025

It was such a blessing to serve this repeat client yesterday. I was there when this family welcomed their first & blessed to be there for this little one too!

11/29/2025

This snowy morning I was blessed to witness this little guy come into the world!
His mama worked so hard for him. First time mom inductions are no joke. She arrived at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon! But she powered through with such calmness & positivity! This family received 27 hours of support from me. I was so honored to have been there to witness them welcome their rainbow baby!

11/29/2025

Pitocin is not the same as the hormone your body makes, oxytocin. Pitocin is synthetic. It doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier like oxytocin, which creates your body’s natural pain relief, beta endorphins.
Anyone who tells you it works the same is wrong. Pitocin can create unnatural contractions that are stronger & closer than spontaneous ones. Those can stress your baby out more. It can create more painful contractions that increases the need for medication pain relief.
Pitocin does not equal oxytocin.

11/27/2025

We are living in an induction epidemic. We induce just because of perceived risk, the thought that something could happen that’s not currently happening. Many times I see fear & coercion used. And providers will state that they would just feel more comfortable if you get induced. What I’ve heard actually said to families:
🤰There’s no benefit of a baby staying in there after 37 weeks
🤰Risk of stillbirth goes up by 50% (but never sharing 50% higher than what? Hint, the numbers small)
🤰The longer you go the more you risk baby having meconium & then needing a NICU stay
🤰You just want to take your baby home with you.
🤰I worry about all my patients who go over 40 weeks.

And then we induce for convenience. These are actual reasons given by providers to my clients:
🤰because the provider is on call that day
🤰 the provider leaves for vacation & wants to be there for the delivery
🤰no one wants to come in on a holiday & deliver

And the absolute cringiest, exact quote:
🤰It’s fun for me. It’s like a puzzle in which I get to try to figure out what exactly will work to get you into labor.

Induction risks you & your baby’s long term health. It’s not a game. It’s not for someone else’s convenience. Or to make your provider feel comfortable because they have hang ups about the danger of still remaining pregnant after a certain point. It should be saved for true medical emergencies. Your baby chooses their birthday for a reason. The fact that we birth in a system that doesn’t value women & children’s health enough to wait for spontaneous labor should make everyone question the validity & safety of our current maternity system. We deserve better.

11/27/2025

Twins! I was absolutely blessed to witness not just 1 but 2 babies enter this world tonight!
I did not expect to meet them quite this early but still they were born at very healthy sizes! This mama did quite the hard work to grow such hearty babies!
And the most amazing part of all of this, this was her SECOND set of twins! Both sets conceived naturally!
Women’s bodies are truly amazing!

11/25/2025

🟣 BLOG POST
The way women are treated in early labour reflects a maternity system designed around institutional needs rather than women’s needs.
https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/early-labour

11/25/2025

I warn clients that it’s very easy in pregnancy to know you don’t want intervention. But that everything can sound appealing in labor. You’re struggling & someone offers a way to make the process go faster or be less painful? It’s a sad reality of our current maternity care.

.
I attended planned hospital births for 12 years and here’s one thing I learned.

No matter how much she prepared and talked about what she wanted for birth and her right to decline anything, even when deeply convicted about her choices, even when she KNEW it wasn’t in her or her baby’s interest, even when reminded of her options...
she’d often still end up saying yes.

Some things were honored and ground was stood, of course, and I know our preparation and my support there made a very substantial difference for those mothers. But almost always, the mother was talked into or immediately said yes to SOMETHING she didn’t actually want.

Sometimes “small” - a gown, an IV lock, peeing in a cup, stepping on a scale, a “little” monitoring. Often big - a vaginal check, breaking her water, making her lie down to push, antibiotics, clamping the cord early, a cesarean.

She doesn’t actually want it but in the moment she says yes anyway. There are hundreds reading this who know exactly what I’m talking about because it was you. You said yes but you would rather have said no or better yet, not been asked at all.

For some it’s people pleasing, a deeply entrenched need to appear to be a “good” girl and not cause trouble or have people upset with you. For many, it’s because your brain is literally different in labor. It’s highly suggestible and can’t access its assertive, critical thinking side. For a lot, it’s because they just need the incessant pressure (coercion, threatening) from staff to stop. (It’s kind of like someone shaking you awake at 2 a.m to ask you your choice for dinner over and over. Half asleep, you can barely comprehend what they’re saying and will say whatever shuts them up fastest.)

Whatever the reason, it’s not how birth is meant to be. It’s not how women should be treated. It’s not what God wants. It’s often the root of trauma.

If you choose to birth within the system (in or out of hospital), know this dynamic. Plan for this dynamic. And if you can’t be at peace with fully submitting or with compromises you will be forced/coerced/pressured to make, perhaps it’s time to choose completely differently.

🤍

11/25/2025

This is vital info. Postpartum hemorrhage is a very serious & real risk of induction. It’s on the rise. We know this. And yet inductions are still offered for non medical reasons constantly. We are literally birthing in a system that encourages us to be put in harm’s way. Before you consent you need to know all of the facts.