FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS

As a doula, I am your non-medical birth companion. I support you as a pregnant woman or expectant parent throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period – emotionally, informatively, and practically. Unlike a midwife, I do not perform any medical procedures. My primary role is to provide you with ongoing, personal support so that you feel safe, informed, and empowered. A midwife is medically trained and responsible for monitoring the birth process and providing medical care to the birthing person and baby. We complement each other perfectly in your birth team. You can find out more about this in the following video (in German):

From my experience and from what many pregnant people and parents report, my support during childbirth can be very helpful:

• Fewer interventions: I support you in expressing and implementing your wishes for the birth, which often leads to fewer medical interventions.

• More comfortable birth: I help you with various pain relief techniques (e.g. massage, breathing exercises) and offer you continuous emotional support.

• Strengthening your partner: I also support your partner in supporting you optimally and actively involve them in the birth process.

• Positive birth experience: My goal is for you to remember the birth as safe, self-determined, and positive.

Many pregnant people contact me in the second trimester. But it's never too early or too late to inquire! If you're interested in my support, please get in touch as soon as possible, as I can often only attend a limited number of births per month. Getting to know each other early on gives us both time to exchange ideas and build a foundation of trust. But even if you decide later, just reach out and ask about my availability.

No, if a partner is present I, of course, do not replace your partner! My role is to support both of you. I offer the following benefits for your partner:

• Emotional relief: I can help your partner cope with the emotional challenges of childbirth and provide security.

• Practical support: I can give your partner a break, guide them on how they can best support you (e.g. with massages or finding comfortable positions), and relieve them so that they can also be present and supportive.

• Information and explanation: I can help your partner understand medical information and involve them in the decision-making process.

• Shared experience: I support you in experiencing this special experience together as a team.

If you are a single parent, I can, of course, take on many responsibilities during your birth so that you feel optimally supported by me as your main birth partner. Should you bring a friend or family member to accompany you, all the above-mentioned benefits of my support, naturally, extend to them as well.

I am happy to give you an overview of the costs for my doula support: They usually include two meetings during pregnancy, my on-call availability for two to four weeks, continuous support during the birth, and a postpartum visit.

Perhaps also relevant is that the price of a midwife who can accompany you to the hospital or during a home birth is €700-1,400 just for on-call service .

If the costs mentioned above pose a genuine challenge for you, please don't hesitate to contact me anyway. We can then work together to see if we can find a suitable solution for both of us.

I'm part of a lovely group of experienced doulas in Cologne, with whom I work closely. Should I ever be ill or two births overlap, I always have a reliable colleague who can support you just as lovingly and competently in English or German. We coordinate in advance so that you always have good support in an emergency.

Support during a cesarean section depends on the specific circumstances. If your partner is supposed to accompany you to the operating room, unfortunately, in most cases it is not possible for me to be there as additional support during the surgery.

However, if you have not planned for another person to accompany you, we can discuss with the hospital in advance whether my presence in the operating room is possible.

But even if I can't be there directly in the operating room, I'll be by your side until shortly before the cesarean section and will return as soon as possible once your baby is born. I'll be happy to support you with your first breastfeeding and offer my experience in the immediate time after birth.