Postpartum and Prenatal Home care
Thank you for considering Arbutus Birth Services to support your family in the upcoming days, weeks or months. You can have confidence that the support you receive will make a positive difference in the postpartum period. This information sheet is designed to give you a better understanding of our service and how we can best support you.
What we are: A support system for mothers and their families
Diverse and flexible service customized to suit your needs
Here to help the home and family run smoothly, and adjust to changing needs
A friendly service - please feel free when we are in your home to ask us to get you a glass of water and to do the small things along the way.
A service of respect. We appreciate and respect both our Clients and our Staff.
What we are not: Nurses or any other kind of medical professionals
A maid service (although we do handle a great deal of housework, your support is our primary concern, therefore the level of cleaning, whether a good scrub or light cleaning is determined by you).
A nanny service (child minding is a popular aspect of our service, including infant care, however our goal is to give you the confidence, skills and time to heal or find your own balance in parenting)
How we can best serve you: Your home is special and unique and we wish to respect this. The rules and boundaries of each person and home are different. Although boundaries and comfort measures may seem obvious to you they are not necessarily obvious to those unfamiliar with your home (i.e. the Homecare Doula). That is why communication is essential for you to receive the best care possible. Please let us know immediately if at any time we are doing something that you are not comfortable with or would rather we didn’t do. We are not serving anyone if you need to re-do what we have done to your liking. On the same note you can feel confident to ask us to do whatever work you need done, and know that if it is not a job we are comfortable with we will let you know.
Common requests of Homecare Doulas: To help give you some ideas on how you may wish to use your service hours, the following are examples of jobs our families often value. Please don’t hesitate to request jobs not suggested on this list.
- Breastfeeding support and information
- Infant care
- Demonstrate infant massage
- Night shifts
- Bath time
- Fold laundry
- Connect you with your community, information on groups and activities
- Craft or game time with older children
- Walk the dog
- Cut up veggies to munch during the week
- Sleep strategies
- Meal preparation (lunch/dinner/ cut up fruit & veggies to snack on)
- Run errands (such as groceries, return recycling, mail etc.)
*Cash funds must be provided prior to any purchasing errands. All receipts and change will be returned to you.
Daytime rates (8am-8pm) $25/hour
Nightshift rates (8pm-8am) $30/hour (sliding scale available for low income or single parents)
2 hour minimum