Albany Birth Doula Services
Photo credit: Birth Becomes You.
Certified Birth Doula Services for NY Capital Region Families
Are you looking to have a healthy, satisfying, and empowering birth experience? Would you like to feel supported as you navigate the unknown terrains of birth? Would you like to have options at your birth and lead the decision-making process throughout your entire birthing experience?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, we may be the perfect match!
My Role as Your Birth Doula:
As your birth doula, I will become familiar with how you envision your ideal birth through the appointments we have together during your pregnancy. While attending your birth I will ensure that your wishes are heard and respected by those in attendance, all the while continuing to motivate and encourage you as you work to bring your baby into your arms.
Together we will ensure that you are equipped with evidence-based information so you are able to confidently make the best decisions for you and for your baby. If you have a birth partner, I will encourage them to be as involved as they want to be by sharing recommended comfort measures and laboring/birthing positions that they can help to facilitate. Your partner knows you, your doula knows birth. Together, we make a great team.
In-Person Birth Doula Package
When hiring me as your doula you will receive:
- Three prenatal appointments
- Email and phone support prior to birth
- Commitment to being on call from 38 weeks through the birth of your baby
- Backup doula available
- Continuous support during labor at home, hospital, or birth center
- Immediate support 1-2 hours postpartum
- Two postpartum visits
- Access to local resources
- Birth timeline (when possible)
My service area includes hospitals and birth centers in Albany, NY and the surrounding Capital Region, including Troy, Cohoes, Halfmoon, Clifton Park, Latham, Colonie, Ballston Spa, Saratoga Springs, Wynantskill, East Greenbush, Niskayuna, and Schenectady.
COST: $3,000
I believe anyone who wants a doula should have one. If price is the only thing keeping you from hiring a doula, please ask me about payment plans, bartering, or discounts. I currently offer discounts for home births and women of color.
Not ready to book birth support yet? My pregnancy doula package or a spot in my online Doula Chats might be the better fit for where you are right now.
"Natasha's presence gave me the strength to continue through unmedicated contractions by being by my side for hours on a birthing ball, whispering affirmations that I was safe and my baby was safe."
- Leeah, first-time mom
"After we left the hospital, my husband even exclaimed that Natasha was "worth every penny!"
- Laura, first-time mom
"Natasha is an amazing doula. I don't regret a minute of working with her. She helped my wife and I tremendously during labor and delivery, making us feel less stressed and much more confident."
- Anton, A new dad
"Natasha's pain management support was invaluable. She was able to materially reduce the pain I felt during labor, empowering me to keep my strength and focus."
- Christine, first-time mom
"I really feel that having a doula helped me achieve my goal of VBAC, as I was able to work through any fears I had from my previous birth experience."
- N.O., mom of two
"Natasha assisted in helping me discover the type of birth experience I desired, and what expectations I had of my husband, my birth, and her services as a doula."
- Shantel C
"Thank you for filling us with the confidence and knowledge we needed to have an amazing birth. I will never forget this experience."
- Angela, mom of two
"She will only give us the credit, but I know in my heart Natasha Trapp is the only reason we were saved from having a C-section. By suggesting a body movement to get our baby to move down the birth canal after being high up for the entire labor, our baby was born vaginally within 30 minutes afterwards."
- Leeah, first-time mom
Natasha has an incredibly kind, peaceful, and caring spirit.
Our son came five weeks early but she was by our side as soon as we told her that I was in labor. She was patient, encouraging, resourceful, and a strong advocate for me with the delivery staff and also the NICU staff, always ensuring my comfort and making that her top priority.
- Kristin C
"Natasha offers a calm presence, helps tremendously with advocacy and informed consent, and broke down all of the medical terminology that I may not have otherwise understood. She is kind, smart, nurturing and loving."
- Moriah, first-time mom
I hired a doula with one goal in mind: a natural, unmedicated birth. I specifically wanted assistance with pain management during labor and an experienced, trained female companion that could assist my husband and I in achieving the birth that we desired. Natasha was amazing and did all of this plus more for us!
- Second-time mom
"Natasha worked closely with my husband to help manage my pain, showing him ways he could help. She was indispensable to me during the birth and I wouldn't hesitate to hire her again as my doula. Thank you, Natasha!"
- Second-time mom
"The decision to hire a doula for my second labor wasn't a doubt. We knew we needed that support again no matter what. Natasha was exactly what we needed. Her calm manner and endless level of expertise helped us throughout the process until the very lovely end."
- Maria, second-time mom
"Natasha's gentle strength helped us through the most intense contractions, applying counter pressure and offering encouraging words."
- Bridget, mother of three
"Prior to the delivery of our child, Natasha helped us to understand more about birth and all the possible options we had in the hospital setting we chose. That was a unique experience for us: that instead of promoting a specific way of doing things, Natasha just put the options out there and gave us the evidence to study in order to make our own informed decisions."
- Amber, first-time mom
"For someone I had only met a handful of times to share something as intimate as birth with, I felt completely comfortable with Natasha 100% of the time."
- Moriah, first-time mom
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no such thing as a silly question. Most of your questions are probably answered here, but if not, please reach out to me!
A doula is a trained labor companion that provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support. There are a lot of benefits of having a doula at one’s birth. They include decreased cesarean rates, decreased use of medications for pain relief (like epidurals), decreased use of extra interventions (like Pitocin), and shorter labors. Having a doula can also increase satisfaction with the birth experience. This is often because doula can explain what’s going on during labor and birth and provide reassurance. If interventions are suggested, doula can give parents more information and encourage them to ask the right questions to make informed decisions.
In addition to their heart and hands, doulas also have a lot of comfort measures that can help the birthing person to have a more positive experience. These include aromatherapy, mellow lighting options, hot or cold packs, rebozo techniques, suggestions for laboring and birthing positions, moral support, reassurance, and verbal affirmations.
Doulas are for any family who wants to be supported during birth. We attend births at hospitals, birth centers, and at home.
My true agenda is to help ensure that your birth plan is acknowledged and followed as much as possible. I don’t project my own values or goals onto you, nor do I make any decisions for you.
I don’t want you to have any regrets about your decisions, so I like to ask you prenatally where you are on pain medication preference scale. We discuss what you’d like me to do if you ask for an epidural. Some families choose to have a code word for letting their support people know that they are truly ready for epidural.
Sometimes when labor gets intense and things are happening quickly, the doula might be the only person in the room actively trying to make sure your wishes and the birth plan are respected. This is my purpose in being present in a family’s birth space.
I don't replace your partner. I know pregnancy, labor, and birth, and your partner knows you – together, we make a great team. If your partner wants to be more emotionally involved, I can take care of physical comfort measures. If your partner wants to be hands on, I can show them techniques (some of them require quite a bit of muscle so they are perfect for many partners to take charge of), while supporting the mother emotionally.
Sometimes, however, the partner feels overwhelmed by the birthing experience and seeing their loved one in pain. I provide support to the partner, too, by doing things such as making sure the partner has something to eat, checking in to see how they are doing, and validating feelings. If the partner feels overwhelmed and wants to chill in a chair or go for a walk, they can do that knowing their loved one is in good hands with her doula. In this way the partner doesn’t have to be solely responsible for the mother’s emotional and physical well-being.
I hear your hesitancy about having someone else present during such an intimate experience. I felt like that with my own births.
The truth is, if you are having your baby at a hospital, you will have quite a few strangers at your birth: a nurse you haven't met, a doctor you may or may not have met, residents, etc. You may see your favorite doctor for your prenatal appointments, but your chances of having them on the day you go into labor are slim, as the entire OB practice rotates through their shifts. It may actually be reassuring to have a familiar face such as your doula in your corner. And don't worry, I will honor your desire for privacy whenever you'd want it.
Nurses and midwives can be compassionate and supportive, but their role is very different from that of a doula. Nurses and midwives are focused on clinical tasks, such as monitoring the baby’s heart rate, taking mom’s vitals, performing vaginal exams, charting (there is a lot of charting!), and often catching the baby (though moms can do this too). They are usually extremely busy. Even if they wanted to provide emotional support or had skills for physical comfort measures, they usually don’t have the time to do so consistently.
It is also important to note that medical staff members usually have shifts. Once their shift is over they leave, and you suddenly have a new person taking care of you. Your doula on the other hand stays with you throughout your entire birth experience (with occasional exceptions), so you always have the comfort of a trusted person in your corner. A doula works for the birthing person, not her care provider or her birth place, and therefore has the mother’s needs as her main priority.
Yes, hiring me as your doula is a considerable investment. I am one of the more experienced doulas locally, and my fee reflects that.
I encourage you to consider the cost of not hiring a doula, including
- increased interventions (inductions, Pitocin, breaking waters, Cesarean births)
- feeling traumatized by the birth experience
- mental and physical health affecting bonding with your baby, feeding journey, and relationship with your partner
I encourage you to spend your money on things that matter the most to you. Only you can decide what those are! It could be an updated nursery, a great stroller, or a supported and empowering birth experience.
Birth is such an important event in the life of a woman. Her experience can affect her for the rest of her life physically, emotionally, and spiritually. A traumatic experience may hinder bonding between the mother and the new baby, while an empowering experience might give the mother some extra oomph to handle the often difficult work of taking care of newborn while being sleep-deprived and exhausted. I want to help mothers have a positive birth experience and a strong foundation for their family life; after all, strong families are what strong societies are made of.
I took my doula training in the fall of 2016. I've supported over 120 births since then, and still love it.
I prefer to support births in Albany and Rensselaer County, but have traveled as far as 1.5 hrs for the right families on occasion.
If after our initial interview we both feel that we are a good fit - congratulations! I am just as happy as you are! The next steps would be to sign the contract and make the first payment. After those are taken care of, we can put our first prenatal meeting on the calendar.
My fee is listed on the Work with Me page. The first half is due at the time of contract signing, to reserve your spot on my calendar. The second half is due by 36th weeks of pregnancy.