Hello, Baby! is born
Trained doulas launch new business offering prenatal classes, postnatal care services
A pair of local moms who are trained doulas have started a new business in Peterborough.
Hello, Baby! launched in September, offering prenatal classes, doula care and postnatal care.
Steph Hayes, 31, and Jenn Avis, 32, are doulas and prenatal educators.
Their prenatal classes are typically held all in one day – a Sunday – from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
They also hold other classes, such as Pumping 101 (to learn all about pumping breast milk).
Classes are held at either Peterborough Living Yoga (above Haaseltons Coffee & Sweets, downtown) or at Play Café (a combined café and play space for small children, in the Brookdale Plaza).
They also offer non-medical support to women during childbirth.
Birth doulas attend to a mother’s emotional state – and to the extent that it’s possible, mom’s physical comfort – during childbirth.
They also attend to the other parent in the room, ensuring that parent can help Mom.
“We support partners, big-time, too,” Hayes said.
Hayes is about to give birth for the third time – she is a mother of two, and she’s carrying a child as a surrogate for two dads. (Avis will be her doula.)
They aren’t the only doulas in Peterborough – there are others. Over the last five years, more doulas have begun practising locally.
But there are still relatively few doulas in Peterborough, Avis said, compared to the Greater Toronto Area or Ottawa.
That could change, though: Hayes sees the services gaining popularity here.
She says Hello Baby! sells gift cards, for instance, because some mothers want doula care as a shower gift.
In time, Hayes thinks women will start to add doula services to their baby registries.
“Put your crib, your stroller, and your doula as the big-ticket items,” she said.
Doula services aren’t covered by OHIP, although some have argued that it should be.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report in 2016 that says doulas offer an important service to mothers and families.
The report suggests hospitals should have doulas in maternity wards.
WHO says support from a doula is an important way to help a mother in labour and childbirth and may even decrease the rate of C-sections.
Meanwhile some doulas also offer at-home help through the night.
Avis and Hayes do that: They come to your home overnight and bring baby to mom for breastfeeding.
Then the doula changes the baby ’s diaper and soothes her back to sleep so mom can get muchneeded rest.
They also check in after birth, and offer to help moms monitor their own emotional and mental health.
They give a checklist to moms – meant to be posted on the fridge door – that outlines some of the signs of post-partum depression.
Mom, have you lost your appetite? Are you unusually anxious, to the degree that it hinders your ability to care for yourself or the baby?
Avis said those could be warning signs, and she can help find agencies that can assist you.
She adds that while most visitors will ask, “How’s the baby?” when they walk in the door, the doulas ask a different question. “We ask, ‘How are you?’” Hello, Baby! is booking clients now for spring births. For more information, or for details about their classes, visit www.hellobabyptbo.com.