Fees while certifying?

[DoulaRissa]

I'm unsure of what to charge for my certifying postpartum clients (dona). I did free and low cost births for my birth certification, but for postpartum I'm not sure what to charge.

For this area $12-15/hour is typical. Once I'm certified I plan to charge $12/hour. All my advertising materials say right now is 'offering discounted rates for a limited time'. My website is still a wreck.

I want to offer 8 hour minimum packages right now. I'm available day/night/everyday but taking clients July forward. What would a decent fee be? I can't do free postpartum help (I have 3 youngins to pay my BIL for childcare). If it helps minimum wage here is $7.something.

All this business stuff is perplexing.

[Wendy79]

Honestly, if it were me, I would charge the full rate now. Consider most "mainstream" jobs... you get paid the full salary while you're in training. I once had a tutoring job with two weeks of intense training--we got paid one dollar less per hour for those two weeks. And it's not as if you're totally inexperienced!

Since you already have materials showing a discounted rate, you might charge "$80/8 hours ($100 value)" or something like that. Personally, I wouldn't go any lower.

[Neshama]

I never thought of charging per hour...

interesting thought!

[ScootchsMom]

If you are already certified as a doula, just not in postpartum, then I see no reason why you can't charge your full rate.

Quote:

Honestly, if it were me, I would charge the full rate now. Consider most "mainstream" jobs... you get paid the full salary while you're in training. I once had a tutoring job with two weeks of intense training--we got paid one dollar less per hour for those two weeks. And it's not as if you're totally inexperienced! Since you already have materials showing a discounted rate, you might charge "$80/8 hours ($100 value)" or something like that. Personally, I wouldn't go any lower.

Liz

[tlcdoula]

I don't see why you cannot charge full price as you are still doing the work. If you are concerned then lower your rate to $10 an hour instead of $12.

[Tarstar]

I agree with everyone else. I'm not certified yet and am doing a client for free. This will be the one time...after this client I"m charging full rate with a sliding scale so that a pp doula is available to everyone.

[Doula Network of LI]

You need to charge whatever makes you comfortable. I was not comfortable charging full price until I felt more 'experienced'. It came quickly, however. I realized I knew more than I gave myself credit for.
My very first postpartum client was a labor support gone awry. I never made it to her birth and she already had a pp doula. She called me at the last minute because her doula was sick. I charged her babysitting fees and travel fees. She knew I never had a postpartum job before and I told her that she was helping me.
That is how I started. The next pp client I charged half the going rate, the third full pay. Mind you, there was only 2 postpartum doulas in my entire area, but that was going back 10 years ago.