Who is behind Labor of Love?

There are 2 main doulas at this time- Ashley, the founder, and Martha, her partner in the company. We are usually the ones who come in. When we have multiple families requesting care, we do have other nurses who will provided doula care as well for postpartum care only. You would know who this was in advance.

How long have you been doing this?

Ashley has been a labor and delivery nurse for 10 years, 9 of those at the birth center where she also does postpartum/mother baby couplet care as well. She started Labor of Love and took her first family in January of 2024, and has been actively caring for families both short and long term since then.

what training or certifications do you have?

Ashley has been a nurse since 2013, specifically in labor and delivery since 2014 and added postpartum in 2015. She has NCC certifications in inpatient obstetrics and fetal monitoring. She also is certified in NRP (neonatal resuscitation), STABLE (stabilizing sick newborns in the hospital), and BLS/CPR. She has taken Spinning Babies twice.

She is also a ICEA certified postpartum doula.

In 2025, she is working to finish her IBCLC (lactation consultant) requirements and exam, and certifying in both childbirth education and labor doula.

If you’re nurses, why did you get certifications?

These certifications allow/will allow you to pay with FSA/HSA, and possibly get reimbursed via your health insurance if your insurance allows.

An important thing to know is that we are nurses at the hospital, but we are doulas at your home. These are two completely different scopes of practice, and we are comfortable with each specific scope. We cannot give medical advice, but we will refer you to a physician/midwife/pediatrician/lactation consultant if we think it’s warranted.

What does a typical overnight shift look like?

Typically, we come for 8 hours, but can come for up to 12 if you’d like. Night shift’s priority is sleep for the parents. We will stay wherever the baby is- in their nursery, or living room, or wherever you ask us to be. Many times, dad/partner sleeps in an entirely separate room, if available, so they can sleep all night and are not woken up by us or the baby. If your partner gets a full, restful night sleep, they are better able to support you during the day.

If mom is breastfeeding, we will bring the baby to her for every feeding. We will change baby’s diaper before feeding and bring them to you awake and ready to eat. After the feeding, we will take the baby and do all of the burping/soothing/calming needed to get baby back down to sleep.

If mom is bottle feeding, we will do all of the baby care including feeding. Mom then sleeps the entire night, or as much as she desires.

If mom is pumping, we will gather the milk and do with it what she asks- bag it, freeze it, store it in bottles, use it for the next feed, etc. we will wash any pump parts/bottles we use.

If baby is inconsolable and just wants mom, we will bring them back. We can do a lot of things, but if baby only wants mom, we get mom.

We are happy to do some light housekeeping as well. We can assist getting your dishes done and laundry done to make your next day easier. We want to make an overwhelming time for you simply less overwhelming.

What do we need to provide for you?

Not much- a comfy place for us to sit and maybe your wifi password if you don’t mind sharing it. Typically, we stay awake all night, so when baby sleeps, we do other work while watching over them. If you provide us a place to sleep, which is not required at all, we may nap in small increments if and only if you say it’s ok. We’re used to staying up all-night, so we have no problem doing so. In fact, usually we stay awake even if you tell us to sleep.

How did you decide pricing?

We looked at other local doulas and priced comparatively. We’ve been lucky to work with many doulas throughout our careers and get some great tips/tricks/knowledge from them, and we respect them greatly.

We also based it on our experiences as nurses as well, and the education that went into it. While we are NOT providing nursing care, majority of our clients have chosen us because of our extensive nursing backgrounds. While we are newer doulas, our education and experience has translated easily into doula care. In fact, when taking our postpartum certification exams, the majority of what we learned/studied for the exam was knowledge we already had imprinted into our brains because we’ve been teaching it to you in the hospital for years. Did we learn more? Absolutely, and we’re always trying to learn more. We’re constantly improving and learning, as anyone does. We have more certifications in the works at the moment.

How do we pay you?

Payment is done at the end of each shift. Venmo is preferred, and you can pay the individual doula. We CAN take Hsa/Fsa through square, which you can do online (we will send a link) or Apple Pay with Ashley. Sometimes, your Hsa/Fsa will be for reimbursement only. In that case, you pay us and we will provide a receipt for services so you will be reimbursed when you submit it. Credit cards can also be used online. Let us know ahead of time if you’re using a card so we can send you the payment linkTo complete after the shift.

do you take health insurance?

Unfortunately, not many health insurances will pay for doulas. If yours does, we can provide you an invoice for you to submit for whatever reimbursement your insurance will provide. At this time, you pay first and then submit for reimbursement.

We CAN take FSA/HSA though! We can use Square for payment with your FSA/HSA card. Depending on your specific card, sometimes it requires you paying and then providing a receipt for reimbursement. We can provide the invoice/receipt for you.

We also have been accepted as a Carrot fertility postpartum doula provider in the past. If your employer has Carrot fertility benefits, we can fill out the attestation form for you to be an approved provider for you. We must fill out this form for each client specifically, so please let us know when inquiring if you’re lucky enough to have these benefits.

Are you still working as nurses?

Yes, we are, and we have no plans to stop. We are night shift nurses who work 2-3 nights/week at the hospital birth center. We do this in addition to nursing, and love it. We are passionate about both the hospital AND helping you at home.

How do you not get burnt out?

The best part of owning our own business is we choose the schedule based on what we can safely provide to you. If you are requesting something we cannot provide, we will tell you so. If you’re looking for long term care (ex: 3 nights a week for 6 weeks), we will make our schedule as far in advance as we can, and let you know about any needed changed asap. We make our hospital schedules weeks in advance, so we work out kinks as soon as we can. If you’re looking for just one night a week or a one night respite, we can usually squeeze that in fairly easy. We also do not overbook ourselves. If we have multiple families requesting multiple nights for long term, we will be honest and say we can or cannot do it. We are human and as much as we’d love to help everyone exactly as they ask, if we cannot do it, we don’t.

How far do you travel?

Within an hour of Kingston, NY. Anything more than that is subject to a travel fee of $50/shift.

How far in advance should we book you?

The further, the better, especially if you think you want multiple nights and longer term care. We schedule on first come/first serve basis at this time.

We can usually squeeze in one night/once a week, with the night changing weekly depending on our availability. We highly encourage you to reach out asap still if you think this is something you’d like.

If you’re looking for the big package of all of your prenatal and postpartum care, the sooner the better. Ideally, any prenatal childbirth education/labor preparation would start in week 32-35, depending on your wants/needs and both of our schedules.

Can we meet before we commit?

Absolutely, and we highly encourage it. If you’re interested in hiring us, we usually try to meet you somehow before you commit to make sure you’re comfortable with us. In person is ideal, for a cup of coffee and an opportunity to ask anything you can think of. We can also zoom/FaceTime instead if preferred. There is no pressure to hire us, before or after the meet. Sometimes it’s just one of us at the meet, but we do try to get anyone who might be involved in your care there.

We’re interested in booking, how do we start?

Text/call or email, and we’ll get chatting! Ashley will give you any more info you need and ask some basic questions like when you’re due so we can immediately let you know what availability looks like at that time. We’ll then try to schedule to meet, if desired and time allows. Once you know for sure you want us, you can simply text/call/email giving the official approval and we’re good to go.