What's a monitrice?
A monitrice is a birth professional who blends doula support with midwifery expertise. As a monitrice I provide all the emotional, physical, and informational support of a labor doula, but I also provide clinical labor assessment at home, monitoring your vital signs, listening to baby's heartbeat, and performing cervical checks as requested to evaluate labor progress. Monitrice support is beneficial for anyone planning a hospital birth who would like to labor at home for as long as possible without worrying about getting to the hospital too early or too late! In particular, first time parents, those planning a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), and those healing from prior birth-related trauma will benefit from the extra reassurance and skill a monitrice provides. Once at the hospital I will continue to provide doula support while all clinical assessments shift to your hospital-based providers. Monitrice support can also be a valuable add-on for home birth clients who desire skilled support earlier in labor.
Monitrice/Doula Package includes:
- One free 30-minute consultation so you can ask me any questions and determine if monitrice services are right for you.
- Two prenatal visits. At these visits we'll get to know each other, discuss your birth preferences, feelings about your prior birth experiences, and any important history. We'll also discuss and practice labor coping techniques, positions for birth, and partner support. We'll have plenty of time to address any questions you may have concerning your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. I'll check your vital signs and listen to baby's heart beat so I can get to know what is normal for you. We can also check baby's position and do some belly mapping!
- Non-labor phone, email, and text support throughout your pregnancy during office hours (9-5 M-F). Call or text with any questions and concerns. I will usually get back to you within the hour.
- 24/7 on-call from 37 weeks until your birth.
- Monitrice and doula services at your home during labor. We'll be in contact once your labor starts, and I will arrive at your home whenever you are ready for me. At your home I will provide monitrice and doula services including:
- Intermittent auscultation of fetal heart rate with a hand-held Doppler.
- Monitoring vitals of the birthing person (blood pressure, temperature, pulse, oxygen saturation).
- Cervical checks as requested to determine progress.
- Natural labor coping techniques: massage, counterpressure, hydrotherapy, birth ball, rebozo, homeopathy, aromatherapy, and TENS unit as well as breathing and visualization exercises.
- Optimal positioning techniques.
- Emotional support.
- Full informed choice and unbiased information regarding all your options.
- Doula support at home, birth center, or hospital - depending on your planned place of birth, my role will shift from monitrice to doula once you are in the care of your birth provider. I will continue to provide doula support throughout the remainder of your labor, your birth, and your immediate postpartum.
- Lactation support
- help with initiation of breastfeeding or chestfeeding immediately following birth - I'll help you with positioning and teach you how to identify a good latch so you can be sure your baby is feeding well.
- on-call for breastfeeding or chestfeeding questions and support during office hours (9-5 M-F) through 6 weeks postpartum.
- One or two postpartum visits - we'll discuss your birth and check your vitals (blood pressure, temperature, pulse), and I will provide any postpartum support you may need including additional lactation support, screening for postpartum mood disorders, resources, and referrals.
Investment: $3500
Reduced fee is available in cases of financial hardship. Please inquire.
It makes sense to me that the act of birthing a child demands so much of our physical and emotional strength, that the process is so intense and so all-encompassing. Birth itself is preparation. For the acute surges of labor give way sure enough to the protracted surges of parenthood, measured no longer in minutes but in years and decades to form the rhythm of our very lives. We shape our hearts around our toddlers and teens as devotedly as the uterus shapes itself around the unborn fetus, and we are forevermore engaged in the dialogue of creation.
-Holly Graff, LM, CPM
-Holly Graff, LM, CPM