Build a plain-language birth doula agreement, put your own logo on it, and get it as a PDF to print and sign. It asks you to decide the things most templates decide for you.
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Print two copies so you and your client each keep a signed one. The form is not saved when you close the tab, and we do not keep a copy of the contract.
This is a finished example, filled in with the generator's own defaults, so you can read a whole agreement before you build one. The names and figures are illustrative. Every line of it is yours to change in the form above.
This agreement is between Julie Carter of Sunrise Doula Care (the doula) and Rosa Delgado and Marco Delgado (the client), for a birth with an estimated due date of December 14, 2026.
Written notice under this agreement may be sent by email to julie@sunrisedoulacare.example (the doula) and rosa.delgado@example.com (the client).
The doula will provide Complete Birth Support, which includes 3 prenatal visits and 2 postpartum visits. The doula will provide continuous support from active labor through the birth.
Also included: a birth plan session, unlimited text and email between visits.
Not included: placenta encapsulation, belly binding, overnight postpartum care.
The doula will be on call from 38 weeks of pregnancy (on or about November 30, 2026) until the birth.
The named backup doula is Alice Monroe.
If I am attending another birth, am ill, or cannot reach you in time, my backup will attend in my place.
The total fee is $2,400. A deposit of $600 is due on signing and is non-refundable.
The balance is due at 36 weeks of pregnancy, which is November 16, 2026.
Payment may be made by cash, PayPal and bank transfer.
If the balance is unpaid at the onset of labor, the doula will still attend the birth. The balance remains owed.
Travel: Included within 25 miles.
If the client cancels. The deposit is retained. Any amount paid above the deposit is refunded if written notice is given more than 30 days before the estimated due date.
If the doula cancels. My backup attends at no additional cost. If no backup can attend and I have cancelled by choice, all fees paid are refunded in full.
If the doula is prevented from attending. If I am prevented from attending by circumstances outside my control, including a precipitous birth, a birth I am not called to in time, severe weather, road closure, or my own medical emergency, the fee is not refunded. My backup will attend where possible.
In the event of miscarriage or loss. Fees paid for services not yet delivered are refunded in full, and the deposit may be transferred to a future pregnancy.
The doula provides non-clinical support only. She does not perform clinical tasks, give medical advice, diagnose conditions, or make decisions on the client’s behalf.
The doula will keep the client’s information confidential.
Made with DoulaFlow · mydoulaflow.comMost doula contract templates arrive with the numbers already filled in. Thirty-six weeks for on-call, thirty-six weeks for the balance, a non-refundable deposit at a third of the fee. Those are reasonable numbers. The problem is that they are somebody else's reasonable numbers, and a contract is the one document where inherited defaults cost real money. If you want the clause-by-clause reasoning rather than the form, we wrote up what should be in a doula contract.
On-call is the part of the fee that is hardest to see, because it is time you are not spending rather than time you are. From the week you go on call you are declining travel, declining evening work, and keeping a bag packed. If you carry three clients with due dates within a fortnight of each other, an early on-call start means you are holding overlapping windows for weeks. The capacity calculator shows where those windows collide. If you name a backup, DoulaFlow can send her everything she needs for that client in one packet.
Setting the balance at a week of pregnancy rather than a calendar date means the payment schedule follows the pregnancy, which is why it is worth doing even though it takes a moment longer to write. The order of the two dates is the part worth thinking about. If the balance falls due before you go on call, the account is settled before you start holding the window. If it falls due after, you are on call for a birth you have not been paid for, which is a position worth entering deliberately rather than by accident. Later is less financial pressure on a family in the last weeks and more exposure for you. There is no answer right for every practice, which is why the tool leaves both numbers to you.
The decision that matters is made long before an invoice is late. By the time a balance is overdue you are choosing from the options your contract left you, which is why the question of whether you would attend an unpaid birth belongs in the agreement rather than in your head. We wrote about what to do when a client does not pay in more detail.
It is a plain-language starting point, not legal advice, and it has not been reviewed for the laws where you practice. Contract, refund and liability rules vary by state and country. Have a local attorney read it before you rely on it, particularly the payment, cancellation and liability sections.
This tool assumes you already know your fee. If you do not, the rate calculator works out a three-tier structure from your location and experience, and how much should a doula charge covers the reasoning.
Knowing whether it still fits a year from now takes real numbers. DoulaFlow's Insights dashboard tracks what your births cost you in time, so you know when to raise it. There is more on what doulas charge and how to position your rate, and on when the money should actually be collected.
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