Birth Doula Support in Austin, TX

A birth doula provides physical, emotional, and informational support throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and immediately postpartum. During labor, your doula may help with comfort measures, position changes, relaxation techniques, communication, decision-making, and supporting your birth partner. Your doula does not provide medical care or make medical decisions for you. 

You can reach out as soon as you know you'd like doula support. Many families hire their birth doula during the second trimester, but there's no specific week when you have to hire one. Availability varies based on due dates, so reaching out earlier gives you more time to find the right fit, build a relationship with your doula, and prepare together before birth. 

Absolutely! Doulas aren't only for unmedicated births. We support families planning epidurals as well as those who decide they want one during labor. There are still position changes, comfort measures, decisions, emotions, and plenty of other ways your doula can support you and your partner after an epidural. 

Yes! Our birth doulas support both elective and medically recommended inductions. We believe all families should get support, regardless of the type of birth they have. Inductions can sometimes involve a longer labor process and additional decisions along the way, so having doula support can be especially helpful. 

Yes! We've supported families through both planned and unplanned C-sections. What doula support looks like will depend on your individual circumstances and the policies of your birth facility, but we're still there to help you prepare, understand your options, support you and your partner, and navigate the birth and immediate postpartum period. 

Yes! Our team has experience supporting families planning a vaginal birth after Cesarean, commonly called a VBAC. We'll support your individual birth preferences while working within our role as non-medical members of your birth team. 

Not at all! Your partner knows you better than we do, and your doula brings experience with labor, birth, comfort techniques, and the birth environment. We work together. Your doula can also help your partner feel more confident about how to support you and give them opportunities to eat, rest, or take a break during a long labor. Our motto is: "The doula helps the partner do the things they want to do/feel comfortable doing and takes over for the things the parter doesn't want to do/doesn't feel comfortable doing."

Our goal is to help you feel informed and empowered to use your own voice. Depending on the situation, we may help you understand your options, remind you of questions you wanted to ask, encourage you to request additional information or time, and help you communicate your preferences. We don't make medical decisions for you or replace communication between you and your healthcare providers. 

We support many different birth experiences, including unmedicated births, epidurals, inductions, planned and unplanned C-sections, VBACs, hospital births, birth center births, and home births. Our team also has experience supporting IVF pregnancies, twins, surrogacy, adoption, and families navigating medically complex pregnancies. 

Empowered Beginnings provides birth doula support at hospitals and birth centers throughout Austin and the surrounding areas. Across our team, at least one Empowered Beginnings doula has attended a birth at every Austin-area hospital and birth center we serve. We also support home births throughout our service area. 

We serve families throughout Austin, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Dripping Springs, Cedar Park, Round Rock and surrounding communities. Each doula has their own radius for travel. We will help you find a doula on our team that serves your area. If you're unsure whether your home or planned birth location falls within our service area, reach out and we'll let you know. 

You'll interview and choose an Empowered Birth Doula who will serve as your primary doula throughout your pregnancy, labor, and birth. Ciarra Morgan personally mentors the Empowered Doulas and oversees the client experience. Families who specifically want Ciarra as their primary birth doula can choose the Legacy Birth Doula option, subject to availability. 

You won't be left without support. Empowered Beginnings has a team of experienced birth doulas ready to step in if your primary doula is sick, attending another birth, or unexpectedly unavailable.

Our clients are also added to Ciarra's call-through list as an additional layer of backup. If you're ever unable to reach your primary doula due to a phone outage or another unexpected communication issue, you have another way to reach our team and get a doula headed your way.

We've never had a situation where a client needed their doula, their primary doula was unavailable, and we were unable to send another Empowered Beginnings doula to support them.

Our Basics Package includes two prenatal meetings, phone and email support throughout pregnancy, 24-hour on-call labor support beginning at 37 weeks, support throughout labor at home or your birthing location, up to two hours of immediate postpartum support, and a postpartum follow-up meeting approximately one week after birth. Clients also receive access to additional Empowered Beginnings resources and discounts on Group HypnoBirthing Classes. 

If you're a first-time parent, we require you to take a comprehensive childbirth education class, but you are not required to take that class through Empowered Beginnings. We're happy for you to choose the childbirth class and educator that feel like the best fit for your family. We also offer several childbirth education options, including HypnoBirthing and Birth Basics, if you'd like to take your class with us.

Your prenatal meetings with your doula are personalized preparation for your birth, not a replacement for childbirth education. During those meetings, you'll have time to ask questions specific to your pregnancy and birth, talk through anything you still want clarity on after your class, build your birth preferences, prepare for the day of your birth, and get to know your doula better.

A comprehensive childbirth class gives you and your partner the foundation for understanding labor, birth, your options, and the decisions you may encounter. That way, your prenatal doula meetings can focus on applying what you've learned to you, your preferences, and the birth you're preparing for.

Yes. Empowered Beginnings offers Group HypnoBirthing Classes for expecting parents and their birth partners. Our doulas can also support you in using the HypnoBirthing techniques you've practiced once labor begins. Birth doula clients receive a discount on Group HypnoBirthing Classes.

Start by submitting a request with your due date and information about what you're looking for. We'll schedule an intake call to learn more about your pregnancy, birth plans, personality, priorities, and support needs. From there, we'll help match you with an available doula to interview before you decide whether you'd like to move forward.