Overnight Doula Support

Your booking is secured once I have received your completed Overnight Doula Client Agreement and the booking payment. Your booking payment forms part of the total cost of your overnight support.

The booking payment is due at the time of booking and allows me to reserve the agreed date specifically for you. I will not normally hold an overnight booking date without the completed agreement and booking payment.

The remaining balance is due 48 hours before your booked overnight shift, unless we have agreed an alternative payment arrangement in writing. If your booking is made less than 48 hours before the planned shift, the full agreed balance will normally be due at the time of booking.

Additional hours, travel outside the agreed area and any other agreed extras will be charged at the rate confirmed with you before they are booked.

Your booking payment is part-payment towards the service and is not automatically treated as a penalty or forfeited regardless of the circumstances. If you need to cancel or change your booking, the amount payable will be considered in accordance with the cancellation terms below and applicable consumer law.

Standard overnight support runs from 10:00pm–8:00am and provides a 10-hour shift. Additional hours before or after your booked shift may be available by prior agreement and are charged at the agreed hourly rate.

Overnight support is not a guarantee that your baby will sleep or that you will get a particular amount of uninterrupted sleep. My role is to provide calm, practical and emotional support and, where agreed, hands-on newborn care so that you have the best opportunity to rest.

If you need to cancel or change a booking, please let me know as soon as possible.

Where you give more than 48 hours' notice, I will normally try to move your booking to another mutually suitable available date, subject to availability.

Where you give less than 48 hours' notice, I may need to charge some or all of the agreed fee because the time has been reserved specifically for your family and may no longer be reasonably replaceable.

Any cancellation charge will be considered in light of the circumstances, including the amount of notice given, work already carried out, costs already incurred, any savings made, whether I am able to replace the booking and any other relevant circumstances.

Cancellation charges are intended to reflect genuine loss or committed professional time rather than operate as a penalty, and all cancellation arrangements remain subject to applicable consumer law and your statutory rights.

Travel within the agreed area is included. Where your location falls outside the agreed travel area, additional mileage may be charged at £0.45 per mile, together with any reasonable parking or other agreed travel costs. Any additional travel costs will be discussed with you before booking wherever possible.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you or anyone in your household has a contagious illness. We will discuss whether it is appropriate and safe for the overnight support to go ahead, be rearranged or be adapted.

I may need to decline or rearrange a booking if attending would create an unreasonable risk of infection to me, another family I support or your household.

Your baby's safety comes first. I will support you to follow current safer-sleep guidance and will not knowingly encourage practices that place your baby at unnecessary risk.

Overnight doula support is not automatically a sleeping shift for the doula. I will not fall asleep while I am the only adult responsible for your baby.

Where you are sleeping while I provide care for your baby, we will agree in advance how this will work and where your baby will sleep.

As your doula, I provide emotional, practical and evidence-informed support. I do not provide medical care, clinical assessments, diagnosis or treatment, and I do not replace your midwife, health visitor, GP, paediatrician or other healthcare professional.

I can help you understand information, prepare questions, provide practical newborn support and signpost you to appropriate services, but healthcare decisions remain yours and/or those of the relevant healthcare professional.

If you have an urgent concern about your health or your baby's health, you should contact the appropriate maternity, medical or emergency service.

I ask families to provide a safe, respectful and smoke-free working environment. I may need to end or pause a visit if I reasonably believe that my safety is compromised, including because of violence, threatening behaviour, unsafe conditions or significant hazards within the home.

Your family's privacy is extremely important. Information shared with me during our work together will be treated confidentially within normal professional and safeguarding boundaries.

There may be circumstances where I am required to share information by law or where I have a serious safeguarding concern about the safety of you, your baby or another person.

Your signed Overnight Doula Client Agreement, together with the birth-hood Master Website Terms & Conditions, forms the agreement between us. The client agreement contains the specific details of your booking, including your chosen package, date, hours and price.