As a doula, I am constantly trying to find ways to make my services more accessible. As you know, having a doula is linked to better birth outcomes. In America, and especially in my home state of Georgia, we need better birth outcomes to improve the maternal mortality rate.
However, I am hearing over and over that people cannot afford the out of pocket cost of having a doula. While I wish our services were recognized and valued by insurance companies; there’s still ALOT of work to be done with that.
Personally, when I was pregnant with my son- we decided to skip the super elaborate maternity photos, fancy gender reveal party and went for a budget friendly baby shower. No elaborate theme, baby shower decorations or favors. My uncle provided the baby shower food, and we simply enjoyed spending time with our family and friends because we knew we needed those funds to cover a doula. I often encourage my clients to take advantage of my payment plan options, utilize HSA/FSA funds, to ask for donations to their doula services as baby shower gifts, and to prioritize doula services as a “baby registry must have.”
Many people say that even after asking family and friends, they don’t get the donations they need. We are still actively educating people on the importance of doulas (and midwives too!) I find that people are more likely to ignore baby registries all together, and then expecting parents end up with the same outfits and bottle sets as baby shower gifts.
I’ve found that in order to get family and friends to give the cash that people need to cover the items and things that are important to them… we have to get a little creative.
Insert- Gender Reveal Game!
Gender Reveal Game allows expecting parents to raise money by having family and friends guess the baby’s gender with cash plays. This is a unique way to play on everyone’s anticipation and excitement surrounding the big reveal, and using that to your advantage!
Think about it, once people find out that you’re expecting- the next question is usually “do you know the gender yet?” For some reason, people just cannot wait to find out the gender and then .. baby names!
I’m now suggesting all of my clients that need creative gender reveal ideas to use this game. It’s virtual AND all the funds raised can go towards covering their doula services! Imagine if you raised enough to cover ½, ¾ or even fully cover your doula!
The steps to creating your game are:
- Simply head over to the site, www.genderrevealgame.com
- Create your game (set your terms and conditions like the time length for the game to run & the minimum bid!)
- Share!
Share with your family, friends, social media family, co-workers, heck share with the whole internet! People LOVE gender reveal parties, and games.
Once the game ends, a winner will be selected. The winner wins a prize (that you choose.) Then, you get all the funds from all the bids!
If you want, you can still have a gender reveal cake as you announce the winner… because who doesn’t like cake?!?
This is my doula tip for the month. Use Gender Reveal Game to crowdfund for the things that will make your birth, the birth that you desire. You deserve it!
