Birth Doula Package Pricing Calculator: What Do You Earn Per Hour?

What does your doula package really pay per hour?

Type your package price and what a client actually costs you in time: visits, hours at the birth, driving, days on call, the backup you pay and your yearly overhead. The tool shows your pay per worked hour, the package price that reaches your target, how a 30-hour labor changes the answer, and how many births a year your income goal takes.

Arithmetic on assumptions you type. Not business, tax or financial advice. The example figures are placeholders, not market rates or your situation.

1. Your package

Package price ($)

What the client pays for prenatal, birth and postpartum support.

Prenatal visits

Hours per prenatal visit

Include prep and notes.

Average hours at the birth

Door to door, averaged over your last several births. Long births are the point of this tool.

Postpartum visits

Hours per postpartum visit

Admin hours per client

Consult, texting, resource lists, notes.

2. Travel and on-call

Drive minutes, one way

Miles, one way

Mileage rate ($ per mile)

IRS standard business rate; 0.725 for 2026. Edit if it changes.

On-call days per client

Days around the due date you cannot travel or plan freely.

What one on-call day is worth to you ($)

Your own number. 0 ignores it.

3. Costs and goals

Supplies per client ($)

Card or platform fee (%)

Of the package price.

Births a backup attends (%)

Illness, double bookings, a precipitous labor.

Share of the fee you pay the backup (%)

Yearly overhead ($)

Liability insurance, certification, continuing education, website.

Clients per year

Tax set-aside (%)

Self-employment plus income tax; ask your accountant.

Target pre-tax $ per worked hour

Yearly pre-tax income goal ($)

Questions doulas ask

How much should a birth doula charge?

It depends on your market, but the number to anchor on is your pay per worked hour, not the package price. A $1,200 package looks fine until you count 14 hours at the birth, six hours of visits, driving, a month on call and the fee you pay a backup. This calculator works the package price back from the hourly rate you want. Local rates, your experience and what clients in your area pay vary, so treat the result as your floor, not a market quote.

How do I count on-call time?

Most doulas do not bill for it, but it has a cost: weeks of not travelling, drinking or planning. The tool lets you give each on-call day a dollar value you choose, including zero, and shows the hourly rate both ways.

Should I charge more for a long birth?

Many doulas price a package for an average birth and add a per-hour charge past a set number of hours, or a flat fee for births over 24 hours. The sensitivity table shows how fast the hourly rate drops as labor gets longer, which is the case for either.

What does a backup doula really cost?

On the share of births a backup attends, you usually pay the backup part of the fee. Averaged over all your clients that is a steady cost per package, so it belongs in the price. Set the share of births and the share you pay.

Is this business or tax advice?

No. It is arithmetic on the figures you type, with simplifications listed under Not decided. Ask an accountant about self-employment tax, deductions and the mileage method you use.

Not decided

Local market rates, sliding-scale or Medicaid reimbursement, add-ons such as photography or placenta services, seasonality, time between clients, the value of referrals and reviews, and how you pay yourself. Self-employment tax, deductions and mileage method are for your accountant. Rates and law can change.