DoulaMatch.net Terms of Use

Last Updated: May 25, 2023

Expectant families pay nothing to use DoulaMatch, are not subject to any third party tracking, and do not need to register.

Doulas may create a doula profile at no cost, but publishing it requires a modest annual fee. You may review our current pricing for doula profiles. This also applies to group profiles. Doulas may be members of any number of group profiles at no additional cost.

Training providers may create and publish a training provider profile for a fixed fee per year.

Pricing is available and updated on the web site. Doula profiles are paid on an annual basis. When you pay for your doula profile, you are paying for it to be published for one year from the date of your payment, or for adding one year to the date on which your profile was previously paid to be published.

Pricing discount eligibility: DoulaMatch may offer pricing discounts. If you make a doula profile payment using a pricing discount and you later become ineligible for that pricing discount, your profile may be deactivated until you make a supplemental payment in the amount of the previously granted discount. After making this supplemental payment your profile will be reactivated. In this case you will not receive any credit or extension of the date through which your profile was previously set to be published.

DoulaMatch also offers first-party (self-hosted) advertisements of training events.  Training event advertisements are charged at a monthly rate, and may be edited to reflect a different training event offering at any time.  Training event advertisements are not published after the date on which the training event starts, even if they are paid for additional months beyond the event start date.  If this happens, you may edit your training event listing to reflect a different offering on a different date and it will resume publishing.  Advertising multiple events concurrently requires paying an additional monthly fee for each concurrent event published.

Only doulas, managers of doula group profiles, and advertisers are required to register for a user account on the DoulaMatch.net website.

Doula profiles are for birth doulas and postpartum doulas.

Our intention is to be transparent in our policies and business practices. We respect your privacy and track nothing about you other than what is needed to facilitate your use of our service. For example, we save your doula search parameters into a browser cookie so you do not need to re-enter them.

This site has no third party ads or tracking software or pixels. No Google Analytics. No Facebook javascript. We self-host maps. At a software level, we have implemented a strict content security policy specified in every response header, which your browser will use to verify this: nothing other than files from the domain doulamatch.net.

The only exception to this policy regarding third party integration is the third party javascript from our two trusted payment processors: Stripe and PayPal. Only doulas, training providers, and advertisers will load these third party javascript libraries. Families pay nothing. Our payment integration is intentionally designed to limit our exposure to your payment information: at no time does any person, computer, or software from DoulaMatch have access to your payment information such as your credit card number or the ZIP code you may need to enter to complete the payment. You will be redirected to Stripe to complete a credit card payment, and the PayPal javascript library will create a pop-up browser window to log into your PayPal account and complete the payment.

DoulaMatch.net uses the Amazon Simple Email Service to deliver emails. When we use Amazon Simple Email Service to send you an email, Amazon has visibility to your email address and its record of deliverability and complaints.

Emails sent by DoulaMatch that are reported as spam are reported back to us, and result in the email address being blocked from further use.  This will cause you to no longer receive client inquiry emails.  If this happens, you will be notified by banners on the site, but not by email.

This site uses cookies and your web browser's local storage features to improve your experience. We store the doula search parameters such as date, location, etc. in a cookie, and we use your browser's local storage to cache search results so you can enjoy lightning-fast response times.

This site logs information regarding your use of the site, including your browser or user agent's identication sent in its header with requests to our server. This information is only used by DoulaMatch.net staff to diagnose and solve problems with the site, understand and gain insight into site usage, and identify and take action on abuse.

The contact form on the doula profile is for expectant families to contact doulas who they might want to hire. Use of the contact form for any other purpose is prohibited and will result in moderation actions up to and including banning your use of the site. This includes using the contact form to solicit survey respondents, doulas using the form to contact other doulas for business partnerships, and any other use other than attempting to hire a doula. Failure to comply will result in actions including blocking your IP address.

If you mark an email from DoulaMatch as spam or your email is returned as undeliverable, we will automatically add it to our Do Not Email list and you will never receive another email from us again until you ask to have the block removed or change your email address. This is a requirement of our email service provider.

Receiving email from the DoulaMatch staff is a requirement for maintaining a published profile and advertisements on the site.  Requests to unsubscribe or discontinue email contact will result in your profile and advertisements being marked as inactive.  You may resume active publishing by unchecking the inactive checkbox on your profile, but this will also resume email delivery from DoulaMatch.net staff.

We actively monitor use of the site for patterns of abuse and take actions to limit its impact. Abuse includes bots and scrapers which disrespect our robots.txt file or are of a high volume, as well as any activity with a disingenous browser user-agent or probing for URLs or files on common websites which are not present on our site. It also includes creating a doula profile for a proposition which is not a doula at all, for example prescription drugs. Abusers may receive blank or error pages instead of the requested DoulaMatch page. In rare cases we ban IP addresses. None of this has impacted any legitimate user of the site. It is just a fact of having a site on the internet: over half of our web site traffic is abuse.

To the extent that you receive or submit testimonials or reviews of a doula's services, you also agree to the terms of our Testimonial Grievance Policy. Please click that link to review those terms.

By accessing this web site, you are agreeing to be bound by these web site Terms and Conditions of Use, all applicable laws and regulations, and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site. The materials contained in this web site are protected by applicable copyright and trade mark law.

The materials on DoulaMatch.net's web site are provided "as is". DoulaMatch.net makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties, including without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights. Further, DoulaMatch.net does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on its Internet web site or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.

In no event shall DoulaMatch.net or its suppliers be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption,) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials on DoulaMatch.net's Internet site, even if DoulaMatch.net or a DoulaMatch.net authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.

The materials appearing on DoulaMatch.net's web site could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. DoulaMatch.net does not warrant that any of the materials on its web site are accurate, complete, or current. DoulaMatch.net may make changes to the materials contained on its web site at any time without notice. DoulaMatch.net does not, however, make any commitment to update the materials.

DoulaMatch.net has not reviewed the sites linked to its Internet web site and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by DoulaMatch.net of the site. Use of any such linked web site is at the user's own risk.

DoulaMatch.net is for doulas, doula training providers, and childbirth educators to promote their services, for doulas and prospective doulas to find training and training providers, and for families to find doulas and childbirth education classes. With the exception of the doula availability calendar plugin and iframe interface licensed to specific doula professional organizations, you may not use automated methods to scrape, index, or proxy DoulaMatch or its data for your own application, website, or database. The software has features for detecting and preventing these actions.

This site is not for children. Children under the age of 13 years should not use this site, nor should they submit information to the site operators or listed doulas.

DoulaMatch.net may revise these terms of use for its web site at any time without notice. By using this web site you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these Terms and Conditions of Use.

Any claim relating to DoulaMatch.net's web site shall be governed by the laws of the State of Washington without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Your privacy is very important to us.  We take privacy seriously and have a published privacy policy which we encourage you to review.

DoulaMatch.net does not screen or endorse the doulas listed on this site.

With the exception of certification certificate images published on the site, DoulaMatch.net does not certify or verify the credentials, experience, certifications, or qualifications of doulas listed on this web site.  Consumers are advised to independently verify all credentials and conduct interviews with doulas before hiring them, including contacting certification organizations to verify that certifications are still current.

DoulaMatch.net is not responsible or liable for any adverse or unexpected consequences of hiring a doula.

Contact forms and the other tools and information published on the site are solely for the purpose of advertising our customers’ services as doulas and training providers.  Use of contact forms or other information for the purpose of soliciting business partnerships or for other reasons not related to our customers’ core business services are forbidden

In 2020 DoulaMatch introduces a new requirement for financial support from all doulas publishing their profile on the site, including group profiles. There is now a sliding scale fee.  A very low annual fee applies for the first three years a doula is on DoulaMatch.  After that point doulas may choose from two payment levels depending on how much business they receive as a direct result of advertising their profile on DoulaMatch.net. Individual doula profiles may join as many group profiles as they like at no additional cost.

As a registered doula on DoulaMatch, you understand that any information you enter into your account or doula profile will be published to the public on the Internet. The only exception to this is your email address, which is never published, shared, sold, or bartered. If you don't want your phone number on the internet, don't put it on your doula profile. It is an optional field.

Doula search results are sorted to display the doulas who have most recently updated their availability calendar first.  Accurate availability information is critical to DoulaMatch's unique value to the consumer:  being able to see a list of doulas serving their area who are available on the date needed.

DoulaMatch staff will contact you periodically by email with site updates and requests for your input on site design and features.  You will also receive confirmation emails for certain transactions on the site such as payment confirmation emails for any contributions to DoulaMatch. Accepting these emails, which are generally transactional in nature, is a condition of publishing a profile on the site. Requests to unsubscribe will result in deactivation of your profile, which you may reactivate any time you like as long as you accept that we will periodically contact you regarding site developments and your use of the site.

You will only post photos you own or are licensed to use.  You agree not to post or transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. You will be responsible for, and indemnify and hold harmless DoulaMatch.net and its agents and representatives against any claim arising from any material that you post or transmit.

Currently, DoulaMatch.net is targeted only at the US and Canada.  Software controls limit the ability to create accounts or log on from other locations.

Anyone may enter a testimonial of their experience working with any doula listed on DoulaMatch.  Testimonials can only be removed from a doula’s profile by written request by the client who made the testimonial. Doulas should make every effort to resolve conflicts with their clients directly and using the ombudsman resources of their certifying organization. If after repeated attempts at rectifying the relationship with your client, you may post a rebuttal to the testimonial or ask that your doula profile be de-activated from DoulaMatch.net, which will also result in all of your testimonials disappearing from the site. You may reactivate your profile at any time in the future.

We are not responsible for and have no influence over how search engines and archivers such as Google, Bing, and the Internet Archive cache, archive and continue to publish information which you may have updated or removed from DoulaMatch.net.

The site will undergo periodic maintenance that will take the site offline (unavailable).  Maintenance downtime is expected to be less than one hour per month maximum, with only a few instances of maintenance downtime per year.  If extended downtime is required, registered doulas will be notified via email.  DoulaMatch is not hosted on redundant servers, so a hardware or general network failure will result in unplanned downtime of an indeterminate duration while backups are restored.

We will listen to you and continue to improve the site over time.  We can't implement all of your suggestions, but we are committed to this being a site tailored to the needs of the expectant families it serves.

For expectant families, nothing on this site is gated behind a registration requirement or paywall.

We share no personal information with anyone ever for any reason, other than when required by law enforcement. We have never been required to do so to date. This sentence is a gag-order canary: its presence verifies that we have never been subject to a gag order prohibiting us from disclosing we released information under duress. If you observe its absence, you may infer the opposite.

We publish limited paid first-party advertisements such as advertisements for childbirth education classes and doula training events and workshops.

This site uses cookies and your web browser's local storage features to improve your experience. We store the doula search parameters such as date, location, etc. in a cookie, and we use your browser's local storage to cache search results so you can enjoy lightning-fast response times.

This site logs information regarding your use of the site, including your browser or user agent's identification sent in its header with requests to our server. This information is only used by DoulaMatch.net staff to diagnose and solve problems with the site, understand and gain insight into site usage, and identify and take action on abuse.

The contact form is for expectant families to contact doulas who they might want to hire. Use of the contact form for any other purpose is prohibited and will result in moderation actions up to and including banning your use of the site. This includes using the contact form to solicit survey respondents, doulas using the form to contact other doulas for business partnerships, and any other use other than attempting to hire a doula. Failure to comply will result in actions including blocking your IP address.

If you mark an email from DoulaMatch as spam or your email is returned as undeliverable we will automatically add it to our Do Not Email list and you will never receive another email from us again until you ask to have the block removed or change your email address. This is a requirement of our email service provider.

We actively monitor use of the site for patterns of abuse and take actions to limit its impact. Abuse includes bots and scrapers which disrespect our robots.txt file or are of a high volume, as well as any activity with a disingenous browser user-agent. It also includes creating a doula profile for a proposition which is not a doula at all, for example prescription drugs. Abusers may receive blank or error pages instead of the requested DoulaMatch page. In rare cases we ban IP addresses. None of this has impacted any legitimate user of the site. It is just a fact of having a site on the internet: over half your traffic will be abuse.

To the extent that you receive or submit testimonials or reviews of a doula's services, you also agree to the terms of our Testimonial Grievance Policy. Please click that link to review those terms.

By accessing this web site, you are agreeing to be bound by these web site Terms and Conditions of Use, all applicable laws and regulations, and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site. The materials contained in this web site are protected by applicable copyright and trade mark law.

The materials on DoulaMatch.net's web site are provided "as is". DoulaMatch.net makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties, including without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights. Further, DoulaMatch.net does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on its Internet web site or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.

In no event shall DoulaMatch.net or its suppliers be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption,) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials on DoulaMatch.net's Internet site, even if DoulaMatch.net or a DoulaMatch.net authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.

The materials appearing on DoulaMatch.net's web site could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. DoulaMatch.net does not warrant that any of the materials on its web site are accurate, complete, or current. DoulaMatch.net may make changes to the materials contained on its web site at any time without notice. DoulaMatch.net does not, however, make any commitment to update the materials.

DoulaMatch.net has not reviewed all of the sites linked to its Internet web site and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by DoulaMatch.net of the site. Use of any such linked web site is at the user's own risk.

DoulaMatch.net is for doulas and childbirth educators to promote their services, and for families to find doulas and childbirth education classes. With the exception of the doula availability calendar plugin and iframe interface licensed to specific doula professional organizations, you may not use automated methods to scrape, index, or proxy DoulaMatch or its data for your own application, website, or database. The software has features for detecting and preventing these actions.

This site is not for children. Children under the age of 13 years should not use this site, nor should they submit information to the site operators or listed doulas.

DoulaMatch.net may revise these terms of use for its web site at any time without notice. By using this web site you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these Terms and Conditions of Use.

Any claim relating to DoulaMatch.net's web site shall be governed by the laws of the State of Washington without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Doula search results are sorted to display the doulas who have most recently updated their availability calendar first.  Accurate availability information is critical to DoulaMatch's unique value to the consumer:  being able to see a list of doulas serving their area who are available on the date needed.

DoulaMatch.net reserves the right to deny service or renewal of a profile or advertisement based on evidence of persistent negative client experiences or complaints, whether these complaints are posted as testimonials on DoulaMatch.net or on third party websites.