Doula contract guide: scope, on call coverage, backup, and the nonclinical line

The clause checklist

What a doula contract must cover

• Support scope: birth, postpartum, or combined, with prenatal and postpartum visit counts stated, so the package boundary is explicit.
• On call window: on call from 38 weeks through 42 weeks or the birth, whichever comes first; outside the window, support is by appointment.
• Backup doula guarantee: if a simultaneous client, emergency, or illness prevents you attending, a vetted backup from your network steps in at no extra cost, introduced to the client before the on call window opens.
• Nonclinical disclosure: you complement (never substitute for) clinical care; you don't give medical advice, perform assessments, or replace the medical team.
• Postpartum scope limits: visits cover newborn care guidance, feeding support, emotional check ins, and light baby related tasks, not general housekeeping, sibling childcare, or overnight care unless contracted.
• Confidentiality + reporting limits: your client's health information is confidential except where law requires disclosure (mandatory reporting, court order) or there's imminent risk.
• Bodily injury insurance backstop: the liability cap explicitly does not limit death/personal injury claims; your general liability insurance is the operative backstop.

Every BookNox contract also carries the clauses that protect any service booking: a nonrefundable deposit tied to reserving the date, a cancellation policy written as liquidated damages (with a rebooking credit so it survives a court's reasonableness test), a force majeure clause, a liability cap with the legally required carveout for death and personal injury, binding arbitration (AAA/JAMS) with a small claims carveout, general provisions (severability, entire agreement, no waiver), and an electronic signature block that complies with ESIGN and UETA, with a SHA-256 tamper evidence hash.

Illustrative examples, not advice

Example numbers: how doulas commonly structure these terms

Every doula sets their own fees, and the right numbers depend on your market, your experience, and the package. The examples below are illustrative structures seen across the industry, not recommendations. They exist so you can see how the clauses above read with real figures in them.

• Retainer split: a common structure is half the package fee at signing as a nonrefundable retainer, with the balance due by 36 to 38 weeks, so no money is still arriving while you are on call.
• On call window: for example, on call from 38 weeks through 42 weeks or the birth, whichever comes first. Some doulas open the window at 37 weeks for clients with a history of early labor.
• Hourly overage: for example, a birth package covering up to 12 hours of continuous labor support, with additional hours billed at $50 per hour, so a long labor has a price both sides agreed to in advance.
• Backup doula trigger: for example, the backup steps in when you are attending another birth, ill, or past a stated hour cap such as 18 hours, and the client meets the backup by phone or video before the on call window opens.

How BookNox generates this contract

From the booking, not a blank document.

You don’t fill in a template. Your client builds the booking on your quote page (package, date, options) and BookNox generates the finished doula contract with the right clauses already in it, freezes the wording at send time, and collects an ESIGN/UETA-compliant signature and the deposit through one link. The signed PDF carries a SHA-256 tamper-evidence hash and a full audit trail (IP, user agent, timestamps).

Educational summary, not legal advice. Have a licensed attorney in your state review any contract before you rely on it.

What it costs you

$29/month flat. No booking fee.

No tier-gating. No fee on top of Stripe’s standard processing. The deposit lands in your bank directly via Stripe Connect Express. BookNox is never in the money path.

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