Pricing your postpartum services with confidence and compassion
Are you wondering if it’s possible to make a living from postpartum work?
It’s not easy, but it certainly is possible.
There is very little publicly funded postpartum care worldwide, and most of our students start their own businesses. However, paying for private postpartum care is not an option for many new families. Postpartum care is a human right, but we must not exploit women's labour by expecting care to be provided without fair compensation.
How do we balance the need to be cared for in postpartum with the need to be paid for providing that care?
In this article, I’ll guide you through simple steps to price your services sustainably and help you figure out how you can still contribute to caring for those who can’t afford to pay privately.
Pricing women's work in a man's world
Many people start their pricing journey by looking at what others in their industry are charging and basing their own pricing strategy on that.
When it comes to pricing postpartum care, this won’t work.
Once, I was looking for someone to mow my lawn, and they quoted me twice as much per hour than I paid my cleaner or nanny. Jobs predominantly done by women, such as caregiving, have been historically undervalued because they are seen as an extension of women's unpaid domestic roles. This devaluation is often referred to as the "feminisation of labour."
Sadly, some people providing postpartum services might not be making a profit, not paying themselves a wage, not paying themselves superannuation and perhaps not even covering their expenses. Even if they are more experienced than you, basing your prices on their prices may set you up for burnout and failure.
Instead, I’ll teach you how to charge enough to earn a living. I’ll also show you some ways you can support those who can’t afford to pay without decreasing your prices.
Money is emotional
I used to offer a complicated pricing calculator. It was a multi-page spreadsheet that allowed my students to input detailed costings for their business, including travel expenses, gifts, equipment and paying themselves superannuation. They would also enter the hours they could work and the different services they offered, and eventually, it would run all the equations and tell them what to charge.
I soon realised it was complicated, time-consuming and ultimately unnecessary. It was simply a form of pricing procrastination!
I realised that pricing isn’t the problem.
Pricing is simple.
Emotions are complicated.
First, we need to deal with the emotions.
We all have beliefs and stories about money that influence our decisions about earning, saving, investing and spending. Everyone has their unique flavour of self-sabotage, but some common money blocks include;
Limiting beliefs can become self-fulfilling prophecies like “I’m hopeless with money” or “I’ll never be rich”
Fear of failure can prevent people from making calculated investments that can lead to financial growth
Guilt or shame about past money experiences can create emotional baggage that makes it challenging to make healthy financial decisions
Everyone has money blocks of some kind. But in my experience, women and marginalised people are more likely to underestimate their self-worth and struggle to charge appropriately for their time and skills. Especially in caregiving professions.
Identifying and addressing your beliefs and stories about money is essential to achieving financial sustainability. This involves self-awareness, introspection and sometimes professional support from therapists or financial advisors. Understanding, challenging and reshaping these beliefs is an essential step toward a healthier relationship with money.
With this awareness of money blocks, we can then look at pricing.
Step One: Figure out your revenue goal
I’m surprised how many people ask me if they can make a living from postpartum care without putting any real thought into how much “a living” actually is.
If you are serious about making an income so your postpartum work is sustainable, you must figure out what earning a living means to you. You can’t set realistic prices that align with your financial goals if you don’t know what those financial goals are.
Taking the leap from being employed to being self-employed takes a fundamental shift in money mindset, as your income is no longer fixed by someone else. You are the boss and you decide how much you want to pay yourself.
You are not setting a budget and limiting your spending; you are setting a money goal and increasing your earnings.
Focussing on earning (not spending) is an entirely different way of thinking about money and might feel challenging at first.
Sometimes figuring out how much you need to earn is easy - maybe you are aiming to replace the amount you earn from employment so you can quit your job.
Sometimes it’s hard, especially if you’ve been underpaid or out of paid work for a long time. You might consider estimating your current monthly expenses, including your housing, bills, groceries and so on.
Don’t spend too long on this. Procrastinating is just one way your money blocks try to trip you up. You might even pick a short-term revenue goal (for example how much you need to earn from your business to quit your job), and you can choose a longer-term goal for later (for example saving up a deposit to buy a home in five years.)
It’s also ok to just make this number up! You can change it at any time. Just pick a number and get started.
Once you know how much you want to pay yourself, you need to double that number to determine your business revenue goal.
Many people who have never been self-employed are surprised at how much it costs to run a sustainable business. Your business revenue goal should be double the amount you actually want to pay yourself. For example, if you want to pay yourself $60,000, then your business revenue will need to be about $120,000 to cover taxes, superannuation, equipment, gifts, software, professional development, marketing and more.
If you have business revenue of over $250,000, then you can refer to the book Profit First for some more detailed guidance around target percentage allocations. Paying yourself 50% of your total revenue is fine for this back-of-a-napkin process.
Step Two: Figure out how many clients you can support
Now that you have an idea of how much you want to earn, the next step is to determine how many clients you can support.
It’s important to be realistic about how much you can commit to postpartum care. Burnout is sadly common across all forms of caring work. In order for the work to be sustainable, you must set realistic boundaries, ensuring you have enough time for rest, leisure and caring responsibilities.
You can provide a huge range of services as a Postpartum Education and Care Professional. These may include prenatal education, breastfeeding support, meal delivery, in-home care, bodywork, circles or retreats and so much more. It can be hard to choose! If you aren’t sure what you want to offer yet, we can help you figure that out inside our Postpartum Education and Care Professional Training.
Here are a few suggestions:
Maybe you plan to support one client a month with in-home care and take two months of work over the summer. That’s ten clients a year.
Maybe you plan to run two retreats a year and can host 7 people at each retreat. That’s 28 clients a year.
Maybe you plan to offer a mother's circle every term for ten people. That’s 40 clients a year.
Maybe you want to offer a postpartum preparation class once a month and can have 20 couples in each. That’s 240 clients a year.
You can, of course, offer a variety of services that add up to your revenue goal.
If you have a high revenue goal, scalable programs like online courses, memberships or starting an agency might be better suited for you. Inside Postpartum Education and Care Professional Training we’ll also teach you how to price scalable programs like online courses, membership and books which require a different pricing strategy. We also offer a business mastermind for our graduates who are ready to grow their businesses to multiple six-figure revenue.
For now, keep it quick and simple!
Step Three: Do the maths
Now it’s just a matter of doing the sums (and dealing with those pesky money blocks!) The point here isn’t a perfect business model, a perfect price, or a perfect revenue goal. The point is to demonstrate how to make a living from providing postpartum care. So make it quick, don’t overthink it!
Here are a few examples:
If you want $100,000 in revenue from 40 clients, then you need to charge them $2500 each
If you want $40,000 in revenue from working with 10 clients, then you need to charge them $4000 each.
If you want $60,000 in revenue from 28 clients, then you need to charge them about $2500
This might be slightly more than the $20-$40 you were considering charging per hour. Maybe you are already bending over backwards trying to figure out how you can work more hours or charge less money.
But the maths gotta math.
It’s not feminism if women don’t get paid
I have charged that much (and more) for my own postpartum work, and I have supported many people around the world to build their postpartum businesses based on those pricing formulas too. It works here in Perth where I live. And it works in Auckland, New York, Bundaberg and many other places where our students live.
Unless you won the lotto, inherited wealth or your partner earns lots of money, then this is really the minimum you can charge to run a viable postpartum business. Relying on women's unpaid labour to drive our economy is unjust and unsustainable, and it ends here.
The risk of burnout is increased by financial stress and long working hours, so if you want this to be your career in the long run, the maths gotta math. Don’t let fear, scarcity or our culture’s gendered values convince you that it’s worth working for less.
Instead of lowering your prices:
Give a higher price a try - lots of people will lower their prices before they’ve even offered it to anyone, so just give it a chance!
Develop your marketing skills. Invest in small business education as well as your postpartum skills. Here at Newborn Mothers, we offer both.
Work on your money blocks. Keep exploring your stories and beliefs about money, value and self-worth - this is lifelong work!
Your certainty and confidence in your pricing will give your potential clients certainty and confidence in your pricing too. If you are wobbly, your potential clients may feel wobbly too. Practise stating your prices in the mirror or with a business buddy. Focus on the value you offer in the long run for families.
Take a big breath and give it a go!
Why you don’t need to worry about being expensive
Expensive is subjective.
In some cultures, postpartum care is normal, prioritised and paid for, and the postpartum care industry is well respected and well paid.
“Because this kind of care is so common, it is expected that all new mothers have some sort of confinement care after they give birth. It is a job that is really important. It’s considered absolutely necessary. It’s embedded culturally and socially. It’s not really a trendy thing to do… you just have to do it!” — Teresa Teng, Chinese Malaysian Confinement Lady
From an interview in my book Newborn Mothers
When someone says postpartum care is expensive, they might mean that they don’t understand its value. Some people are happy to spend thousands of dollars on a pram or nursery furniture but would not consider postpartum care worth the same amount of money. What one person might consider expensive another might consider reasonable or even essential.
Whilst my culture is a long way off recognising postpartum care as essential, some new families can see the value. You only need a small number of clients a year - maybe as few as 10 or 20. You don’t need to convince your Uncle Bob that postpartum care is worth the investment.
When you run any kind of business, it is inevitable that some people will choose NOT to pay for your services. Allow consumers to consider their own priorities, budgets and needs when deciding whether something is worth the price. Focus on finding families who value you and what you can do for them.
There are some surprising benefits to premium pricing too!
Perceived quality
Higher prices are often associated with higher quality, and premium prices can signal the value of a service. Postpartum care is a very valuable investment with potentially lifelong ramifications for parents and babies, and we want our society to see that!
You are able to deliver a better service
When you charge more, you can spend more time with clients, listening, finding resources and customising services. You never want your clients to feel like you are arriving exhausted and overwhelmed, offering cookie-cutter solutions and rushing out the door to your next client.
Money can equal commitment
When you work with people who have invested in themselves, they often get more out of the program. This is because they are committed to making changes in their lives and implementing what they learn.
Opportunities for innovation and creativity
With greater resources, you can invest more in professional development, research, content creation and continuous improvements.
Capacity to give back
Perhaps the greatest benefit of charging more for your services is that you will have the capacity to contribute to systemic change in postpartum care. In the next section, we’ll explore how you can support people who cannot afford your services without compromising your own well-being.
Payment plans
One easy way to make your services affordable to a wider range of people is to offer payment plans. Clients can break their payments down into weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments rather than having to find all of the money upfront.
However payment plans come with risks and costs to business owners, and there are ethical considerations too.
Payment plans are a form of debt, and it’s important to have clear communication with your clients so they understand the financial commitment and have time to consider whether they can afford it.
The costs to businesses of offering payment plans include extra credit card fees and bookkeeping fees associated with more transactions. Plus more administrative time is required to follow up on missed payments. There are also people who will not complete their payment plan, and you may need to engage a debt collector or give up on ever recouping that money, even after you’ve delivered the services. In my experience the longer the payment plan, the more likely it is that people will not complete their payments and payment plans longer than 9 months have a default rate of over 30%. This can become a huge expense and headache for a small business owner.
For these complex reasons, I suggest you carefully consider a few things before offering payment plans.
Consider software that automates payment plans and collects direct debit payments, and consider the cost of this software in your pricing. If you manually send out invoices and check that they have been paid, ensure you include this time in your fee structure and consider the emotions involved in constantly chasing money.
Have a plan for what happens if payments are missed or defaulted. Will you stop delivering the service? Will you charge a late fee? Would you engage debt collectors? Communicate this clearly in your client agreement before any payment plans are entered into.
Ensure you are covering the cost of offering payment plans. Consider including an extra fee for payment plans, or increase your rates across all of your services if you would rather distribute that cost evenly between all of your clients. Take the time to understand Consumer Law where you live because some jurisdictions don’t allow fees on payment plans.
Payment plans can increase your sales and make your services more affordable to a broad range of people. Communicate your terms and conditions clearly, and have a plan for managing missed payments.
How to support people who can’t afford to pay for private services
Many caring people worry that if they charge too much, they will price out people who really need their care, but there are many ways to contribute even when some mothers and caregivers genuinely can't afford your one-on-one services.
Your work in postpartum care is already a great contribution to society, and you are under no obligation to give back, especially if you don’t have the resources to spare. Once you have established a sustainable business model here are some creative ways you may choose to give back to your community. Carefully consider what kind of contribution you can make that is aligned with your strengths and resources.
Free or low-cost content
Creating content is a great way of marketing. And it is also a great way to make a contribution to people who can’t afford to pay for your services.
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, consistent content to attract and engage your target audience. It’s a little like giving people a chance to try before they buy. Your audience can learn more about you, your values and your philosophy, which helps them decide if they’d like to pay for your services.
Content can take various forms. Content just means something that educates, entertains, engages and provides value to your audience, in this case, pregnant and new families. Here are a few examples:
Recipes
Plans, checklists and templates
Tutorials
eBooks
Blog articles
Podcasts
Social media
Videos
Quizzes
Webinars and workshops
Infographics
Books
Resources and referral lists
The best thing about content marketing is that it genuinely provides education and resources to everyone, not only those who go on to pay for your services. Content can contribute to changing the way society thinks about postpartum. Content can give support or guidance to people providing care for loved ones. Content can give new mums and caregivers the courage to reach out for help. Content can show people that opportunities and choices are available to them that they may not have known about.
Pro-bono work
"Pro bono" is a Latin term that translates to "for the public good" or "for the common good." In the context of professional work, it refers to providing services or expertise without charging a fee or receiving payment.
Many professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, accountants, and consultants, offer their skills pro bono to support various charitable, nonprofit, or community-based initiatives. Pro bono work promotes access to justice and essential services for individuals and groups who might otherwise be disadvantaged.
Once you are earning a living, you can open up a certain amount of time to free support to those who cannot pay you. I recommend you work with an organisation to identify clients who are really in need so people who don’t understand the value of your services do not take advantage of your generosity.
Free or low-cost group support
Many people who work in postpartum care have very limited time because they often have caring responsibilities of their own at home. To make the most of your time, you could offer free or low-cost support in a group rather than one-on-one.
You could teach breastfeeding or a postpartum planning workshop at a hostel or rehabilitation centre. You might provide a mothers circle for teenage mums or single parents. You could coordinate care days at a community centre with volunteers bringing tea, holding babies and providing services such as haircuts or health checks.
Advocacy
Advocacy can feel slower, but overall it can have the biggest impact of all ways of contributing. Instead of changing the experience of one new family, you are changing a system that impacts the experience of all new families. But advocacy is a long game and may take years or decades, or you may not even see the results of your work within your lifetime.
If you are new to postpartum care or advocacy, it’s best to ask existing organisations who already have experience and resources how you might help. Advocacy might include:
Building coalitions of like-minded individuals, organisations and policymakers
Taking legal action to address violations or injustices and change policies
Supporting people to navigate the healthcare system, know their rights and make informed decisions
Public relations including press releases and media pitches, as well as identifying key stakeholders and giving them tools to share their stories
The sky is the limit!
This is really just the beginning,
You can factor giving into your pricing, for example charging 10% more for your services for paying clients, enabling you to take on your eleventh client free.
You can donate your business's profits to a suitable charity that is creating support and systems change for new families.
You can invite your audience to contribute, for example, a customer might pay for one extra meal that you can give to a family in need.
You can volunteer your time supporting people to make submissions to public enquiries.
Once you have a thriving business, there are countless ways to contribute! But if you aren’t meeting your needs first, making a lasting contribution will be very difficult.
Your next step towards a fulfilling and rewarding career
Setting the right price for your services is essential to your success as a Postpartum Education and Care Professional. The maths is simple, but the emotions can be challenging. By incorporating what you’ve learned here into your pricing strategy, you can create a business that aligns with your financial goals and positively impacts the lives of new families. Postpartum care is valuable, and you deserve to be fairly compensated for your contribution.
There is no silver bullet! But with support, education and effort, you can make a living from working in postpartum support. In fact, many Newborn Mothers graduates already are, and you can listen to their stories here.
Ready to explore a career in postnatal care? Download the guide and get all your questions about providing professional postpartum care answered. Find out if it’s the right fit for you and take the first step towards meaningful and flexible work.
Newborn Mothers Postpartum Education and Care Training includes 12 modules on caring for new families including mental health, breastfeeding and sleep support, plus a bonus module on business and marketing so you can actually get clients and get paid. If you want to change the lives of Newborn Mothers and contribute to changing the systems we all participate in, then this training is for you.
