For doulas, midwives, childbirth educators and lactation consultants starting out on their own or running a small practice. What I would set up first, in order, and where TandemBirth can help: your listing, your partner code and the free planner for your clients.
I spent about thirty years in technology for health and mission-driven organizations, nineteen of them inside reproductive health care. This is the short version of what I tell a small practice. Jeff Novick, TandemBirth.
Your domain is the one address that stays yours when you change website builders, email services or the look of your practice. Buy it in your own name, with your own login, and turn on automatic renewal so it never lapses.
Squarespace sells domains along with its websites, and registrars such as Cloudflare Registrar sell the domain alone. Either works. What matters is that the account is yours.
The email address is often the first thing a family sees from you, on a card, a flyer or a listing, before they ever hear your voice. hello@yourpractice.com tells them this is a practice that will still be here when the baby comes. A personal address works, but it puts your clients' messages in the same inbox as your family's, and if you lose that account you lose your client history with it. An address on your own domain stays yours, matches your website and your listing, and moves with you if you change providers.
Once you own the domain, email on it comes from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. It keeps your practice mail apart from your personal mail, and it moves with you if you ever change providers. If clients will email you about their health, ask the provider about signing a business associate agreement, and set up two-step sign-in on day one.
Families who find you want to know four things: who you are, what you do, where you work, and how to reach you. A single page with your photo, your services, your service area and a contact form answers all four. Add pages later, when clients ask the same questions over and over.
A website builder with templates, a domain, contact forms and online booking. A good fit if you want to build it yourself and have it look finished.
A brand for a one-person practice is mostly being the same everywhere. Use one name for the website, the email, the social accounts and your listing. Pick two colors and one typeface and use only those. Get one good photo of yourself in natural light and use it everywhere a family sees you. That is most of it.
A logo can wait. Your name set in a clean typeface does the job until you know what you want.
Many doulas, midwives and lactation consultants are already in the TandemBirth directory from public records. Claim yours, add your website and the email on your domain, and families can find you. No one pays to be listed or to appear higher.
An approved claim comes with a partner code. Families who use it pay $39 for a Birth Story instead of $49, and you earn $10 for each one. The first 25 partners approved earn $15 through December 31, 2027.
A birth planner for the birthing person and the partner, each on their own phone. Your claimed listing gives you a planner link with your name on it to put on your website and in your client emails.
Clients who are building a baby registry can add a Birth Story to it from the gift page, so family can give it. Worth a line in your welcome email.
If you would rather hand this off, TandemBirth sets up the domain, the website and the email on it for small practices, with a fixed price and a written scope. Business email, account security, billing and ongoing support are on the same page.
Not today. None of the links on this page are paid links. If one becomes a paid link later, it will say "Paid link" right beside it, and the price to you stays the same.
No. Your listing, your partner code and your planner link are free and do not depend on anything else on this page.
A product alone does not make a practice compliant, and many doulas are not covered by HIPAA at all. If clients send you health information, ask each provider whether they will sign a business associate agreement, and set up two-step sign-in. Our IT services page covers HIPAA security support if you want help.