Overview
Starting December 1, 2025, you will be required to fill out a Birth Report when you submit a Labor & Delivery visit. A Birth Report is a quick 7-question survey to help Loula better understand how a client's pregnancy went. It's quick to fill out, but you should make sure to collect the right information when supporting your client.
Birth Reports are required when you are submitting the following visits:
Labor & Delivery, Vaginal Delivery
Labor & Delivery, Vaginal Delivery after C-Section
Labor & Delivery, C-section
Birth Reports are not required when submitting a Miscarriage support or Abortion support visit.
Birth Reports are optional for:
Clients who are now postpartum for whom you did not submit a L&D visit for.
Clients you have submitted L&D visit for prior to December 1st, 2025.
While Birth Reports are optional for the above clients, you are able to fill out Birth Reports for these clients, and we highly encourage you to do so!
Birth Reports help us advocate for Loula doulas. They help us understand and describe Loula doulas’ impact when negotiating rates with health plans. When we negotiate a better rate with health plans, we are able to lower Loula doulas' fees!
What's in a Birth Report?
7-Question Survey (required)
Birth Reports ask the following 7 Yes/No questions:
Was this an NTSV birth?
NTSV stands for Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex, meaning the birth fits the following criteria:
First birth (Nulliparous)
37+ weeks gestation (Term)
One baby (Singleton)
Head-down position (Vertex)
Was the infant born preterm (before 37 weeks)?
If yes, at how many weeks was the infant born?
Did the infant weigh at least 2,500 grams (5 lb 8 oz)?
If no, how much did the infant weigh?
You have the option of providing birth weight in grams or pounds and ounces. While the Portal will default to grams, you may enter the birth weight in pounds and ounces by clicking Record weight in pounds and ounces
Was breastfeeding initiated after delivery?
Was labor induced?
Did the client receive an epidural during labor?
Was the infant admitted to a NICU after delivery?
We encourage you to ask the above questions for every client you support. We require that you obtain the answers the above questions for clients you support during labor & delivery.
Note: For some plans, such as Blue Shield Promise Health Plan, your responses to these questions will be submitted to health plans. You won't have to do anything else — we'll take care of the the paperwork on your behalf.
Your Impact as a Doula (freeform description, optional)
After the 7-question survey, you have the option of providing freeform description of the impact doula support has had on the client's pregnancy.
We love hearing from our doulas! This question is optional, but your response helps us best represent the important support Loula doulas provide clients. We encourage you to write a 2-3 sentence description of how doula support has impacted this clients' pregnancy. You may choose to share more or less, or nothing at all.
Note: Like your visits notes, the clients will have no visibility into what you write. In general, we will not share responses with health plans. If we do share responses with health plans, we will only do so anonymously, so neither client nor doula are identified.
How to fill out a Birth Report
When Submitting a Labor & Delivery Visit
Submit a Labor & Delivery visit as normal. Find a full guide to submitting a visit here.
After the Visit Note step and before the Review & Submit step, you will be prompted to answer the Birth Report questions.
Complete the survey questions, and the two subquestions that may surface depending on your response.
Complete the optional freeform description.
Then, press Next.
You will be taken the the Review & Submit step, where you will see a summary of your responses under the section heading Birth Reports.
If you need to amend a response, click the pencil icon to Edit. This will take you back to the Birth Report step, where you may edit your responses.
For Postpartum Clients Which You Have Not Submitted a L&D Visit
You also have the option to submit a Birth Report for postpartum clients for whom you do not submit a labor & delivery visit. We strongly encourage you to do so. Your response helps us describe the impact of our doulas when negotiating with health plans.
To do so, follow these steps:
Go to the client's Client Profile.
Locate the Pregnancy section
On Desktop, this is on the lefthand sidebar with the heading Client Information
On Mobile, this is a separate tab labeled Client Information
You should see a tag under the Birth Report label which says Not Completed
Click on the Fill out Birth Report next to the tag
This will take you to a Birth Report page where you can answer the Birth Report questions.
For clients who you submitted a Labor & Delivery visit for prior to December 1, 2025, you will notice an alert at the top of the Labor & Delivery Visit Details page which reads You haven’t filled out the Birth Report for this pregnancy yet!.
To fill out a Birth Report for this client, click Fill out. This will also open up the Birth Report page where you can answer the Birth Report questions.
Viewing and Editing Birth Reports
You may view or edit a client's Birth Report at any time.
To do so,
Go to the client's Client Profile.
Locate the Pregnancy section
On Desktop, this is on the lefthand sidebar with the heading Client Information
On Mobile, this is a separate tab labeled Client Information
If a Birth Report is filled out, you should see a tag under the Birth Report label which says Completed
Click on the View/Edit next to the tag
This will open up a modal in which you can view the responses you've previously inputted.
If you want to edit the Birth Report, click Edit Report.
This will take you to the Birth Report page, on which you can edit your responses and/or fill out the optional free from section.
Edits to your Report will be saved once. you click Save Changes.