The Poppy Doula Handbook For Digital and In-Person Support
Welcome to the health center!
Thank you for being part of this exciting phase in Poppy Seed Health’s journey as we step into hybrid care with Planned Parenthood. Your presence—both in-person and on the app—will ensure a new level of support and continuity of care for pregnant and birthing people. We’re thrilled to have you!
Purpose of the Program
Poppy Seed Health is proud to partner with Planned Parenthood LA to launch our first-ever hybrid care doula program. This pilot will offer full spectrum doula support to pregnant patients seeking care in Planned Parenthood health centers and virtually on the Poppy Seed Health app. This partnership is made possible through the Black Health Initiative and will launch in late 2024.
In this role, you will be responsible for offering educational, informational, and emotional support to pregnant patients at Planned Parenthood-Inglewood Health Center and on the Poppy Seed Health app. You will offer essential on-the-ground support and have the opportunity to make a lasting impact on birth outcomes in the State of California.
Poppy Values
At Poppy Seed Health, we support all pregnancy decisions and outcomes. We are full spectrum doulas! Our role is to support those we serve throughout their experience — whatever it may be — and make sure they feel comforted, informed, and empowered every step of the way.
We are rooted in radical empathy and community care. We acknowledge that there is no singular journey to parenthood and Poppy Seed Health sees and supports the multiplicity of the birthing experience. We uphold the right to personal bodily autonomy and stand in solidarity with Sister Song’s definition of reproductive justice as a “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”
Poppy Seed Health and Planned Parenthood have the responsibility to participate in and reinforce a safe, sustainable community for everyone we support and interact with on the app and in-person at the Inglewood Health Center.
Responsibilities & Admin Details
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Support patients 1:1 before, during, and/or after prenatal appointments at Planned Parenthood-Inglewood Health Center.
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Provide digital support by chatting with PPLA patients on the Poppy Seed Health app.
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Represent Poppy Seed Health while on-site and collaborate as needed with PPLA staff.
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Maintain accurate and timely documentation in keeping with reporting requirements.
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Communicate with the on-site manager and your Poppy advocate support team to ensure you and patients have what you need.
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Assist with long term growth of the pilot by giving feedback and recommendations.
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Participate in PPLA advocate events such as onboarding and training.
Compensation
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Doulas are paid on the 15th of every month for the previous month. If the 15th falls on a holiday or weekend, you’ll be paid the previous business day. If you provide digital support on the Poppy Seed Health app, you will also receive compensation on the 15th for any texts sent during the previous month. There are additional opportunities for ongoing education and participation in the Poppy Petals program.
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$27.91 per hour
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The training and onboarding flat rate is $500.
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No minimum. Maximum 22.5 hrs per week.
Location, Transportation & Operating Hours
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Planned Parenthood Inglewood Health Center
905 N La Brea Ave, Inglewood, CA 90302, United States
The Inglewood Health Center is located in a strip mall near Baskin Robbins and a dry cleaners. It is accessible via the 212 bus line and the I-Line shuttle. There is a large parking lot in the shopping center. Please leave the parking spaces marked “Planned Parenthood Parking Only” available for patients to use.
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Monday: 8 am - 5 pm
Tuesday: 8 am - 5 pm
Wednesday: 8 am - 5 pm
Thursday: 8 am - 5 pm
Friday: 8 am - 5 pm
Saturday: 8 am - 4 pm
Sunday: Closed
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At this time, Poppy Seed Health will offer doula support to prenatal patients only. Cedars-Sinai residents at Planned Parenthood-Inglewood see prenatal patients on Mondays and Tuesdays. Patients may come in any day Monday-Friday for a pregnancy test and/or other services, including scheduled visits with a doula. At this time, Poppy Seed Health doulas will not be present on Saturdays.
Monday: 8 am - 5 pm Cedars-Sinai Residents AND Poppy Doulas
Tuesday: 8 am - 5 pm Cedars-Sinai Residents AND Poppy Doulas
Wednesday: 8 am - 5 pm Poppy Doulas
Thursday: 8 am - 5 pm Poppy Doulas
Friday: 8 am - 5 pm Poppy Doulas
Holidays: Please note the health center will be closed on these holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Native American Heritage Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
Required HR Documents
Please upload documents here. Must be completed before attending HR training.
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Most recent/updated resume.
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Diploma of highest level of education.
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Basic Life Support/CPR (BLS) Certification (expiration date no earlier than 60-days after starting)
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Can accept documentation within 12-months of starting in the health center for a skin-test (or blood test)
Or, documentation for x-ray results within the last 5-years of starting
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Please note, without updated vaccination documentation, staff will need to wear a mask within the health center (PPLA provides masks)
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Hepatitis B
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)
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Are you fluent in any other languages besides English? If so, wonderful! And we'd love for you to offer your multilingual support at Planned Parenthood! PPLA requires a language assessment to approve bilingual communication with patients within the health centers. Let me know if this is something you'd like to do and I'll arrange things with HR.
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We'll initiate this on our side.
About the Doula Visits
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During appointments with their medical provider, patients will be offered the option of meeting with a Poppy Seed Health doula. They may also request doula support outside of prenatal appointment times. If they opt-in for doula support, the PPLA staff member will notify you and invite you to meet with the patient in the appointment room, or direct you to another room in the health center.
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Doula visits may be as short as 15 minutes, if the patient’s schedule doesn’t allow and they only have time to sign up for the app, or as long as 1.5 hours if they plan on a full length doula visit that might involve birth planning or labor prep. Patients are encouraged to come to their doula visit with an idea of what they’d like to discuss, though it’s okay if they’re not sure where to begin. You can help guide them!
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Prior to meeting with you, PPLA patients will have been introduced to doula support by the PPLA staff and given a brief overview of what to expect. However, patients might not yet have a full picture of what doula support can look or feel like. As usual, please give them your warmest welcome and feel free to ask if they’d like more info from you!
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PPLA staff have materials on-site to help orient patients to doula support with the following descriptions. During sessions with a doula, patients can:
Talk about how they’re feeling: discussing pregnancy symptoms and experiences, emotions, coping techniques, self-care tools, relationship dynamics
Ask questions: clarifying next steps, brainstorming questions for upcoming appointments, organizational tools
Receive new support tools & resources such as nutrition, relaxation tips, timeline and appointment management, comfort tips
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Prior to meeting the patient review the below sections:
Step 1: Check the patient’s profile
Step 2: Review the associated script for that patient profile
Step 3: Review the Conversation Prompts as an outline for all visits, no matter the patient’s profile.
Get to Know the Patient Profiles
Planned Parenthood LA has developed patient profiles to help their staff support patients and ensure consistency. Please review the following profiles for prenatal patients and possible doula topics so you’re familiar with language you may hear from PPLA staff and prepared as can be to support patients.
Patient Profile 1 & 2: Desired Pregnancy
Patients seeking prenatal services from a PPLA provider, including patients seen by the Cedars-Sinai residency (Patient Profile 2). Patients seeking pregnancy testing, with a positive test result, intend to continue their pregnancy.
TOPICS
How they’re feeling physically and emotionally
Pregnancy nutrition
Dealing with morning sickness
Getting support from friends and family
Birth planning
Brainstorming questions for their next appointment
Talking through new relationship dynamics
Patient Profile 3: Unsure
Patients seeking pregnancy testing, with a positive test result, who are undecided regarding their intent to continue.
TOPICS
How they’re feeling physically and emotionally
Discussing and understanding options
Processing how they feel about moving forward
Brainstorming questions for their next appointment
Learning what to expect in different scenarios
Strategizing tools for self-care
Planning how to talk about ______ with loved ones or not talk about it.
Patient Profile 4: Complication
Patients with a positive pregnancy test who are determined to be experiencing an early pregnancy complication (e.g. miscarriage; possible ectopic; molar; PUL).
TOPICS
How they’re feeling physically and emotionally
Discussing and understanding options
Expressing how they feel about moving forward
Brainstorming questions for their next appointment
Learning what to expect in different scenarios
Strategizing tools for self-care
Offering space to process any new emotions
Planning how to talk about ______ with loved ones or not talk about it.
General Conversation Prompts During In-Person Doula Visits
WHILE MEETING WITH A PATIENT:
Introduce yourself and thank the patient for sharing their time with you. (Hi! I’m Alex and my pronouns are she/they. I’m a full spectrum doula and lactation counselor. I’m so happy to meet you. Thanks for making the time to chat!)
Ask if there’s something on their mind they want to talk about or if they’d like you to offer a couple ideas. Please follow their lead! (Is there anything specific that you want to talk about today? It’s okay if not, I have some ideas of topics we could cover together. Most of all, I’m here to listen and support you. I’ll follow your lead.)
Spend time listening and encouraging the patient to share as much as they’re comfortable with you. (Please use reflective listening, avoid interrupting, offer non-judmental compassion, and ask open ended questions to better understand and support their experience e.g. If I understand correctly, you’re saying…. Tell me more…. How do you feel about_______? I hear you, that would be really challenging. I can understand why you’d feel that way.)
Invite them to ask questions or share a few questions you’ve heard from clients at similar stages of pregnancy in the past. (What questions do you have about _______? A lot of my clients in similar situations ask me about things like….)
Ask if they’re interested in getting additional support on the Poppy Seed Health app and if so, help them complete the enrollment form. See digital enrollment section below for details. Are you set up with the Poppy Seed Health app yet? You can talk with a doula 24/7 and it’s a great way to get support whenever you need it, even if it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep. It’s free for Planned Parenthood prenatal patients and we can do the enrollment together now in just a couple minutes if you want.
Thank the patient for trusting you and invite them to schedule a future doula visit. (I’m so happy we had this time together today. Thank you for your trust and sharing so much with me. I hope we’ll see you again! Do you want to set up another doula appointment now before we go? We could go into more depth about what we discussed today, or start doing some planning around….)
After you and the patient say goodbye, please take a few minutes to complete the mandatory documentation.
How to Enroll a PPLA Patient on the Poppy Seed Health App
During each visit, please ask the patient if they’re signed up for the app yet. If not, please take the opportunity to describe what Poppy’s 24/7 digital support is all about and encourage them to try it.
Please note, patients must have access to email and a smart phone to use the Poppy Seed Health app.
WORDS & PHRASES TO DESCRIBE THE APP:
The Poppy program and the app are included in your care at Planned Parenthood at no additional cost.
It’s totally free to you and available 24/7.
Chatting with a doula on the app is a great way to build on what we talk about in-person and make sure you have support any time you need it, even if it’s the middle of the night and you need to talk or get answers to any random questions you might wake up thinking about.
Someone is always there to help you process information, answer questions, and provide tools in real time. Plus, we’re just really good listeners.
We can get you signed up today in less than 5 minutes and you’ll get the login info in two days max. And then you can start chatting!
If the patient opts-in for digital support on the app, please use the tablet or laptop provided by Poppy to complete the enrollment process in-person during the doula visit. With the patient sitting next to you, please complete the enrollment form with their information and consent. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
USE THIS TYPEFORM TO ENROLL THE PPLA PATIENT DURING THE VISIT
Data Protection Policies
DIGITAL SUPPORT ON POPPY SEED HEALTH APP:
Chatting with members on the app is not a requirement, though we’re grateful and encourage you to do so if you have capacity. This will help move Poppy Seed Health towards greater continuity of care and allow PPLA patients to connect with doulas they already know through the Inglewood Health Center.
At this time, the names of PPLA patients who opt-in for digital support on the app will be preceded with the tag “PPLA” or “SPAN-PPLA” to indicate to the advocates if / when to pick up a chat.
In the future, our tech developers will create a new matching algorithm that allows for seamless matches between PPLA patients and PPLA doulas on the app. For now, please pay very close attention to member names in chat notifications. Please note that digital support on the app is compensated in addition to the shifts you work at the health center. You will receive payment on the 15th of each month for any texts sent during the previous month.
PPLA followed by the member’s name
Example: PPLA Samantha S.
Advocates may only pick this up if they are a doula.
SPAN-PPLA followed by member’s name if they are Spanish-speaking
Example: SPAN-PPLA Alex R.
Advocates may only pick up this up if they are a Spanish-speaking doula.
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