The Birthworker Pricing & Income Calculator

A small pricing mistake repeated across multiple clients could cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars over time. This calculator helps you determine a rate that accounts for expenses, taxes, profit, capacity, and the realities of running a doula business.

Most birthworkers were never given the math underneath their prices. This is it.

A done-for-you spreadsheet that shows you two numbers: the lowest price you can charge without losing money, and the price that actually pays you, your taxes, and your future. Built by a doula who was a bookkeeper first.

You didn't get the math wrong. You were never given the math.

Most of us priced the way we were taught. For example, what our training organization suggested, what others in the area charge, what someone in a group recommended, what felt like a clean round number, even what would cover a month's rent. Those are real inputs. They just aren't the math underneath.

And here's the real issue: you can't actually copy from another birthworker. You don't know their expenses or credentials. You don't know whether they are supporting a family on this income or doing it on the side. You're working from a number that was never built for your life and then wondering if it's enough or why it never quite adds up.

I'm not here to tell you to care less. The opposite. The only way to keep doing work you love is to make sure the work can pay for itself. That's all the math is for.

What most pricing advice quietly skips

Free pricing tips almost never account for the things that actually decide whether you make money: taxes (the single biggest line most birthworkers forget to set aside for), your real capacity once on-call life and family are factored in, and the invisible labor (prep, admin, follow-up, being reachable) that you're likely doing for free or less than minimum wage.

This tool puts all of it on the table.

What the Pricing & Income Calculator actually does

It works in two directions, which is what makes it different from a basic calculator.

Top-down: Start with what you need to earn. Enter your desired take-home pay, your overhead, your tax set-aside, and how many bookings your real life allows. It tells you the average price every booking has to hit, and the true cost of undercharging at your current rate, by the year.

Bottom-up: For each offer (a birth package, a single visit, a class) enter your time, your costs, and your desired rate. It calculates your break-even floor and your sustainable price (the one that covers costs, taxes, AND pays you), then gives you a plain-language verdict on where you stand.

No guesswork. No spreadsheet skills required. You only type in the highlighted cells.

What's inside

• Income & Capacity tab — your top-down target: what you must average per booking to hit your income goal
• Three pricing templates — Birth Package, Visit, and Class, ready to fill (duplicate them for any offer you have)
• Separate tax and profit controls — so you finally set aside for taxes and pay yourself, instead of hoping there's something left
• A plain-English verdict on every tab — it tells you what to do, not just what the number is
• Summary dashboard — all your offers at a glance, color-coded sustainable or below sustainable
• Three fully worked examples — a birth package, an 8-hour postpartum shift, and a lactation visit, filled in so you can see the whole tool working before you touch your own
• A walkthrough video — me, showing you exactly how to use it, start to finish
• Locked formulas — only your input cells can be edited, so nothing breaks by accident

Who this is for

• Birthworkers who suspect their pricing isn't quite working and want to know instead of guess
• Doulas, postpartum providers, lactation consultants, childbirth educators, anyone pricing care
• Anyone setting rates for the first time who wants to do it with confidence, not by copying a stranger

What this is not

This isn't a course, and it isn't coaching. There are no calls, no homework, no waiting on me. You buy it, you open it, you get your number. Today.

It's also not tax advice. The tool helps you set aside for taxes, but your set-aside rate is yours to confirm with your own tax professional. You stay in the driver's seat the whole way.

What you walk away with

Concrete numbers. Once your real inputs are in, the tool gives you:

• Your break-even price — the floor below which every booking is a quiet loss
• Your sustainable price — covers your costs, your taxes, and your own pay
• Your effective hourly rate at what you currently charge (often the most clarifying number in the file)
• An income-and-capacity plan that tells you what each booking has to average to hit your annual income goal
• A conscious tax set-aside built into your pricing, instead of a quiet hope at year-end
• A plain-English verdict on every offer — sustainable, or by how much you're short

In the included, prefilled Income & Capacity example, the tool surfaces the true cost of undercharging. It's more than $44,000 a year at a too-low rate. Your numbers will be your own, but most people are surprised by what they find.

Price: $127