Here in Colorado Springs we have a very high concentration of doulas. To my knowledge there are somewhere in the range of 25-40 labor doulas and a handful of postpartum doulas. Regularly, as in most communities, these doulas quit or go into other professions within 2 to 3 years. It’s a demanding job, one that many are not prepared for.

I recently began the process of switching my certification to a newer, but amazing organization and their mission statement speaks to me.

PRODOULA is committed to creating competent and nurturing Certified Doulas who are well respected, professional women. Through our people and programs, PRODOULA ensures that each of our Certified Doulas is equipped with the tools, desire and resources to support women and their families in a judgment free manner.

The leaders of PRODOULA have worked to develop an environment that empowers women to create a strong earning potential while doing something they love and are passionate about. PRODOULA supports their Doulas in the nurturing way a PRODOULA supports her client and is dedicated to the success and growth of each of its members.

Supporting families is a given when you’re a doula. We are doulas (ancient Greek word for servant) at our core. We can’t help but help people. We truly want every family to have the most fulfilling, amazing birth and postpartum experience they can.

We do our best not to give unsolicited advice, really we do. Some of us are better than others and if you ask for advice, it will probably start to flow like a faucet you can’t shut off. Because of that, it’s really easy to take advantage of us as well.

If you are a professional in any area you know what I mean by being taken advantage of. It’s not intentional. It just kind of happens….. For example:

“Hey cousin accountant, can I ask you about XYZ on my taxes? I heard that ABC is true, but I don’t want to make a mistake, can you help me out?” For free of course, because, well, we’re family right? And family helps family.

Maybe your cousin gives you a little free advice, maybe they don’t. Maybe they make you schedule an appointment for a formal consultation and tax review at a later date and you pay for their time. Maybe it’s discounted, maybe it’s not.

Now let’s say there is an accountant office down the street from you that just opened up. You heard this guy is fresh out of school and just getting his business on his feet. Do you walk into his office and ask for free advice? Why not? He’s new in town, he probably can’t WAIT to get started crunching numbers right? He probably needs the experience to get himself better known in the community right? He should be happy to do your taxes for free or next to nothing to get his foot in the door right?

It sounds silly, but it happens to doulas all day every day. It is assumed that new and certifying doulas should either work for free or for very low cost. They are seen as being “in training” or a “student”. This thought process generally begins in training when doulas, excited to get started ask questions like “How do I get my first clients? How do I compete with doulas that have more experience?” This is when the trainer or another new doula will inevitably speak up and suggest working for free. Doulas are PASSIONATE about the work they do and they WANT to attend births. They truly CANNOT WAIT to see babies born. Of course they would want to do it for free. Why wouldn’t they?

That’s not quite how the world actually works. This brings me to the second part of the PRODOULA mission statement.

This is my favorite part.

- to develop an environment that empowers women to create a strong earning potential while doing something they love and are passionate about. PRODOULA supports their Doulas in the nurturing way a PRODOULA supports her client and is dedicated to the success and growth of each of its members.

Empowering women. Dedication to the success and growth of each of its members.

Supporting each other is something that stereo-typically, women can sometimes struggle with. In business women are seen as catty or “bitchy” for doing what it takes to get ahead while men are seen as strong or driven.

It can be difficult in any business to watch the competition thrive while you struggle to get started. That’s where PRODOULA doulas are different. We are taught that all doulas have worth from the moment they get their training and start on the path to business ownership.

I agree with that, and I believe that all doula training organizations need to start teaching doulas their true worth and how to build a business, not just do the job. I believe that by building strong, professional doulas in our community who know their worth, we are building our profession as a whole. We are building expectations among ourselves, we are building expectations among our clients and we are building expectations with other birth professionals.

Notice that doulas include themselves with birth professionals. We are part of a team. We work TOGETHER with your OBs, midwives and nurses to give you the absolute best birthing experience you can have. We work tirelessly, constantly learning, keeping up with medical journals and evidence based care, seeking out counsel among each other and many other professionals to make sure we are always on the top of our game for our clients.

We would never expect new OBs or midwives or nurses to attend our births for free. Why do we expect this of our new doulas?

Some people (including other doulas) argue that because a doula is required to attend a certain number of births to complete certification that they should do it for free or very little because of lack of experience.

If you go to the ER, and an intern takes care of you, do you still pay? What if your child goes to private school, and for all or part of the day they have an assistant teaching them? Do you still pay tuition? Of course you pay. We don’t generally go through life expecting free services from businesses.

It is extremely rare for most professionals to go directly into business for themselves unless they are already independently wealthy. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, anyone who works in any field that requires an internship is paying through their school and getting credits from the school for the education they receive from the internship. Also, interns….often times don’t actually DO the job they’re going to school for. Interns are gophers. They get coffee, and file paperwork, and answer phones. They aren’t being a doctor, nurse lawyer or teacher. In all of these circumstances, the customer/client still pays for services at the business where the intern works.

While doing some research for this blog post I came across an article titled Let’s Get Legal: Guidelines for Paid or Unpaid Internships. These are the requirements, by law for an unpaid internship:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

The article states that ALL SIX factors must be followed to qualify as an unpaid internship. Not one of these factors works when we talk about the majority of doulas in the US.

What if you find a lawyer to do pro bono work for you? You’re not paying them right?

That is the one situation that I can think of in which the client doesn’t pay. That is regulated by law. All lawyers must do 180 hours per year (approximately 15 hours/month) in pro bono work. That’s it. They still make money off of their other clients. They aren’t required to do pro bono work before they get their license. They aren’t required to work for free in order to get their license, and in pro bono situations there are limitations. The work must be for a specific reason, like inability to pay, or for some moral imperative. Lawyers aren’t doing pro bono work for large corporations and other lawyers.

Doulas are different in many ways. There are very few doula agencies in the US and even fewer community services where individuals can get a doula based on income. Currently, there are no true internships available for doulas.

Doulas don’t have employers, they work for themselves. They are small business owners with all the expenses of said business right from the start. No one is backing them or paying them to do the job if the client doesn’t pay. If doulas work for free or low cost, it is their families that take the loss. There are MANY articles out there about this subject, so I won’t go into more detail on that.

Doulas are on call 24/7 for up to a month at a time. While they do have backup, they only use that backup in case of an emergency and they leave their homes, family, pets and day jobs at any time of the day or night to help clients navigate one of the most beautiful and confusing times in their lives.

Doulas are prepared to do the full work of supporting clients as soon as their training is over. Reading books, taking open book tests and attending a certain number of births (The actual WORK of a doula) are all just check boxes required to get a piece of paper in the mail to be official. No one is evaluating them except their own clients. No one is giving them feedback and telling them how to improve, except their own clients. They WORK for the clients and only the clients. They don’t work for the certifying organization, the hospital, (there are a few exceptions) the midwife, or the OB. They do the job without supervision because they are ready to, and they should be fairly compensated for their work.

Some doulas have already attended births as family or friend. Many others have been researching, and learning, and guiding friends, and family through their personal knowledge for years; before ever attending a doula training, and are confident in their abilities right away.

Sometimes a doula may not feel ready, or experienced enough to charge full price for their services. Sometimes their trainers have convinced them they shouldn’t. Some may just feel a need for more one on one interaction before they are ready to go out on their own. Maybe they want to watch other doulas in action, get a feel for nuances that can’t be learned in books, and class training. That’s perfectly okay and understandable.

I believe, instead offering their services for free, those doulas should look to mentorships to hone their skills. A mentorship is similar to an apprenticeship. In a mentorship, a newly trained doula may feel the need for more hands on education, and will turn to a more experienced doula to get that education. In a mentorship, a new doula will pay the experienced doula to attend births with her; to learn the business side of the job; the professional do’s and don’ts and the intricacies of their specific birth community. The mentor gets paid for the time and energy put into the new doula. The mentor guides the new doula and gives her the last pieces she may have missed from training; the details that can’t be learned from books, and tests. When the mentor and new doula feel the time is right, the mentor helps the new doula find her first clients, and the new doula gets paid a rate that her time, energy and money deserve.

I believe mentorships are the answer to the 2-3 year burnout too many doulas succumb to. Mentorships are the way we turn new doulas into experienced doulas that take care of their families with well-deserved compensation. Mentorships are the way the public and other birth professionals begin to see us not as hippy dippy chanting birth junkies, but as the hard working, committed professionals that we are.

When newly trained doulas ask their training classes how to get the clients they need, the answer, for those who need it, should be mentorships. I call on new doulas who feel they cannot yet charge a fair price for their services to seek out more experienced doulas to mentor them through the last few steps to earn a living wage for their families.

I challenge certifying doula organizations to change the way they educate our doulas. Encourage them and teach them how to be business owners. Teach them how to create sustainable businesses for themselves, or through hiring other doulas in an agency setting. Make this business sustainable, not only for the new doulas, but for the profession as a whole.

I also challenge experienced doulas to create mentorship programs for newer doulas. Teach them. Help them learn from your mistakes and your successes. Add another revenue stream to your business and encourage the growth of our profession in the eyes of the world.