Doula/Midwife/Childbirth Educator Questions

[DanielleFamily]

copied from my other post in my "tribe"........


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Forgive me. I'm STILL learning how to use these boards.

I'm a DONA trained postpartum doula, but I'm hoping to become a midwife in later years through an apprenticeship. In the meantime, I'd like to also become certified in teaching childbirth education (maybe in a hosptial?), as well as become certified as a birth doula.

I have many questions, but based on this, is there any advice any of you can give me on this?

I've heard different stories from different people and at this point in time, just to be honest, my husband has decided NOT to let me put forth the money until he can see that it's "worth it".

I'd like to do homebirths. I live in Charleston, SC. I'm very much into AP and natural living - getting there anyway - and my long-term focus is doing homebirths with families.

I'm just....I'm so lost. I keep thinking that I've done all the research I need to and then it's as if I get slapped in the face with something else.

I REALLY REALLY want to teach childbirth education on the side. I've called and spoken to midwives, doulas and childbirth educators here, but it kind of seems like no one really wants to TRUELY help.

I just need to get my foot in the door and I don't know how to - especially with my husband on the side saying I should go to RN school and that a midwife won't require any previous experience with taking on an apprentice. (Which we all know isn't quite true at all.)

My husband is looking at this as very Black And White - yet all I'm seeing is so much grey.

Help????

Please?

.sigh.


Thank you all..........

[SublimeBirthGirl]

He's not going to LET you? Boy, that makes my head hurt. If finding a different husband isn't an option I don't really know what to tell you.

I've been teaching about 3 years. I don't make much money. I manage to pay for my expenses and I write off everything. Any business takes time to get rolling. I'd say to count on at least a year to pay off the expenses of becoming certified.

When I was attending births there was a nice interplay. Your clients take your classes, your students hire you to attend their births, so there is more income potential in that way.

[DanielleFamily]

i suppose "let" is a harsh word to use in the situation.

he's very supportive of this as my career now, but he's VERY disheartened about it all, as i spent quite a bit to become a postpartum doula and haven't been able to find the work. he's worried the same thing will happen.

as am i, but i'm too passionate about this to NOT pursue it.

i know it's going to take me longer because he is currently deployed in iraq. he left in january....won't be back until sometime the middle of next year. i have two children's schedules to work around. which, obviously, i'll do....it's just slightly more difficult for me.

in my opinion, the more knowledge i have (as well as experience) as a birth doula, postpartum doula and childbirth educator, the better. there's more i want to eventually do on the side (belly casting, cloth diaper making, sling making, etc.), but for now....as long as i can pay childcare while i'm with clients, that's all i care about.

i just want to BE out there and start doing this but i'm finally at a point of feeling STUCK.

[tlcdoula]

I can totally understand your frustration with not having someone help you get your foot in the door, but the reality is if you move forward with this you are an independent business and therefore you need to make it work for you on your own. Yes, sometimes people will get help from others, but in general I think many of us have started from ground zero all on our own and have had to build up from there.

Perhaps no one wants to help you because they have been burned. I know in the past I have helped a few doulas get their business going and every time I got burned big time - helping them find clients and then them not wanting to go to the birth as it is inconvenient. It can be hard especially without really knowing the person. I think the same thing applies to classes - if they do not know you they will not want to refer to you because they do not know what you are teaching. Plus if you have not started certification at the very least how do they know you will continue as many people start the process with various certifications and then never finish.

If this is something you want to do then you need to make the committment to do it on your own and build your own business and clientele. Perhaps calling the hospitals to see if they have any jobs that might become vacant - unfortunately they might not hire you until your certification is complete (in many cases). Unfortunately you need to start the process and get the certification and then start to look for work.

I have been teaching for three years now and honestly do not make a ton of money. I work about 15-20 hours per month at a local hospital and then occasionally teach privately.

If this is something you want to do why not start looking into who you might certify through and start reading the books. Maybe if your husband sees you moving forward with this he might be a little more willing to agree to moving to the next step. I know that you said he won't "allow" you to do this and I am hoping that it isn't as harsh as that - meaning that he just isn't being supportive. I know when I started my husband rolled his eyes at me and wasn't super supportive, although he wasn't super negative either. He just thought I was crazy and neither supported nor deterred the idea, but honestly I am the type of person that when told I can't do something I do it anyhow. I believe that I need to be happy in my life and since I am supportive of my dh and his decisions (even when I think he is nuts) then I expect the same in return.

Good luck!!

[onlyboys]

Perhaps you should see everything as part of the whole. Even the waiting. Midwifery is a lot about patience and letting things happen as they should. At least, this is how I have viewed it.

Here's how I became a CBE--I had a homebirth with a local midwife. I told her, "Give me a year to get myself back a bit and then I'd love to teach a couple classes, attend a few births, whatever you need for me to do." We saw each other almost a year later at a LLL conference, and she said, "Hey! You ready to get started?" And I took a class. Now, I teach six a month. My salary isn't paying any bills, but I really enjoy it!

Becoming a birth doula was much the same--I had had a couple unmedicated births. Friends were having babies and wanted to do it unmedicated, and I helped them. Then, I got training, etc.

I've now started midwifery school, but I'm still needing to be patient--finding a preceptor, discovering on call life--it's all a process of becoming who I am going to be.

For now, I'd say take all the classes you can. Join the local activists groups. Join ICAN, Citizens for Midwifery, LLL, BirthNetwork, etc. Start a networking group. Don't get discouraged if there doesn't seem to be a place for you right now. People who love their jobs usually keep them, you know?

Good luck! It sounds like you're on the right track!

[DanielleFamily]

thank you for the responses.

i'm already in touch with the hospitals here, as well as many others in the profession.

i'm in tocuh with ALACE - that's who i'm going through for my certification this time around....

as much as i hate to admit it, i suppose i'm going into this a bit too naively at times.

the "competition" and "being burned" is a conversation i've had with almost everyone i've spoken to in the area. (doulas and midwives) i can't help but understand that. i come from a mortgage background. i'm all too familiar with training others....only to be "sold out" later.

i've bought over 30 books so far. i'm constantly reading and doing my research to further everything to be the best i can be. after all, i'm not coming into this with a degree or anything of the like. i'm entirely too eager for my own good, i think.

my postpartum training was through DONA....as my birth doula certification will be in October.

it's good to hear what i've been thinking all along though.

it's going to be hard work. i'm ready though. i really want this.

thank you for your responses...

[SublimeBirthGirl]

You really have to approach it as a business, because it is. Go to events, make marketing materials, offer to give free talks, participate in the community. Hand out brochures and business cards (try vistaprint.com). Send out mailings, introduce yourself to local midwives. Get involved in the birth community. It takes time to build a business, that's all.

[zoe398]

copied from tribes:

I'm a doula in the Charleston area. I would suggest getting involved in our professional organizaion, www.charlestondoulas.com, for starters. We do alot of community events where you can begin to get your name out. It's also a great chance to meet most of the doulas in there and pick their brains.

Honestly, you just have to get out there. Go to LLL meetings, meet yoga teachers, etc. Make business cards (you can do them cheaply at home) and hit up the doctors offices, yoga studios, etc.

You don't have to invest alot of money to do this. You just need the heart and desire. But, you have to self-promote and network.

Another thing, since there are only 3 midwives who practice in this area and they all already either have apprentices or assistants, you may find it hard to get in at first. Not because they aren't open to you but when families choose homebirth, they usually aren't willing for the midwife to bring an assortment of people. You know? I've been practicing for several years and just in the last 18 months or so have had the opportunity to be at several homebirths.

Good luck!

[Peppamint]

Hang in there... honestly, I don't have any idea how long it will before I'm officially apprenticing (I've just started being backup). I've wanted to pursue midwifery for the last 4.5 years and I'm just taking what comes. I took two workshops put on by a local midwife, I've been getting my hands on the recommended midwifery texts/books, and just putting it out there that I'm interested. I figure if it's meant to be, then all my effort will yield results. KWIM?

Keep up the good work, it sounds like you're putting a lot of thought into it.

[courtenay_e]

I'll wholeheartedly agree with the pp's who mentioned networking. I go to coffee nights set up in our tribal area every couple/few weeks. I've gotten involved in the midwifery community, the doula community, the LLL community (in state leadership). For me, the yoga studios and chiros only offer a teeeeny tiny piece of my referrals. The rest of it is all word of mouth through the natural birthing community. I DO speak at a friend's bradley class, but she became my friend only AFTER I started speaking at her class. And now, probably half of the births I got in my first year as a doula have come from her clients. And now we share, I refer to her, she refers to me. It DOES take a big investment of time, I think, to get the network around you...I probably spent one night a week for the first year out doing something to get to know people in the natural living/birth community. Along with prenatals, it meant that I was out sometimes three nights a week. That was hard. Now, however, I EASILY have two or three births a month, mostly from word of mouth, have just started getting post partum work (referred through other area birth doulas and midwives), which pays really well (!), AND have had an assistanceship basically handed to me, with the option to become her apprentice when I'm ready, and with another offer of apprenticeship when I'm ready to go that route from another midwife in the area, as well. I think that part of what you might be facing is that people in the birth community KNOW that it's really hard work...and they want to see how you work before they refer out to you. The same goes for those chiropractors and yoga instructors. They have doulas already, most likely, with whom they are familliar and to whom they refer business. I'd make it more of a practice to talk to your friends in LLL and yoga classes and find out who the good chiros are, and refer YOUR clients to THEM...and then your clients will talk about you, and you'll probably start getting refferals.

As for how to get clients to start then? I suggest freecycle. Please, I KNOW that many people here don't agree with that, but I got my first six clients that way, they all appreciated what I did for them, and my business has grown significantly based on those clients that I got in under a month when I started. I said right off the bat that I was new, but I was working for free, and with that understanding, they knew that we'd both benefit from the experience. Also, as I said, I work with a Bradley instructor. I speak at one of her classes per series, and don't expect to get clients from the meeting, just to help them understand better how they might word a birth plan, and what doulas do, and how doulas can benefit even Bradley clients in a hospital setting. Then I give them a list of local doulas. And frankly, they've seen me, heard me speak, and connected with me. So far, any of those students who've hired a doula have hired me. I also suggest finding somebody in your ALACE class to use as your backup. It's a secure feeling for your clients to know that you have one, even if you never use her. I've had a relationship with my backup from the beginning, and only last month had to use her for the first time. I hated having to send her, but my clients were happy to have her if I couldn't be there, so it worked out.

As many of the pp's have mentioned, it takes time to build the business, it doesn't just fall in your lap. BUT if you work hard, when it comes, you'll probably be busy enough to make even your frustrated husband happy. Mine is tickled with the amount of calls I get now, and understands that it was all the hard work in the beginning (and the continued networking now) that got me where I am.