Talk to me about becoming a doula

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I have a long term goal of becoming a midwife. I would love to gain some experience as I am going through school though. I keep coming back to doula as a great way to do that. But I really question how feasible this is.

I work 30ish hours a week as a shift supervisor at Starbucks (I am potentially looking at a 40hr a week position as an ASM within the year as well). My job is flexible, but less so b/c I am a sup. and there are less people to call on to cover me. Birth is not something that is pretty much ever scheduled 2 weeks in advance. I know that you have to attend several births (6 I believe) to become certified, I assume these are generally unpaid. I am single and support myself so I can not quit my job. It seems impossible to get certified then, right? Would it be more feasible as a postpartum doula versus a birth doula?

Now unpaid certification side, if I CAN get through that, is doula steady enough work that I could depend on it as my sole income? I live in San Francisco, so it seems that generally speaking doulas are in slightly higher demand here but also perhaps more competitive.

Any thoughts???

[courtenay_e]

Find out how much doulas in your area charge. Get a good backup. If you're willing to pay a backup to attend some of your births for you if you miss them and your clients are willing to take that chance as well, and you are able to get busy enough, you may be able to support yourself...but again, not knowing what the going rate is and how much you make doing what you do, I can't tell you for sure. I lived in the SF bay area for a while when I was younger, and I can tell you that, making what I make as a doula in the midwest, I wouldn't be able to support myself as ONLY a doula...but I'm assuming that the pay would go up along with the cost of living. SO...do some research.

Too, if you space out your certifying births, it shouldn't be a problem to get them done and still keep your job. Schedule them so that the moms are due every other month or so. Likely that some will fall on days you aren't scheduled...at least a couple. And even if they all fall on work days, you usually USUALLY have some kind of notice to enable you to call in somebody so that you can leave or so that you don't have to go in at all. And if it's only happening every other month, you will be less likely to have to call on the same person every time...

Oh, and I'd at least charge for gas,parking, etc. as far as the certifying births go. Have fun!

[courtenay_e]

Oh, and what kind of midwife are you thinking of being? You may want to looking into finding a slow homebirth practice to assist for instead, if you want to do homebirths ultimately. I work in hospitals as well as assisting at homebirths. The homebirth midwives I have worked with are completely ruining me for hospital birth(!)...and on the other hand, attending some rough hospital births have cemented in me the need to work for change in our birth culture, even if it's one birth at a time. SOrry, kind of thinking out loud.

[SublimeBirthGirl]

I only attended on freebie birth. I charged even when I was doing my certifying births. DONA requires 3, ALACE 6. I still prefer ALACE though. I never did end up certifying though ALACE had no time limit so I might someday. I don't think doing free births is a good idea, but you can discount your services. Even uncertified I didn't have trouble finding clients though mostly they came through my childbirth classes.

I don't know how much you make at Starbucks but I know that for me, 1 birth a month was about all I could handle. Some doulas do more, but I think 4 is about the max most can handle. Maybe I'm wrong about that but around here anyway, 2 is pretty average. Each birth means 2 prenatals and one postpartum (on average), being on call for up to 4 weeks, plus the birth itself. The emotional side of attending births cannot be overstated. It is really awesome, but also something that requires decompression/processing.

Around here, average is probably $500 per birth, so on the high side that might be $2,000 per month pre-tax if you keep a full client list. I don't know how much you need to earn. For me, it'd be really tough to live on doula income alone, because I could not possibly attend 4 births a month even if I had 24 hour childcare readily available.

[MidwifeErika]

I wouldn't be able to live on my doula income alone. First off, I haven't found it to be super busy! I was very busy when I offered free births and now am less so..... very much less so (but that is fine because I am busy with births for my apprenticeship, so a blessing in disguise really). Also, around here the rates are from about 350-500, so even taking 4 a month that wouldn't be enough for my family.

Here is something to think about as well..... I tell my clients to give me an hour to get to them if they are right here locally. That gives me enough time to pack up the kids and get them to a sitter, find the sitter first (!), and then go to the birth. So, if you were at work, would you have a problem finding someone to cover you if you had about an hour or so? Otherwise, you can just have a really solid back-up agreement with another doula so that your clients will be covered by someone until you get off work. And think too about what would happen if you were called to a 3am birth (ALL of mine were middle of the night calls!), would it be hard to call in to your work if your shift started at 6am.... would you find someone to cover you? Just try to run all the scenerios in your head of when different calls could come and how you would be able to swing it.

By the way, I wouldn't do free births for your certification. I would take at least a small fee. Your time is worth something!

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

Thank you all for the advice...it's definitely helping to flesh put my thoughts.

From what I hear doulas charge in the $500-1000 range. I could live on about $2k a month, but that would be kind of tight. I know of a woman (through a friend) who I believe does doula work as her sole source (or at least primary) of income. I haven't had the chance to speak to her yet, but I should definitely try to.

I know that each birth takes quite a commitment. I wouldn't really plan on taking on more than 2 woman a month, 3 max. The only reason I assumed that certification births were unpaid is that I have a friend who had a doula with her for her daughter's birth. She didn't have to pay a dime. She was young (19 when dd was born) so maybe it was some sort of county program? I dunno.

Obviously I need to talk to more professionals in my area. It's hard though, I'm kind of shy

Thank you all again!

[mendomidwife]

I am in Mendocino - north of SF, but I spend a lot of time in the city visiting my brother. If you would like to chat about Doula work, what the going rate in, what is involved with the work, etc.....let me know. I would be happy to talk/email you. I also train Doula's and do mentoring - I have a homebirth practice...but regardless of that - I would be happy to offer assistance.

Carla

[mama_daba]

i don't know anything about being a doula but if you live around san francisco and are wanting to become a doula i highly recommend http://www.cornerstonedoulatrainings.com/

i was a belly model for one of the workshops (the teacher was my birthing class instructor who also does doula training and asked for volunteers)
i was really impressed by the class i sat in on and if i was having a doula it would have been someone from that class.