Hospital Based Doula Programs

1. Were hourly, just like the nurses. We have an hourly 'on call time' pay, when were called in we have an additional hourly rate, we also get evening, night, weekend and holiday differentials (extra $1/hr)... going out on a limb... I can make as little as $2/hr (my on call rate if I am not called in, which is VERY often) and as much as $14.80/hr (IF, thats a BIG, IF, I worked an overnight shift on a holiday on a weekend... doesn't happen often)

2. We're on call in 12 hour shifts and the nurses call us in when someone requests us. We stay through the end of our shift and call the next on call doula to come in if needed.

3. Just like with my private clients, I stay where ever I am already at and call in a back up. At my hospital the doulas are great about communicating when we have private clients due and helping each other out. My private client back ups know this is a reality for me and I have yet to burden them with it, thankfully.

4. Honestly. The pay sucks compared to my private clients. Probably a 1/3 of what I make as a private doula. BUT, the benefits of knowing when I'll go in and when I'll be home make it worth it. Not t mention actually getting a regular, predictable paycheck is nice. Basically, I use it as extra money when I am slow on private clients.

Find out the philosophy and reason the hospital has or wants the doula program.

There are great programs in some hospitals and others where hospitals create it only as a function to control the doula community to prevent a consumer's being well informed. We had a hosp in my area try to pull that crap with the doula community. It was rejected by doulas, but the hosp decided to create an "approved doula list" no one signed up to be approved. : They tried to keep Doulas out, so doulas all stuck together and said they were a "friend" and not use the word "Doula" otherwise they would not be allowed into the hospital. the doctors did not care if women wanted a doula it was some hospital control issues some long gone administrator dreamed up the scheme.
It's been years and the "approved list" is long gone.

Unless the Hospital wants the doula program for the right reasons to I would stay away. It's not good if you do not have contact with clients for prenatal education, that is the down fall of allot of the hosptial programs.

There is no educational component for the consumer from the doula.
If you enjoy the educational part of being a doula during the prenatal period then you get to miss out.

I work for a hospital program and have for many years.

1) How do you get paid? Is it a flat rate or hourly? We get paid a flat fee. The family pays a rate of $75 and the hospital pays us an additional $225 for a total of $300 per birth. We have a meet the doulas night where families can come and meet us if they choose, but we do not do prenatals and do not labor with them at home. We do a postpartum visit in their home though.

2) Do you work a shift of set hours or do you just come in and stay for an entire labor/birth? We are on call for a 24 hour shift. If we get called in at any time during that call shift we stay until the birth. Our call shifts go from 8 pm until 8 pm, so if for example we got called in at 7:30 pm we stay and do not leave because our shift is over. While we are on call we are not at the hospital but just make sure we have our cell phones with us. As far as how we set our shifts - our team gets together monthly and we just divide up the month based upon our family and life schedules and what works best for each of us. Each day there are two doulas on call. When the first doula gets called in then she lets the second doula know who then becomes the new first call doula and then that doula finds a new second call doula (hope that makes sense). We have two doulas on call at all times.

3) If you also take private doula clients, what happens when you are with a client in labor through the hospital based program and one of your private clients calls in labor? Then we must send a back up to the private client. The birth you are at is the birth you stay with. It wouldn't be right for a hospital client to be left in the cold or switched out - they are just as important as our private clients. In my case I like to use the ladies I work with at the hospital as my back up since i truly trust them all 100% to give my private clients the same quality care that I would give them.

4) How does the pay compare to what you are paid for private clients? Is it similar? Half? 1/3? The rate for private doulas in my area is $400 - $900, but typically that includes at least two prenatal appointments, the birth and a postpartum so I don't think the pay is that bad for doing just the birth from the time they get to the hospital and a postpartum visit. Privately I get anywhere from $600-$700.

One nice thing to think about is that with the hospital program I do not have to advertise or look for clients. The hospital promotes the program and so the clients are there without me putting out extra money for advertising.

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Sure they deserve support, but if you're not creating a volunteer program through a non profit of some kind, how will you find women to serve?

Usually you have to be affiliated with a social service agency, or a clinic that serves low income women to actually serve them.

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Is it hard to find people who can't afford full fee doula services in other areas? Because we are getting tons and tons of calls and emails all the time around here. Nearly everyone has web access these days so a website will be helpful. I have become pretty good at marketing through 5 years of starting and running a birth network so I'm sure I will put those skills to use as well as spreading the word through other birth people.

And I don't believe I actually said "low income women." Instead I said "Those that find out about doulas too late in the game, have limited financial means, etc.," which includes all kinds of women.

I actually do teach cbe classes through a local pregnancy resource center and while services would be available to them as well, I never considered them my sole source of clients. I think most success will come via word of mouth. While we live in a major metro area, most of the birth community is pretty tight knit. Everyone knows how to find the kind of help that they need. This idea actually grew out of the large number of inquiries I received one week for a "reduced fee doula" due to finances.

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Now I have a better idea what you are interested in doing.

We offer low cost doulas through our local doula network, I'm the moderator of the Yahoo group where these jobs are offered to the members . We are about 560 doulas in my community, and we field many requests for lower costs, we strongly discourage doulas from posting these requests from pregnant women that will not offer some type of token monetary exchange.

These posting give less experienced doulas with lower fees and the very new doulas looking for certification births the opportunity to get experience, that is how our doula network is serving the community with low cost doulas.