Being a doula is not one size fits all – there are choices to be made and options to be evaluated, and many paths you can take. Childbirth coach, birth attendant, birth companion, there are many different ways to describe what a doula is. There are also many different directions your career can go. Have you considered where you want to be as a doula in a year? 5 years? Even 10 years!  What’s so incredible about this line of work is that you can take your career SO many different directions. Let’s take a look at some of the options and opportunities for your possible career path. 

Birth Doula

The best way to define doula is to ask what is doula care? A role of doula is to provide physical, emotional, and informational support to a birthing person and their families. At the heart of it, being a doula means providing support. But, not all clients want or need to be supported in the same way. Therefore, there are many unique ways to define doula how and what a doula does. There is something incredible about being with a client through pregnancy and attending their birth. Watching a family come together empowered, supported and forever changed. Birth doula work is something near and dear to our hearts here at Doula Canada. It’s our most popular program, with many alumni choosing to start their birth work career with this training. 

Postpartum Doula

Babies go through four major developmental leaps in the first 6 weeks of life, they are actually changing overnight! All of those changes packed into such a brief period of time can be frustrating and overwhelming for families. To keep up with all those changes, what a postpartum doula does often changes from day to day, it can include recovery care, feeding support, informational support , referrals and so much more. A postpartum doula provides continued support throughout the fourth trimester. We can offer day or nighttime support. The benefit of postpartum doula work is you can make your own schedule. 

Working Independently

The coolest part of doula work is you can choose to work for yourself or work for others. When you become a doula you can choose to build a business and work independently. This allows you to make your own rules; you decide when you want to work, how to market and sell your services and what those services will be. 

Being a Part of a Team

Another option is working for a doula agency. This type of work allows you to work for clients without any of the time or expenses associated with running a business and finding those clients. You are paid for the time you are working, although at a rate may be lower than what you would make as an independent doula. 

Building a Team 

Drive your ambition and build your own doula agency. For the entrepreneur turned doula, or doula turned entrepreneur, this is an incredibly rewarding opportunity – personally and financially. In this scenario, you build a business that supports your success and builds a community of doulas to support families in your community. We have a great video about just this to help you learn more. 

Let’s take this one step further. Once you have begun your career as a doula , consider diversifying your business by adding additional training and certification to enhance your client support. 

Prenatal Yoga Teacher

Prenatal yoga prepares the birthing person for the birthing process and fosters a valuable sense of community by bringing pregnant people together. There are a number of physical and mental benefits associated with prenatal yoga. Adding this to your services (and revenue stream) creates the opportunity to connect with clients in pregnancy, potentially building your doula business, and enhances your community connections. We offer Prenatal Yoga Teacher certification in partnership with the team at Awakened Spirit Yoga.

Childbirth Educator

In this role a childbirth educator works alongside their clients to help them mitigate the choices and challenges they may face in labour, birth and early parenting.  A Childbirth Educator has the opportunity to provide clear, well-researched, and relevant information that impacts a new family’s life in perpetuity.  Wow. How awesome is that?! Similar to prenatal yoga, many birth workers will offer childbirth classes in conjunction with other services. It’s a terrific way to meet potential clients and build relationships. Here at Doula School we offer our Lamaze Seminar, the first step towards becoming a certified Childbirth Educator through Lamaze International, the leading governing body for childbirth education.

Becoming a doula is a rewarding career! One that can grow and change as your life grows and changes. There are many paths to take. Which one is for you? 

If you’re thinking of starting your birth work journey, or looking to add another certification, you can see all our programs at Doula School by clicking here. If you’re interested in sharing more about your individual journey in birth work, we’d love to have you on the blog! Simply contact us here or DM @doulaschool on Instagram.