I'm a new birth and postpartum doula just starting work with my first few clients and I'm trying to figure out how to organize things. How do experienced doulas keep track of due dates and clients schedules? I'm not very good with tech but are there any planners you guys wouls recommend? Or is everyone just using calenders? Also when you send a client the contract do you send a pdf and let them figure out how to sign it or is there a better way? I would love any organizational tips and tricks you'd like to share

So I recently finished my doula volunteer training but I feel so unprepared. The training was only 2 days and I’m not going to lie, I sort of fell asleep in the trainings since it was early in the morning (I had work till 2:30 am the night before) and it was just slides and explaining.

I just finished my onboarding and stuff, and now I am in contact with my supervisor to shadow a doula first before I go on my own.

Regardless, I still feel so unprepared and I don’t think I’m ready yet 😭 are there any videos or tips I can watch so I can become more prepared for my role? I also have no volunteer experience (only a 2 day shadowing of a midwife) so everything would be my first!

Writing this with my sweet postpartum client's baby on my chest right now on shift lol. Today my newborn's older sister came down with a gastrointestinal virus and has been vomiting all day. Their mother informed me several hours before my shift started tonight and assured me that the newborn and the eldest have been kept seperate all day, each with a respective parent to care for them, and careful sanitization in common areas, so I felt a bit pressured to come tonight to avoid cancelling very last minute.

I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow, though! They are moving into a new house in a few days so one of the parents will be leaving for the entire day to oversee moving, and the other parent will be home with both the Sick toddler and the newborn… Which means for my overnight shift tomorrow won't I be at high risk? Is this grounds to cancel the shift do you think?

Thanks<3

Sorry if this has been asked recently, the post I saw with this information was from 2 years ago, so I wanted some updated information.

What do you use for client management? invoices, payments, keeping track of information, etc?

Is it HIPAA compliant? My business is me and one other doula, so bonus points if it works for multiple people!

Thanks :)

Hi, does anyone have an NDA template or confidentiality agreement they use with postpartum clients that they’d be willing to share. It isn’t included in my service agreement and a client would like one to be added, which I’m comfortable with.

Getting into postpartum doula work with an agency, the owner mentioned having specific schedule days could impede my booked hours, but having a randomized 10hr a night schedule sounds like a nightmare not only for me, but my partner and child.
It’s also a decent pay cut from my previous job if I stick to 20 hrs a week, so I’m considering doing 30-40, sleeping on shift as well as when my partner is working and child is in school, at least during the school year.

Any thoughts on 1.) having set schedule days for the sake of my schedule even if it’s to the detriment of my booking, and 2.) how feasible is 3-4 10hr night shifts a week while also maintaining a relationship and parenting?
Any suggestions, thoughts, tips, tricks would be greatly appreciated. Having a bit of anxiety opening this new chapter but so excited for the new start. I’m coming from this from a 7am-2pm office job so I’m nervous for the total schedule/expectations flip, any advice is sought for

This is well known in our community. Anyone that wishes to challenge this due to affiliation with them, please go read posts on this subreddit. please do not align yourself with these individuals and organizations. Lamaze has zero accreditation, that’s the main reason people took their childbirth education class to begin with. DONA. you already know. They took the concept of supporting birth from native, indigenous & African cultures and made profit off of it. DoulaMatch is known for being racist. Kim Jane’s is the owner. she’s allowing someone on her platform to impersonate me. called me the potential scammer and harasser. Theres a childbirth ed teacher from Indiana University, at the upper management, knee deep in deep in a black maternal health crisis. her area has a critical need yet she made it known she backs Lamaze like anyone cares.

please take down corruption within the maternal health space. It’s destroying the system we carried. Lamaze wonders why so many ppl failed the Lamaze exam. Because Lamaze failed them. I would’ve been livid to find out all that hard work when into the garbage from dealing with Lamaze. That’s that. I’m taking the proper protocol to deal with them. The higher ups harassed me for weeks. I’m sorry but this didn’t sit right with me. They have been covering themselves. now it’s time to met their karma

My doula business has really grown over the last month. Which is a tremendous blessing. But with it came obstacles I’d never expected: Other Doulas.

I’ve had other doulas report my social media pages as spam, which almost got me thrown in Facebook jail.

I’ve had three doulas who run certifying agencies tell me to shut down my (free) classes. One threatened to take me to court.

Other doulas have claimed my events as their own. Going as far as to take photos from my page, screenshotting, and reposting with the text along the lines of “thank you for coming to MY event.”

It’s insane. And I have no idea how to combat this. I want to support other women and businesses. But this is GROSS. And isolating.

How do I move forward?

Hello!

I’ve recently been exploring the idea of making a career change and thought this might be a good place to get some insight :)

I’ve worked in early childhood education for about 12 years now. Primarily with infants through PreK. One of my favorite parts of working with infants though was building relationships with families, getting to know their little ones and helping parents feel more comfortable and confident along the way.

Lately I’ve been thinking about transitioning out of the traditional classroom setting, and postpartum doula work has really caught my interest! I love the idea of helping families adjust to life with a newborn, but I’m also really drawn to the maternal support side of things.

I’ve also been looking into becoming a newborn care specialist, although I’m still learning about both fields and what opportunities are out there.

I’d love to hear from anyone working in the field! How did you get started? Is there anything you wish you’d known beforehand? I’m based in NYC and ideally looking for something with somewhat predictable daytime hours, although I’m open to occasional overnight work.

Also very open to hearing about other areas of birth work or postpartum support that might be worth exploring given my background!

Thanks in advance :)

I’ve been really thinking about this one.

I have had several bad experiences in hospitals where physiological birth is ignored and consent is violated, then I am sent out of the room for challenging a provider. During a failed induction, water still intact, I asked my client if she preferred to labor at home for a while and come back and try again given there’s no decels or complications. The hospital pressured her into a c-section when she didn’t want one. I’m getting burned out from hospital births, to be completely honest, and I feel like I can’t give my best care in these cases due to pressure and stress.

I have attended a handful of birth center or midwife assisted homebirths. Patient autonomy is respected and doulas are seen as a part of the birth team. I can give my full support to my client in these spaces. I feel much more aligned with holistic care and physiological birth. I would absolutely follow a client if a transfer was necessary, however. My philosophy is that a doula is part of the village. I feel like I can’t show up and give someone my full spectrum of services like housework, meal preparation, or postpartum care (baths, massage, lactation support) to BE that village for someone in a hospital setting.

I don’t want to not be aligned with my clients. There are great doulas out there that support hospital birth but I personally feel like I need to step back from that world.

Any advice?

Hi everyone! 🤍 I’m a newer doula, and I’ve been having a difficult time finding an agency willing to bring me on. I’ve also been struggling to figure out how to get my foot in the door with independent work.

I’m hoping to hear from doulas who have been in a similar position or who started their own practices!
Right now, my biggest priority isn’t pricing or making a profit. I genuinely want to gain hands-on experience, learn, and build meaningful connections with families. I have a particular passion for supporting low-income and immigrant families because I come from an immigrant family myself, and making doula care more accessible to these communities means a lot to me. 💕

I would love to hear about your experiences!
What was your very first step toward becoming an independent doula?

How did you find your first clients?
How did you build trust and gain experience when you were just starting out?
Did you volunteer, shadow other doulas, network, or use social media to get started?
What advice would you give someone who is struggling to get accepted by agencies?
Are there any resources or opportunities you wish you had known about earlier?

I’m based in the Tampa Bay area, but I’d love advice from doulas anywhere!
Thank you so much for any advice or experiences you’re willing to share. I’m eager to learn and find my place in this community. 🥹🤍

I’m genuinely open to all advice, tips, dos and don’ts, mistakes to avoid, and things you wish you had known when you were starting out. Please don’t hesitate to share even the smallest piece of advice! I’m here to learn, grow, and make the most of every opportunity, and I’d truly appreciate any guidance this community can offer. 🤍🌷

The Chicago Sun-Times did a deep dive about how Illinois Birth Equity Act is being implemented.

TL;DR it’s a mess! But it does look like some Illinois legislators want to do something about it to make it easier for people to get insurance coverage for doula care.

Anyone else hear anything from people trying to use insurance for doula care in Illinois?

Hello DFW, trying to help a friend out not sure if this is the right place to post or not. If not, please point me in the right direction!

She is an incredibly smart black woman in STEM, a current pediatric emergency room nurse, and currently in school to become a midwife.

She is looking for a preceptor to follow for the months of January through March so she can graduate. She needs to complete 36 births in this time. Her current preceptor isn’t getting much volume to where she thinks she can complete this in time to graduate. Let’s be honest who’s having kids anymore? Lol

She said she would love to follow a hospitalist or an OBGYN.
It’s a long shot but I figure stranger things have happened on Reddit lol anyone know of anyone willing to help?

My first labor was 33 hrs. I went to the hospital around 9 hrs into labor because I met the 5-1-1 rule. I was 4cm when I arrived. I’d like to labor at home longer this time, but I know second labors are often shorter. Is there a different rule I can follow that would work? I ended up taking the epidural around hour 19 as well bc I was only 6.5cm, so I’m not sure what the entire labor process feels like either.

Hi doulas! Maybe some of you are feeling this way too but here’s where I am at. I started this work three years ago and did a mix of postpartum days and nights from the beginning. Over time it’s become mostly nights because that seems to be where the demand is in my area and seems to be what actually makes meeting my income goals possible. But I’m getting to a point where I cannot keep going with them. I’m starting to feel the effects on my body, and my health is not something I am willing to compromise. And it also feels like they are taking me further and further away from what inspired me to do this work to begin with, which was to care for mothers. I know that my families value night shifts so much, but it just doesn’t fulfill the more tender, nourishing pieces of care that I love to offer like meal preparation and menu curation, emotional debriefs, and eduction.

I really want to transition back to days and put together some packages to offer, but I just cannot live on 5 hour shifts at $40.00/hour. How do you all structure packages to focus on days while meeting your income goals (respecting that everyone has very different income expectations of this work and different capacities). This is my livelihood and I need a full time income!

Thanks for any input!

In Westchester NY/ Farfield CT

Hi! Caption pretty much sums it up. I am located in North Carolina, but I’m totally fine with someone who can do so by just answering my questions and guiding me . For context, I am a new doula that does not have any kids and has moved to a new city/state in the last 6 months. I am just feeling all over the place with getting everything figured out. If anyone has any connections, advice, or suggestions I am more than open to all. I feel as though I need a doula in order to be a doula lol. Just need an encouraging voice that understands. <3

Hi! I'm a first time mom, and my husband and I hired doulas from a local agency to come save us and be our temporary village lol. We will have one during the day time for 4 hour shifts, and and then a nighttime doula for 8 hour shifts. 3x a week, then slowing going down.

Things I'm planning on doing: tour of the house, free range of the fridge and kitchen, a guest bedroom with fresh sheets, pillows, comforter for them to rest.

I have a meet and greet coming up. But what type of questions should I ask of them? Ive never had a doula, or nanny, or even a home-helper, so not sure what to mention, expect, notice (green flags vs red flag). The agency said most important thing is we click/vibe, but I'm so anxious.

Hello! I am wondering what people use for their doula bags. I have two births under my belt with my 3rd coming up in November so not completely great at gauging what I definitely want to bring over what I probably won't use. So far, I have been using a diaper bag I had on hand but just curious if anyone has a bag that they love for doula work.

Hey yall! Been thinking for a couple years about becoming a birth doula. I was also thinking about postpartum doula. Is that actually something people are interested in - the postpartum doula?

Thank you💚