Dedicated to the Development of Doulas and Our Profession

Top Ten Questions For Choosing A Doula Training

I hear a lot on Facebook, “If I’d only known that before I took my training…”  The market for doula training has changed incredibly, especially in the last 5 years.  There are now at least two dozen doula training organizations with programs of varying quality.  The onus is now on the prospective doula to figure out which trainer and organization is the best fit for their personal and perinatal career goals.  My hope is that doulas will circulate this post to help ou…

The BFF You Need To Meet: Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists

You’ve never heard of a pelvic floor physical therapist?  You are not alone. Obstetricians and gynecologists are often unaware of the help PFPTs can offer their patients.  As a sexuality and birth professional pelvic PT’s are one of the most important referrals I make.  Women should not have to suffer sexual, urinary, rectal, or pelvic discomfort or pain!  A legacy of shame about our genitals may keep women from discussing postpartum and sexual problems.  When she do…

We Need ALL Kinds of Doulas

No we don’t.  We don’t need doulas that lack integrity, who interfere with a mother  getting an epidural or a cesarean, or who say nasty things to their clients about hospitals, doctors, nurses, or midwives.  In my experience these doulas may leave damage behind but they don’t usually last very long.  We hope.

What we have is a huge variety of doulas.  Doulaing is so important and integral to the process of supporting women in their birth experiences that it…

Doulaing With A Disability

Often becoming a professional doula is an achievable goal.  But for others becoming or continuing as a doula with its physical demands is extremely difficult.  In my thirty years of doing labor support I have met several doulas who were able to maintain their careers.  After thirty years, I have had to make adaptations myself.  As my colleague Cory Silverberg once said, “If you live long enough you will end up with a disability.”  Here are some helpful steps if you r…

We Need To Create Social Change That Values Caregiving

Recently I wrote about how we needed to increase the value of doula care in the minds of consumers, caregivers, and third party payers.  If we are to create a social revolution regarding the value of professional caregiving, doulas can do it.  Many of us are white, well educated, and have other sources of income besides doula work (Lantz et al. 2005).  Groups with these characteristics have greater influence.  For many years the majority of professional caregivers in…

Should Doulas Offer Free Services Is The Wrong Question

It seems every doula with a blog has weighed in on the “no free births” debate and every doula with an opinion has expressed it on Facebook.  The debate usually goes something like this:

“If you don’t charge, you demean my services.  You make doula work appear unprofessional or not worth paying for.  By giving away your services, people are less likely to pay me for mine.  They won’t value what we do.  And since our customers usually employ us only once or tw…