Can The Doula Practice Become A Thriving Business?

When I was studying to become a doula in Israel, in 1997, my teachers told us something like this: “You can not make a living form practicing doula. Do not quit your jobs if you need to provide for your families. Think about it a s a skill you have acquired, which will enrich your friend and family, and will change the lives of women in your community.  

So for a while I kept my position as professor assistant and continued teaching some college classes in film theory, but that was simply not enough. My frustration was as big as my passion to support healthy and safe births, and take part in his transformational experience.  It took about a year for me to quite teaching, and to take this leap of faith into my call- becoming a birth doula.

However, I also had to earn money and take part in providing for my growing family. This meant that my call had to also be transformed into a viable business.  What did I know about running a business and becoming self employed? In one word: Nothing!

I made it through ups and downs with great motivation, a lot of passion, many mistakes, trials and errors, and persistence.

These days, when I am mentoring new doulas, I dedicate a full class, 5 hours, to cover the business aspects of developing the doula practice: The economics of doulas fees, technical arrangements; liability insurance, contracts, how to promote yourself – which organizations have “meet the doula “events, how to maintain relationships with leads, how to maintain relationships with past clients for future referrals, websites, blogs, giving lectures, and more.

It is not easy. Every self employed must have a lot of self motivation and discipline. We must understand that our work is not only to support our clients, it is also to find clients and sources of referrals, collect fees and maintain working relationships.

It is doable, it is possible, if we accept it and not reject it, if we agree to practice the  business aspects of our profession.