I'm honored to be your Doula, but..

Isn't it everyone's goal in life to be happy in their career as well as be successful and earn a living off of the job that makes us happy?

This week is World Doula Week, it runs from the 22nd to the 28th of March every year. The purpose of World Doula Week is to empower all doulas all over the world to improve the health of birthing and postpartum women and newborns through support! As well as to me it's a bringing together of doulas to empower each other in their businesses. In honor of that I'm writing about the value of the doula.

When I attend a birth it is always an honor for me to be there, for a family to choose me to be part of this intimate moment. I always say thank you for letting me be there and tell them how great it is to have been a part of that moment with them. There have been times where I have provided my information to someone searching for a doula and told them I'd be honored to serve them. Later down the road I've had families ask, and heard from other doulas that they've been asked the same thing in some way, "If it's such an honor and a privilege I am giving you, why am I paying you?"

As a doula I am an extensively trained professional with a set of valuable skills that are helpful to you. Take any profession where one person has a set of skills you don't have yourself, you're going to pay that professional to do or use those skills for you whether they hate their job or love it. Just because I am passionate about what I do, doesn't mean I don't deserve to get paid.

The doula profession sometimes gets undervalued because people don't see the behind the scenes work.  When I am contacted by a client I then have to, if I haven't already, make up a folder for our consultation with all my information, contracts and helpful tidbits and referrals. I get a babysitter and plan a consultation and drive out to meet them. They hire me, insert little internal yay moment, I go home and make a schedule based on mom's needs and desires and what we discussed. I have to plan babysitters, contact my back up doula, inform my family and all that jazz. Informing my family is the hard part, especially when we discuss my on call period. I go officially on call for a mom 2 weeks before her due date and stay on call until she delivers. This includes holidays and birthdays, oh the pouts I get when I miss those times or they hear I'm on call over their birthday or certain holidays. In reality as soon as I have a client I make sure my birth bug out bag is packed and I am prepared to be called, which basically means 24/7 365. When I am officially on call every time we go out to dinner, the movies, the grocery store even, I have a plan of OK I have a mom due soon if he were to call and say she needs me what is the most efficient way for me to get to her in a timely manner. This, at times, means two vehicles, if I go to a play date relying on my great friend to watch my little one until daddy can come get her(no lie, it's happened!) I also take time out to go have a birth plan discussion and get to know the families needs, prepare them for their birth with however many prenatal appointments they've decided they want. Constantly updating myself on new techniques, I devote time and money every year into taking new training and continuing my education to be a better doula, taking the time to get to know the local care providers, hospital policies, state laws etc. Child care during all of this, gas, mileage and maintenance because of how brutal my profession is on my poor car. It's hard work!

Doulas have a high burnout rate, especially in areas where they're undervalued and they think as a new doula the only way I'm going to get work is to work for free, and that just isn't fair when they've paid for their training and have so many other expenses along the way even before they get their first client.

Their is a mutual honor and respect. We, as in the doula and the family, need to be honored to be together. It's a privilege for the doula to choose the family just as much as the family to choose the doula. I am proud to be a doula and I an proud of the families I've served.

How did I get so lucky to be the successful doula I am today and be doing what I love? I'm not lucky, I worked hard. I am a professional doula.