Is it hard to become a birth doula?

PIN IT

Short answer? No, not in the way that becoming a doctor or a lawyer is hard. Buuuuut, ‘hard’ is all relative to each person taking a birth doula training. 

Here is another ‘but’ coming… becoming a birth doula who actually knows what they are doing, who feels confident walking into a hospital at 2am, who can hold space for a scared client while also navigating a tense room and a provider who is not being straight with them? That takes real preparation. And the gap between those two things is where a lot of doulas get lost.

So let’s be honest about what is actually involved. Because heck, we are good like that!

Do you need a degree or medical background to become a birth doula?

Great news for this one…No! You do not need a nursing degree, a medical background, or any prior experience in healthcare to become a birth doula. People come to this work from every imaginable background. In our training we have teachers, social workers, nannies, stay-at-home parents, graphic designers, corporate professionals, nurses who want something different. 

We dive deeeeep into this question in this blog here.

Is birth doula certification hard to get?

This depends almost entirely on the program you choose, and this is where it gets important.

Some certifications can be completed in a weekend. *GASP* And yes, that is as concerning as it sounds. A weekend is barely enough time to introduce some of the critical concepts needed for doula work. 

It is not enough time to integrate them, practice them, ask hard questions about them, or build the kind of confidence that is needed in a real birth room. Sadly, less than 10% of people who complete a weekend doula training go on to build a sustainable birth doula practice. Not because they are not capable, but because they were not prepared.

PIN IT

We explain why the weekend doula model has got to go here. Please check this out if you have a weekend doula training tab open or bookmarked on your laptop!

A good birth doula certification takes months, not days. It includes: 

• spaced learning so things actually stick, 
• mentorship and community, 
• real business education, and
• preparation for the specific realities of birth spaces including:
  •  how to navigate hospital systems, 
  • recognize medical coercion, and 
  • support clients through unexpected situations.

We have written about why the shortcut approach costs more in the long run here: 

PIN IT

What does a birth doula training actually cover?

We love this question because we get to brag a little here! A good birth doula training covers a lot of ground. 

Here is a list of what we believe a strong training should have (at the minimum!):

• The physiology of pregnancy and labor. 
• Comfort measures including: 
  • positioning, 
  • counterpressure, 
  • water therapy, 
  • breathing, and 
  • movement. 
• Informed consent and how to support clients in advocating for themselves. 
• The fear tension pain cycle and how to interrupt it. 
• Medical interventions, when they are evidence-based and when they are not. 
• How to work with midwives, OBs, and hospital staff. 
• What to do when things do not go as planned.
• Feeding for the family
• Newborn sleep
• Birth planning and prenatal postpartum planning 
• Mental health and PMADs
• The intersectionality of birth
• Resource building 
• Special circumstances
• Interventions in pregnancy and birth
• Understanding loss

Y’all…. We can keep going…

It is all well and good that you are an awesome provider who will protect and educate the heck outta your clients, but you have to be able to find said folks to work with you. Therefore, your doula training also must cover the business side, which is the part most programs skip and the part that determines whether this becomes a real career or just a certificate on your wall. 

Finding clients, setting prices, writing contracts, building a referral network, and structuring your work so it is sustainable and burnout-proof.

We are not done. A good doula training , wether is it an online doula training or in person must cover care for you. What do we mean by this? Well, the emotional labor of this work, how to process difficult births, what to do when you feel like you let someone down, how to build a routine that helps you recover between births. We talk about that here. 

PIN IT

What is the hardest part of becoming a birth doula?

Honestly, the hardest part for most people is not the learning. It is the leap. And we really get that. Starting something you have been dreaming about for some amount of time can feel scary. 

The fear of starting is no joke. 

The voice that says you are not ready yet, you need one more course, you should wait until your kids are older or your schedule is clearer or the timing is better. That voice is very convincing and if you feel passionate about supporting and protecting birth and babies and parents, take the leap and trust your gut. 

Readiness in birth work does not come from waiting for perfect conditions. Our founder, Bianca Sprague, started her doula practice which grew into bebo mia the month her daughter was born with no social support and no money. It made zero sense when you logically look at it. But she wanted to change the birth landscape and was hungry for it. And look how that turned out! 

We can promise that readiness comes from learning while doing, with good support around you. And here at bebo mia, we are the BEST cheerleaders. Our team never leaves your side. Not while you are in school and not when you are working in the field.  The doulas who thrive are not the ones who felt completely ready before they started. They are the ones who started anyway and had a community to call when they had questions.

And it is super fun that you can take clients while you are still in school. We wrote about it here. 

PIN IT

Is becoming a birth doula worth it?

Ummm you get to watch babies being born. As a job! So yes! Deeply yes.

This is work that literally changes and protects lives. You are present for one of the most intense, vulnerable, transformative experiences a human being can go through. You help people feel less alone, more informed, more powerful in their own bodies. You show up for families in a way that most systems simply do not. 

And did we mention that you get to be present for births? That is pure magic!

Being a doula is a career you can build around your real life. You decide how many clients you take. You decide whether you focus on birth work, postpartum work, or both. You decide the pace. 

And yes, doula work can be a great side hustle as we talk about here. 

Bianca’s story also includes a partner who was mostly absent and then she quickly became a single parent and still kept going. She talks about being a single parent birth doula here. She built a career that supported her and her daughter, grew the largest doula agency in Toronto, and eventually built an organization that now operates in 55+ countries.

It is not easy. But it is absolutely possible, and the families who need you are out there actively looking for someone like you right now.

You can read the honest version of what the hardest parts of this work actually look like here, so you go in with clear eyes.

PIN IT

Where to start if you want to become a birth doula

Start by getting clear on what kind of doula you want to be. Birth only, postpartum, or full spectrum across fertility, birth, postpartum, and loss. That shapes which training is the right fit.

Then choose a program that takes your preparation seriously. One that runs over months not days, includes mentorship, teaches business skills, and has a community that sticks around after you graduate.

Our full spectrum doula training runs every March and September and it is built for real life, by people who have actually done this work. Check it out here.

We offer a self paced online birth doula training program that you can explore here. 

If you already have a certification from another program and want to fill in the gaps, the cert transfer program lets you do that without starting from scratch. Learn more about that here.

And if you just want to talk through whether this is the right path for you, we would genuinely love that conversation. Book a free doula career strategy session with our team here.

Because the hardest part of becoming a birth doula is usually just deciding to begin.