Information from Doulas please

[GizmoKel]

Information from Doulas please!
Hi,

I'm just after any information any of you can give me on becoming a doula? I am currently 32 weeks preg with my 2nd child and after she is born would love to start the training and become a doula.

Some questions I have are:
Who did you train with? I know of Childbirth International and Optimum Birth...who do you believe is best?
Can being a doula provide enough income to not need another job?
Do you find it easy to find clients?
Do you need to register as a business and get a ABN etc?
How much do you generally charge (once qualified) and what services do you provide?
And lastly I've read on another thread and also on some websites that a lot of doulas also have additional training like gentle birthing and massage etc etc...how do you get into these and did you do these after becoming a qualified doula or before?

Thankyou anyone who replies to this forum!
I am so excited about starting training etc but just need some more information before I start.

:)

[TwoBoysOnly]

I would love to know all that too - I am seriously considering doing it in the new year :yes:

[~Emmylou~]

Hi :wave:

Who did you train with? I know of Childbirth International and Optimum Birth...who do you believe is best?

I trained with CBI - I really loved their course, found it very thorough and I felt really prepared by the time I finished it. Very well run as well, never had any problems with their online delivery and I developed a really good relationship with my trainer, who was really supportive and always got back to me as soon as I emailed her.

Can being a doula provide enough income to not need another job?

It depends on how much money you need to make to survive ;)
Most doulas only do 2-3 births a month though some do more or less. It starts getting a bit risky with clashes and things if you do more plus it is quite time consuming with a young family. It's not just the birth, you spend alot of time with clients both before the birth and preparing resources for them, emails, phonecalls etc.
You can "pad out" the dry spells between births with postnatal work though.

Do you find it easy to find clients?

I'm finding it relatively easy to get enough to keep me happy :) Word is spreading.

Do you need to register as a business and get a ABN etc?

Yes because you're generating an income so it is a business and you have to pay GST etc.

How much do you generally charge (once qualified) and what services do you provide?

It varies, if you look around on some doulas website you can get an idea of prices. Depends which state you're in too, doulas in Vic don't charge as much as we do up in Qld. You can do a full service where you do alot of pre and postnatal work with the client as well as the birth, or just labour only or a mixture of both.

And lastly I've read on another thread and also on some websites that a lot of doulas also have additional training like gentle birthing and massage etc etc...how do you get into these and did you do these after becoming a qualified doula or before?

There's lots of courses like this around, natural therapy colleges etc run them, you just enrol and do them, some of them are expensive though. I'm looking around for something to do at the moment, tossing up between a childbirth educator course or a lactation counsellor.
It's not essential to do any further training but I think it helps you to have a more rounded out knowledge base.
Good luck, hope that helps :)