First of all I love birth and babies and love giving birth and having babies of my own! I've sort of always thought of having a career in the birth place, but never got serious about it!

I just had an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING homebirth with the most AMAZING midwife Heya Erika Urban I know you post here sometimes!!! My husband is considering becoming a stay at home daddy, and we thought it may be nice for me to start something and make enough money to support us all. Now let's be clear each family has their level of income needs and ours aren't very much. We figured that when we move and downsize we could very well live off of between k a year. Between those things I'm wondering what your experince is making a living off of being a doula.

I have yet to meet someone who is a doula and lives off of that as a real income. Granted, this is all theoretical. Another way to make money and be doing birth-related work is to teach childbirth classes, which could possibly have a better return on investment.

I'm in the process of getting certified but haven't broken it down financially. I wouldn't be able to. I do know a woman who does though. All her kids are grown and it's just her she has to be responsible for, so her living is less than that of parents with kids at home.

That includes Doula work, childbirth education and placental encapsulation. I'm not a doula, an IBCLC, but I have numerous doula friends. It is their 2nd or even 3rd jobs, or there are some that are only doulas but they don't make enough to support their families by any means rather just some extra cash. I cannot imagine that most doulas, unless they are in pretty affluent areas, could make enough to support a family.

She's been super-disciplined about having a business plan, networking, marketing, etc. So, she could not be where she is if she didn't have a partner who also has a decent job. I said, "Say what? But I don't live there anymore. If you want to do birthwork, you can consider also doing: I know several doulas in the NYC area who have primary income from their doula business.

I do not know if it would be possible in small towns where you get one or two clients a month and get paid less Like one of the PPs mentioned, you have to basically cut your pay in half and that is what you will really make for the year as the rest will go to expenses.

Expenses will be things like: Consider as well what health insurance may run you if you now need to provide that as a self-employed person rather than getting it through an employer of you or your spouse.

So, take what you need to be your take-home pay for a year and double it and that is what you will need to gross. So, in your situation you will need to gross roughly 60,, to net that k.

It will just take some time to develop and grow, but it is a good life regardless of income: Erika, mama to three beautiful kids plus one gestating , and wife to one fantastic man. Honestly nope I couldn't live off of what I make.

My absolutely busiest year I did 18 births in one year. I think it is important to remember that you can't pack in a ton of clients if you want to be available to them all. Your reputation will not withstand it if you end up missing births! Michelle married to my highschool sweetheart and mom to: Having been a doula for over 3 years now, I can say you would likely have to take a huge number of clients to even begin to make ends meet.

I don't even know that many midwives who are totally able to live off their income and they charge WAY more that doulas do. If you became a childbirth educator, doula, post-partum doula and lactation educator all those together MIGHT bring it all together, but I would hate to see what would happen to the quality of care.

I have heard of people making a doula group that covers clients much like doctors do - you just get whoever happens to be on shift BUT, I would still not be willing to do that myself because I personally do a huge amount of prenatal prep with my clients and losing that would really not be my ideal. Best of luck as you find your niche in the childbirth world.

I imagine you'll find just the right ballance but it may take you some trial and error. I've met moms who had contacted other doulas who take on several and tell them there is a good chance they would get the backup doula.

Many moms wouild prefer to avoid that situation and would rather establish a relationship with the one most likely to attend them. It would make you no different than a group practice of midwives or doctors. Being on call means you won't know when you'll go, when you'll return or when you can sleep again. You could combine classes, placenta encap. I've been a doula since and have a cleaning business I do all the work.

It works out great actually. My own schedule that I can make up for really good supplemental income. Just something to consider! I know someone who does support her family on birthwork she's a doula. She does do other things here and there, the occasional class, some life coaching. I can't speak to how she does it, but it is sort of my dream so I will share my plan. For starters, I'm not going to just do birth doula work, but also post partum, and teach classes. Or at least that's my dream.

My husband and I just put an offer on a house, a very small house, that we plan on paying off asap. Once we own our house outright and sell the other house we own But there will be sacrifices.

For one, it's a small house on a small plot of land, no big rambling ranch house and farm for us. It's probably just under square foot and we have four children. Also, my husband will hopefully be able to do some freelance work to help make ends meet. Right now we own a home in another state and rent a home here and I've not really started attending births or teaching classes yet. My husband has a good job, but things are t-i-g-h-t.

We are looking to buy however as we can find a cheap house that's been forclosed on in the next town over and believe it or not owning 2 homes will be cheaper for us than owning the house in another state and renting.

Working As A Doula - 6 Most Commonly Asked Questions | BellyBelly

So, yeah, it can be done. With sacrifices, but it can be done. Really anything you want to do, you can. Just figure out a way and make the needed sacrifices. Like a decade or more -- because that way you finally have so much good will toward you and literally s of women telling all their friends to hire you.

You have to have a stable environment aka a semblance of dependable income to be stable for your clients.

This is what I have learned, personally, after a year of making doula work my top priority. So that is alot of "other" stuff. People love her and she charges around She gets on average probably four clients a month-- definitely more than any other doula I know. Maybe if you lived super simply you could do JUST doula work -- however, there is a fine line between living simply and being straight up poor. But maybe if you lived somewhere where the rate is 2 grand per client you could do it.

I bet if a doula is charging 2 grand per birth the local cost of living must be crazy high. I suppose the answer to that really depends on one's lifestyle. Here in the SF Bay Area, I know a few doulas who make a living wage as full time doulas, but that certainly is not the norm. Being a doula is not a lucrative career by any means. With two children to support, were it not for my husband's income, I personally could not manage financially as solely a doula.

I would have to take on more clients than I am comfortable carrying or price myself in a range that is well out of reach for most people. My preferences is to take no more than 2 clients a month, so that I don't routinely risk having to call in my back-up, and remain affordable to the majority.

I don't think you could do it either unless you live in a big urban area. Besides all the good points brought up here, I find it literally confusing to have so many clients. I am very organized and I attended 35 births last year and taught 3 five week Lamaze series to another 18 couples, and taught four private in home classes. You begin to forget who you told what and find yourself saying "Did I tell this story already?

And I had some aswesome births that I did for free or reduced rates. Usually if you are doing this many you are also traveling quite a bit.

I obviously need to move back to my homestate of CA. I made a lot more than I expected to last year, but, even with classes, placenta encapsulation, photography and belly art clients rounding out my income, after expenses I don't think it would be a livable wage.

That and I ended up taking up to 5 births in a month most of the time it was only 3 , and the schedule was insanely hectic. By some miracle, I managed to never miss a birth, but I did end up going to three back to back without ever going home in between at one point. If that's what it takes to make a living that way, I think I'll stick to a couple of births a month and just consider it a labor of love. I agree with MidwifeErika. You would have to create a birth business and get creative and savvy about it.

Attending births would be ONE of the services you would offer and because you design the rest of your biz you create the freedom to be able to attend births. If you build a birth business, and include services such as education, consulting for birth planning and nutrition planning, you can make a substantial living. Also, as with any independent business, you can hire someone else to work with you.

Many people I know that are doulas also sell retail products, such as essential oils, baby wraps, nursing helpers, etc. Absolutely, you can make a living, but you need to approach it like a business and not just a hobby. Look at how to become a doula for information on the steps. Also, more career information can be found at doula salary. Being a doula is wonderful thing, and you can run your business how you see fit. It can be something very simple, and something that you do for fun, or it can be lucrative, and still provide a great blessing to your heart and emotions.

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It could be fun for the doulas here to have a "What's the most you've made in a year? Midwife CPM, LDM and homeschooling mama to: You currently have 0 posts. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. Doula, WOHM, wife to a super-fun papa, mama to the Monkey '07 , and his little brother, the Sea Monkey ' So if you do a month you are good to go.

Good luck to you! So I say, save and plan and go for it! Me - Historian, doula, lactivist, crafty chick, wife, and very, very busy mama.

Doula Tracy is offline. It will take a real business plan, strategy, smart use of marketing tools, but you can do it! You can make a living as a doula! Even birth workers have to understand where their business comes from. Today's business starts on the web. The twenty-somethings out there will hardly give you a second look if you don't have a web presence. It is what constitutes business validity for them. There are a few people out there like Gena Kirby and www.

Craig Kirby is offline. It's possible, but like anything, it depends on circumstances, how much you put into it, and what you are looking for. For example, if you live in a metropolitan area, you are more likely to be able to get a larger client base. Prices also tend to be higher in cities than in rural areas. Both of these things are pretty important if you're looking to make this a full time career.

This is also much more do-able if you don't have to worry about paying for or finding last-minute childcare. Having a lot of clients can be stressful, but it can also help to have a sort of doula "collective" so that if an emergency happens and you can't make it, you have a back-up doula to step in for you.

Being a full-time doula is a full-time job.

Postpartum Doula - American Pregnancy Association

It's also emotionally draining, has weird hours, and can take a toll on your social life for example, if you're the flaky friend who always cancels on social gatherings last minute. It's also totally do-able!

If this is your dream, you can make it happen. Yes, there are going to be overhead costs, but it's pretty low compared to any other traditional home-based business. My husband interviewed a doula Domino Kirke from Carriage House Birth in New York City, and it was a great in-depth conversation.

If any of you are really considering jumping into being a doula, I recommend listening to the interview here: Thread Tools Show Printable Version Show Printable Version.

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A Breakdown of a Doula’s Fees – Why Doulas Charge What they Do | #doula #pregnancy #birth | Lisa Johnston, Doula

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