I am the mother of four children, and currently run a family daycare. But my question is this, how does a person know where to start this process? I feel like being a Doula is someone that alot empathy for another woman during the time of either carrying a their child or while giving birth. But I am interested in the process of becoming a Doula and running my own biz......please respond.

-- Jean (Meghan0411@aol.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Hi Jean! How I start my process of becoming a doula and first you have to decide what organization that you want to go through to get your training if you are wanting to become certified. Both Doulas of North America (DONA) and CAPPA have great web sites and they have directories to search through and find trainers in your area. The trainings are great and they answer so many questions! Also I read anything and everything that I could get my hands on about doulas and Cutting Edge Press has a lot of books and videos on them. As far as running your own biz at the same time, that might be tricky. Because you're working with unpredictable labors you have to be able to usually be out the door and be at either the home of your clients or at the hospital within an hour of their call. I have to carry a pager and a cell phone wherever I go and I can't ever go more than 1/2 hour away from home. I also have to carry all of my reference materials, my doula suitcase which has all kinds of things like lotion and massage tools, a change of clothes, and my birth ball whever I go just in case I get paged and I'm closer to their home than mine so that I can go straight over to their place. It's tough to make the transition into getting used to being on call all of the time but if you really love it, it's easy!

-- Emily Heldt (emilyavalon@hotmail.com), February 01, 2002.