How To Become A Doula

I'm going to tell you how to become a doula. But first, we should start with what actually is a doula? A doula in its simplest form is a professional birth companion. The word doula is a Greek translation for female slave or caregiver.

What a doula does is she meets with her clients twice antenatal to get to know them, to talk to them about the physiology of birth, how birth works, maybe to help create a birth plan. Then, when her client goes into labour, she arrives at the house, and if they're transferring into hospital, will stay with them at home for as long as they can to keep mum safe & comfortable, then go into hospital with her, stay with her throughout the labour until she's had the baby, stay, help establish her feed, and then when mum and the partner are comfortable, she'll leave. Coming back within the first week to talk about the birth, and smile at the wonder that is the baby.

How do you become a doula? Well, I belong to an organization called Doula UK (www dot doula dot org dot up) and Doula UK has a series of recognized training courses, each which go to the different types of personality of the women who might become a doula. You do not have to be a mother to become a doula, but having given birth before, it gives you an extra edge on the experience. These courses might range from a few days through to several months and a year.

At the end of the course, which will take you through debriefing your own home birthing experiences if you have any, take you through the physiology of birth, counselling, how to talk and be with women and healthcare professionals. Then, you finish your course, get your certificate, and you are assigned a doula mentor. You are given a list of doula mentors across the country and you choose one.

Doula mentor is simply that they're to mentor you through your doula-in journey. So, this isn't something that you learn in five days or a year. I have been a doula now for six years, and each birth is a new learning experience.

Each birth, you find something that you didn't know before, but it's not about the doula putting her birthing experiences onto the mom, it's about supporting mum and her partner through the things that they do. A doula does not do anything medical, does not do anything clinical. We do not make decisions for our couples, we are there to support you through your decisions.

So, that is how you become a doula. .