Busting the #1 Myth around Starting Your Doula Business

MYTH: “I need more experience before I can get clients.”

FACT: Nope. If you’ve finished your doula training, you are ready to work with clients.

I’ve been there, I get it.

I remember holding my DONA Postpartum Doula Certificate in my hands back in 2010 and thinking, “I’m not ready yet. No one is going to hire me.”

I thought I need to shadow another postpartum doula for a while. I thought I had to work for free for some families so that I could gain experience before anyone would be willing to pay me. I thought I need to take some more certifications so I’d be qualified enough to help a new mom.

I was wrong.

Have you heard about that study from Guatemala about birth support?

They set up two groups. One group of women labored alone. And one group of women who were in labor were told there was a woman on the other side of the curtain who had given birth before.

The woman on the other side of the curtain didn't speak or do anything. She was just there.

And guess what? The laboring women in that group had faster labors and better experiences.

As a postpartum doula, you just have to be there and you make it better for a new mom.

You don’t have to have years of experience or a list of clients a mile long. We get so caught up in having all the answers and being experts about all the things...

but we just have to show up, listen and offer support.

That is the role of the postpartum doula.

Our job is actually quite simple. If we just show up and:

L I S T E N more than lecture/offer advice (which most visitors are doing)
be an extra set of hands for a tired new parent
offer gentle reassurance
wash the dishes in the sink

If we just do these simple things, an over-tired, anxious new mom will be forever grateful.

You’re ready.

In your doula business, are you craving someone on the other side of the curtain who has done this before?

Would your doula business progress faster if you had someone alongside you who had already built a thriving doula business?

That's what the My Doula Village is all about!