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We encourage all of our clients to work with a doula, whether they’re planning a hospital or a home birth. Giving birth in a hospital can feel like going into solitary confinement. You’re in labor, nurses are busy, and there’s so much going on around you... You need a doula.
This client was a smart, accomplished med student, and felt that she could do it on her own. She did—she gave birth to a healthy baby!
But when she was pregnant with her second child, she did it completely differently. She found a doula immediately. She wanted someone to walk with her through the entire process—to help her find a care provider and a setting that matched the kind of care she wanted to receive. The doula knew exactly what to look for.
I love her use of the word “cute.” Because they didn’t realize that once she was in labor, in the hospital, in the delivery room… she would need so much more. Support she didn’t know she needed until she needed it.
Birth workers accomplish their training courses, gain the necessary knowledge and skills, and go out into the field alone. They make a website, they set up their business, and they try to get hired.
Nine times out of ten, they realize very quickly that it isn’t going to cut it, and for a few reasons:
But most poignantly:
Birth work means supporting pregnant and postpartum people, who are very complicated beings with very specific needs.
And like anything else, understanding what it means to be a doula—to enter someone’s life in that role—takes a lot of practice and experience.
Wherever you practice, things are changing all the time, especially the guidelines that physicians, nurses, and hospitals are following. New evidence means new practices. Clients often research these findings and updates—we want to be able to answer their questions and keep them informed.
Hospitals have policies and protocols. They can be in place because of scientific evidence, legal purposes, or to benefit the for-profit insurance system. Part of our job is to know our clients and help them understand these policies, and why they may or may not work for them.
Continuing education keeps your finger on the pulse of the changing field and allows you to mold your care from person to person.
We advocate for clients so clients can advocate for themselves.
The schedule of a birth worker is tethered to the unpredictable nature of pregnancy. We don’t know when we’ll get called to birth work, and we don’t know when we’ll be recovering from that birth work. Especially in New York City, where it takes an hour to get anywhere… the last thing you want is to be hustling to an in-person meeting or class.
Online classes allow you to open your computer and instantly have access to people who get you, understand your work, and can provide support and advice. You can show up without having to uproot your schedule.
Remember that client, and how her doula helped her find the best care provider for her needs?
As a newer doula, if you have a client with specific care needs and desires, you might not know exactly where to go next. But if you're in the Manhattan Birth community, you're going to find out in a couple of hours.
Our community gives birth workers access to one another—to people who are sharing information and stories all the time. If you show up in our community and do nothing but listen, you will get so much out of it.
When people are having babies, feeding babies, and growing families, and they are supported by somebody who comes from continuing education and a community like ours, they feel completely cared for. They know they can truly rely upon their doula or their birth worker, because they have our entire community standing behind them.
They feel held up by all of us, even though we're not all showing up for that one person.
Sign up below to join the interest list for our Doula Mentor Program.
More than a team of instructors, meet our supportive and loving community devoted to compassionate support for professional birth workers, parents and parents-to-be.
