World Doula Week is observed every year from March 22 - 28. The purpose of World Doula Week is to celebrate and recognize the impact that doulas have on pregnant, birthing and postpartum people all around the world and recognize the positive impact that doulas have on perinatal outcomes. The World Doula Week initiative started in Israel as Doula Day, led by birth activist Ruti Karni Horowitzy and was first held on March 22, 2011. It has since transitioned to World Doula Week and takes place around the Northern Hemisphere Spring Equinox.

Many perinatal professionals work as birth and/or postpartum doulas as well as teach classes either independently or as part of a hospital or community program. Each role is professionally fulfilling in different ways and also helps generate several income streams.

While being both a doula and a childbirth educator can peacefully “co-exist,” there are definitely challenges to make it work well. The on-call life of a birth doula often creates a major conflict with the planned and scheduled-in-advance responsibilities of a childbirth educator. 

Here are some suggestions for successfully managing both roles.

1. Have solid doula back up

Doulas know it is important to have several layers of back up in case two labors happen at once or an illness or other circumstance prevents the doula from supporting their client. Consider having a back up doula who stands by during your teaching time, and is available to “labor-sit,” so you can leave a birth to teach or have your back up initiate support until your class is over. You may want to offer a small stipend for booking this time with your back up in exchange for their confirmed availability. Remember to let potential birth doula clients know that you will send your back up if they need support during class time, so they can consider that when they make the decision to engage your birth doula services.

2. Have a standby instructor

If your preference is to support your client whenever possible, then it will be necessary to have reliable back up instructor who is both qualified and available to teach your class should you be at a birth. Having a detailed teaching plan that can be shared and implemented easily is important so your substitute instructor can smoothly step in with confidence. Financial arrangements with this alternate instructor to compensate them for being available just in case they are needed may be a consideration. If you work for a hospital or community program, they may have a substitute process in place and may be willing to extend that to your need to support a laboring client.

3. Establish a true doula partnership

Consider joining forces with another doula or a group of doulas, where you share clients and a call schedule. No one has their “own” client but rather the partnership has all the clients and you both (or all) share call based on individual scheduling needs. This means that clients are always covered and you are always off call for your teaching times.

4. Build in a flexible "bonus"class date

Plan for being gone for one of the scheduled class times, and set the original dates to include a make up date from the start. For example, if you teach a six week class, include a 7th week in the class calendar, which may or may not be needed. If you are at a birth, you know you have a date already built in for a make-up day. This solution is possible if you have full control of the classroom space, but for larger programs where juggling access to teaching space is a full time job in itself, there may be room conflicts that don’t permit this reservation to potentially go unused. This is also not a solution for shorter series or one day classes.

5. Don’t double book

A fifth alternative is to eliminate potential conflicts by taking clients some months and committing to teaching other months. Not having clients and classes overlap theoretically means that you will not have a problem. This may not be financially possible for some people, and we also know that babies come when they want and not always according to plan.

Conclusion

Many childbirth educators enjoy and appreciate having a thriving doula practice in addition to their childbirth educator role. Attending births can provide value to someone’s skill set in the childbirth class setting. Unfortunately, the constant stress and juggling act that is required to make those two positions share space in an emotionally balanced and logistically do-able way becomes the challenge. If you are both a childbirth educator and a birth doula, how have you managed to successfully navigate both roles? If you already work in one of these positions and are considering adding the other to your resumé, this article will help you consider some potential solutions to help everything go smoothly from the start. You can find Lamaze Childbirth Educator programs to help you get started here and add this exciting role to your professional life.

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