How to Start Your Doula Business: A Step-by-Step Guide for New Birth Workers
- Oct 30, 2023
- 10 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Becoming a doula can be incredibly rewarding. You get to support families through one of the biggest transitions of their lives while building a career that can be flexible, meaningful and deeply connected to your community.
But once you have decided you want to become a doula, you may be wondering how to actually get started. We have outlined and answered many of the questions that come up when you are beginning your doula journey, from choosing your training to setting up your business and finding your first clients.
And, of course, if you have more questions, please reach out to us. We are passionate about supporting doulas and building a strong, connected birth community. We are always happy to chat and help you figure out what the next step might look like for you.
How do I actually start a doula business?
Becoming a trained doula and building a successful doula practice are two different things.
Your training gives you the knowledge, practical skills and foundation you need to support families. Building a doula business takes time, experience, community, marketing, client relationships and a willingness to keep learning along the way.
Whether you dream of attending births full-time, supporting a few families each month or eventually offering additional services such as childbirth education or postpartum support, starting with a strong foundation will make the process much easier.
There is a lot to learn when you are starting out, and you do not need to figure it all out at once.
Here are the steps we recommend for new doulas.
1. Complete a Doula Training Program
Your first step is to learn the fundamentals of doula work.
Because doula work is not a regulated profession in British Columbia, there is no single required training program or certification that you must complete to become a doula.
However, quality training is incredibly valuable.
A good birth doula training should teach you about pregnancy, labour and birth, comfort measures, communication, informed choice, common medical interventions and how to support families through different birth experiences.
It should also help you understand the realities of being a professional doula. You are not just learning how to support someone through labour. You are also starting a small business.
At Birth by Bloom, our Foundational Birth Doula Training combines practical birth education with the business foundations you need to begin working with families.
Our training includes two immersive in-person days followed by six weeks of live online education. We focus on practical skills, real birth experiences, communication, client care and the business side of becoming a doula.
2. Decide What Kind of Doula You Want to Be
There are many different ways to build a doula career.
You might want to become a:
Birth doula
Postpartum doula
Birth and postpartum doula
Childbirth educator
Bereavement doula
Fertility doula
Full-time professional doula
Part-time doula
You do not need to decide everything immediately.
Many doulas start with birth support and add other services as their experience and interests develop.
Start by asking yourself:
Who do I want to support?
What kind of support am I most passionate about?
Do I want to attend births, offer postpartum support, teach classes, or combine several services?
How much time do I realistically want to commit to being on call?
Your answers will help you decide what services to offer and how to structure your business.
Start simple
One of the biggest mistakes new doulas make is trying to offer everything immediately.
You do not need to have five different packages, a dozen services and a complicated website when you are starting out.
Choose a few services that you feel confident offering and build from there. Your business can evolve as you gain experience.
3. Decide Where You Will Work
One of the first decisions you will need to make as a birth doula is where you actually want to work.
Unlike many businesses, birth doula work is very location-dependent. You may be driving to a client's home for a prenatal visit, heading to a hospital in the middle of the night, or travelling across your community for a birth that lasts many hours.
It can be tempting when you are starting out to say, “I will go anywhere.” But the more clients you take on, the more you will realize how important it is to have a manageable service area.
Think about:
How far are you realistically willing to travel for a birth?
Which hospitals and birth locations are within a comfortable driving distance?
Are you willing to attend home births?
How far are you willing to travel for prenatal and postpartum visits?
Are you comfortable travelling at night or during busy traffic times?
Will you charge an additional travel fee for clients outside your usual area?
How will your service area affect your backup arrangements?
Start by getting to know your local birth community
Your service area can also help you decide where to focus your networking and marketing.
You do not need to try to be the doula for everyone in the Lower Mainland. It can be much more effective to become known in the communities where you actually want to work.
For example, you might decide to focus on:
Vancouver
Burnaby
New Westminster
Surrey
White Rock and South Surrey
Richmond
North Vancouver
Once you know where you want to work, start getting familiar with the birth community in those areas. Learn which hospitals families use, connect with local birth professionals, meet other doulas and look for opportunities to become involved in your community.
This can also help with your online presence. Families are often searching for a “birth doula in Surrey,” “birth doula in Vancouver,” or “doula in White Rock,” rather than simply searching for a doula anywhere in British Columbia.
Being clear about where you work helps potential clients find you, and it helps you build a doula business that fits your actual life.
4. Set Up the Business Basics
Once you know what you are offering, it is time to set up the practical side of your business.
This includes:
Choosing and registering your business name
Setting up a professional email address
Creating a simple website
Creating a Google Business Profile
Setting your prices
Creating packages
Creating a client contract
Creating intake forms
Setting up invoicing and payment systems
Keeping track of your income and expenses
Looking into appropriate business and liability insurance
You do not need a complicated business structure to get started. You do need to treat your work professionally. A clear contract, straightforward pricing and organized client communication will make you look more professional and, just as importantly, make your own life easier.
How much should a new doula charge?
There is no single correct doula fee. Your pricing will depend on your location, experience, training, services, availability and what is included in your package.
When you are establishing your prices, look at what doulas in your local community are charging. But do not simply choose the cheapest price because you are new.
Your time includes much more than the hours you spend physically at a birth.
Consider:
Prenatal meetings
Phone and email communication
On-call availability
Travel
Birth support
Postpartum follow-up
Administrative work
Marketing
Business expenses
Continuing education
Your pricing needs to make your business sustainable.
5. Create Your Client Experience
One of the most important parts of building a successful doula business is deciding what it feels like to work with you.
Think about the entire client journey.
What happens when someone first contacts you?
What happens during the consultation?
How do they book?
What happens during your prenatal meetings?
How will you communicate while they are in labour?
What happens after the birth?
A simple client journey might look like:
Inquiry → Consultation → Contract & Payment → Prenatal Sessions → On-Call Period → Birth → Postpartum Follow-Up
Having a clear process will help you feel much more confident, especially when you are starting out.
6. Build Your Doula Brand and Online Presence
Your website and online presence are often the first places a potential client will learn about you.
You do not need a perfect website. You will need to continue to edit and work on your website as your business grows. But you do need one!
You need a website that clearly answers:
Who are you?
Who do you support?
Where do you work?
What do you offer?
How much does it cost?
How can someone contact you?
Your website should focus on the families you support rather than simply listing everything you have learned.
For example, instead of saying:
"I am trained in comfort measures, birth physiology and breastfeeding."
You might say:
"I provide calm, practical support throughout labour, helping you and your partner understand what is happening and feel confident navigating your birth experience."
Talk about the problems you help families solve.
Your online presence can include:
A professional website
Google Business Profile
Instagram
Facebook
Professional photographs
Client testimonials
Educational blog posts
Helpful birth information
Local community involvement
7. Learn Local SEO
If you want to build a doula business, people need to be able to find you.
Families may search for:
Birth doula Vancouver
Birth doula Surrey
Birth doula White Rock
Doula near me
Birth doula Lower Mainland
Postpartum doula Vancouver
Doula cost Vancouver
How much does a doula cost?
How do I find a birth doula?
Make sure your website clearly states the communities you serve and what you are offering.
Create useful pages and articles that answer the questions families are actually asking.
For example:
How Much Does a Doula Cost in Vancouver?
What Does a Birth Doula Do?
What Is the Difference Between a Doula and a Midwife?
When Should I Hire a Birth Doula?
Do I Need a Doula if I Have a Midwife?
These pages can help families find you while also demonstrating your knowledge and approach.
8. Build Relationships Within Your Birth Community
One of the best ways to build a doula business is to become part of your local birth community.
Connect with:
Other doulas
Midwives
Doctors
Childbirth educators
Lactation professionals
Prenatal instructors
Pelvic health professionals
Birth photographers
Baby stores and community organizations
Do not approach every relationship as a sales opportunity. Get to know people.
Be helpful. Refer families to other professionals when they need something you do not offer.
And build relationships with other doulas who can become your backup network.
Community over competition is one of the most valuable ideas in birth work.
Your fellow doulas are not necessarily your competition. They can become your colleagues, backup support, sounding boards and friends.
9. Get Your First Clients
This is often the part new doulas find the most intimidating. Make sure you have these things in place:
You have completed your training.
You have a website.
You have your contract.
Now where are the clients?
Start with your existing community.
Tell people what you are doing.
Connect with local birth professionals.
Attend community events.
Introduce yourself to other doulas.
Consider offering an introductory rate while you build experience, but do not undervalue your work.
You can also look for mentorship or referral opportunities.
At Birth by Bloom, our mentorship program is designed to support doulas as they begin working with real families. Mentorship can provide guidance around client care, business development, prenatal sessions, communication and the many questions that come up once you are actually working with clients.
10. Build a Strong Backup Network
Being a birth doula means being on call. That is one of the biggest differences between birth doula work and many other small businesses. You cannot control when a baby will arrive. If you have two clients due around the same time, there is always the possibility that their births will overlap.
This is why building relationships with other doulas is so important.
You need people you trust who understand your work and can step in when necessary.
Your backup arrangement should be something you think about before you have your first client.
11. Keep Learning
Your first training is the beginning of your education, not the end.
Every birth will teach you something.
You will encounter situations you have never experienced before. You will discover what you are comfortable with, what you want to learn more about and what kind of doula you want to become.
Continuing education might include:
Advanced comfort measures
Childbirth education
Breastfeeding education
Postpartum support
Trauma-informed care
Loss and bereavement support
Newborn care
Home birth
Caesarean birth
Business development
Communication and client care
You do not need to take every course available. Choose education that supports the kind of doula you want to become.
12. Find a Community and Mentor
One of the biggest challenges for a new doula can be figuring everything out alone.
Your training can teach you the fundamentals, but real-life client situations often bring up questions that are difficult to answer from a textbook.
What do you do when a client texts you at 2 a.m.?
How do you handle a client who wants to change their birth preferences?
How do you navigate a difficult prenatal meeting?
How do you handle a long birth?
How do you know when to call your backup?
How do you build confidence after your first birth?
Having experienced doulas around you can make a huge difference. Doulas need support in this work.
Birth by Bloom Doula Mentorship
Birth by Bloom offers a year-long mentorship for doulas who are ready for more support as they build their businesses and begin working with families.
Mentorship includes:
1:1 support
Access to our large doula community
Extensive podcast-style Doula Chats covering everything from client care and birth experiences to business, boundaries and the realities of doula work
Live weekly Doula Chats where you can ask questions, talk through client situations and connect with other doulas
Access to prenatal session recordings
Business support
Client referrals as opportunities become available
Options for continuing your education with Bloom, including childbirth education teacher training
The goal is to make sure you are not trying to figure out the business and realities of doula work on your own.
How Long Does It Take to Start a Doula Business?
You can technically start offering doula services as soon as you have completed your training and feel ready to work with clients. But building a sustainable doula business takes time.
Your first few months may be spent:
Building your website
Meeting other birth professionals
Learning how to conduct consultations
Finding your first clients
Attending your first births
Building testimonials
Refining your packages
Figuring out your systems
Learning what kind of doula you want to be
Try not to compare your beginning to someone else's established business. Your first year is about learning.
You Don't Have to Figure It Out Alone
Starting a doula business can feel overwhelming.
There is the birth education.
Then there is the business.
Then there are clients, contracts, marketing, websites, social media, being on call, backup arrangements and everything else that comes with working for yourself.
You do not need to have everything figured out before you start.
Start with good training.
Build your business foundations.
Find your community.
Take your first clients.
Learn from your experiences.
Keep improving.
And find people who can support you along the way.
At Birth by Bloom, we believe becoming a doula is about more than completing a training course. We want doulas to leave their training with practical skills, confidence and a realistic understanding of what it means to build a doula business.
Our Foundational Birth Doula Training combines hands-on learning, online education, birth knowledge and business foundations.
For doulas who want additional support once they begin working with families, our year-long mentorship provides ongoing community, 1:1 support, business guidance, referrals and access to experienced doulas.
You do not have to build your doula business alone.
Ready to start your doula journey?
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