Articles on doula training, certification, recognition and building a practice from Birth & Baby University.
Clients, programs, payers and doulas themselves all want to know what excellent doula support looks like and how to recognize it. The obvious answer, better birth outcomes, is the one the research supports least…
Read the article: Measuring Doula Quality: Which Outcomes Best Reflect Excellent Support?An organization that starts a doula program, or funds one, eventually has to answer a plain question: how will we know whether it is working, and working for whom? The answer is harder than…
Read the article: Measuring Equity in Doula Programs: What Outcomes Should Organizations Track?The hardest safe-sleep conversations happen at the point where exhaustion meets good intentions. A parent who has been awake for twenty hours may decide that the safest thing is to hold the baby on…
Read the article: Supporting Exhausted Parents While Maintaining Evidence-Based Safe Sleep PracticesMost of what a postpartum doula sees in a newborn is normal: sleepy days, noisy breathing, spit-up, startles, fussy evenings. A few things are not, and the difference can matter within hours. A doula…
Read the article: Recognizing When a Newborn Needs Medical Evaluation: Essential Red Flags for Postpartum DoulasPeople ask this question as if it had one answer. The research and policy sources show something more useful: demand and public payment are growing, income is uneven and often thin, and whether it…
Read the article: Is Becoming a Doula a Good Career Choice? Examining Demand, Compensation, and Professional OpportunitiesMost doulas see only a handful of new clients per month, which makes marketing results noisy. A post that "performed well" may have produced zero inquiries; a quiet month may reflect births in your…
Read the article: How to Evaluate Your Marketing Results: Website Traffic, Leads, Consultations, and BookingsPlacing a healthy newborn on a parent's chest right after birth is one of the most widely endorsed practices in maternity care. The evidence base is large, but not every outcome is equally well…
Read the article: The Evidence Behind Immediate Skin-to-Skin Contact After BirthA doula's referral network works in two directions: who you can confidently send clients to when a need exceeds your scope, and who knows enough about you to send families your way. The first…
Read the article: Building Strong Referral Networks With Hospitals, Midwives, Pediatricians, and Other Perinatal ProfessionalsIn a few years, doula coverage in the United States has moved from a handful of pilots to a benefit that more than half the states offer in Medicaid. That growth makes it tempting…
Read the article: The Future of Doula Coverage in the United States: Policy Opportunities and Implementation ChallengesA five-year plan sounds like a corporate exercise, but for a doula or other perinatal professional it can be a practical way to sequence training, credentials, income and rest. The difficulty is that the…
Read the article: Creating a Five-Year Career Development Plan as a Doula or Perinatal ProfessionalPage 2 of 23
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