Doulas give women earthy and romantic support during pregnancy, labor and birth and oftentimes during a postpartum period. They also yield women with information about these stages and indoctrinate new relatives on topics like baby caring and breastfeeding. Doulas work as partial of a health caring group that competence embody physicians, midwives and nurses. They competence work during choice birthing centers or other health caring facilities, though a College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) records that many doulas are private contractors. Because of a inlet of their work, doulas mostly contingency be on call.
Specific duties of a doula competence embody operative with trusting mothers and their partners before to birth to assistance them rise birth plans, as good as training them respirating and other decrease techniques. During labor and delivery, doulas competence give patients massages, advise position changes and offer ubiquitous encouragement, in further to advocating for a mom as she follows her birth plan. After birth, a doula competence beam new relatives in childcare techniques, like diapering and bathing.
Source: *PayScale.com; **U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Required Education
Training for doulas is accessible from some postsecondary institutions, as good as nonprofit organizations, like a Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association (CAPPA) and DONA International. Topics of investigate typically embody prenatal care, fetal development, variations and complications of labor, pain government techniques, breastfeeding and baby care. Prospective doulas also competence learn about emotions and pregnancy, informative sensitivity, communication and listening, veteran ethics and standards of practice. Additionally, they competence finish a practicum, where they’ll attend births underneath a superintendence of a professional.
CAPPA and DONA International are among several organizations that offer intentional veteran acceptance for doulas. Examples of acceptance embody Certified Labor Doula (CLD), Certified Postpartum Doula (CPD), Certified Childbirth Educator (CCCE) and Certified Lactation Educator (CLE). Qualifications for these certifications vary, though in general, they engage completing training and assembly knowledge requirements.
Required Skills
Perhaps a many critical ability for a doula is a ability to be enlivening during a labor and smoothness process. They contingency have clever written communication skills and be means to review patients’ clues so that they know what form of support to provide. Doulas also contingency be means to work as partial of a team, not only with medical professionals though also with a mom and her partner. Additionally, they contingency be means to hoop highlight in a eventuality of a medical emergency. Some employers need that doulas have Basic Life Support (BLS) acceptance or that they acquire it within a set duration of time after hire.
Career Outlook and Salary
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not have career opinion projections privately for doulas, though considers this career as a partial of ‘personal caring and use workers, all other,’ with normal expansion of 5% to 9% approaching from 2016-2026. PayScale.com reported that doulas warranted a median annual income of $39,663 as of Apr 2018. However, CFNC remarkable that doulas infrequently yield their services for free, quite when they’re starting out in a field.
