I am interested in becoming a certified Doula. I live in Michigan and I was wondering what the job market was like for Doulas. Are you mainly self-employed or do hospitals hire you ?

-- Mora Wilkevicz (wilkevicz@peoplepc.com), March 07, 2004

Answers

I work for a hospital doula program in Champaign IL but our community also has private doulas. The other hospital in our town has a program which only provides doulas for teen mothers. The doulas in our program work on a rotating basis with a 24 hour call schedule. This works for me because i have two daughters who activities I have to work around so I can only work when their dad is home or I have other child care. Private doulas must go whenever their clients need them and that doesn't work for me right now. Some of my coworkers take private patients beyond our program and we try to work together to cover their call if a conflict comes up. Also the hospital provides us with on call pay, a human resourse department to handle taxes and stuff and insurance coverage if someone ever decided to sue. (though I can't imagine why anyone would ever do that) Also the hospital is nonprofit so we have a sliding fee schedule so no one who wants a doula ever needs to go without. Most of our patients preregisture with our program but we also get "walk ons" when the nurses, doctors or midwives recommend us to a mom already in labor. Good luck! Ann

-- Ann Hart (harthome@net66.com), April 13, 2004.