Guidelines for Employing a Doula

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Guidelines for Employing a Doula

• By doula.org.uk

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You will find there are as many different doulas
as there are people, there is not a typical
doula. Feel free to ask around, interview several
women (we suggest first by phone and then
face-to-face). Ask a doula for references or for
other doulas' details in your area. At the end of
the day, you need to find the right doula for you.
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If you are considering employing a birth or
postnatal doula, we would like to encourage you
to contact doulas directly via our website as it
is a free resource. At the beginning of 2004, we
introduced a "Recognition Process" for doulas in
the UK where we have established a distinction
between 'Mentored Doulas' new doulas receiving
mentoring and guidance from an experienced doula
through their first few jobs, and those who are
'Recognised Doulas' more experienced doulas who
have already gone through this process.  
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The mentored doulas that appear in our Find a
Doula section have completed a Doula UK approved
training course but they have not acquired the
level of experience necessary for them to become
fully recognised. This level of experience is
normally four mentored births for birth doulas
and four mentored postnatal jobs for postnatal
doulas. Many mentored doulas have other forms of
experience and other skills, so please don't
discount them simply due to the fact that they
are currently being mentored.
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We are aware that you may be unsure of what to
ask doulas to help determine whether they are
right for you. With that in mind we have put
together a list of sample questions on these
pages.
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You may choose to ask all these questions of the
prospective doulas, or just a few. There are no
right or wrong answers, we are just providing
some guidelines for the types of things you may
want to know before making your decision.