Is it better to become a doula or a hypnobirthing instructor first?
Dreaming of becoming a doula?
We're so glad you stopped by HelloBirth! We know you must have a lot of questions about how to become a doula. Our top recommendation for doula training is Doula Trainings International (DTI). Through their full-spectrum online training, you can complete a semester of self-paced coursework, plus live training calls with an educator, to become a doula trained to support pregnancy, labor, postpartum and reproductive health. There are loads of possibilities within the doula role. We know it can feel pretty overwhelming.
If you decide to go with DTI, your training will give you everything you need to start working with doula clients right away. You can then choose to continue on past the training semester towards becoming a certified doula. The program affords you 9 remaining months of community mentorship calls with experienced educators, as you work in your own community to get your first client evaluations completed, class observation forms, required readings etc.
Have you heard of hypnobirthing? It's our specialty at HelloBirth. You can actually become a hypnobirthing instructor even if you're not a certified doula yet.
Why would this be beneficial? One reason is that hypnobirthing classes are extremely popular with pregnant people. In training and certifying to teach hypnobirthing, you'll be gaining an avenue for doula clients to find you. So if you know you want to become a doula eventually, offering hypnobirthing first is a brilliant way to find your first doula clients. You could even do both trainings simultaneously. It just depends on how much you're willing to take on and how much you have to invest financially. If you want to go the route of starting your own birth-related business, it's advisable to have a business strategy in mind so that you're not wasting time and money by trying to get started just by word-of-mouth. If you're already well-connected with a lot of people who are in need of your doula services, then word-of-mouth may be all you need. But most people need to combine more than one strategy to get started.
Realistically, it will probably take you 1 or maybe even 2 years to build up a busy birth practice.
If you decide to become a doula first, we recommend stepping into the doula role as quickly and as confidently as possible, using everything that you gained during training to bolster your networking (business cards, social media, word-of-mouth and professional referrals). If you decide to become a hypnobirthing childbirth educator first, we recommend a similar strategy. In this field, you learn best by embodying the role of listener, empathizer, and facilitator, and letting the knowledge come as you go.
Teaching about birth and attending births as a doula complement one another.
This may seem obvious, but we wanted to point out that taking the steps to become a certified doula will afford you opportunities to see birth in real time, which will help you improve your teaching and knowledge base. Vice versa, your birth doula work will improve drastically when you have a set of skills through HelloBirth hypnobirthing that you can use to support your clients. Not to mention the empowering preparation they will be doing on their own! It will make your job as a birth doula easier. So in conclusion, there's not necessarily a "better" way to become a doula or to become a hypnobirthing instructor. You may only want to focus on 1 skillset and that is just fine. In our experience, you will gain birth doula clients faster if you start offering this service right alongside your service as a hypnobirthing instructor.