The monetary costs of becoming and being a doula

There is a wide range of expenses here. Many things are optional, but recommended. Doulas may spend thousands getting everything started or they may invest in these things slowly after they have been hired and paid by clients. Bare bones – you don’t have to be trained, certified, or have any other credentials (example, lactation specialist). Most of us take a training. Many are not certified. A lot of birth workers start out with one thing and add to their credentials over time as they have the time and money.
 
The purpose of this blog is not to deter you with the monetary costs of having this small business; it’s to reiterate that this passionate work is a legitimate small business. Like all types of business, financial planning and money management is a must.
 
We’re going to look at 5 areas.

1. Becoming a doula
2. Starting your business
3. Yearly and monthly expenses of maintaining your business
4. The cost you invest in serving each client
5. Continuing education 

 
BECOMING A DOULA
 

• Taking a doula training
  • The required reading – There are usually several books you need to read. I recommend reading those before you attend the workshop.
  • The workshop or training program itself
  • Traveling to the workshop: gas or plane ticket + transportation, hotel stay, groceries, eating out ***Note: If you choose a training that is fully online, there is no expense of traveling to the workshop. If you have a local training available within driving distance of your home, your only expense is gas.
  • Fulfilling certification requirements – This will vary depending on your training program.

To become a doula may vary from $300 to $2000 depending on the cost of your workshop and travel expenses.
 
STARTING YOUR BUSINESS
 
Making it official

• Making an appointment with an accountant to discuss what type of business to file, what you need to keep track of, etc…
• Registering your business with your state
• License requirements

In my state filing an LLC is $99 and getting a vendor’s license is around $25. The cost of an accountant will vary.

Getting your name out there

• Website
  • Domain – This is your website name or URL. For example, mine is www.LeannaMae.org
  • Website creator and host  
  • Optional: Website designer
• Social media – One of the few things that is free
• Graphics for your website and social media
  • A business logo
  • Stock photos for your website – There are free options (Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash) and paid options (local photographers, photographers nationally that will sell their work, iStock, Shutterstock, Getty Images, Abobe, and many more)
  • Infographics that you either make or hire someone to make
• Professional photos of you for your website, social media, and promotional materials
• Business cards
• Promotional items such as cards, flyers, shirts, hoodies, totes, hats, water bottles, etc….

This will cost a minimum of $50 if you only do the essentials and do it yourself.

Preparing to practice

• Paperwork
  • Purchase a contract (You can also make your own) 
  • Having an attorney review your contract
  • Purchase the rest of your paperwork such as client records, feedback forms, consultation outlines, etc. You can make your own for free.
  • Custom made welcome packets
  • Purchase a curriculum for prenatal appointments  
• Teaching tools for prenatal appointments, postpartum appointments, and lactation support 
• Doula bag items (this varies wildly from almost nothing to serious luggage)
• Apparel:
  • You may need to buy work clothes and appropriate shoes.
  • You may want to buy shirts that say “doula” on it.
  • You can have polo shirts with your logo or title custom made to wear to births and appointments. 

The cost on this can be very minimal or hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Teaching tools are not cheap! It can easily cost hundreds for classroom props. If you choose to buy a curriculum, that may be several hundred. Of course, attorney review of contract can be quite pricey.
 
To start your business will be $200 at minimum. It can easily be over $1,000. If you want to go all out with professional photos and all the teaching tools and purchase paperwork and/or curriculum, you may spend $2,000. That said, most doulas take time to build slowly.  

 
YEARLY AND MONTHLY EXPENSES OF MAINTAINING YOUR BUSINESS
 
Yearly

• Renewing your website domain – Mine is $32 a year
• Filing taxes as a business
• Renewing your business license
• Renewing your vendor’s license if you sell anything

How often you have to renew your LLC and vendor’s license will depend on your state.
 
Monthly

• Marketing expenses – The cost of this will vary significantly, but you should put some money each month into marketing.
• Website monthly fees – I do mine yearly for $155 a year
• Business cell phone – Either consider a Google Voice number for free or add on an additional phone line and possibly phone that will be hundreds for the phone and at least $50 a month for the line
• Optional if you're exclusively a doula, but still recommended: A HIPAA compliant way of communicating through the phone - Examples: Google Workspace is probably the cheapest at $6 a month. Spruce is $24 a month. There are many more options.
• Optional: a platform for digital paperwork to be signed or filled in
• Optional: software for taxes such as Quickbooks or Honeybook - That’s $30-$40 a month if not more
• Optional: malpractice insurance – This may be a few hundred dollars a year and also depends on other credentials you hold such as lactation support. CFM quoted an estimate of $391 a year just with doula selected.
• Optional: health insurance as someone who is self-employed – The average self-employed insurance is $438 a person and $1779 for families.
• Optional dream: Many of us would love an office space to do appointments in and teach in – This typically costs around or over $1,000 a month. That’s why we do our consultations in public places such as cafes and do our appointments and often even classes in home. Sometimes doulas and other birthworkers team up to share an office.   

 
Your yearly and monthly expenses of maintaining your business will be, at minimum, a few hundred dollars a year just to have the business and be able to keep it going. That’s with doing things the most frugal way.

 
THE COST YOU INVEST IN SERVING EACH CLIENT
 
Consultation appointments

• Child care
• Meeting the potential client at a café or public place:
  • Gas money to get to the location – many doulas serve a wide area so you may be driving an hour one way to meet someone
  • The cost of whatever you order at the coffee shop or casual meeting place
• Optional items to give the potential clients:
  • A welcome packet with a folder
  • a copy of your contract
  • list of what your services do and don’t include
  • magnet
  • flyer
  • and anything else you want to include in there

 
Appointments: Intake, each prenatal, and each postpartum

• Child care each time you have to leave your house
• Possibly pet care if you are traveling a longer distance
• Gas money to and from the client’s house
• Paper and ink for anything you print out
• Teaching tools  

Note: If you teach classes, renting somewhere to teach can be very expensive. It may be $50-$100+ an hour depending on location. In my area, many libraries do not allow you to teach there unless you are teaching for free and the libraries that do allow for-profit reservations are several hundred dollars to teach a workshop at. Churches may allow you to teach for free or a low charge, but they also may require you to be teaching for free. Park shelters are affordable at around $25-50 a day in my area, but many students may not want to take a class in a park shelter. Again, this is why many of us have gone to teaching classes in-home.  

The birth

• If you are a new doula who still has a regular job or a doula who only takes clients once in a while, you may have a regular job that you have to call off or leave when someone goes into labor or call off if you’ve been at a birth all night. There is the loss of pay there. You also highly risk being fired from most jobs.
• Child care is a very big expense for many doulas. You may have to pay for the child care by the hour PLUS doulas also often pay a sitter to be on call for each birth.
• If you live alone, you may need to pay for pet care. You cannot leave your pets alone for long periods of time. If you are going to be gone longer than 12 hours (at the most!), you have to have someone check in on and care for your pets.
• Gas, travel expenses
• Hospital parking
• Food and drink to pack or buy while you are working
• Doula bag items 
• Support supplies you provide as gifts or supplies that will need to be replaced
• Paper and pen to keep notes

 
If you have a backup

• On call fee (Some doulas may back each other up and cancel out that on call fee)
• If you need to call in the backup, you’ll likely pay by the hour with a minimum of hours needed. Example, $40 an hour with a minimum of 4 hours when called in. Some doulas do half their total fee if they have to call in a backup.

Remember calling in a backup means you will be losing a lot of your profit from having that client. You have to have a savings stored up and food storage. There may be times you don’t get the pay you expected because you had to call in a backup.
 
Your cost of serving each client will vary significantly based on your specific childcare needs and pet care as well as how far you are traveling and what (if anything) you are providing for your clients as part of your services.

 
CONTINUING EDUCATION
 

• Maintaining your certification as a doula – some programs offer permanent certification while others require renewal. The frequency of renewal or maintaining current status will depend on the program. To renew, you may only need to pay a fee or show proof of CEUs. Sometimes they require proof of actively working.
• You need to get certified in first aid and BLS. Always stay current on this. Take an in-person training such as The American Heart Association or the Red Cross. 
• You may also want to get certified in neonatal resuscitation.
• Lactation support
• Bereavement support for perinatal and infant loss
• Workshops such as Spinning Babies, rebozo training, business training, etc…
• Gaining credentials in related work such as becoming a childbirth educator or anything you want to add on to your birth business

• There is also professional associations to join, memberships to have, journals to subscribe to, etc.
• You may also want to take some related college classes to give you a better understanding of the human body and health care.

 
To continue your education is thousands of dollars. You’ll also need to renew your first aid every two years and your lactation training every so many years and keep current on other credentials which may involve CEUs or renewal fees.
 
 
To recap,

• Becoming a doula will vary between $300 and $2000 for the education and travel.
• Starting your business will be at least $200 and can easily be over $1,000.
• Your yearly and monthly expenses will be at least a few hundred dollars a year just to stay in business.
• The cost of serving each client may be minimal or several hundred (especially depends on childcare).
• And to continue your education and keep current on all credentials will be thousands.

 
To sustain a doula business, you have to

1. Have a return on your investment of becoming a doula and starting your business
2. Make back what you put into buying teaching tools and support supplies
3. Break even on your yearly and monthly expenses for each year
4. Cover the cost of serving each client for the birth and all the appointments
5. And be able to pay the bills you have to pay to continue being available for this on-call job 

 
As you can see, there are a lot of expenses to being a doula. Make a budget accordingly. Think about the investment you have to put in to offer these services. Here are several self-reflection questions.
 

1.  How many births a month are you willing to take?
2. How many inquiries are you actually getting per month?
3. What do you need to charge to break even on expenses of serving each client plus the yearly/monthly expenses of staying in business?
4. What do you need to charge to make a living wage at your ideal number of births per month?
5. What other sources of income do you or can you have that will not interfere with your ability to be on call for the births?

 
 
I hope this blog has been helpful to you. Doula work is an amazing profession! It is a tough small business to run – especially when doulas are monetarily undervalued – and burn out rates are high. Charge your worth!!!