On charging for doula services
One of the stumbling blocks I hit when I first started out as a doula was how much to charge for my services (or even whether to charge!). And it’s still a tough topic - money is a bit taboo, and since birthwork and deathwork are spaces largely occupied by women and queer folks, the work is devalued and many think these services should be offered for free (great blog post on that here). In the deathwork space, many feel almost offended that a death doula would charge for their services - a person is dying! Surely this should be free of charge! - but it’s just not that simple.
Here’s where I stand on it: being a doula is work. And in our capitalist society, we exchange work for money - and we need money to survive. Put very simply: I value the work that I do, and I deserve to be able to feed my family. This means I need to charge a fee commensurate with the work.
What doulas do
Doulas, both birthworkers and deathworkers, operate in three general spheres: preparation, labor/vigil, and post-care. In the preparation stages, we meet with clients regularly to prepare for the main event. Then we accompany the client through the work of birth or death. In the postpartum or postmortem stage, we work with the client or their loved ones to process what’s happened, ensure ongoing self-care and processing, and facilitate a gentle transition to this new version of life. The facets of this work are often intangible - support, knowledge, empowerment, connection, love - and the result is a more positive, meaningful experience.
One of the protests doulas often encounter when discussing fees is, “But I could just have my mom/sister/friend do this for free.” Family support is wonderful and important, but it’s not the same thing as trained doula support - and this attitude contributes to the devaluation of doula work. Studies show that doula support improves birth outcomes. So much of this is difficult to put a price tag on.
Passion and professionalism
For most of us, doula work is a passion, a labor of love. I don’t know anyone who got into doula work “for the money” - it’s a passion for and belief in the doula process that brings us here. At the same time, being a doula is a profession - we’ve invested time and money into training, certification, workshops, continuing education, materials, business research and operations, and more. When considering how much to charge, we need to balance our passion for the work against professional factors that impact pricing:
Experience - how long have you been working as a doula? How many clients have you served? In most professions, pay increases with the level of experience.
Training - what kind of training did you complete to become a doula? Was it intensive? How much did you spend on your training? What about continuing education? Are there other trainings that you’ve incorporated into your work as a doula?
Location - what are other doulas in your area charging? Do they have similar experience and training? Do you live in a lower-income or higher-income area? What can expectant parents in your area reasonably afford?
Your income needs - How many clients do you take on at a time? And how much do you need to make to sustain your business and live your life comfortably? What’s the math there?
Transparency in pricing
This part is key: be clear and transparent about your pricing upfront. All doulas, whether you charge for services or not, should have a service agreement or contract for each client. I discuss pricing in my initial consultation with each client, and I’ve also chosen to list most of my fees on my website (for death doula services, my fees depend on each client’s situation, so those are not listed). Some doulas prefer not to disclose any fees on their websites, and that’s a matter of personal preference, but pricing should be discussed at the first meeting regardless. Being clear and transparent about your pricing is important for establishing trust, which is the foundation of the doula-client relationship.
Navigating financial barriers
How can we, as doulas, address financial concerns to make our services accessible to a broader range of clients? Personally, I currently keep my fees on the lower end of the average for my area, because access is important to me, and I live in a two-income household, so I can swing the lower rates. In the future, I will likely switch to a sliding-scale model so that higher-income clients pay a bit more and lower-income clients pay a bit less. I also accept payment in barter - so if a client owns or works for a lumber company, for example, I might accept payment in lumber for a house project I’m working on. But keep in mind, payment in barter can be a slippery slope if value isn’t established right off the bat! So be sure to draw up a very clear contract if you decide to accept these kinds of payments.
Community support and advocacy
As doulas, we’re facilitators of community. We connect people and resources, we bring birth and death back to the home, to the community. We invest in our communities and in turn, it’s fair for us to expect our communities to invest in us. Community support for doulas can take many forms: allowing doulas to leave marketing materials on local bulletin boards, offering to host a birth workshop or a death cafe in local shops or spaces, and word of mouth. Clients and communities can contribute to fair compensation for doulas by recognizing the value of the work and its importance to the community. If you are in a position in your community to support and advocate for doulas, please do so. Connect with your local birth and death doulas and ask them where and how they could use support.
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If you only take one thing from this post, let it be this: be clear and upfront about the value of your work as a doula. The work we do is vitally important in our world. We walk alongside the birthing and the dying, we companion with grace and flexibility and knowledge, we enrich our communities, and we do our best to leave the world a little better than we found it.
