We have seen online birth experts for years, however, Covid-19 really impacted how many we saw. Can you be an online doula? After 2020, many doulas would say, “Absolutely!”
At the International Doula Institute, we provided you with information about providing virtual support. Many of us found ourselves with in-person birthing people we could not actually provide in-person support for. Covid-19 impacted every area of life, including providing doula support.
As a training organization, we find it important to help you learn about all your options. In short, you can absolutely be an online. However, there is also more to it than you might see on social media.
We chatted with Kelly Kolb, Childbirth Educator, Doula, CLC, to learn about her experience as an online doula. She is an experienced doula who broke into the online scene at the peak of Covid-19. However, her extensive birth doula and expert experience before Covid-19 means she has a lot of valuable experience to share.
Before Online, There Was Traditional Birth Support
When many of us at IDI first began our birth support, online training was not much of a thing. And online birth services? A rarity.
However, as the internet became more efficient and accessible, many of us found massive benefit in online training. In fact, it made it possible to not just train but easily access continuing education in birth education and experiences.
Once social media really took off, we started seeing doulas and childbirth educators providing general support. Eventually, we even saw doulas providing virtual birth support. Wanting to learn more about this option, we chatted with Kelly Kolb.
She shared about the start of her birth support and how she eventually began work as a doula online:
“I did traditional, in-person birth support for 4 years before beginning to teach online. When COVID hit, like so many birth doulas and experts, most of my service went away. In-person classes were cancelled, most of our local birth places stopped allowing doulas to be present, and some families lost income and/or job security, so had to cut back or cancel services.
“Besides impacting my family’s income, this also left so many families with little option for education or support to prepare for their births and parenting.”
Kelly did not initially set out to work as a doula online. But like many of us, it became necessary not only for our own business but so families could have support.
Be An Online Doula – Getting Started
Roman philosopher Seneca once shared the wisdom that, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Being an online doula, especially during Covid-19, likely falls under such a quote for many. To provide support to a virtual birthing person, collaborate with a company, etc., you need to be properly prepared. Technically, anyone can call themselves a doula, there is not regulation in doula support.
However, without proper training, any company, organization, or family is likely to move onto someone with proper experience. And to be an online doula, more than just training, most doulas will have taken the time to also build up their in-person experience.
Kelly shared, “An opportunity came up to build a curriculum for new parents including birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, and newborn care, and collaborate with a team of doulas and childbirth educators to teach families across the US and Canada. It was so meaningful to help families find community, support, and the information they needed.
“We had so many special moments of connecting families across distance when they were feeling isolated. Whenever one would ask a question or share an experience, others would nod, agree, or send virtual hugs to each other.”
Kelly was trained, experienced, and able to jump at the opportunity to assist in curriculum development for new parents. From there, she was able to provide doula support and support parents all over the world!
The Benefit of Being an Online Doula
As doulas, we can all agree there is something special about providing in-person support. In fact, I think we would all agree we provide amazing hands-on support for our birthing families.
However, while there are obvious benefits to in-person support, there are also benefits to online support. For doulas, this looks like:
- Being able to offer support to more families
- Less travel time and expenses
- More flexibility
- Expanding your experience
- Supporting more demographics and in more locations
- Diversifying income and potential client base
And for families, Kelly shared:
“We also found that online teaching provided opportunity to support some families in unique circumstances: online classes permitted a military family with parents stationed in different parts of the world to participate in class together. Ex-pats were able to access English-language classes.
“And we found that partners were particularly engaging with online classes as it gave them a chance to connect with the pregnancy at a time most could not attend prenatal visits or ultrasound appointments.”
Can You Be an Online Doula Post-Covid?
As covid-19 restrictions eased up a bit, many doulas were able to return to their in-person support. However, many have found a hybrid style of support continues. This hybrid style allows for a bit more flexibility and the ability to reach more families.
Kelly explained here experience and what the families she supports have done in a post-pandemic world, “Once I began taking in-person postpartum and birth support again, I still enjoyed providing online classes. They were convenient for many families with tight schedules and a helpful option for families looking to reduce their exposure at times COVID counts were high in their communities.
“I’ve also found that some clients are now choosing virtual postpartum appointments to discuss issues like feeding, sleep, routines, and get those comforting reality checks of what’s “normal” in those early days at home with little one.”
How Do You Start as an Online Doula?
First things first, make sure you are a trained doula! If you have not already started, be sure to register for doula training today.
Kelly had some excellent advice for those interested in beginning work online.
“For birth experts interested in offering online support………………………………210, I’d suggest:
- Get familiar with the options that are available both widely across the internet and locally in your community
- Determine what makes your offerings/perspective/format/etc. unique
- Spend some time ahead learning about engaging online audiences as the techniques for effective engagement are so different from in-person classes
- Work carefully to identify your key audience and develop marketing plans of how to reach them. It’s a really challenging space right now. Many of the big names have pivoted or gone out of business in the last year or two. And sort out how these fit with the rest of your services. It’s easy to get overloaded as small business owners.
- Know who you can call on to cover a class if you get called to a birth, get sick, or have another emergency. Like everything else in birth support, it really helps having folks who truly have your back when you need.”
Whether you become a doula online, provide in-person support, or a hybrid, it is important to be flexible. Any experienced birth expert will tell you that birth service ebbs and flows with trends. At times, your inbox will be flood with inquiries for lots of in-person, hands-on support. Other times you might find your inbox filled with questions about online classes, virtual support, and more.
Birth itself does not change. However, the support available, trends, provider styles, etc., is ever changing. As doulas, we can help support our families as we see services and support change around. Doulas offer a consistency in an ever-changing world.
Author: Aliza Juliette Bancoff
Aliza Juliette Bancoff is a well-known doula and doula trainer who has been providing doula services to families for over a decade. She is the founder of Main Line Doulas, a doula group providing doula support in the great Philadelphia area for the last decade, the International Doula Institute, which provides online doula training and lactation training and certification programs and the International Breastfeeding Institute which provides lactation training and certification. She is the co-founder of United Birth, a company devoted to increasing access to doulas across the country to make the perinatal time safer both physically and emotionally. “Every birthing person deserves access to quality doula support. And we are working to make that a reality across the country. The work we are doing to get doulas to every birthing person will decrease the black infant and maternal mortality rate significantly by 2030.” Says Bancoff. Aliza is known for her compassionate and empowering approach to doula work, and she has been featured in numerous media outlets, including United Nations Maternal Health Report, Parent Magazine, CafeMom, theBump and many more. Aliza's journey into doula work began when she gave birth to her first child and felt a strong calling...