As a certified doula, you know the service we do is so amazing. However, you also know it can be quite intense. Even when you’re fortunate enough to attend several positive births, the on-call nature can be tiring.
With many doulas staying in service less than five years, how can you avoid doula burnout? Well, there are many ways. Yes, this role is amazing. But it is truly work, and hard work at that. However, it is such important and fulfilling work. With the right steps, you can avoid doula burnout and stay in this career for the long haul.
Here are out top tips for avoiding doula burnout:
Avoid Doula Burnout By Starting Slow and Staying Steady
It can be tempting to dive right in after you become certified. After all, we choose doula service because we have a passion for birth and supporting families. Once you are certified, it is tempting to help as many people as you can as soon as possible.
However, it is important to remember that if you burnout, you can’t actually help anyone.
It is important to start slow and get used to the on-call lifestyle. Learn what limits and boundaries will work for yourself and your family. Figure out if there are places and facilities you are not comfortable working at.
By starting with just one birthing family per month, then two, and eventually topping out at three to four, you can reduce burnout. When you start with just one for a while, then eventually two, you are able to determine what does and does not work for you.
For some doulas, supporting only one to two families per month is the right amount. But if you they jump in and do four right away, and find it to be overwhelming, they might be more likely to decide doula service simply is not doable. However, it is doable, just not at that number of families.
There is also a learning curve. By starting with one to two, you can slowly adjust to life on-call. Once you work out the kinks and get used to it, jumping to three or more families per month can be easier.
Be Sure To Process Difficult Births
One of the hardest things about attending births is navigating difficult births. Some of the births we see are traumatic. Even if the parents have a positive experience, our knowledge of physiological birth means we know sometimes a birth was harder than it needed to be.
Secondary trauma is real. If we hold it in and we do not process, we are more likely to burn out. Take time to journal, talk with a mentor, or chat with fellow birth experts Do not hold in the difficult births.
On an important note, do not use the parents to process difficult births. Always dump out, not in.
Use Community to Avoid Doula Burnout
Being on call is difficult. Even when you have the best plans and schedules, illness, emergencies, etc., can hit. It is important to collaborate with a backup doula to reduce your worry about emergencies and illness.
It is also important to use community because doula service can be isolating. Unlike working in an office or being employed somewhere, you do not necessarily have peers around you. By networking with other birth experts, you can create a community of doula peers. This is helpful for referring to each other, acting as back up, and just adding an important fellow birth expert social aspect to your life.
Just as we tell the families we serve to lean on support systems, it is important we do the same.
Practice Self-Care and Use Boundaries to Avoid Doula Burnout
As cliché as it is, you cannot pour from an empty cup. If you are not meeting your needs, you cannot meet the needs of those you support.
It is important to take care of your health, nutrition, and overall wellness. How you do that best is going to look different person to person. In the same way you encourage parents to use self-reflection to determine what comfort they might like in birth, use self-reflection to find out how to best practice self-care.
With a bit of planning and intention, you can avoid the dreaded doula burnout and keep serving for years to come.
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...