As a birth doula, you play an important role in supporting families during pregnancy and birth. Your presence provides emotional, physical, and educational support to help empower growing families. But what about after birth? The postpartum period is a vulnerable time where many families feel under supported. As a birth doula, become a postpartum doula to extend support beyond birth. They can provide important support during the vulnerable postpartum period.
Here’s why you should become a postpartum doula:
A Birth and Postpartum Doula Provides Continuity of Care
When you become a postpartum doula, the best thing is the ability to offer continuity of care. Birth doulas build a supportive relationship with their families. By also offering postpartum support, you can provide an easy transition into postpartum support.
These families already trust you, making it a seamless transition for both family and doula. During a vulnerable time, having continuity of care can provide immense comfort.
Filling Gaps in Postpartum Support
If you work with growing families, and if you’ve ever birthed yourself, you know the postpartum period has many highs and lows. From hormonal adjustment to physical and emotional changes, there’s significant lifestyle adjustment as well.
When we consider the challenges of breastfeeding, sleep deprivation, emotional and mental wellness, etc., we know that many families are under supported. In the US especially, we have significant gaps in postpartum support.
As a postpartum doula, you can help fill in the gaps in postpartum support. Being able to do so with continuity of care is a wonderful bonus for the families you support.
Become a Postpartum Doula and Expand Your Skillset
When you become a postpartum, you gain new skills in newborn care, lactation support, and postpartum recovery. These skills help you become a more well-rounded doula but also increase your ability to support your birth doula families as well. You can better prepare them for the postpartum period.
Diversify The Services You Offer
Adding postpartum services to your doula services can increase the number of families you can support. Some families only seek postpartum support. For your birth doula families, you can offer ongoing support from pregnancy through the postpartum period.
Being able to offer both services can also increase the number of families who will want to work with you. When a family can work with one person for both services, they are more likely to choose you rather than having to choose two separate doulas to mee their needs. period.
Deepening Your Impact on Maternal and Infant Well-Being
The support you give in the postpartum period has a profound impact on both parents and newborns. By helping parents build confidence, establish feeding routines, and manage their recovery, you contribute to healthier families and stronger bonds between parents and their babies.
This work is essential in reducing postpartum depression, improving breastfeeding success rates, and fostering positive early parenting experiences. You can be part of helping to improve maternal infant health outcomes.
Personal Fulfillment and Job Satisfaction
Many birth doulas find fulfillment in supporting families through labor, but the postpartum period offers a different kind of satisfaction.
Witnessing new parents grow in confidence, overcome challenges, and bond with their babies can be just as rewarding as attending a birth. When you can do both, support parents through birth and the postpartum period, you can witness a whole important journey.
A More Flexible Schedule
Unlike birth work, which requires being on call and unpredictable hours, postpartum doula work typically offers more flexibility. You can set structured shifts with clients, allowing for a better work-life balance while still making a meaningful impact.
Becoming a postpartum doula is also a popular option for birth doulas who may need to take a break from the on-call life. Postpartum work is a great option for parents with younger children, second jobs, those in school, and more.
If you’re a birth doula considering ways to grow professionally and provide more holistic care to families, becoming a postpartum doula is a natural step. The postpartum period is just as important as birth, and your knowledge, compassion, and skills can make a life-changing difference for families.
Ready to get started? Register today to become a postpartum doula!
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...