Doula Groups, Agencies, and Collectives?

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-12-2006, 08:48 PM

I have been contacted by 2 women who want to become Doulas and they saw our article in the newspapers that we ran the past couple of weeks. The article has been in 2 different towns and we somehow

actually got clients from it too!
My question is for you guys.. how many "groups" of Doulas are out there? Sarah and I registered our business w/ our state and these 2 women contacted me separately to see if they could be employed by our company. This does excite me (there are no other Doulas within 60 miles that we know of) so anyone that wants to help us get the word out is great! I'm also thinking that the more heads we have to help us (w/o competition

!) this can really help us with getting clients, funding, etc. But, it also opens another bag of worms. Help!!! Plus they checked out our website and that made them really interested in wanting to join us!

http://www.freewebs.com/mindoverlabor
Ashley

capandcradle · 05-12-2006, 09:50 PM

Ashley, Many cities have doula groups of collaborative doulas. IMO The worst thing you can do is to think of other doulas as "competition." They aren't -- think of it this way -- in my community of 1M hospitals knock themselves over with the biggest machine that goes "ping," the prettiest curtains, the nicest TV armoirs, but in the grand scheme of things what matters to women? That they like and trust their care providers! The other stuff is really gravy.

Just like anything else, I'd be honest, that you are just getting started, that to join you the potential doulas will need to get some education, to understand the realities of 'doula life', then you ladies might want to consider doing a strategic plan. I like Carter McNamara's info www.managementhelp.org -- since you seem to be up against more challenges than some other of us.

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-12-2006, 10:23 PM

Anne~
I was 100% kidding when I made the remark about competition.. it was a reference to somebody else's remark about since we are the only Doulas we could have the monopoly! I actually had it in the article that we would love for anyone interested in learning how to become a Doula to contact me. I just didn't think that anyone would want to work for us?! Then we are getting into the whole tax thing, worker's comp, and liability insurance. That's something that I don't know if we want to start that area yet. After Sarah and I have been brainstorming this evening, we are now wondering how back-up situations happen w/ pay? And I think that Sarah and I would be more than happy to be the mentors for them. Thank you so much for sending that link again. I had visited that site before, but forgot to save it in my favorites!
Ashley

capandcradle · 05-13-2006, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MindOverLaborDoulas

Anne~
I was 100% kidding when I made the remark about competition.. it was a reference to somebody else's remark about since we are the only Doulas we could have the monopoly! I actually had it in the article that we would love for anyone interested in learning how to become a Doula to contact me. I just didn't think that anyone would want to work for us?! Then we are getting into the whole tax thing, worker's comp, and liability insurance. That's something that I don't know if we want to start that area yet. After Sarah and I have been brainstorming this evening, we are now wondering how back-up situations happen w/ pay? And I think that Sarah and I would be more than happy to be the mentors for them. Thank you so much for sending that link again. I had visited that site before, but forgot to save it in my favorites!
Ashley

Ashley -- It sounds like you are talking of owning a doula agency, with employees. If so, YOU are doing the marketing, the clients are YOURS that you assign and your agency charges enough for the service to pay wages, overhead, taxes and so on. If I'm hearing you correctly, may I suggest a good CPA to help you?

I'm sure there are doula agencies, however, the groups I know of function more like marketing collectives, where each doula procures his or her own clients, pays her own liability insurance, & sets her own fee.

Back-up -- others probably have different answers b/c there are so many ways to do it. Here if a doula is going to be out of town, the doula w/ the client just arranges w/ the backup. They have an agreement, like, if you wind up helping at this birth, I'll give you $300. The main doula's fee might be $350 or $400. But others might have other input.

Stacie · 05-13-2006, 01:02 PM

I agree belonging to a collective is much easier than having an agency-type relationship. We have a collective here, and each doula does her own thing, asks her own fees, offers her own services, does her own marketing. Some doulas pair up, like my best friend and I; we have our own "businesses," but we are each other's back-ups. Also, we have a combined brochure and do a lot of combined marketing. There are two other pairs of doulas who do similar things, with back-up, marketing, sharing tables at community events, etc. We all know each other and try to get together regularly, we refer to each other, and plan events together. Currently we have a "10 Ways to Ease Your Labor" open-house event on May 27th...which reminds me, I need to contact the other doulas and finalize some last things. I organized that event, but in the past, others have organized "meet the doula" types of evenings.

I feel great about my back-up because we are the only DONA-certified doulas in our area, so I know we both have the same standards and code we are working from. I would be hesitant to partner with someone who might do things drastically different than I.

Stacie · 05-13-2006, 01:04 PM

Oh, about back-up pricing: In my "missed" thread I said I take a $150 deposit. If my back-up needed to attend the birth for me, I would give her the remainder of the fee. It has not happened yet, but that's how we have discussed it.

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-13-2006, 02:12 PM

Okay.. thanks for the info! This all really helps us!

DL · 05-14-2006, 11:07 PM

For my backup.... I charge 1/2 my total fee for the retainer and prenatals. I charge the other 1/2 for labor support and the postpartum. If someone attends my client's birth as my backup, I give her the second 1/2 of the total fee since she is doing the labor support and postpartum visit. Since she attended the birth, then I expect for her to do the Postpartum visit and get paid for it (although I usually accompany her to the PP in order to visit with and add closure for the clients whom I had built a relationship with).

There are sooooo many ways to arrange back-up pay. Almost every doula here would probably give you a different way of doing it.

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-14-2006, 11:59 PM

That's a good way to do it.. having your back-up go to the births w/ you. How often have you used your back-up? Luckily in the past almost 5 years I've been able to drop everything and go.. but we are really getting busy now!

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-14-2006, 11:59 PM

I meant Post visits!!

DL · 05-15-2006, 12:33 AM

Well, the way I wrote the post, it probably sounds like I have a lot of experience using back-ups. Actually, it's the plan I have for when I do utilize a backup, not for ALL the times I have used one!

I hear most doulas hardly ever have to use one, but it's good to have one line up just in case. I have only had to use a back-up once so far, but this way worked well for the both of us. I REALLY do like for the both of us to go to the Postpartum visit, which we did do for the one time I've used a backup. It just felt right.

newbirth · 05-17-2006, 08:09 PM

I would be hesitant to partner with someone I'd just met. In our area, we have had an association for the past 5 years, where we can get together, discuss things, do joint marketing, and encourage each other. We've seen a lot of women who think they want to be doulas, and then after a few months we never hear from them again. A lot of women just want to be able to see a birth. It's really easy to start an association like we have. You could meet in a coffee house, or any other public space, or could agree to meet in each other's homes. You can encourage these women to become doulas on their own, without having to take on the full brunt of marketing all on your own. After you get to know these women, and they make significant strides to become doulas on their own, you might indeed decide that your philosophies are in sync enough to partner together.

capandcradle · 05-17-2006, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbirth

I would be hesitant to partner with someone I'd just met. In our area, we have had an association for the past 5 years, where we can get together, discuss things, do joint marketing, and encourage each other. We've seen a lot of women who think they want to be doulas, and then after a few months we never hear from them again. A lot of women just want to be able to see a birth. It's really easy to start an association like we have. You could meet in a coffee house, or any other public space, or could agree to meet in each other's homes. You can encourage these women to become doulas on their own, without having to take on the full brunt of marketing all on your own. After you get to know these women, and they make significant strides to become doulas on their own, you might indeed decide that your philosophies are in sync enough to partner together.

I do, too, Bekah. Our local DONA trainer has had many trainings and less than a handful of doulas have "stuck". I don't know if it's the unpredictable hours, watching the abuse under the guise of care, or what.

Marketing is a whole other ball game. Done well it's good PR for all doulas. Done poorly or one doula taking the advocacy role too far really makes it hard for the rest of us. I wouldn't feel it necessary or wise to offer mentoring to anyone who comes along, but certainly I think get-togethers and birth-meetings are beneficial even with the inevitable attrition.

MindOverLaborDoulas · 05-17-2006, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbirth

You could meet in a coffee house, or any other public space, or could agree to meet in each other's homes. You can encourage these women to become doulas on their own, without having to take on the full brunt of marketing all on your own. After you get to know these women, and they make significant strides to become doulas on their own, you might indeed decide that your philosophies are in sync enough to partner together.

We actually decided to do just that the other day, but we had to move it to tomorrow! I am really excited and I think that you guys are totally right. I hope that they do stick it out (only 1 has been to a DONA training). I guess we will see a lot about them tomorrow and maybe they can at least work out something with us to be back-ups now that I know how you guys do it!
Ashley

Tashina Marker · 05-18-2006, 10:03 AM

I think that is GREAT!