For my first birth I shadowed a friend who is very experienced. I did not expect to get paid but she did pay me in the end and the client gave us both a tip as well. I must say that I did not just sit and watch. I was very active the whole time. If I ever have someone shadow me, they will be thrown in the trenches. It won't be about just watching and I will pay them something for their time especially when the family benefits from the other doulas presence as well as mine.

I agree.

Mary

I thought that I had replied to this a long time ago, but perhaps it was a different thread.

Whenever I've had a doula shadow me, I did put her to work and "threw her in the trenches" so to speak. I did not pay her, however, and I don't plan on paying any shadowing doulas in the future. I agree with Dorothy; I am doing a doula a favor by allowing her to attend my client's birth with me. I am doing her a favor by putting her to work supporting a mom when it wasn't her client to begin with. If I were to shadow a doula, then I would not expect payment either.

Now, I wonder what my friend thinks about this actually because I didn't ask her to include me in the birth, she invited me into the birth with her.

I was brought in because she knew I was in training anyway, and her client was seriously considering a homebirth and I'd had one (she has no children yet though it doesn't matter, she's very experienced having done well over 60 birhts) and so she told the client about me. They all agreed that it would be good to have me there for a prenatal and from the prenatal, I was invited to the birth and she paid me saying that I'd earned it and I did.

I think that the expectation should be that the doula-in-training is doing this for the experience. If the primary doula wants to give the d.i.t. part of the fee, she should certainly do so, but I don't think it should be an expectation from the d.i.t, if that makes sense.

Yep that makes complete sense Dorothy. (How are ya anyway?) Being compensated was a surprise. I do believe that if I choose to have a d.i.t. shadow me, I'd give her something because I'd have her working.

Adding to this yeaaaaars later - but not only did I not expect to get paid, I was asked to pay HER to be able to shadow her. I didn't go through with it - was picked up by another doula mentor who wanted me and offered to mentor me without making money off of me.

technically our interns do pay to shadow us but its a part of their whole internship so they get a whole lot of extra training, meetings, experience etc. some of their fees go to pay the professional experienced doula for the observations. when i have a student doula shadow me, she is just supposed to be a fly on the wall during prenatals and pretty much during the birth too unless i'm demonstrating a technique and the mom is ok with the intern trying it for a bit on her. i guess i have had them take over when i needed a potty break or something but they are there just to watch since the clients hired an experienced doula and thats what they should get.

I paid the doula who allowed me to shadow. Whether I was worked hands-on was the client's decision. The whole experience was invaluable and I'm very thankful I found someone who allowed me to shadow and do some hands-on work.