What do doulas earn? It’s time we #listentodoulas to find out!
If you’re a doula, a doula group, or coordinate a doula program, you know that we don’t fit neatly into boxes. You learn to live in the grey area between ‘healthcare’ and ‘personal services’ or between ‘health advocate’ and ‘health educator.’ At times you may have even pondered ‘health coach’ as a category on forms.
As a community of doulas who have the potential to improve health outcomes in the United States, it’s time our value is recognized. We’re often viewed as ‘like a midwife’ but not a midwife.
If you’ve ever searched online to find out how much a doula earns, it can be misleading. This is because the market research combines doula’s earnings with midwives’ earnings.
The authors – of both the original market research and of the content that emerged from it – were not familiar with the diversity of training options and pathways. This means the conclusions are inaccurate and are not representative of our experiences.
Okkanti aims to increase the recognition and value of doulas. We want to ensure that the work of doulas is acknowledged, celebrated, and recognized as a profession that requires skills, knowledge, and expertise in areas that include mental health, health literacy, health care systems, reproductive health, newborn development, lactation, postpartum health, family systems, attachment, wellness, and so much more. Being a doula is an art and skill.
Our work has the potential to save billions in preventable health spending each year. That’s one of the reasons we’re also working to establish and ensure a sustainable wage for the work we do.
To be effective advocates and changemakers, Okkanti needs accurate data that represents your actual experience. We’re starting the first of many inquiries and you can help by answering the question, “What does a doula earn?”
We’re working with an independent research partner who understands the importance of listening to stakeholders and making our experiences visible.
Okkanti intends to be a key player in moving the needle towards a recognition of the positive impact of doulas. To do that, one of the things we need to know is what doulas are earning right now.
Furthermore, our midwife partners also deserve recognition for their work, training, and commitment. Doulas are ‘like a midwife’ in the ways we work towards a person-centered, compassionate, safe and equitable health system. Midwives are ‘like a doctor’ in their care delivery overlap. The midwifery model is uniquely powerful, and the doula model is uniquely powerful, and all these roles – doctors, nurses, doulas, midwives, newborn specialists, postpartum doulas – are distinct.
Whether you’re in the private pay space and establishing fair and appropriate fees for services, building a community doula project, advocating for fair pricing at the policy level for doula care covered by Medicaid, or discussing salary, you deserve to have access to accurate baseline data on compensation, our industry wellbeing, our personal wellbeing, and our impacts.
We have work to do in solving our maternal care crisis, improving outcomes for all families, and increasingly participating as collaborators in building generational health.
Complete our Listening to Doulas Survey (it only takes 5 minutes) and share the survey link with other doulas. You can also get access to our findings if you’re curious. Thank you for showing up in all your glory as a doula!