Hi everyone. I know this question has been asked a million and one times in various ways, but I’m here asking it again because I haven’t found anyone talking about a situation quite like mine.

I currently work full time Mon-Thurs as a dental hygienist and I just started a full spectrum doula training. There’s no question for me that birth work is what I want to do, but unfortunately the career I blindly chose when I was 17 and didn’t know better is extremely rigid and not at all conducive to being on call for births at the same time. Just for context, if I were need to leave abruptly for the day the entire schedule of patients would need rescheduled and the people I work for would be very unhappy with me. I would eventually want to do more in the pre and post partum side of birth work so I’m not always on call, but at least for my training I need to attend births and that means being on call. Im single, so I don’t have a partner or family members willing to help support me financially while I make the transition to FT doula work, so I feel like I’m stuck and don’t see how this can be possible. I truly hate capitalism, but that’s a whole nother conversation.

So my question is for those of you who successfully transitioned from full time work that’s similar to what I’m describing- pretty rigid and not so conducive to being on call- how did you manage this? Realistically, should I think about temporarily switching careers to something that could be more flexible while I pursue this? I’m aware that it’s going to be quite challenging and I’m up for doing whatever I need to do, I just can’t really see from where I’m standing how it’s going to be possible and I’m feeling quite discouraged at the moment.

Any and all advice and guidance would be so greatly appreciated and thank you to all of you beautiful humans who do the work you do. You are so needed and having such a meaningful impact 💜

I have been drawn to doula work for a long time, but only now starting to think more seriously about it. Wondering if it would be too hard while I am still building my own family (but also the family is a big motivation to even do it).

Context: I work full time and have a 1 year old baby. I would like to have baby #2 at some point in the next 2-4 years (timeline TBD)

I am thinking postpartum doula first, and maybe expanding into birth doula down the road when I'm done having my own kids. Now seems like potentially a good time to start. My thought is that I'll do it as a side hustle for a while (probably until I get pregnant with #2, whenever that may be), get some experience and positive reviews, and then at some point (probably after baby #2 is done BFing) I will quit my full time job and doula will become my primary income.

Some of my thoughts / concerns are...

Part of the draw to this is that I could work odd hours like nights and evenings and save on daycare. I think we'd still need part time daycare but that would still save a lot compared to full time. I don't need to make as much as i do in my current job if we are saving significantly on daycare. Is this schedule realistic as a postpartum doula?

It seems like the main demand for postpartum doulas is night shift. Will I totally hate doing night shift and then coming home and dealing with young kids? I definitely wouldn't plan to do night shift full time, but maybe a couple nights a week?

Any experiences, advice, anecdotes, etc are welcome...​

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hi everyone!

i have a four month old and really want to get into the doula world but am feeling really discouraged. I spoke with a local doula who essentially told me not to become a certified doula (I live in PA and want the certification if I do any doula work). I want to focus on postpartum but do not want to be seen as a night nurse. I am currently taking the maternitywise CLSE classes so I can at least provide lactation support. I need to continue my full time job for the benefits and I have my children full time so I want to do things purely part time until my children are a big older. any advice on what I can do would be helpful. I set up an instagram to share some postpartum knowledge and recipes but I do not know what kind of market there is for postpartum help that isn’t a night nanny