Ten Questions To Ask A Birth Doula (or Doulas) Before You Hire Them | What Do I Need To Know About Doula Support?
As a team of doulas based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we’ve attended over 300 births to date. We’ve been hired by families who hadn’t heard of the word doula until just weeks before sitting down with us for our initial consult. We’ve been hired by folks who knew exactly how they wanted their birth experience to look, and by so many others who are stepping into parenthood not sure where to start. Whatever your current take on this birth and parenting stuff, you to build a birth team who supports your choices, listens with intent, and share similar priorities and values in birth. As professional birth doulas, it is our job to help you make informed decisions about who and what you bring into your birth, and that includes who your doula will be. We want to help you ask all the right questions and feel as confident as possible with every decision you make.
As you email and interview birth doulas, here are ten questions to keep in mind.
Hopefully you’re establishing that they are available around your estimated due date via email or phone before setting a date to meet in person. Are there any other high-priority screening questions you might be able to ask via email to narrow down your search? We typically recommend meeting with 3-4 doulas to find the right fit for your family. There is no one size fits all to doula work, and you want to make sure this person will mesh well with you and anyone else in attendance at your birth. If you have a partner(s), make sure they attend the interview and play an active role in asking questions and communicating any needs. Interested in looking into the evidence on the benefits a doula can provide?
Why did you get into this work?
There are three main tools doulas use in birth: their head, heart, and hands. This question really touches on the heart of this person you are interviewing. When you are inviting someone to attend your birth - whether it be a doula, family member, friend, or professional - you want that person to hold space, not take up space. Regardless of what this person has experienced, how many births they’ve attended, or if they’ve given birth personally, you want this person to leave their baggage at the door and attend to your unique needs. While we learn so much from our experiences, this day is about you and we want to empower you to make choices that meet your own family’s needs and values. Folks choose birth work for multiple different reasons, and this question can get to the root of this person’s why behind the work they do and the support they provide.
What is a training or technique you use at many of the births you attend?
While many expecting families ask about the certification(s) and education a doula might have, we find it especially meaningful to ask how someone is applying these learnings to their work. With the first question touching on the heart of a doula, we find asking this question provides clarity on how they use their head and hands in birth. Not all doulas choose to get certified, and for many different reasons. Perhaps they hold another professional scope of practice as a bodyworker or therapist; it may be that certification is simply inaccessible for them at that moment, but they’ve attended workshops across the world and attended hundreds of births. Because of this variance in certification, we find asking about a specific teaching we carry with us really gets to the root of how we transcribe our knowing into doing.
How will you work alongside my partner(s), care provider, and other support people?
If you have a partner, it’s important to have a conversation with them prior to the doula interview process about how you two want to work together in birth and what priorities and boundaries you want to set. If other family, friends, or significant others will be present, what role will they play? Once you’ve established how actively involved (or not) the other folks in the room will be, you might have an idea of what gaps you want filled with the support of a doula. How will this doula work as a team alongside the other people in the room? In what ways will they also support your partner(s)? Our goal is to have one cohesive birth team that supports you in every way might need, every step of the way.
Do you have experience with who and/or where I’ll be birthing?
You not only want someone who knows where to park and what floor the cafeteria is on, but also the general culture of the staff and comfort tools available at that location (and exactly what cupboard to find them or who to ask). You want someone who has experience with your provider group and what routine procedures they typically provide. Some hospitals require a doula to sign special paperwork for support in and out of the operating room, or have policies that limit the support doula can provide in the OR. These are good questions to ask both the doula and your provider at your next appointment.
What do you like to spend your time doing outside of birth?
Birth is an intimate and lengthy process. You’re going to be inviting this person into a glimpse of what might be the most vulnerable day in your family’s life. You want to have several things in common with this person and feel comfortable leaning on them for support in a multitude of ways. You deserve to birth with confidence, no matter the turns your birth may take, with the information and guidance your doula provides around the decisions along the way. Think about how you want to feel during your birth and postpartum time. When you’re sitting across from this person in a cafe, does talking to them feel like talking to an old friend or confidant? Do they enjoy the same music as you? Do they make you laugh? Do your shoulders drop in ease as they answer your questions?
What happens if you are sick or already with another birth client when I go into labor?
This is such an important question, and one that warrants a really solid plan in place. Birth is so unpredictable. Just this past year, we have had clients with the same exact estimated due date (EDD) birth over a month apart. We had two families, one expecting in October and the other in December, give birth in the same 24 hours. We had clients meeting their babies on Thanksgiving, Christmas, an anniversary, and while one of us was away on vacation two and a half months before that client’s EDD. Who then will be by your side when life happens? Would you be able to meet this back-up beforehand? Would that back-up have similar answers to the first three questions to ensure your doula was a good fit for your family?
This is the very root of what drew us toward a team model. Between the initial consult, in-home prenatal meeting, childbirth education, and photography sessions, we make sure you have face-time with all four of us before your baby is born. We all take careful note of any updates or changes to your birth plan or family happenings along the way. And while we each bring our unique strengths to table, we were every bit intentional about building a team that shares a similar approach, technique, and experience in birth. We talk daily, meet weekly, and have Gather Team Trainings monthly to share any learnings from a workshop we attended, new research or evidence-based practices, or even a simple positional change or comfort measure that helped make all the difference. Even if you haven’t purchased a team package, your doula will have three others in their pocket at all times. We maintain the individual connection and continuity of care that make having doula(s!) so beneficial, while making sure we are all covered four times over for anything life has to throw at us.
What happens if I have an unplanned cesarean birth or need to schedule a cesarean?
We have a large range of experience attending both planned and unplanned surgical births. As your doula, our role in helping you make informed decisions, feel emotionally supported, and as comfortable as possible every step of the way stays true no matter what the room around us looks like. We find that a situation such as a pivot in a birth plan or the unknown territory of a cesarean warrants the support of a doula even more so. We feel strongly that no matter the plan or the outcome of a family’s birth, it is equally important to honor each and every birth for the life-changing transformation it brings. As long as hospital/provider policy allows, we will be there throughout the entirety of your baby’s birth and throughout the immediate postpartum to ensure your needs are met and your family is well and fed.
What can we expect once we hire you?
Most doulas run their businesses independently from one another, and as such, offer a wide range of variability in what is offered in their standard “doula package.” How many meetings can you expect before the birth and when do they take place? Do they offer any postpartum meetings or support? Who will be attending those meetings and what will be covered?
Not only are doulas great for the emotional support and physical comfort they provide in birth, they are also hubs of information and resources to help you make decisions as a family. Can you expect to receive any handouts, a birth plan, helpful links, or informational reading that you can lean on in between meetings? Is there a certain time in your pregnancy that they start going on-call for you?
You might ask if they offer any other services before, during, or after birth. Lactation? Photography? Postpartum doula services? Placenta encapsulation? Some doulas offer a discount on additional services beyond their birth support. Others might have a great referral for any of these other services you might need.
How does payment work? Are there any hidden costs I should know about?
Most doulas list their fees online, but it’s important to clarify how much is due and when. Some doulas require a 50% deposit upon hire, others offer a payment plan, and some request the entirety of the fee be paid by a certain time. Will they work with your HSA/FSA through work? What about insurance? Are there any refunds or additional fees applied if you have a speedy birth, cesarean, or a backup doula attends in place of them?
What are the next steps?
Whether or not you’d like to move forward, you might ask what to expect next - do you need to email, call, or text them? Or can you expect them to follow up with you? Ask for contact information in case you have any questions pop up at your next interview or think of something a few days later. Not all doulas post their contact information on their websites in an effort to limit spam messages.
Is there anything else you think we should suggest that birthing people ask their prospective doula(s)? Let us know in the comments!
Are you looking for a doula in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or the surrounding area?
You’ve come to the right place! Learn more about Gather Birth Cooperative Doulas on our about page, or visit our FAQ for answers to many of the questions above. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for a glimpse at our doulas in action.
Doula Match can also be a great tool for finding doula to interview based on location, availability, services, certifications, and prices among numerous other filters you can apply through their search engine.