Here at Flow of Life, our Embodied Birth Training teaches our students not only how to doula, but why to doula. And a big question that we get from our students, whether at an in-person training in Asheville or Atlanta, or at a virtual training which hosts students from across the world, is “how long will it take for me to become a doula?”
The short answer is that the average time it takes to become a birth doula is about a year.
The longer answer is that it depends on your style and approach to the certification process. Everyone begins the process with their birth doula training workshop. In that space, we find that people typically fall into one of two camps.
The first is someone who is really excited about the process, comes into the training already lining up births, and is ready to move through the certification as quickly as possible.
The second is someone who wants to take their time; they absorb the training and want more time to process, and they often need to take a breath after the training before taking on clients.
Regardless of which camp you fall into, you have several steps to complete after your birth doula training to reach certification. You have to support three clients in birth before you can get certified with DONA.
Across the board, we’ve found that the hardest step is starting.
The biggest barrier we see folks have in getting started in their doula practice is finding clients. Luckily, we spend time in our trainings discussing strategies for securing clients. One tip is to ask friends or other folks within your network.
Once you secure a client, the next thing to consider is that pregnancy is not a short process; there’s doula support to do throughout pregnancy, and so there’s a great deal of time to practice leading up to birth.
When you’ve attended your first birth, it’s a time to celebrate! Yay! You’ll need three births total to complete your doula certification, but we suggest that our trainees find your first client and start there, rather than stacking your three clients in the same timeframe. It’s helpful to see how you feel throughout your client’s pregnancy before taking on additional clients.
We find that most people are able to support their three clients and complete the training within one year. You have three years to complete the process with DONA before you have to apply for an extension.
Curious about the details of DONA certification and training? Check out our blog posts on the topic or reach out to schedule an inquiry call. We’d love to chat with you!
