The Doula’s Doula
Guiding you back to the beginning
When did you first doula somebody? Not do the work of a doula, but doula, the verb. As in, when did you first hold someone up, providing advice, information, guidance, emotional support and physical comfort? To discover why you were called to birth work requires delving into what it actually means to doula more broadly. Connecting with your calling is about connecting with your whole, adult self. Domino Kirke-Badgley, who has decades of experience as a birth worker and educator, believes it is vital for anyone already deep in doula work or exploring the possibility to prioritize Doula Mentorship. The mission of the Doula Mentorship is to hold and make space for doulas: to help them decide if birth work is right for them and unblur their motivations for doing it; to understand and adopt appropriate boundaries; and to reflect on the energetic exchange inherent to doula-ing and what is required to sustain it.
Your own beautiful or, alternately, traumatic birth experience may be what nudged you towards doula work and we’ll unpack how the way you arrived here can inform your approach.
Doula work is community work and it’s also, as we’ll explore, work that is rooted in reminding clients that they do indeed have a community that they can lean on; you’ll learn how to braid those worlds together for the people you serve.
Burnout rate with this kind of work, which demands so much of you physically, mentally and emotionally, is often an inevitability, leading to depression, dread, even dissociation. We’ll teach both longtime and newly certified doulas how to do this work without losing yourself.
Doula work is energy work. And this type of energetic exchange demands deeper personal reflection to be able to be fully present in this role. We’ll show you how to do the self investigation required—a proverbial cleaning of your mirror—so you can show up for the families you serve.
Whether you’ve been doula’ing for twenty years or are recently trained, you will find immense value in our collective “unlearning” and mentorship. We conjured this space to cultivate deeper compassion for our fellow birth workers while we all serve in this incredibly complex role. We are here for you every step of the way.
