speaking of doulas

It varies according to location, experience and market for them. Not a steady job initially but can be. Networking is important. Being on call in a busy practice can wear on the family life so having a partner is key for breaks and also to contrast yourself so as to broaden your practice's appeal. Do a search on the internet and see what others are charging, what services they offer and where they are loacated. That will give you a good idea.

Bear in mind that the economy is no great. Doulas are not doing as well as they used to. In my area, they are taking the same fee, but are less busy. It's a difficult time to start any business.

Around here there are a lot of student doulas working on getting their certification so most women expect a free doula. It seems like everyone I know has been through the doula class, so we have an oversaturation of doulas in my city! The more experienced doulas are charging $400 a birth, but they aren't getting it...all inquiries are for free births. Ugh.

in my area between $300-$900 based on experience. but if you break it down 2 prenatal & two pp visits (each about 1 hour) and labor (somtimes 24+hours) it doesnt end up being that much per hour.

One of the biggest factors in how much you can charge is whether you are an urban or rural doula. In my experience rural doulas have a tough go of it, money-wise. Have others found this as well?

I'm an urban doula and, not counting doulas who are in their first year of practice or who doula as kind of a hobby or volunteer thing, the range of fee is from $400 to $1200. My own fee is $850 and this includes access to my birth and parenting library, on-call service beginning two weeks before the estimated due date (though in actual practice I'm really on-call for them about a month before the due date, because you never know), monthly meet-the-back-up nights with labour-friendly snacks and a demo on diapering, baby wearing or mama massage and monthly family teas with hot topics like this month's "feeding your baby in public" (for breastfeeding or bottle/formula-feeding moms). I have taken a 32-hour breastfeeding counselor course, anatomy and physiology for the childbearing year, done rounds with Jack Newman at his Toronto clinic, and attended a myriad of upgrade courses over the years. I am also a massage therapist.

This sounds like an ad, but I just want to give interested parties an idea of what services are included for this kind of fee.

I know of one doula who, after many years of doula-ing, decided that in order to keep her sanity (and her husband) she would only take multips! This cut down her hours considerably.

There are all kinds of things to consider if you are thinking about becoming, hiring or recommending a doula. If you like, you can contact me. I'd be happy to elaborate on any of this.

I've talked to doulas in rural PA that charge $300-400 per birth and (very experienced) doulas in the NYC area that make about $2000 per birth.