Hiring a doula: where to begin, what to ask, and how to choose

Your doula is a huge presence on your birthing team, so it’s important that they’re a good fit! Read on for tips on how to find doula candidates, what to ask them, what they might ask you, and how to choose among potential doulas.

It can feel overwhelming to start searching for your perfect doula, so here are a few tips to get you going:

-Ask friends and family about doulas they’ve used. What did they like about the support they received from their doula? What didn’t they like? Would they recommend their doula?

-Ask your providers if they have any favorite local doulas. A doula that is familiar with your provider team and birthing location builds a sense of trust and easy communication among the team from the beginning.

-Start with interviewing 2-3 doulas. Don’t stress yourself out by trying to set up half a dozen interviews to find the perfect doula right away. Choose a few who have been recommended to you or who you think might be a good fit and do your first round of interviews. If you connect with someone, great! You’ve found your doula! If no one stands out, you can always do another round of interviews with new candidates.

Hiring a doula is very much based on how your personalities suit one another (assuming your doula candidates are all fully qualified to support births). Chatting about non-birth related things during an interview can be a good vibe check, but you also want to make sure the doula candidate will support the type of pregnancy and birth that you’re desiring. Here are the questions I’d ask a doula that I’m interviewing, to get a sense of how a doula might support me:

-What is your philosophy of birth?

-How would you describe your role as a doula?

-Have you worked with clients who have similar birth preferences as me (unmedicated, epidural, hypnobirthing, home birth, water birth, VBAC, etc)

-How do you like to involve partners or other support people during birth?

-How do you handle situations where the birth plan changes unexpectedly?

-What do you love most about being a doula?

Most of the above questions are more philosophical rather than logistical. If you haven’t already found out the following information from their website, you should definitely ask a potential doula these questions too:

-Do you attend births at my birthing location?

-What trainings and certifications do you have?

-How many prenatal visits do you offer, and what do they cover?

-What kind of postpartum support do you provide?

-What is your typical response time once labor begins/I ask you to meet me?

-How do you handle scheduling conflicts or multiple births at the same time?

Learning about a potential doula is so important in deciding who you want to support your birth! Equally important to finding the right fit is a doula interviewing you. Here’s what I ask potential doula clients and what you should be prepared to answer:

-Is this your first pregnancy/birth?

-Tell me about your pregnancy so far.

-Why are you looking for a doula? What kind of support do you want from a doula?

-What kind of birth are you hoping to have? What are you doing to prepare for that kind of birth?

-Who will be present at the birth?

-Who is your provider and how did you choose them? How did you choose your birthing location?

-How do you handle pain, stress, unexpected situations?

-Do you have any fears or anxieties about birth?

-Do you have any cultural, religious/spiritual, or personal practices I should be aware of?

There’s a chance a doula won’t ask you all these questions during an initial consultation, but I think more information is better when trying to decide if you’re all a good fit for each other!

A good interview will involve everyone asking questions of each other and last at least 30 minutes. If every doula you interview checks all your boxes, then go with your gut! You’ll probably get a sense within the first couple minutes if a doula is the right fit for your birth team, so trust that intuition.