Welcome to the volunteer doula program at BirthWays. The program provides an opportunity for doulas to gain experience working with families and for low income families to have the benefit of doula care. Thank you for doing this very important work!

Requirements to be a volunteer doula with BirthWays:

• Commit to attending three births
• Make a minimum commitment of six months
• Complete a doula training program
• Fill out a volunteer application
• Attend at least one new volunteer meeting
• Agree to work according to the Doula Scope of Practice

After completing these requirements, you will be free to take clients through our program. New volunteer doula meetings are held every other month on a Wednesday evening. Once you are paired with a client we ask that you do at least one prenatal visit, be on call for that client just as you would for a paying client, and do one postpartum visit.

The procedure for getting paired up with a client is as follows:  When a family requests a volunteer doula, their information (name, due date, location) will be posted to the yahoogroup. If you are interested in working with that family, you e-mail Stacia Biltekoff at doulaprogram@birthways.org and she will send you the additional pertinent information about the client. You would then contact the client, introduce yourself as a volunteer doula through BirthWays and set up a time to meet. This meeting is an opportunity for both of you to decide whether it is a good fit and cover some prenatal information.  After that meeting, you must contact Anna again and let her know that the match has been made and that you are committed to working with that family.

Once again, this is a fabulous way for you to get more experience as a doula, give back to the community, empower a family in an integral way and work with families who would not otherwise be able to have the benefit of doula care.  We look forward to working with you and serving our community.