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Postpartum loneliness is common. It's also easy to miss. A client can have a clean house, a full fridge, and family around and still feel alone. In this episode, we take a look at the reasons postpartum can feel so lonely. We explore questions that get past "good, tired," when we ask how a client is doing. We also discuss the clients and partners who seem to have it all handled and under control. We wrap up with talking aabout what happens when the doula relationship ends. Research shows some families feel a real loss when our support stops. Join us as we explore how postpartum doulas can help clients withe postpartum loneliness and build connections that lasts beyond the contract.

SEO for doulas sounds technical, expensive, and easy to put on the back burner. Meanwhile a family in your town is searching for a doula right now. Your name may not be anywhere on the first page. Throwing up a website and hoping people find it is keeping a lot of good doulas invisible. This is the next part of the Doula Business Blueprint Series. In this episode we take a look at what SEO is in easy to understand terms and the four places it belongs. We alsoa explore paid ads and paid followers, including what they will and won't do for your business. This one is for the doula who cringes at the word SEO. It's also for the doula whose website isn't doing what it's supposed to do. Inspiring families to reach out to learn more about what you offer. Join us as we break down SEO for doulas and show you how to help local families find you.

Once Pitocin is started, the approach has often been to keep it running through delivery. That protocol, has been built into standard induction and augmentation approaches over time. New research on Pitocin discontinuation once active labor is achieved complicates that approach. There are three major studies we can now look to on this topic. Depending on interpretation, they neither fully support nor fully refute it. This episode breaks down what an effective labor pattern actually looks like by research standards. Provides information on when and how to raise the possibility of Pitocin discontinuation once active labor is achieved with a client before labor starts. We also covers what to do with evidence that pulls in more than one direction at once. Join me as I walk through what three different studies found, where they disagree, and what that means for how you support a client through this conversation. Sources: Whitley J, Burd J, Doering M, Kelly J, Frolova A, Raghuraman N. "Reduced risk of cesarean delivery with oxytocin discontinuation in active labor: a systematic review and meta-analysis." American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2025;233(1):25-39.e11. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2025.03.015 Jiang D, Yang Y, Zhang X, Nie X. "Continued versus discontinued oxytocin after the active phase of labor: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis." PLOS ONE. 2022;17(5):e0267461. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267461 Boie S, Glavind J, Uldbjerg N, Steer PJ, Bor P, CONDISOX trial group. "Continued versus discontinued oxytocin stimulation in the active phase of labour (CONDISOX): double blind randomised controlled trial." BMJ. 2021;373:n716. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n716

You can do everything right in a doula business relationship and still miss the doula business red flags that may show up along the way. These patterns rarely look dramatic at first. They look like warmth. Or like being told you're valued, essential, part of the inner circle. By the time it starts to look and feel different, you've already committed. This episode breaks down the specific behaviors that show up when a business relationship isn't built on equal footing, whether it's a certifying body, an agency, a mentor, a business partner, or a doula partnership. Approval that has to be repeatedly earned. Generosity that gets punished either way. No acceptable reason to say no. Roles that stay deliberately unclear. Refusals with nothing offered in return. Opportunities given to some people and not others, with no real explanation. Join me as I walk through what to watch for before you sign anything, and what to actually do if you recognize yourself already in a business relationship where these doula business red flags exist.

Most doulas will tell you their ideal client is anyone who is pregnant or postpartum. Without a well defined doula client market every marketing decision, pricing decision, and visibility strategy is aimed at no one in particular. Having an undefined market is much like shouting into a crowd and hoping the right person happens to be listening. And this approach is preventing most doulas from building a sustainable business. This is is Part 2 of the Doula Business Blueprint Series. In this episode we dive into who your ideal client actually is, how to build their profile whether or not you have a long track record of clients to draw on, and how that profile becomes the living document that guides all the other decisions you make regarding your business.. Join me as as I show you how to define your doula client market and explain why that kind of clarity is necessary to the long term success of your business.

Doula trainings don't often teach a neurodivergent doula how to adapt. Especially when it comes to running a business or client interactions. They don't teach a system that already fits how your brain will run your business and interact with your clients and community. You either force yourself into someone else's, or you build your own from the ground up. Most doulas don't know what building their own adaptive system could even look like. The impact of masking through a client visit to the point your cheeks are sore from smiling. Back to back visits that left no time for rest and recovery. Navigating the emails, phone calls, consultations, client visits, the day to day of running a business and making sure that that you keep all the balls in the air.  What I built for myself was to ensure success. Systems for scheduling and follow-through. Boundaries around client interactions that let me show up consistently instead of running on willpower alone. Join me as I walk through what I built, why I built it, and what your own version might start with first.

Birth trauma is more common than most doulas realize. Most doula trainings are not preparing doulas to spot it. In this episode, I sit down with Jamie Bodily, MS, LPC, to talk about what the research actually says about how often birth trauma happens, and why the numbers are higher than most people assume. Our conversation covers what birth trauma can look like from a client's perspective. Some signs are obvious. Some show up weeks later and get missed because nobody was looking for them. Jamie breaks down the other mental health factors that may show up alongside it, and why doulas need to know the difference between what's within our scope and what needs a referral. She also walks through how to use the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as a screening tool, and which questions should trigger an immediate referral. There's also the crisis piece. If a client is in a current crisis, we don't have time to research resources from scratch. We need to already know where to send them. This one is for every doula who has left a client visit wondering if what they just witnessed was normal, or something more.

Most doulas were taught that oxytocin is the love hormone. It's also the hormone that initiates and sustains the labor and birth process. That's true. And it's only part of the story. Oxytocin bonds us to our people. It also makes us wary of everyone else. The same hormone flooding a laboring person's body is running a continuous background check on every person in that space. In-group. Out-group. Safe. Not safe. This process has real time influence on how labor unfolds. And most doulas have never been taught that. This episode takes an up close look into what oxytocin is actually doing during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. It challenges the bias most doulas carry into Pitocin inductions. And it reframes what connection, prenatal visits, backup doulas, and our presence actually mean biologically. Join me as we explore the biology of trust and how oxytocin influences every client relationship you build.

For doulas, fetal positioning and pelvic anatomy are topics most training programs introduce but don't fully explore. You were likely taught the four pelvic types. Did you know that classification system is almost a hundred years old and modern research tells us pelvic shape doesn't work that way. The pelvis has three distinct planes. The baby navigates all three through seven specific movements. And pelvic shape is the single most influential factor in how that happens. Pelvic anatomy also influences posterior positioning in ways most doulas have never considered. The gap between what you were taught and what you can still learn will change how you support laboring clients. Join me as we look at pelvic anatomy and fetal positioning in a way your training probably never did.

Most conversations about unassisted birth focus on the family's autonomy and the right to choose. This episode looks at the doula's side of that conversation. A doula who says yes to supporting an unassisted birth is making an autonomous choice too. And most of them are saying yes without understanding the potential legal, professional, and personal consequences that may come with it. There is no universally safe version of saying yes. Intervening if something goes wrong, standing by, leaving, all of it carries consequences most doulas have never considered. And the safety net they depend on when a medical provider is present doesn't exist there. Both sides of this arrangement deserve to understand what they are agreeing to before anyone says yes. Join me as we open up the conversation about the doula's autonomy that the birth community has been missing.

A doula business plan is something most doulas never think to create. Many assume it's for bigger businesses, investors, or bank loans. Truth is, it isn't. A business plan is the document that tells you whether your pricing makes sense, if the right clients can find you, and if what you're building will last. Without one, most doulas are making decisions without a solid business foundation to build on. This conversation covers the traditional business plan structure, but adapted for doula work, the financial reality of what this work actually pays, and the pattern of adding certifications to try and get more clients instead of fixing the foundation your doula business is built on. A solid business plan doesn't have to be complicated. But it does need to be honest. If you've been winging it, or you are ready to get started, this is where you start.

The phrases "Trust your body" and "Trust birth" are embedded in doula language and doula culture. Most of us have never stopped to question them. In this episode we look at how these phrases, used without knowing a client's history, can cause real harm.  The research on chronic conditions before and during pregnancy, birth trauma rates, and the connection between rising comorbidities and cesarean rates is clear and deserves our attention.  The postpartum version of these phrases and how they impact our clients is also addressed, along with a replacement framework for how we gather the information we actually need before we decide what language to use. This episode is for every doula who has ever said trust your body without knowing whether that was something their client could actually do.

Why do cesarean rates keep rising and what does that actually mean for the families you support? We have to start by breaking down the cesarean rate conversation the birth world has been getting wrong. From the origins of the WHO 15% figure what it actually said, what it was designed to measure, and why we've been misapplying it for 40 years. We also need to understand to the difference between total cesarean rates, primary cesarean rates, and the NTSV rate that matters most for hospital comparison. Without underdstanding these numbers we can not have accurate and honest coversations with clients about what they mean. Whether your client is working toward an unmedicated birth or scheduling a cesarean by choice, this episode is for you. Bodily autonomy doesn't require our approval and our clients deserve better than our unexamined assumptions.

Every doula has left a birth or ended a postpartum shift questioning whether their doula skills were actually effective. Nothing went wrong. The client was okay. But something wasn't received the way you intended and you couldn't stop thinking about it on the drive home. Most doulas push that feeling down and move on to the next client. Some spiral into self-criticism. Neither option builds skill or makes you more effective at this work. That feeling is a signal. What you do with it matters. Our nervous system shapes our support in ways we do not always recognize in real time. So does what we are carrying from the clients we've worked with before. So does the story we tell ourselves when we debrief, if we debrief at all. Sometimes the honest look at our practice leads somewhere harder than a new skill. Join me for an honest look at what it actually means to take our doula skills deeper and what gets in the way when we don't.

Knowing how to get doula clients is one of the first real questions after training ends. And most new doulas are getting the same answer. Network with other doulas. Reach out to providers. Wait. That advice is well-intentioned. Most doula training does not effectively prepare you for what comes after it. How do the families who need you actually find you? Becoming a doula and building a doula business are not the same thing. That distinction does not get enough honest airtime. This conversation gives it some. It is also a conversation about visibility, money, and the parts of building a doula business that feel uncomfortable but cannot be avoided. Join me for an honest conversation about what building a business actually takes and how to get doula clients.