Shadow and Apprentice with us
Get Babied Shadow Doula Training Program
Get Babied! continues to be a leader in the chilbirth professionals community. We have created an in house training program of apprenticeship for doulas fresh out of training that would like the opportunity to be mentored by senior doulas in order to transition into a career in the most supported way possible.
In this traditional apprenticeship model shadow doulas are invited to attend prenatal meetings with clients as an observer. They are invited to audit any classes offered at the collective. And they are invited to participate in on-call births where clients have approved a shadow doula presence. Shadow doulas will have opportunities to see how an experienced doula uses prenatal visits to learn how to better support her clients, and the importance of good postpartum follow-up while working side by side at the birth with her Preceptor. Because this is experiential learning, the shadow doula is an active and valuable participant in the labor and birth as well as in prenatal and postpartum support.
Together with the Preceptor, shadow doulas will explore advanced practice issues, the Get Babied! Scope of Practice and Code of Ethics, and the doula lifestyle. This Pathway offers up to three birth experiences that can be used toward certification. For more information contact us at doulas@getbabied.com
Requirements for participation:
- Must have completed a doula workshop (DONA, BFW, ToLabor, BAI, ICEA, etc)
- Must attend a Meet the Doulas Night
- Must have access to email and cell phone to be available 24/7 on-call for births
- Birth(s) may be used toward certification if you actively serve as a doula at the birth
Get Babied! Apprentice Doula Program
Once you have attended a minimum of three births as a shadow within our collective of doulas, you may qualify to become an apprentice doula at our collective. Apprentice doulas are doulas that are continuing to work on their certification, and are working at a reduced cost to parents while doing so. Apprentice doulas at Get Babied work on a 24/7 scheduled on-call rotation, and care for clients prenatally and postpartum in the same way as our certified doulas do. Being an apprentice at Get Babied is a great way to continue your education by learning from seasonsed certified doulas, and by having a resource for any questions that crop up during your prenatal and postpartum care, as well as phone/email/text support while you are at births. Get Babied! as a collective has quarterly in-house training sessions for all of their doulas, as a committment to our continued knowledge growth and professionalism.
- Must have completed a doula workshop (DONA, BFW, ToLabor, BAI, ICEA, etc)
- Must have attended as a doula at least 3 births
- Must have shadowed at least one birth with a Get Babied Certified Doula
- Must attend a Meet the Doulas Night
- Must have access to email and cell phone to be available 24/7 on-call for births
- Must have reliable transportation and the ability to be at any Austin hospital within 1 hour of a call on your on-call day
- Birth(s) may be used toward certification if you actively serve as a doula at the birth
Certified Doulas at Get Babied!
Our shadow and apprenticeship programs are educational in nature. After your apprenticeship with Get Babied we wish you much success in your doula career. When openings are available in our collective for certified doulas, we may extend offers to exceptional doulas in our apprentice and shadow program. The life of a doula at Get Babied! is one of team work and support.
The goal of our collective is to pool marketing resources, streamline finance and paperwork in a centralized process, and support each other by having a on-call rotation so we can still attend to our normal lives outside of our 1-3 shifts per week and balance life, other careers, kids and childcare. We are also able to better serve our clients by having them meet all of us throughout the course of their prenatal appointments (when possible), and having a well rested doula available at any given time with our on-call schedule.
Some pros:
More efficient marketing, finance, and client charting which is centralized
Office space, we have a physical office for client prenatal appointments and classes in East Austin
Reliable known backups all the time
Work-life balance for those of us who are mothers and wives (1-3 on-call shifts per week)
Volume client base
Recognized name brand
Some cons:
Less freedom to practice as an individual doula or to take private clients – we share all of our clients to ensure our on-call system works. We do offer the option for clients to upgrade to a preferred doula and in that case it is treated as a private client, but most of our clients prefer the on-call rotation system. Doulas receiving personal referrals become a collective client.
Each collective member pays a monthly fee into a joint marketing pool to cover the costs of advertising and marketing. This fee is waived for doulas who would like to volunteer their time for work put toward the collective marketing plan.
If you think you’d benefit from joining our team and our vision, please send us your doula specific resume, your credentials (for doula work and any other related birth professional work), the number of births you’ve attended, and anything else you can bring to the table for our collective. Email us at info@getbabied.com for more details.
