13 Most Important Questions To Ask Doula 2024

Pregnancy is a wonderful experience for any woman and it can be a lot of fun too. But there are so many challenges of being pregnant too. You will have to take care of the two people and therefore be super responsible for yourself. Some of the feelings like morning sickness, mood swings, or even food cravings can be hard for some women. Although the hardest part would be when your due date is near. The fear of welcoming a baby and the labor pain can take a toll on anyone. Although there are a few things that can help the women during such times as well, one of them is having a doula!

A doula is a person who can provide emotional and physical support to the mother and even the father during pregnancy and childbirth.

While a doula is not a medical professional, they are certified with a solid training program that teaches them how to be emotional support for the mother during the pregnancy and childbirth, and in some cases after the birth of the baby.

A doula will perform many tasks that will be helpful for the mother and the rest of the family during the most wonderful yet challenging time of their lives.

Here are some types of doulas that you need to know about;

• A labor or childbirth doula provides continuous care during the childbirth
• The doula that helps the woman with the household tasks and childcare are called Antepartum doulas
• The doulas that are present there in the first few weeks after the birth of the baby are called Postpartum doulas. They also help with household tasks and childcare.

You can hire a doula during your second or third trimester and they will help with the rest of the pregnancy journey.

Some of the things that a doula helps you with are;

• Teaching you the  relaxation and breathing skills
• Answer the questions regarding the birthing process
• Helps you easily understand the labor and delivery procedures and possible complications
• Helps you to find a birth plan according to your preferences

Most of the moms have said that having a doula made their pregnancy quite better. Some of the studies show that having a doula tends to favor shorter labor, reduced use of pain medication, increased likelihood of spontaneous vaginal birth, reduced risk of C-section, and improved Apgar scores for babies. Overall having a doula means you will be positive during your childbirth.

Now the question is how to hire a doula? Well, you will need to hire one for yourself from various agencies. You will get several options from which you will need to choose the best one for yourself.

The best way to hire a doula would be to conduct an interview. This will require you to ask several questions so that you can figure out which doula would be perfect for you and your baby. We understand it can be pretty overwhelming to make a decision that is why we are here to help you out.

In this article, we are going to list down the best questions to ask a doula that will give you some insight on each of the doulas and which one would be perfect for you.

Go ahead and take a look at the following questions to ask the doula;

Questions To Ask Doula

1. How many births have you attended?

One of the first questions that you would ask a doula would be about the experience they had. This is pretty obvious that everyone would want an experienced doula so that they can better assist the would-be a mom in their pre and post-childbirth journey.

You can choose a doula that you think is experienced enough for you. There might not be a wrong or right answer to this. The certified doula must have had at least three childbirths, after that they may have gotten more experience. The experience of a tea doula will also determine the affordability of the doula. The more experienced they are, the more expensive they would be. So you can choose the one you see fit.

2. Why did you become a doula?

Although this question doesn’t have to do anything with the experience as well as the quality of work a doula can do, this is a question that helps you get to know them. You would want to know something about the person that is going to be there for a long time and be a companion in your childbirth.

The more you know about the doula the more comfortable you will be around them. This will certainly help you to get to know more insights about the doula that you are interviewing.

3. What training did you receive? Are you certified?

Now, this is more of a practical question to ask the potential doula for you. First of all the doula, you are getting for yourself must be certified and should have a certification with good enough training.

Where they must have received their training also makes a lot of difference and you won’t want to choose the one that has gone to a not-so-great institute to get the training for becoming a doula.

The thing is, you must check the certificate and training details of the doula that you are hiring. This would certainly help you to choose the best doula for yourself.

4. Do you attend all hospital births? Home births? Are there any birth centers you don’t go to?

This question will help you understand how comfortable the doula would be with any kind of childbirth. Most moms do want to experience the home birth, so if she doesn’t have experience with that, this might be a little hard for you.

So ask the doula what type of birth they would be comfortable with and if there is anything that might make them uncomfortable or hesitant. This will certainly help you make a decision.

5. Do you have a backup doula? Can I meet them ahead of time? How did you choose your backup doula?

If something comes up and your doula may not be able to continue their service (this is unlikely to happen) then how would they handle the situation? That is what you will need to ask next in your interview.

To make sure that your needs are met, they should have a backup doula in case things don’t work out with someone you have hired.

So try to understand how the situation will work out if something unexpected happens and the doula won’t be able to continue the work.

6. How accessible you will be and what will your timing be?

The timing and accessibility are also the things that you should be aware of. These are not the things that you can neglect or skip. Even though you have a template of the timing and accessibility for the doula, you can’t expect them to be at your service 24*7.

So clear things up when it comes to accessibility and the timing of the doula for you. This will certainly help you understand their availability and whether it would work for you.

7. How many clients do you have around my due date?

This again is a great question that you should certainly ask while hiring a doula for you. The number of clients they have during your due date or let’s say within that month would certainly impact their availability for you and the quality of time and work they can give you during that time.

So asking this question would certainly help you understand better if they would be available for you. It is normal to have four clients per month, but anything more than that would cause some issues.

You can get a newer doula that isn’t very experienced because they might not have that many clients which means they would be more available for you.

8. What kind of work can you do while being my doula?

This is also an important question to ask because there is a wide area of work that a doula can do for new moms to make them comfortable and assist them in every possible way. From being there as someone who can help you understand the process of childbirth to helping you with household chores, there are a lot of things that a doula can do.

But the question is what your doula can do for you and what services they can offer you. Each one of them might have a set of work or services that they would provide to their clients and it may not include everything that you want. This is why it is better to clear things when it comes to your needs and requirements and what they can offer to you. This would be helpful for you to choose the perfect doula that you are looking for.

9. What will be your fees?

Discussing the money is also an important part of the interview. After all, this is what they are working for, right. Also discussing money before you hire a doula would help a lot as you don’t have to worry about it again. So make sure that you have discussed the fees and both the parties agree on it.

10. What does your pricing include?

Discussion of fees may not be enough because the fee structure can differ for several doulas and the way they price their services.

So one thing that you can do before you finalize the doula for yourself is to ask about the pricing. This may be different than the fess they are asking for. Because there might be some services that may not have been included in the fee structure and what you are already paying them.

So ask your doula if they would charge extra for some services or simply what services they can provide under the fee that you are already paying. You can also ask for a more explicit pricing list to understand better their prices and services.

11. What is your working style?

Everyone has their style when it comes to working. Some people may do it one way while others have a completely different way of working. If you want to be sure about their working style and whether it would suit your needs then you should certainly ask them before hiring. It will certainly help you to make a decision and understand whether they are the right choice for you.

12. When will you be on call for my birth?

Ideally, a doula should be there for you all the time for two weeks before your due date. This means 24 hours a day and each day for the whole week. If this isn’t the deal you are getting then you might need to think it over or negotiate the pricing.

So make sure to ask this question to know their availability and if that suits you or not.

13. Do you have any questions for me?

This is also a must-ask question when it comes to choosing your doula.

There are plenty of things that you can get out of the response to this question. For example how seriously they have been listening to you and whether it makes sense for you as well. You don’t want to invest in a doula that isn’t that interested or doesn’t know what you are expecting from them.

This question will also give them a chance to clear things up and make sure that both of you are on the same page at the end.

Conclusion

So these are some of the best questions to ask doula and these will certainly help you choose the best one for yourself. We hope that these questions would be helpful for you to select the ideal doula for yourself.
That would be all for now and we hope you found this helpful and got everything that you have been looking for. Thank you.