HOW TO BECOME A DOULA IN THE UK
You bring your heart…we hone your skills!
If you’re here, there’s a good chance something about birth has captured your attention in a way that’s hard to ignore! Doula work sits right at the heart of one of the most important transitions in people’s lives, supporting families through the beautiful, overwhelming, transformative journey of pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood.
The Online Birth + Postnatal Doula Pathway (coming soon!)
We’re currently building our Online Birth + Postnatal Doula Pathway a self-paced training experience with real, human support all the way through. We know it can be a barrier for some who are desperate to start supporting families to find the time to take 4 days away, plus the extra expense of travel and hotels on top of their training investment, which is why we offer this fantastic pathway!
Want first access (and £200 off)?
Join the waitlist and we’ll email you a £200 waitlist-only discount code the moment doors open!
Our Doula training has been created by experienced, passionate Doulas and UK birth activists who care deeply about doing this work well and supporting you to do it your way. From the very beginning, we built this course around the belief that Doula work changes lives and that you should never feel like you have to do it alone. This is expert, nurturing online Doula training with close live, mentor support.
What this pathway will include:
When doors open you can start straight away:
You can dive into the training in your own time, no waiting for a cohort! You start when you are ready. This is a mix of self paced study, project work and discussions with your mentor, and other Doulas in training.
Weekly mentoring:
A place to check in, ask us questions and get support when you need it, and we all need it!
A 1:1 mentor in your corner:
Real guidance from a practising doula who’ll help you find your feet and shape your own way of doing this work - we are very focussed on your finding your own voice as a Doula.
Live workshops (and real-life meet-ups if you want them)
Learn together, talk things through, and feel part of something, not just you and your laptop!
FEDANT accredited:
Training with a recognised UK standard behind it.
Business + marketing support that actually works:
We don’t tell you to just manifest your birth business! We give you tried and tested marketing advice and strategy. Clients, fees, boundaries, confidence, sustainability, so you don’t qualify and then freeze, we are SO passionate about this!
The Perinatal Collective (12 months included).
Ongoing community, mentoring and training so you’re supported way beyond your course ending
Online with 1-2-1 mentorship: £1,395
Payment plans available
You’re supported personally as you study online
This is not a self-study course where you are left to figure everything out on your own.
Alongside instant access to the full online training, you will be supported by one of our experienced Doula Guides, who will walk alongside you as you move through the course. You’ll have regular check-ins, mentorship, and guidance throughout your studies, so you are never learning in isolation.
This pathway offers depth, structure, and connection without the need to travel or be away from home.
Our online doula training is comprehensive and considered, taking you from foundational understanding through to the practical realities of supporting families and building a sustainable doula practice.
It is completely designed to help you build confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills, rather than just information overload!
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Once enrolled, you’ll receive immediate access to the full training so you can begin straight away, moving through the material at a pace that works for you, with support alongside you as you go.
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Your journey starts with the wider landscape of birth.
Before we even step into “how to be a Doula,” we ground you in understanding birth itself, the systems around it, the history that shapes it, and the realities families are navigating.
You’ll begin with foundation study covering:
Physiology of Birth
The Birth Environment
History of Medicine in Birth
The Medicalisation of Birth
Caesarean Birth
Freebirth
Birth Trauma and so much more!This part of the training builds your depth.
You move through this work at your own pace, but you’re not doing it alone your mentor is alongside you from the very beginning.
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Once your foundation is laid, you move into the heart of your Doula training!
Doula Beginnings
Understanding the role, the responsibility, and your own values and presence as a doula.Being with Families in Birth
Learning how to support families before and during labour, how to hold space, and how to navigate the realities of modern maternity care.Being with Families Postpartum
Supporting families through the often under-held postpartum period, including emotional support, feeding, recovery, and early parenthood.Nurturing Families
Looking at care, continuity, emotional holding, and what families truly need beyond information.Doula Practicalities
Boundaries, client agreements, ways of working, and the structures that support sustainable practice.Birthing Your Doula Business
A step-by-step guide to building your doula work in a way that feels ethical, realistic, and aligned with your life.These modules are where we focus on the relational, emotional, and practical work of supporting families and where you begin shaping your own voice and practice.
Throughout every module, you’ll have guided mentor check-ins and reflective work to complete alongside your learning.
You’ll be encouraged to think about how you want to practise, what kind of Doula you want to be, how you hold families, where your strengths are, and where you’re still building confidence.
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Our online learning is not isolating, we make sure of this! You’ll be paired with one of our experienced Doula guides who will walk alongside you throughout your journey.
You’ll have:
Weekly groups check-ins
Structured 1-2-1 Sessions with your Doula mentor as you move through the course
Space to ask questions as they arise in real time
Reflective conversations about your learning and unlearning!
And loads of encouragement
This is amazing as it means when you have a question when watching you can ask us in real time and get a response. You are part of our Doula fam as soon as you sign up, and are given loads of support immediately.We want you to feel excited, positive, capable, and confident not rushed, overwhelmed, or pressured.
We absolutely love mentoring our Doulas! -
Once you’re grounded in your Doula role, we guide you through the practical steps of actually birthing your support into your community.
The Doulas we see being successful are the ones who treat this as it should be treated, a real genuine business and respected in that way.Because being an incredible Doula is one thing but knowing how to run a sustainable, visible, and financially viable business matters!
You’ll be taken through a step-by-step process covering:
Getting started
Finding clients
Visibility & marketing
Pricing your work
Creating offers
Building a sustainable business modelEvery single one of our mentors is running their own Doula business, plus we work with amazing partners like The Business of Babies to ensure you are always up to date with what’s needed to keep you ranking high on Google and seen in your community.
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Your support doesn’t end when you finish the course. This is where you continue being held as you begin working with families in the real world.
Core live workshops (various dates)
Cultural Safety (Mars Lord) · Birth Rights, Consent & Advocacy (Emma Ashworth) · Supporting All Families - Inclusivity Training12 months min membership to The Perinatal Collective
Ongoing mentoring, business and marketing support, monthly workshops, trainer Q&As, live interviews, and access to the core training team.
Options to meet up with your fellow Doulas and birth workers at our TPA Family gatherings!It’s a space to keep learning, keep growing, and keep being supported as your Doula career unfolds.
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Of course you’ll leave with knowledge that’s a given! You’ll understand birth more deeply, you’ll know how to support families practically and emotionally, you’ll feel clearer on your role, your boundaries, and how you want to show up in this work. You’ll also have the foundations in place to actually begin building your Doula business in a way that feels sustainable and realistic. It’s amazing!
This training is transformative for the parents you support and for yourself.
Book a discovery call to see how this work can look like for you!
Our Doula course has accreditation from FEDANT a UK-based regulatory body for antenatal educators, breastfeeding counselors, and doulas.
What this means for you is you can be satisfied that our course content is of a really high standard, you will be able to sign up to the national register so parents can search for you, plus you have access to lower insurance rates.
WANT FIRST ACCESS?
What do you need to be a Doula?
Maybe you've been reading about doula work thinking, "This sounds incredible, but I'm not sure I'm the doula type." Maybe you're not particularly "earth mother." Maybe you're not anti-hospital. Maybe you're quite practical and straightforward rather than deeply spiritual. Maybe you've never done yoga or meditation in your life. Maybe you're more likely to offer a cup of tea than pull out essential oils. Maybe you have never birthed a baby. Maybe you're genuinely worried you don't fit the stereotype of who becomes a doula.
If any of this resonates, I need you to know something important: you're exactly the kind of person who could be an absolutely brilliant doula. Because what matters is honestly very simple!
The Doula in you cares deeply about how families experience pregnancy, birth and the early days with their baby. You believe parents deserve information, respect and support as they make decisions about their own bodies and their own journeys.
You have probably already been doing this in some way for years without realising it. You might be the person friends call when they need someone to really listen. The one who asks questions, advocates, notices when someone needs support and steps in with calm and care. Who just sometimes shows up without being asked.
Sometimes the path into doula work begins with a powerful personal experience of birth. Sometimes it comes from supporting a friend through pregnancy or postpartum. And sometimes it’s simply the feeling that families deserve to be better supported than they often are.
And once that feeling lands, it can be quite hard to ignore!
Doula work is heart-led work, but it is also skilled work. With the right training, guidance and community around you, that instinct to care and advocate can grow into something incredibly powerful, for you and the families you support.
One thing does help though… being completely obsessed with birth and all it brings, so if this does feel like you and you want more information about what life as a Doula can actually look like including earning potential, first steps and how to begin download our brochure below.
Can you really earn a living as a Doula?
Yes. You absolutely can!
Many doulas build thriving, sustainable businesses supporting families through pregnancy, birth and the early days with their baby. In many parts of the UK, birth doulas charge anywhere between £1,500 and £5,000 per family, depending on location and the support they offer.
This can already create a solid and meaningful income doing work that genuinely matters.
Of course, like any self-employed path, it doesn’t happen by accident. The biggest investment when you begin isn’t money, it’s time and intention. The doulas who build successful practices are the ones who treat it like a real business from the beginning. They show up, they connect with families, they talk about their work, and they keep going even when it feels a little outside their comfort zone.
And that’s exactly where we support you.
Inside our training you won’t just learn how to be an excellent doula. We guide you through the practical side of building your work too finding clients, setting your fees, creating clear boundaries, and growing a doula practice that is sustainable for your life and your family. We are so passionate about supporting you as you support families.
We take this work very seriously and all of our Doula mentors run their own busy successful Doulas businesses supporting clients day in day out. We are obsessed!
Our training is for you if…
You want to support pregnant people and new families in a way that feels respectful, calm, and genuinely helpful
You care about advocacy, consent, and choice, whatever kind of birth someone has
You want training that’s inclusive and evidence based, not fear based or one size fits all
You want to learn from practising doulas and birth professionals who are doing this work day to day
You don’t just want information, you want to feel confident supporting families in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum
You want to be part of an ongoing community and have ongoing support as you find your feet
And we won’t be right for you if…
You want a single “right way” to doula, or you’re not open to supporting families whose choices look different to yours
You’re looking for a quick certificate with no depth, mentoring, or community
You’re not interested in learning about birth rights, consent, inclusion, and cultural safety as part of your foundation
You want to qualify and disappear, without reflection, feedback, or ongoing development
If you want the Online Birth + Postnatal Doula Pathway, join the waitlist and we’ll let you know as soon as doors open.
Talk to us… If you have any questions at all about our courses, payment plans or what this work could look like for you then get in touch!