“What is the scope of a doula?”  Ring of Fire Season 2 Episode 4!  

We talk about what we thought our scopes would be when we first started birthwork versus what we believe they are now!  

Digressions include: Talking trash about large doula organizations, and jokes about MLMS  

Leave a comment or send us an email if you have thoughts on this topic!  And if you're a birthworker and interested in being a guest on the pod send us an email!  

Join us live every Thursday, 7pm MST on Instagram to be a part of the conversation as we are having it! 

Email: ringoffirepodcast@gmail.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringoffirepodcast

Meet Alex: https://www.alexbarrdoula.com/

Meet Emmy: https://birthwizard.com/ 

1:00 Intro the topic “What’s the scope of a doula?”  

2:15 Doula work is born out of ancestral knowledge  

3:30 VBAC Wizard training! And we’re currently offering advertising space, email us for inquiries!  

8:00 What did we think the scope of a doula was when we first started in this work  

10:00 Alex talks about training to be a doula with a birth center rather than a large organization  

18:47 Alex talks about the warring information provided in doula trainings  

25:00 Why is blame placed upon the birther rather than the system causing harm?  

26:27 Why are clients hiring doulas?  

29:00 What if you hire a doula who isn’t going to support you  

30:00 Emmy is hopeful that as time goes on more and more doulas will begin to advocate for their clients  

34:24 Emmy talks about how doulas are not medical providers, yet she sees medical advice being shared by doulas  

42:00 Clients hire doulas for different reasons  

48:00 Emmy talks about how doulas who being outside of advocacy often end up never pursuing it  

49:30 Even with best case outcomes you can be traumatized from witnessing births  

54:00 Birthing Advocacy is one of our favorite training organizations, and who you pick to train from is important   

58:00 We need to be conscious of the people we are paying to become doulas