Doula Accreditation is a formal recognition of your skills and experience as a doula. It involves completing a set number of births and postnatal jobs, reflecting on your experiences, and receiving feedback from a Doula Coach. This process ensures you have the experience, knowledge, and confidence to provide exceptional support to families. While not mandatory to work as a doula, many choose accreditation to formalize their experience and demonstrate their commitment to high standards. It boosts your credibility and confidence, ensuring you have the support needed for career development. If you plan to join Doula UK, they require you to be signed up to a mentoring programme, either through Doula UK’s own programme or a recognised doula training provider like The BirthBliss Academy. This ensures continued mentorship as you gain experience.

To start the Doula Accreditation process, sign up through The BirthBliss Academy website. Choose whether you want Birth Doula Accreditation, Postnatal Doula Accreditation, or both. After signing up, Siobhan Smith, the Head of Accreditation, will contact you to guide you through the next steps.

The costs for the Doula Accreditation process are as follows: - Sign-Up Fee: £45 for one accreditation (either Birth or Postnatal) or £40 for both Birth and Postnatal accreditations. - Debrief Fee: £60 per job, paid directly to your Doula Coach. You’ll need to complete four jobs for either Birth or Postnatal accreditation. If you’re completing both, you’ll need to complete eight jobs in total. These costs can be treated as business expenses and claimed through your business books.

We recommend completing the accreditation process within 6 to 24 months. This allows enough time to complete the required jobs, reflect on your experiences, and receive feedback. The timeline is flexible, depending on your schedule and progress.

Yes! If you have previous experience, you can still apply for accreditation. You’ll need to complete the required number of jobs (either four births or four postnatal jobs, or both), but your prior experience can count towards the overall process if you can provide feedback forms from clients or mentors.

No, you can choose to do either Birth Doula Accreditation or Postnatal Doula Accreditation based on your area of focus. However, if you want to become fully accredited in both areas, you can choose to complete both and receive a combined accreditation.

Once you sign up, you’ll be contacted by Siobhan Smith, who will arrange a call to discuss the next steps. You’ll then be assigned to a Doula Coach who will guide you through the process. From there, you can start working with clients, reflecting on your experiences, and scheduling your debrief sessions with your coach.

After each job, you’ll complete a reflective form about your experience and submit it to your Doula Coach. You will then schedule a debrief session with your coach, where you’ll discuss the job, receive feedback, and reflect on what went well, what could be improved, and how you can apply the lessons learned to future jobs.

Once you’ve completed the required number of jobs and debrief sessions, you’ll have a final debrief with your Doula Coach. This is a reflective interview where your coach will assess your overall readiness for accreditation. If everything is in order, you’ll receive your Doula Accreditation, officially marking your achievement.

While we recommend completing the accreditation process within 24 months, we understand that life can sometimes get in the way. If you need more time, you can extend the process by reapplying. Some circumstances, such as illness or maternity leave, may allow you to pause your accreditation temporarily.

The feedback forms are available online in the BirthBliss Academy Members Area. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to these forms, which you can fill out after each job and submit to your Doula Coach for review.

Your Doula Coach will send the feedback forms from your clients directly to them via email.

To ensure you gain real-world experience and develop the skills necessary for your doula career, working with friends and family is very different from working with a paying client. The dynamics, expectations, and professional boundaries are distinct, which is why it’s important to gain experience with paying clients.

Similarly, if you’re doing volunteer work for a charity, the experience may not fully reflect the professional and business aspects of doula work, such as managing payments, contracts, and client expectations.

For this reason, we limit the number of jobs you can complete with friends, family, or through volunteering to two jobs in total. This ensures that the majority of your experience comes from working with paying clients, which helps you develop the skills needed to run a successful doula business.

Yes, you can choose to work with a mentor from Doula UK instead of a BirthBliss Doula Coach. If you decide to work with a Doula UK mentor, simply let us know once you’ve become a recognised doula with Doula UK, and we will automatically award you our BirthBliss Academy accreditation.

Likewise, if you’re working with a BirthBliss Doula Coach and later decide to join Doula UK, we’ll ensure your Doula UK membership is recognised and your accreditation status is automatically updated. This allows for flexibility in your journey while ensuring your commitment to professional mentorship is upheld.

Your Doula Coach is your primary source of support throughout the process, but we also offer access to a range of resources, including our Members Area for essential documents, additional training, and ongoing advice. If you need specific support with business tasks, such as invoicing or contracts, we recommend working with a virtual assistant or business coach.

By the end of the process, you’ll have the confidence to provide exceptional support to families, with a solid foundation of experience and feedback from your Doula Coach. You’ll know you’re ready when you’ve completed the required jobs, received feedback, and demonstrated the skills necessary to run a doula business successfully.

The first step in your accreditation journey is finding your own clients. While your Doula Coach will be there to guide and support you, securing your first jobs will be something you actively pursue.

Start by reaching out to your local community, joining online doula networks, and connecting with other birth professionals or agencies who might need doula services. You can also create your own online presence through social media or a personal website to attract potential clients.

Remember, gaining those first jobs is an important part of your development as a doula. The process of finding and working with clients will help you grow in confidence, experience, and professionalism. Your Doula Coach will be there to support you every step of the way, providing guidance as you reflect on each job you complete.

Yes, absolutely! Once you’ve completed the accreditation programme, you can continue receiving support from your Doula Coach. If ongoing mentorship would benefit your continued development, simply speak to your Doula Coach about setting up a private arrangement. This private coaching can help you refine your skills, grow your business, and provide the support you need as you advance in your doula career. Your Doula Coach will be happy to discuss how you can continue your professional growth beyond accreditation, ensuring you have the tools and guidance to thrive.