If you think you're on the career shelf because you have spent so much time bringing up your family and too little time in the workplace, think again! Experienced mothers are desperately needed as doulas to give support, advice and comfort to new mothers before, during and after the birth.

You really don't need to have any academic qualifications or medical experience. Some of our doulas have been nurses, midwives, health visitors or nannies but many others have had no medically professional or academic experience. However, as mothers (and often grandmothers) they do have most of the relevant life experience.

If you think you could be a doula you should be interested in supporting women and their families around childbirth and especially in the immediate postnatal period. You should be sympathetic and a good listener. You should also understand the issues that families face after the birth of a new baby and be able to help women resolve some of these issues such as support for breastfeeding and enabling women to recover physically from the birth. Doulas need to be able to do this without being intrusive, prescriptive or promoting dependence. In short, a doula is someone who is kind, caring and non-intrusive but who is also strong, wise and supportive.

Doulas are not medical professionals, but they are like professional mothers. They build on their own experience which, coupled with what they learn on our training course and follow-up workshops, gives them enough skills and knowledge to comfort and support new mothers.