The Six-Figure Doula: For career birth workers building sustainable, high-income businesses
Aug 4, 2026 · 39 min · 9 segments
What if the thing that's making doula work feel unsustainable... isn't the births? What if it's the pressure to be everything for everyone? In this deeply honest conversation with veteran birth…
Lisa VeeHost
I would love to dig more into, like, what did those first gritty, beautiful, stretchy years actually look like? 'Cause I think a lot of doulas imagine successful doulas have always looked successful, or I don't even like-
Like, I would love to hear, like, what comes up for you when you think about those challenging seasons, especially the burnout season that you kind of alluded to.
So I think from the outside looking in, you know, if somebody saw the beginning stages of my doula career, they were probably like, "Wow," like, "She figured it out fast," you know? Like, "She's...
She was able to, like, leave her other jobs." Like, it still took two years, you know, until I leave my other jobs and to, like, be full-time in birth work.
but I, so I think from the outside it probably looked like, great, yeah, like check, check, check.
But from the inside, like, what I was experiencing was I was, like, a textbook people-pleaser, and that, I think, is really hard to untangle.
And of course, that's still, like, a part of me in so many ways, but I've also figured out systems to let it not be driving the ship.
And so I would meet with my clients whenever they wanted to, nights, weekends, no boundaries around timing.
Like, I would be at births for, for multiple days, multiple nights, would go in too early and stay too long, and that is such a recipe for both, like, vicarious trauma and burnout.
And that's, like, a huge conversation, but I think that that's so possible, especially for newer doulas, who take it all so personally, you know, who see their clients' births as their, their faults or their responsibility.
I would love to dig more into, like, what did those first gritty, beautiful, stretchy years actually look like? 'Cause I think a lot of doulas imagine successful doulas have always looked successful, or I don't even like-
Like, I would love to hear, like, what comes up for you when you think about those challenging seasons, especially the burnout season that you kind of alluded to.
So I think from the outside looking in, you know, if somebody saw the beginning stages of my doula career, they were probably like, "Wow," like, "She figured it out fast," you know? Like, "She's...
She was able to, like, leave her other jobs." Like, it still took two years, you know, until I leave my other jobs and to, like, be full-time in birth work.
but I, so I think from the outside it probably looked like, great, yeah, like check, check, check.
But from the inside, like, what I was experiencing was I was, like, a textbook people-pleaser, and that, I think, is really hard to untangle.
And of course, that's still, like, a part of me in so many ways, but I've also figured out systems to let it not be driving the ship.
And so I would meet with my clients whenever they wanted to, nights, weekends, no boundaries around timing.
Like, I would be at births for, for multiple days, multiple nights, would go in too early and stay too long, and that is such a recipe for both, like, vicarious trauma and burnout.
And that's, like, a huge conversation, but I think that that's so possible, especially for newer doulas, who take it all so personally, you know, who see their clients' births as their, their faults or their responsibility.
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