We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Delaney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
The most mountainous hurdle we find most birth professionals to face is the value of the service and how it’s portrayed to a potential client. Generations of predominantly women-identifying birth workers have been taught that to serve with total compassion means sacrificing so much for the client. We challenge that idea.
It is both beneficial and essential that clients see the value of a doula by the pain points a doula can relieve, and also understand the massive undertaking on call lifestyles, education, professional support and industry relationships play into having a personalized asset such as a doula by your side. We find that expressing this value can be hard for doulas who believe that this work is heart based, and that there can be an almost apologetic nature to asking for compensation for the commitment and credentials that our work demands.
I’ve been here to challenge that issue – that doula work can and should be a sole profession for a birth professional, and can be profitable with the creation of healthy boundaries and expectations and communication of how the cost value will be delivered. When expecting families are reassured of what an asset their doula support is, and what skills and vital emotional relief that team member’s addition will bring to their birth experience, clients are able to understand the investment and, in turn, create that expectation of honoring the time and service with profitable pay.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I became a solo practicing labor doula in 2016 while awaiting the birth of my second child. I sought to understand the shortcomings of my own lack of knowledge of what I could have support for and options available to me in my first pregnancy, and wanted to assist other families in their own choices. Once joining the industry and serving families in the DMV, I saw large, gaping holes in support – not just for families looking for professionally knowledgeable, unbiased support, but for doulas as well. In banding together with colleagues and making a professional agency, we fill the needs of both our families and doulas in creating a support system for ourselves internally, and a one stop shop for professional resources and support for families seeking guidance from pregnancy through sleepless nights with a newborn.
Maryland State Doulas has expanded exponentially in the past 8 years. From providing overnight newborn care to in home lactation consultations, our group of certified, experienced birth professionals stands out from the rest for a few reasons: we have created and crafted wonderful relationships with providers, to avoid contentiousness in the birth room. We support ALL birth and parenting choices from scheduled cesareans to planned formula feeding and beyond. We also have created healthy structures of sustainable care for our doulas to avoid burnout and feast or famine mentality, which continues to plague the independent contractor industries.
I am most proud of the way we effortlessly flow our clients through what they may not have thought of, the common ideas and needs that many new and new again parents face, and a team that is highly skilled, compassionate and personal to meet those needs.
Any advice for managing a team?
Humility. The more human you appear to your team, the better. I learned quickly that while emotion must be taken out of an otherwise emotionally charged business, direct communication helps everyone accomplish tasks and thrive.
Relating to and humanizing each and every member of our team and strategizing resources for their growth, as well as team members who are dedicated to supporting smaller groups of our internal population has been a massive asset to making sure that we take just as much a contractor centered approach as a client centered approach.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Giving. Away. My. Time.
A wise, but harsh, colleague once told me “If I don’t benefit to make $200 from an hour of my time, then the interaction isn’t worth it.”
I don’t know if I necessarily have adopted that mentality, but I’m much less likely to let someone take from my time without merit. We recently moved to paid consultations, and I’ve never seen a greater jump in attendance, respect for that boundary set, and a plummet to interruptions to my time.
In a service industry, we’re constantly pre-programmed to believe that we should be graciously giving of our time to convince a potential client of our willingness and availability to support them. I couldn’t see this as farther from the only way to relay that to someone!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marylandstatedoulas.com
- Instagram: @marylandstatedoulas