What's the difference between a bereavement doula and a birth doula?

Many times, when people hear the term "doula," they assume that this refers to an expected live birth doula, often referred to simply as a "birth doula."

Bereavement doulas and (expected live) birth doulas may have similar roles or even overlapping trainings. But, their emphases are a bit different.

The main differences are the expected outcome of the birth and/or the timing of services.

Birth doulas are often trained with the expectation that most of their births will be of live babies with the expectation of a long life (that is, no miscarriages or stillbirths, and the infant is unlikely to die for a long time). A bereavement doula typically focuses on working with families who have experienced a birth before or after a perinatal loss (a miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss).

At Haven, we strongly believe that a birth doula should be ready and willing to support a family through birth regardless of outcome. That's why we've created trainings specifically to help folks trained as expected live birth doulas become more grief-informed (such as Basics of Bereavement Support and Caring for Clients through Loss). But, while every birth doula should have bereavement support skills, not every birth doula needs to be a bereavement doula.

Similarly, bereavement doulas often support families through the process of birth, but they may also support families who have already given birth or who are even decades out from the time of their loss birth. Some bereavement doulas will do decades of bereavement work without ever attending a birth.

Expected live birth doulas and bereavement doulas may consult with each other on different cases, as their roles are often very similar (emotional, spiritual, and physical care, along with advocacy, social, and communication support), though they may have more expertise in different kinds of cases.

Here at Haven Bereavement Doulas, we specialize in helping folks better support families experiencing perinatal loss. If you are considering becoming a expected live birth doula, we cheer you on and thank you for your work! We point you to our courses as options for affordable or even free continuing education (accepted by many of the major expected live birth doula training organizations), and to our blog posts, for more information about bereavement work as an expected live birth doula.

If you’re considering becoming a bereavement doula, check out our resources at this link.

Photo by Olivia Anne Snyder on Unsplash