Paying for your Doula education

Where have I been you ask? Well, life happened and I had to put the doula business and my training to the side because of other obligations, mostly because of financial reasons. Obtaining your certification to become a doula is expensive. Because it's not offered at a local college all the costs are out of pocket. Some of the expenses can be reduced such as purchasing the required reading list of books. I've been purchasing most of my books from Amazon. You can always buy books offline or rent them from the library to cut costs.

By doing this you can potentially save hundreds of dollars. If you are connected with a local group of doulas you can also trade or borrow books from your other doula sisters.  The other costs however, you can't get around unless you can find some low costs alternatives. Several of the required classes may have low cost options or there may possibly be a video offered on a particular website to satisfy your breastfeeding class requirement. Once you are ready to go to your workshop you must access the cost of the workshop, which can be several hundreds of dollars, your travel and room and board. The cost of the workshop you can't get around at all and for most organizations such as DONA and CAPPA it's a requirement to complete your certification. The cost of the travel and room and board can be reduced by finding a workshop that is in your state or within driving distance.

I don't drive I will be taking the greyhound. I have found that you can find cheap bus rides if you are willing to purchase your ticket on the website or buy a non-refundable ticket. The room and board option can be very expensive, especially if you are going to a major city such as New York. If you have friends or relatives that live in the area and they don't mind putting you up for a few days I'd suggest that option.  You can possibly try to find a cheap hotel or motel that is not in the city. Another option is to search Craigslist to see if there are subletting options or people who are renting out a room or a space for a few days. Use your discretion and better judgement regarding renting out rooms or space from a stranger.

These are all options for reducing your costs while obtaining your doula certification.