--- title: How ProDoula Is Helping Doulas Make More Money description: Find out how ProDoula, a training program to help doulas turn "their passion into a paycheck," is helping doulas earn more money. canonical: https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-06T17:54:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:18.509Z og:title: How One Doula Turned Her Job Into a Money-Making Endeavor og:description: It’s all about turning your ‘passion’ into a ‘paycheck’ og:url: https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b2ff5f248bb643/6988b4a0428a9e3fbdcd566c/adoula-pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2195 og:image:height: 1235 og:image:alt: Maternity care og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How One Doula Turned Her Job Into a Money-Making Endeavor twitter:description: It’s all about turning your ‘passion’ into a ‘paycheck’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b2ff5f248bb643/6988b4a0428a9e3fbdcd566c/adoula-pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How One Doula Turned Her Job Into a Serious Money-Making Endeavor > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jan 6, 2017 5:54 PM UTC  Doulas provide non-medical support to mothers and their partners before, during and after a birth Doulas provide non-medical support to mothers and their partners before, during and after a birthDavid Jones—PA Wire/PA Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jan 6, 2017 5:54 PM UTC Being a [doula](http://motto.time.com/4247749/new-mom-gifts/) is not traditionally a profitable profession. Not to be confused with midwives, doulas (the name being a Greek word for “women’s servant“) provide non-medical [support to mothers](http://motto.time.com/4353460/baby-boy-girl-surprise/) and their partners before, [during and after a birth](http://motto.time.com/4286120/siblings-day-success-career/). It’s a service that has become increasingly popular over the last couple of decades. Partly due to a belief that doula care should be accessible to everyone, which often leads organizations to encourage doulas to volunteer and subsidize their work for poorer families, as well as the fact that the profession isn’t regulated, working as a doula has long been big on reward but low on pay. However, one woman is working to change that. Randy Patterson, 49, launched ProDoula, a doula training program, three-and-a-half years ago. The service, which helps doulas turn “their passion into a paycheck,” is the fastest-growing doula certification company in the country, said Patterson, in an interview with [Buzzfeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/doula-drama?utm%5Fterm=.ujWYbWxPG#.lrqGojx5O). According to ProDoula’s [website](https://www.prodoula.com/), the organization’s mission is to “elevate the role of doulas to a professional level in the eyes of expectant parents, medical professionals, and doulas themselves, while at the same time providing people of all demographics a rewarding career opportunity.” “ProDoula is more than a certification organization. It’s everything I have ever stood for as a woman,” Patterson told the news site. Buzzfeed reports that before one doula qualified with ProDoula (which cost $1,025 for the first training), she charged $250 or less per birth, but now earns around $1,200 per birth, with additional money when a labor is longer than expected. “The message previously was: Work yourself out of a job,” Patterson, whose company was said to have made $1.25 million in 2016, told Buzzfeed. “My message is: Well, that’s f\*\*king retarded.” \[H/T [Buzzfeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/doula-drama?utm%5Fterm=.ujWYbWxPG#.lrqGojx5O)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/"},"headline":"How One Doula Turned Her Job Into a Serious Money-Making Endeavor","datePublished":"2017-01-06T17:54:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:18.509Z","description":"It’s all about turning your ‘passion’ into a ‘paycheck’","url":"https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/","keywords":["motto","Jobs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b2ff5f248bb643/6988b4a0428a9e3fbdcd566c/adoula-pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b2ff5f248bb643/6988b4a0428a9e3fbdcd566c/adoula-pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Maternity care","caption":"Maternity care","creditText":"David Jones—PA Wire/PA Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4624085/produla-doula-profession/","name":"How One Doula Turned Her Job Into a Serious Money-Making Endeavor"}}]}] ```