Doula Vacations!
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Transcript
Welcome to doula tips and tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Next week, I leave for vacation. Now, even as I say that, I'm laughing a little because I'm not recording this on the day that it's going out. So it's not next week that I leave for vacation, but I am leaving soon within the next month.
I'm going on vacation and I'm very, very excited for it. I want to talk a little bit about why it is incredibly important in this particular line of work to have set times of being off call. And when I say that, I mean very specifically, your phone is not available.
Like you could lose your phone somewhere in your, your Airbnb room, right? You could turn it off, like turn it off. Imagine, imagine. And of course that takes some logistics, right? Because for me, I have one more client due in June.
When at the time of recording this and they have one person due, they know when I'm leaving on my trip and if they're still pregnant, who their backup is, right? So that is sorted. And I obviously have people do later in the year.
So the chance of someone giving birth or urgently needing me in early July is very slim aside from the June baby. The June baby is actually the highest likelihood, but I mean the, the fall babies, right?
Like the people who already have, have hired me, but who aren't due until August, September, October, et cetera. I think I have a, I have all the way to December, but I have some spots in there. I just have a client in early December.
Those folks probably aren't going to need very much for me in July. However, they are all going to get information on how to get in touch with me while I'm gone. And also the timeframe that I'm gone so that they're aware that if they like email me, they might not hear back quite as quickly.
And so if something is urgent, they should call, right? Now for me, I don't plan to like throw my phone somewhere and not look at it at all, but I do plan to not pay as much attention to it because I'm going to be hanging out with my nieces and my kids and my siblings and my parents.
And I want to do that. I want to do that and not look and listen to my phone and not worry about who needs me and who's calling me. Right? The reason that matters is that the time on call makes you so vigilant at all times.
Like there is this feeling of like, what if my phone dies and then someone has a baby? What if I take a nap and my phone's on silent and I don't wake up from the call, right? Like those, those things cause stress in the body.
And even if you're like a fairly chill person, the, the constant possibility of getting called is still a high stress scenario, right? Even if you're chill. And so what I think is really important is to have times where you know you can't go anywhere.
Like I'm going to be away from DC. And so if someone were to go into labor, my responsibility in that moment is to help them get care from someone else. If my team needs me, right? I'm helping them remotely, but I don't need to go anywhere nor can I go anywhere because I'm not going to be in town.
The wonderful thing about that is that then I don't have the option of like jumping in and rescuing somebody, right? Which is quite honestly my instinct. Like that is my instinct. Like something's wrong with you.
Let me fix it. And I'm working on that, right? Like I am working with my counselor on that very same thing right now myself, but I think having times where that is absolutely not an option because you are not physically here is so important.
And I can tell you every single time I've left town. and known my people are in good hands and I am not available to them but they have the care they need it has been huge like I can sleep better I can sleep later like I can sleep in but I also wake up feeling a lot more rested than I feel when I'm here and like waiting for a phone call and kind of like anxious right and I manage that better than I used to like it used to make me anxious to the point that if I knew someone might go into labor I had a hard time sleeping but now I actually can sleep really well and I'm and I'm like oh gosh that baby might come I should sleep again like I can sleep I have no trouble sleeping at this point um but I it is like I wake up and look at my phone immediately because I'm like is everyone okay does someone does someone think they're in labor right did someone text me does someone call me that's that is the hyper vigilance that I'm talking about in terms of stress levels that is just always there when you're on call now um I would recommend if you're able to be off call even for one week this year please do it please please do it if you're able to do it for a whole month that would be so much better if you're able to do it for like two months now now imagine this right if you have other services in your business you don't have to be off of everything but being off call is a big deal like a really really big deal and so that is what I mean like I want you to be off call if at all possible so that you don't have to be looking at your phone and worried about your phone and all of that if you're still going to postpartum care or you're still like you know doing placenta encapsulation or lactation support or whatever services you know childbirth ed that's fine right it's okay I'm teaching classes in August I have babies do in August you know I'm not taking off work from everything but what I am doing is not going to be on call for anyone and I'm not going to to run to a birth because I'm going to be away right and my body and my brain needs that but also like my children need that my husband needs that like we all need the ability to check out and to know that I am not going to be picking up and heading out at the drop of a hat okay so that's all for today if you have not yet joined the newsletter I don't know what what you're waiting for you need to do that now because there's a lot of juicy stuff that gets sent out there and we're working on our late summer and fall classes and workshops and the free offerings that we're going to have and I want you to know about them first because who doesn't want to know about them first so our newsletter goes out every other Friday it is full of juicy details about doula business doula work sustainability etc etc you learn about the podcasts that have recently come out and you hear about classes and offerings that we have currently available and if you have not yet joined join that newsletter the link is in the top of the show notes so the very top when you look at the show notes first thing is there link for the newsletter if you for some reason cannot find it reach out to me on instagram at hara doula I am happy to send you the link and get you on that newsletter all right I will see you in the next episode thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits podcast if you learned something today or had an aha moment we'd love for you to share that on instagram and tag us at hara doula so we can celebrate alongside you if you found this podcast helpful we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together this podcast is intended as educational and entertainment it is not medical advice or business advice please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business we'll see you again soon
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All business owners need time off! But ESPECIALLY doulas! We give so much of our heart, soul and body in this work. We must rest and recover and be off call. Listen to how I’m building this into my business this year.
Quote from the show:
“Next week, I leave for vacation. Now, even as I say that, I'm laughing a little because I'm not recording this on the day that it's going out. So it's not next week that I leave for vacation, but I am leaving soon within the next month. I'm going on vacation and I'm very, very excited for it. I want to talk a little bit about why it is incredibly important in this particular line of work to have set times of being off call. And when I say that, I mean very specifically, your phone is not available.”
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
