Birth To business
-8 week Online Course-
June 11-July 30 2026
Birth to Business is an 8-session live cohort for the doula who is ready to build the practice around the calling with the same intention she brings to the birth room.
Over two months we build it together, piece by piece: how to price your work without apology, how to move a client from first inquiry to final postpartum close, how to run a discovery call and hold a 60, 90, or 120-minute session with confidence and structure, how to write the contract that protects you both, and how to create the systems that keep the practice from running you into the ground.
This is the day to day work of being a doula which allows for our practice to flourish!
Ethical Business
For doulas ready to build an
Honoring the work and Honoring ourselves
Together we will unearth the roots of our collective conditioning to undervalue work that has been traditionally held by women. Coming together in a cohort to recognize the individual and systemic issues that keep us uncomfortable with the full valuation of our gifts and then to do something about it. To build, together and in real time, the practical structures that allow us to carry this work forward with integrity: the rate, the contract, the session, the system, the boundary, the presence. All of it.
Whats Included
8 live sessions on Zoom
Recorded live classes for reviewing
4 pre-recorded training videos
30-minute discovery call template
Session templates for 60, 90 & 120-minute client visits
Full contract template
Client intake form
Billing workflow & invoicing guide
8 downloadable module workbooks
Private cohort community on Whatsapp
8 Live Sessions
-
How We Got Here & Who You Are
Context, Lineage & Niche Clarity
We begin with the political history of how care work became a commodity not as an academic exercise but because that history lives in every rate you set, every boundary you hold, every invoice you send.
Then immediately into the personal: who are you as a doula and which of these layers of conditioning you are carrying into your care profession.
Between week 1 and 2 we define our personal work of undoing and our niche of clients. -
The guilt most doulas feel around charging is not a personal weakness it is centuries of deliberate structural conditioning. We name it precisely, trace its roots, bring it into the body where it actually lives and then do the actual math. Living wage rate calculator, tiered pricing, sliding scale, and practicing saying your number out loud without apologizing.
-
Every touchpoint from first inquiry through consultation, onboarding, prenatal visits, birth attendance, postpartum, and final close.
You build a complete client journey map, first inquiry response template, consultation outline, onboarding checklist, and a postpartum close protocol. No more winging it or trailing off. -
Protection, Clarity & the Mechanics of Being Compensated
A contract built from your values, not downloaded from the internet. Full template walkthrough, scope of practice, navigating hospital hierarchies with integrity, and referral network mapping. Then the billing mechanics most doula courses skip: deposits, invoicing, payment plans, and what to do when someone doesn't pay.
-
The unsexy essentials that protect your nervous system and your practice.
Scheduling tools, communication templates for every touchpoint, record keeping, on-call protocol, and backup doula agreements.Students leave with clear concept of how to set up systems
-
How to hold a client fully not just transfer information, but actually meet them in any time window. Your 30-minute discovery call structure, session templates for 60, 90, and 120 minutes, a reusable session menu, pre-session intake template, and an incident protocol for when sessions go somewhere hard.
-
Marketing as honest visibility, not performance. Content pillars, posting rhythm, what actually converts versus what just gets likes.
Then referral relationships the midwives, OBs, educators, and practitioners whose trust will sustain your practice long after any algorithm changes. You leave with content plans and a referral outreach message ready to send. -
The real protocols for what to do when a birth goes somewhere hard parental anger, care provider conflict, birth loss, emotional rupture. Then the long game: sustainable client load, burnout self-assessment, peer support, and the honest question of how to build something that grows with you without costing you everything.
Register Now
Please know our courses fill up so please register early we have only 20 max spaces in this cohort and we only offer this course every other year!
What shifts when you do this work:
You stop undercharging.
Not because someone told you your worth but because you calculated it, named it, and built a structure around it that holds. Your rate becomes a values statement in redirecting abundance back into your community!
Your pricing becomes an act of integrity, a way to honor yourself and the profound value of this care.
You stop dreading the money conversation.
You learn to move through discovery calls, consultations, and pricing discussions with genuine connection and clarity. No performance, apologies or feeling guilty. Just honest grounded presence, rooted in your truth.
You build a practice that can last.
Consistent boundaries, systems that hold the administrative weight all of the back end magic that goes into this work. You need client journeys so clearly mapped that families always feel held and you always know what comes next. A schedule that sustains rather than depletes.
This course is for you if….
You are a practicing doula who is ready to build the structure around the calling with the same intention you bring to the families you serve.
You have witnessed the profound impact of your presence and you are done letting the business side of this work diminish it.
You feel the guilt that rises when you name your rate and you are ready to understand where it comes from and what it will take to release it.
You are tired of improvising the consultation that trails off, the contract you're not sure protects you, the invoice you send with an apology attached and you are ready for structures you can trust.
You want to understand the forces that make this work hard to sustain, not just learn tactics for surviving them.
You believe that building a practice that can last is itself an act of service to the families you hold and to yourself.
You are ready to do this inside a real community of practitioners who are building alongside you, not alone at your kitchen table at midnight.
I’m Ashley your community
Full spectrum Doula
Ashley McDonell is a birth keeper, clinical herbalist, natural builder, and educator whose work weaves together physiology, ancestral wisdom, and the sacred arts of womanhood. For more than fifteen years she has served families across the full reproductive continuum guiding women through conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release with deep presence, sovereignty-centered advocacy, and unwavering devotion.
Her lineage of study includes learning with Whapio, Rachelle Segal, traditional midwives, and teachers of the Wise Woman and physiological birth traditions. Her practice blends evidence-informed understanding with ancestral knowledge, nervous system literacy, and trauma-aware birthkeeping. She holds a rare capacity to translate complex physiological processes into embodied, intuitive knowing and to teach others to do the same.
This course emerged from her desire to ensure that doulas would be prepared not only to attend the threshold but to also have a business model which can endure over time, sustain and honor the gifts they bring to their clients!
Guest Teachers
-
Allison Graham
Marketing Specialist
-
Rachel Musquiz
Doula, Chef, Founder of Doula Kitchen
Testimonials...
““I’m not sure words can describe how much I appreciate Ashley. She is fierce, badass, hilarious, shame-free, and so kind-hearted truly an inspiration. She has an incredible way of explaining things and weaving in playfulness and humor that is so engaging I could listen to her all day.””
“Super amazing, inspiring and incredible teacher. Worded things so well, easy to understand, took time to explain everything but also stuck to the schedule making sure we got through it all. Blessed to have learned from her and am so damn grateful to start sharing this knowledge.”
“Ashley is amazing. I love her passion, her fire, and the deep well of wisdom she carries it truly feels like she’s channeling the voices of the ancestors. She embodies this wonderful wild woman of the mountain energy someone who weaves many medicines together to serve her community. This course felt like an especially potent transmission, and I feel so grateful to be in continued relationship with her not just as a teacher, but also as a sister and a friend.”
“I’m not sure words can describe how much I appreciate Ashley. She is fierce, badass, hilarious, shame-free, and so kind-hearted — truly an inspiration. She has an incredible way of explaining things and weaving in playfulness and humor that is so engaging — I could listen to her all day.”
“The world would be a better place if we all took a class from Ashley. No matter the content, you are left with the feeling that you want to be a better person and more connected to your community, the earth, plant friends and animal friends. Nothing is ever surface level. Nothing compares to the trauma informed education and care that Ashley gives. She meets every student at their level, no matter where that is and no matter what they bring to the table.”
“The energy Ashley brings into the space is beyond. It has been so passionate and everything she told was so profound. The passion and enthusiasm was highly contagious, thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge, time and energy with us.”
Register Now
Please know our courses fill up so please register early we have only 20 max spaces in this cohort and we only offer this course every other year!
FAQs
-
We meet every Thursday starting June 11 at 6:00pm Guatemala time for 8 weeks! These calls are live so you can ask all your questions, have contact with sisters going through the same journey!
-
Thats okay! All our classes will be recorded and you will be sent the links to the class the day after it happens! You can still follow along if your timing doesn’t allow for you to be present at the time of the call! You will be welcome to ask questions in the chat as you will be unable to do so in the live!
-
By the end of Session 8 you will have every structural piece a client needs to encounter before they say yes and everything you need to hold them once they do.
-
You can put in as much time as you wish! This course is designed to super power you in your next steps, the more work you do during the course in our supportive container the more ready you will be to launch your business!
