ATTENTION all Doulas and Doulas-to-be!

[BellyBelly]

Just thought I would pass this on! Please pass it on too!

Dear fellow doulas,

For a few years now, Doula gatherings have been taking place across the country. With the annual Doula conference coming up in Sunny Perth, ( www.alabouroflove.com.au ) some of us thought it might be a great time to (finally!) formally establish a national Doula organisation, much like Doula UK and DONA have done, but this one will be for all Doulas in Australia.

So it is with great excitement that Kelly Zantey and I, Lisa Chalmers, bring you this wonderful news that we have joined forces to make it all happen. Doula Australia was born today, being a formally registered not-for-profit organisation as of the 1st of July 2007!

Our aim is to bring all Doulas together, nut out common aims and goals, create a network, have a regular newsletter, but essentially, to help get the great work of Doulas known through out the country. We represent you, and we will keep checking in to see what you as our members want us to focus on. There will be a small annual membership fee so we can do this – we have lots of work to do! Some ideas we have which we are sure you would be interested in too, are for example, working with private health insurance companies to tell them why they can benefit from doulas being part of their health care packages, and to help Doulas to become a mainstream service, available to all women. We want to show that we are a professional body; we have a very important place in the world and really do make a difference.

So, where do we start?

Well, Kelly has loads of energy, (as some of you know already) and she has been busy with the registration and set-up process and is just bursting with ideas.

I have been in contact with Doula UK, (www.doula.org.uk) and they want to support us, help us and are happy to share everything they have with us (free of charge... this is a first for them too). We have purchased the website, www.doula.org.au.

We need you, firstly, to pass this email on to any doula that you know, and secondly, to reply to this email, let us know your thoughts, ideas, wants, fears, passions and from there, we will create the first step of our National Organisation. Please email Kelly at kelly@doula.org.au to be added to the mailing list, and we’ll put you in a database to notify you of all updates and progress. This will be at no cost to receive email updates, but if you choose to join as a member of Doula Australia, then the fee will be payable. We’re still in the process of setting a few more things up for membership. However what we’d like to know is your top 3 wishlist when you email. What top 3 things would you like us to work on? Private insurance? Awareness for GP’s? Marketing? Lobbying? Other? Let us know your top 3 things you would like for us to do so we can announce what we’ll work on for the year. As a registered organisation we will be required to have an Annual General meeting so we’ll require more people to get involved in roles within the organisation so we’ll have more info on that too when the time comes.

Please note! I know that many of you have your own websites, gatherings, networks etc. This organisation is not intended to replace any of your establishments. Our intention is for us to bring it all together as one powerful body, a body of Doulas, and something that will serve us all. Doula Australia will get us well known, secure our profession and give us strength in numbers.

I have been a part of Doula UK since the very first day - we didn’t always get it right. Mistakes were made and certainly that will happen here too, but its all part of being something new, so we hope we will have you understanding and support during this time. Doula UK is a fantastic resource for Doulas, for new and old and for the media, and other health care providers. It has set the Standard for Doulas in the United Kingdom, so please, step up and join us in the next stage of Doulas in Australia. We have much to offer and we’re going to let the whole of Australia know about it!

I saw this on a forum the other day which I think really sums things up, so I want to leave you with this:

“Networking is about being genuine, building relationships, and seeing how you can help others - become walking, talking advertisements for one another”

So please, help us make this possible and we’ll work as hard as we can to make all of our dreams come true,

With Love,

Lisa Chalmers and Kelly Zantey
Doula Australia
http://www.doula.org.au

[Tobily]

Woohoo! This is definitely what needs to happen to get the word out there in a cohesive way.
Good on you Kelly, I'll pass this on to some of the ladies I know up here

[Tanya]

OMG I am so slow!! Great idea Kelly... if there is anything I can do up here in county vic let me know ok

[AnnaT]

Fab idea Kelly!!!

[lila]

Great Kelly!!!
Please let us know how we can get involved and how this will be going forward. Can't wait!!!
Lila