Anna Rodney never set out to start a doula agency. It became a necessity when her one-woman birthworker operation attracted more inquiries than she could accommodate.
Today, Chicago Family Doulas is one of the largest doula agencies in the country and has an education branch called Birth & Baby University, which Rodney founded to meet the need for self-paced, remote birth classes during the pandemic.
We spoke with Rodney about how she realized she needed to form an agency, the business of managing doulas and the payoff and flexibility of working for herself.
Anna Rodney of Chicago Family Doulas
SUCCESS+: Tell me about your journey starting Chicago Family Doulas.
Anna Rodney: When I had my first [child], I realized [that] being gone [for] set hours is really hard. Then I had my second 20 months later, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, child care is really expensive.’ So when [my first] was 6 months old, I took a doula training, but like many people, I just could not figure out how to make that into a business, and I was really nervous about taking that leap.
But then after I had my second, I was teaching at a school that I really was having a hard time with. It was really an intense job, and I was coming home and feeling so depleted and not appreciated at all at work. So I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t think I have the capacity to do this anymore. I don’t want to do it anymore.’ So I just kind of took baby steps. I took a part-time job teaching online while I built up my business. And I became a hypnobirth instructor and a postpartum doula. I was already a labor doula. And I took a business class.
[When I started the business], it was just Better Birth Chicago. And then, it was just going to be me, and I built the website with just me. Within about three months, I was realizing that it was becoming an agency, so I rebranded as Chicago Family Doulas pretty quickly, and then it just kind of took off from there. I still have the core team that I hired back then, and they’re still working with me.
S+: How many people did you bring on at first?
AR: [For] my first hire, I actually hosted a training at my house, and I hired about, I believe, six people: some labor doulas, some postpartum doulas and some that did both. And it was a slow start. I filled my schedule first. And then I filled up the doula schedules.
I got pregnant with [my daughter]… [and had] to give away all of my birth clients, all of my postpartum clients that I had booked. So I really turned it into a true agency where I was the administrator. I had people working for me, and I was not taking any of the hands-on work. My business exploded when I did that. [I kept] my doulas busy, which kept them loyal to me.
S+: Why did you decide to bring your doulas on as contractors?
AR: I think in all states except California, doula work is contractor work. People have a super varied schedule. Some months they might have six births, [and] some months they might have three.
There’s a lot of flexibility with it, which I think [is] one of the reasons people become doulas. A postpartum doula might do a live-in job and work 100 hours a week, and then they might take two months off.
S+: When you hire doulas, what do you look for?
AR: The best doulas are the people that truly care about other people. So that is [the] biggest [quality I look for]. It doesn’t matter to me how many years of experience somebody has. Somebody can be super experienced, but if they don’t have that care for other people, they’re not going to be amazing.
S+: What services does Chicago Family Doulas provide?
AR: The two that we offer… are birth doulas and postpartum doulas. Birth doulas’ families can hire us in pregnancy at any point, [whether] they’re newly pregnant or [it’s] later in [the] pregnancy. We support [them] in pregnancy [by] answering questions, helping them make choices, finding classes, finding resources, preparing them for birth, preparing their partners for labor… then we go with them to their birth and support them… [so they] have an empowering and positive birth experience.
I always say [postpartum doulas] take over where the birth doula leaves off. So they start supporting families immediately postpartum or at any point postpartum. We provide daytime and overnight support. Our focus [is on the baby]… but also [at] the center of our support is [the] mom. So we care for [the] mom. That hierarchy is [the] mom, baby, family, household. So we take care of all the things they have to take care of, or usually take care of, so that they can rest, recover and bond with their baby.
S+: How does having your own business pay off?
AR: I so appreciate the flexibility of owning a business. I get to be present for [my kids], and there’s definitely an energy that comes with owning a business. Every accomplishment is mine, and it feels big and exciting.
I was always afraid of business because I… [thought] I would have to not be true to myself. That has been probably one of the biggest lessons: I get to be true to myself on a really big level and [have] a positive impact on people.
This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of SUCCESS+ magazine. Photo courtesy of Anna Rodney
