Lately, I have been seeing a lot of birthworkers asking:

“Do I HAVE to take insurance if I want to grow my business?”

“Will I lose clients if I don’t?”

“Am I falling behind if I am not set up for it yet?”

If you have been feeling this pressure, I want to give you some clarity today.

You do not have to take insurance to be a legitimate birthworker.

You do not have to take insurance to be respected or ethical in this work.

You do not have to take insurance to build a sustainable, profitable, life-giving business.

Taking insurance is ONE payment method. That is all.

It is not a marketing strategy. It is not a business model. And it is not what determines whether clients find you, trust you, or book with you.

Over the past few weeks, I sat down with over eight birthworkers for customized business audits. We mapped out exactly how they could hit their income and impact goals within 90 days. Different stories. Different skill sets. Different goals.

But one thing was the same across the board: they didn’t believe it was possible.

One had incredible masterclass conversion rates but still questioned whether her offer was working. She didn’t need a new program. She needed to scale the one she had.

Let me guess—you didn’t become a birthworker because you love selling stuff.

You got into birthwork because you care deeply about people.
Because you know your support can change lives.
Because holding space through birth, postpartum, and lactation is sacred work.

But now that you’re running a business, you’ve probably been told you need to “market yourself.”
And suddenly everything feels…gross.

Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room:

Being a doula is sacred. It’s life-changing. It’s purpose-driven, heart-led work.
But somehow, when we talk about it in the business world, it gets shoved into the "cute side hustle" category.

Nope. Not today.

The last thing you want is to sound like a robot, feel impersonal, or turn your sacred work into some kind of assembly line.

Automation isn’t the opposite of care.
It’s the structure that protects your capacity to care.