SFDG Membership

On This Page: About the SFDG; SFDG Membership Requirements; & SFDG Membership Application Criteria & Process:

About the SFDG

The San Francisco Doula Group (“SFDG”) is a group of independent doulas serving San Francisco who have made a commitment to professional standards and ethics, professional development, and community service on an ongoing basis in the specific ways outlined in the SFDG Membership Requirements, further below. Benefits of members’ commitments to the SFDG include: opportunities for relationship-building; continuing education; direct support from fellow doulas, including but not limited to participation in a SFDG-members email listserv, WhatsApp group, and peer review; public exposure at Meet the Doula events, which is a great way to give back to the community and have the opportunity to connect with prospective clients and build your practice in general; and presence on the SFDG website.

The San Francisco Doula Group (“SFDG”) and the Bay Area Doula Network (“BADN”)* is open to and embraces all doulas regardless of race, color, country of origin, immigration status, socio-economic status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, relationship status, size, ability, religion, etc. We are an intentional community committed to respect, consciousness, compassion, connection, support, love, and education and neither the SFDG nor BADN will tolerate any discrimination or aggression among &/or against any of its members &/or participants.

* The BADN is a listserv open to doulas serving San Francisco Bay Area communities and does not require being a member of the SFDG.

If you wish to join the BADN listserv, please complete the BADN Listserv form found HERE.

SFDG Membership Requirements

In addition to meeting the SFDG Membership Application Criteria (shown further below), SFDG members must:

  1. pay an annual fee,* which for the 7/2023 through 6/2024 year is $35. Annual membership fees help cover SFDG website hosting & maintenance expenses; guest speaker fees; workshops; social events; and/or donations to non-profits such as Sister Web or The Natural Resources All Families Foundation Inc. The annual fee is due upon joining the group and in July of each year.

    • * In the hopes of easing the way for BBIPOC doulas who are interested in joining the SFDG, SFDG waives all membership fees for doulas who identify as Black, Brown, Indigenous, or People of Color.

  2. agree to, and send a signed copy of the SFDG’s Standard of Practice & Code of Ethics guidelines along with a completed Contact Form when they pay their membership fee.

  3. attend and actively participate in at least 10 out of the 24 regularly scheduled SFDG events per membership year (which is July 1st through the following June 30th) — at least 5 events in the 1st term (July through December) and at least 5 in the 2nd term (January through June) — as follows:

    • At least 6 SFDG Meetings per year (at least 3 per 6 month term):

      1. The Winter and Summer SFDG formal business meetings are both mandatory for ALL members for the entire meeting (unless attending a birth or there are emergencies/special circumstances which require you to be absent.).

        • These business meetings are 3 hours long each, unless otherwise noted, and members should plan to be in attendance for the entire scheduled meeting times.

      2. The remaining 4 meetings for the year (2 per 6-month term) can be meetings with guest speakers (which can be great continuing education opportunities), sharing circle, or other official monthly SFDG meetings. (Besides the Winter & Summer Business meetings mentioned above, there are usually at least 10 other monthly meetings in the membership year.)

      3. The Group and/or individual members may propose additional members-only events or activities, such as walks in the park, coffee/tea at a cafe ,etc. to connect with fellow members on a more informal and/or recreational level

    • At least 4 SFDG Community SERVICE Meet The Doula (“MtD”) events per year (at least 2 per 6 month term) to help educate people seeking doulas to learn about our profession. First and foremost, this is an important way in which the SFDG members serve the community in donating their time to facilitate these information-providing events. This is also a great opportunity to practice public speaking; interact with, learn from, and/or learn about fellow members, and connect with prospective clients.

      • There are usually 12 monthly SFDG MtD events per year.

      • At the beginning of each 6 month term, members are asked to sign up for at least 2 of the upcoming dates for that term.

    • All members are welcome and encouraged to attend more than the minimum required formal SFDG events described above, as well as any or all other events that the SFDG or its members might announce (whether scheduled or impromptu walk in the park, brunch, hike, members retreat, etc.) 

  4. help the SFDG function and meet its mission and goals through participating in other ways — whether taking responsibility for an ongoing/repeating “job” (such as speaker coordinator, meeting host, meeting scribe, etc.), serving on special project committee, &/or miscellaneous tasks as needed (such as drafting a poll for members to address any special, time-sensitive topics between meetings), participating in decision making for SFDG, etc.

  5. maintain their membership requirement status & other important information (meeting attendance, Meet the Doula attendance, job/committee status, contact info., etc) in the SFDG online database.

    Sabbatical/Inactive Membership: Members who are unable to meet the membership requirements or who otherwise need to be an inactive member of the SFDG for any 6-month term are classified as on sabbatical or being inactive and subject to the following terms:

    1. Dues: annual dues payment is still required in full — no refund available

    2. Minimum Participation Requirements:

      1. attendance any SFDG Business Meeting which occurs (usually in July and January) while inactive / on sabbatical;

      2. attendance at at least 1 of any of the other 11 SFDG events that occur in a 6-month membership term (July to December and January to June) in which the member is inactive;

      3. participation in any membership polls/votes/decisions which may be circulated or requested via the SFDG Google ListServ.

    3. Removal from SFDG Website & SFDG email listserv until return to Active Status: Inactive members (whether on sabbatical or not fulfilling their membership requirements) are removed from the SFDG website & SFDG email lists until they have resumed active membership and meet the membership requirements.  They are still welcome at all of the monthly SFDG doula meetings and all of the community service Meet the Doula events.

SFDG Membership Application Criteria & Process

  • Prior to filling out the SFDG Membership Application, provided further below, please read the above SFDG Membership Requirements applicants must have:

    • worked as a:

      • Birth Doula for at least 8 birth clients or

      • Postpartum Doula for at least 8 postpartum clients .

    • attended and participated* in a minimum of 3 SFDG meetings within 12 months prior to applying for SFDG membership. (Meetings are listed on the SFDG meeting calendar.)

      • These are important opportunities for applicants and members of the SFDG to get to know one another and for applicant and members to explore whether we are a great fit. The applicant is asked to participate as makes sense (e.g., if applicant attends a Zoom SFDG meeting and remains off camera and doesn’t engage in discussions or interact with members, while we hope you learned a lot in the background, that meeting does not qualify as one of the 3 meeting prerequisites.). If any or all of these meetings are ones in which we have brought in a guest speaker, applicant must remain after speaker has left so that applicant and members can interact and get to know one another..

  • Upon completion of the above prerequisites, applicants must:

    • apply to become a member of the SFDG using our online Membership Application form, which can found below;

    • read, understand, and if become a member of the SFDG, fulfill SFDG Membership Requirements (listed above); and

    • attend an interview meeting with at least one member of the SFDG Membership Committee.

      • This is an opportunity for applicants and representative(s) of the SFDG to ask one another questions about membership, etc.

SFDG Membership Application

(NOT required for Doulas interested in being in the Bay Area Doula Network listserv, as explained above.)