Get trained.
Build your own doula practice.
Get paid to support Kansas families.
You may already be the person people call when they are pregnant, preparing for birth, or trying to find their footing after a new baby arrives.
You know how to listen. You know how to stay calm. You know how to help someone understand their options, find what they need, and feel less alone.
Those are not “just things women do.” With professional training, they can become the foundation of meaningful, paid work as a community-based doula.
Kansas Birth Justice Society is offering full scholarships for Catalyst Doula Training to people across Kansas who are ready to serve families in their own communities.
Applications close September 15, 2026.
This is real paid work—to clarify, it is not a job with Kansas Birth Justice Society.
Catalyst prepares you to build an independent doula practice of your own and helps you navigate the steps toward becoming an enrolled Kansas Medicaid provider.
What does a doula actually do?
A doula is a trained, nonmedical professional who provides emotional, physical, informational, and practical support during pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period.
Doulas help clients:
- Prepare for birth and the weeks after a baby arrives
- Use comfort measures and coping techniques during labor
- Communicate their questions, preferences, and needs
- Connect with community resources and practical support
- Feel heard, respected, prepared, and less alone
- Understand their options and make their own informed decisions
- Doulas do not diagnose medical conditions, perform medical procedures, or replace doctors, nurses, or midwives.
- We make sure families have a skilled person focused on supporting them.
Yes—Kansas Medicaid pays doulas for this work
This is the part many people do not know: Kansas Medicaid, also called KanCare, covers doula services for eligible pregnant and postpartum clients. Doulas who meet the requirements and complete provider enrollment may practice and bill independently or as part of a doula group.
The standard Kansas Medicaid benefit currently reimburses:
| Covered Doula Service | Standard Limited | Listed Reimbursement |
| Prenatal Support | Up to 28 15-minute units or 7 hours | Up to $420 |
| Labor and Birth Support | One labor and delivery attendance | $500 |
| Postpartum Support | Up to 25 15-minute units or 6 hours 15 minutes | Up to $375 |
| Potential Total for all standard Covered Services | 13 Hours 15 minute plus labor and birth | Up to $1,295 |
For prenatal and postpartum care, Medicaid reimburses $15 for each covered 15-minute unit—the equivalent of $60 for a full hour of eligible, documented service.
If you provide every standard covered service for one eligible client and the claims are approved, the listed reimbursement can total up to $1,295 for that pregnancy.
That is gross business revenue, not an hourly wage or guaranteed take-home pay. Payment depends on client eligibility, provider recommendation, proper enrollment, covered and documented services, and approved claims. Like any self-employed professional, a doula is also responsible for business expenses and taxes.
You are not applying to work for us. You are learning to work for yourself.
Kansas Birth Justice Society trains doulas. We do not employ scholarship recipients or pay graduates’ wages.
As an independent doula, you can:
Decide how many clients you have the capacity to serve
Begin part-time and grow your practice at your own pace
Schedule many prenatal and postpartum visits around school, work, and family responsibilities
Choose the communities and geographic area you want to serve
Build relationships and referrals in the community where you already have roots
Serve Medicaid clients and, if you choose, private-pay clients as well
You are also responsible for the business side of your work: finding and communicating with clients, keeping records, documenting services, submitting claims, planning for taxes and expenses, and making reliable arrangements for on-call periods.
Being your own boss offers flexibility. It also requires initiative, consistency, and responsibility. Catalyst teaches both the care and the business of doula work.
We create engaging & user-friendly websites
Maybe you already have the part we cannot teach.
This opportunity may be an especially strong fit for:
- Parents whose own children are now elementary-aged or older and who have room to build something new
- Grandmothers, aunties, and experienced caregivers who have spent years showing up for families
- Community health workers, home visitors, peer supporters, advocates, and resource navigators
- People with lived experience of pregnancy, birth, postpartum, pregnancy loss, or navigating the healthcare system
- Trusted community members who understand the language, culture, strengths, and realities of the families around them
- People who want flexible, purpose-driven work and are ready to build a business of their own
- You do not need to be a nurse. You do not need a medical degree.
- You do not need previous doula experience.
- You do need to be dependable, able to listen without judgment, respectful of each client’s choices, willing to learn, and serious about completing the training and building a professional practice.
Can doula work fit around a family or another job?
It can. Many doulas begin part-time. You can choose what kind of clients you want to serve: whether you focus on just prenatal (during pregnancy) support, support at births, supporting after the baby is born, or a combination of all three, you can make your doula practice fit your life.
Need a predictable schedule? You could consider only serving clients in the prenatal and postpartum period. This means you would offer doula care that you schedule by appointment, directly with your clients. This allows you to schedule your work as a doula in advance and plan around school hours, family responsibilities, or another job.
You can also consider being a doula who serves at births. This type of doula work is very different: babies do not arrive on a schedule. Doulas who attend births are on call during the window their client is due and you need reliable transportation, a plan for childcare or other responsibilities, and the ability to be on call during agreed-upon periods. Not everyone who does doula work offers birth support. Some doulas only offer prenatal (during pregnancy) or postpartum (after pregnancy) support. Since doulas are independent owners of their own doula practices, they get to decide how many and what type of clients they can responsibly accept.
A common arrangement for doulas who attend births is to take on clients as a team of two doulas- with one doula covering on-call hours during the day and one doula covering on-call hours during the night, for the same client. This often works well for doulas who cannot commit to being on call fully for a client because of responsibilities at home or another job.
What does the Catalyst scholarship include?
Selected applicants receive a full scholarship for the 80-hour Catalyst Doula Training program:
- 60 hours of flexible, self-paced online learning
- 20 hours of in-person, hands-on training offered in regions across Kansas
- Professional preparation for supporting pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum
- Training in communication, ethics, documentation, scope of practice, and client care
- Practical guidance for establishing a doula business
- Support understanding Kansas Medicaid enrollment, billing, and claims requirements
- Connection to a growing statewide community of Kansas doulas
How can you go From being a scholarship recipient to being a paid doula?
It’s simple!
- Apply for a full Catalyst scholarship by September 15.
- Complete the training. Finish 60 online hours, 20 in-person hours, and all required coursework and assessments.
- Earn your Catalyst certification and establish your practice. We teach you how to turn your skills into a professional, community-based doula business.
- Meet the birth-experience requirement for Medicaid enrollment. Kansas Medicaid requires doulas to document support at a minimum of three births. This is a Medicaid enrollment requirement, not a requirement for Catalyst certification.
- Complete provider enrollment. This includes obtaining your individual NPI and completing the required Kansas Medicaid and health-plan enrollment steps. Catalyst provides guidance, but the state and health plans make enrollment decisions.
- Serve clients and bill for covered care. As an enrolled provider, you document eligible services, submit claims, and receive payment for approved claims through the appropriate Medicaid payer.
Frequently asked questions
No. This is a full scholarship for professional training, not a job offer. Catalyst prepares you to establish and operate your own independent doula practice.
No. Kansas Medicaid currently reimburses certain eligible prenatal and postpartum services at $15 per 15-minute unit, which equals $60 for a full hour of covered, properly documented care. That is gross business revenue—not a guaranteed wage—and not every hour spent operating a business is billable.
Under the standard benefit currently listed by Kansas Medicaid, reimbursement can total up to $1,295 when a doula provides all covered prenatal, labor-and-delivery, and postpartum services and the claims are approved.
No. Doula care is nonmedical. Catalyst teaches the knowledge, hands-on support skills, professional boundaries, documentation, and business practices needed to work safely and effectively.
Yes. You control your caseload. Some doulas serve a small number of clients alongside another job or family responsibilities; others gradually build a fuller practice.
We help graduates understand how to establish a practice, build referral relationships, and connect with the statewide doula network. We do not guarantee clients, Medicaid enrollment, claim payment, or a specific income. Every independent doula must participate in building and maintaining their own practice.
Your experience has value.
Let it become something more.
Families across Kansas need support from people who understand their communities and know how to show up with skill, respect, and care.
If you have spent years guiding people through hard moments, helping families find what they need, or being the person others trust, doula work may give you a way to turn that experience into purpose-driven paid work of your own.
You do not need to arrive with a polished résumé or a finished business plan. You need the willingness to learn, the ability to follow through, and a commitment to serving families without judgment.
Applications for full scholarship seats close September 15, 2026..