From Doula to Family Steward: Creating a New, Sustainable Career in Family Care
Pamela Harris (left) and Jace Poirier Lacerte pictured at Coya Family Steward’s first Family Photo Day. Photo by Julia Loglisci
From Doula to Family Steward: Creating a New, Sustainable Career in Family Care
As this year comes to a close, we find ourselves pausing—not to rest from the work, but to name what has quietly been born.
This year, together, we created a new career path.
Not by abandoning what already exists, but by standing firmly on the shoulders of those who came before us—doulas, birthworkers, community caregivers, and culture-holders who have long carried families through one of life’s most profound thresholds.
What we are building is not a replacement. It is an elevation.
Why We Began Asking Different Questions
For decades, doulas have been doing essential, sacred work—often underpaid, under-resourced, and stretched thin by systems that rely on their care while failing to sustain them.
At the same time, families have been navigating pregnancy, birth, and early parenting inside increasingly fragmented systems—where care is often focused on one body, one moment, one outcome.
But families don’t form in isolation.
Birth doesn’t happen to one person alone.
And parenting was never meant to be a solo act.
So we began asking different questions:
What would care look like if both the birthing and non-birthing parent were fully held?
What if support extended beyond birth into the formation of family roles, relationships, and legacy?
What if this work was not only meaningful—but gainful, sustainable, and respected as a profession?
The answers led us here.
Why the Word “Family Steward”
Words matter. They carry history, worldview, and consequence.
The Greek root of the word doula translates to “female slave.” While the modern doula movement has reclaimed the term with immense dignity and power, we felt called to name something different—not better, but broader.
A steward is someone entrusted with care. Someone who tends, protects, guides, and plans for what comes next. Someone who understands that their actions today shape the future.
A Family Steward supports the entire family system through the transition into parenthood—emotionally, relationally, practically, and ceremonially.
This includes:
The birthing parent
The non-birthing parent
The family’s values, culture, and chosen family and village supports
The long arc of wellbeing that stretches far beyond the birth room
Family Stewards don’t replace doulas. Family Stewards expand the circle of care.
Doubling the Circle
One of the most important shifts in this work is simple—and radical. We doubled the number of parents in the circle.
Too often, non-birthing parents are treated as secondary, optional, or invisible in perinatal care. Yet their nervous systems, beliefs, and capacity to show up matter profoundly—to birth outcomes, to bonding, and to the long-term health of the family, and therefore our communities.
Family Stewards are trained to support both parents—to help them understand their roles, regulate stress, communicate needs, and step into parenting as a shared responsibility from the very beginning.
When both parents are held, families are stronger.
When families are stronger, communities are healthier.
When communities are healthier, the future shifts.
This is legacy work.
Meaningful and Gainful
We are unapologetic about this part. Care work deserves to be paid well.
Family Stewardship is designed as a sustainable profession—one that honours capacity, boundaries, and long-term wellbeing for the people doing the work.
By broadening scope, clarifying roles, and integrating education, advocacy, emotional support, and family systems thinking, this career path opens doors to:
More consistent income
Clearer professional identity
Longer, healthier careers in care work
Collective impact rather than individual burnout
This is how we care for the caregivers.
An Invitation to 2026
If you are a doula feeling the edges of burnout…
If you are a caregiver who knows families need more than what current systems allow…
If you feel called to work at the intersection of birth, relationship, culture, and legacy…
We see you.
In 2026, we will be opening training pathways for those ready to elevate from doula to Family Steward—building on your existing wisdom, not asking you to start over. You can sign up to be the first to know when training is available here.
This is not about becoming something else.
It’s about becoming more fully who you already are, with the language, training, and support to do this work in a way that sustains you.
Closing the Year with Gratitude
We are deeply grateful to the doulas whose work made this possible.
To the families who trusted us.
To the growing community who believes that birth is a ceremony, becoming a parent is a rite of passage, and families deserve to be stewarded with intention.
We are standing on our ancestor’s strong shoulders.
And together, we are birthing something new into being.
With the belief that the consequences of our actions can be , we share our commitment to being better relatives and ancestors, as Family Stewards, with you all.
With love,
The Family Stewards Team
