Listen to this article:
AI is reshaping the online world, and doulas need to pay close attention to how and when they choose to use it.
The issue I had with the email I’d received from a peer was not what it said, but how it was written.
It was early Sunday morning. Too early for anyone to be texting me, really. So when I heard that familiar ding, curiosity got the better of me and I set my coffee down to pick my phone up. It was my very good friend and fellow doula. Did you see the newsletter from (let’s call them Jo to protect their identity) Jo?, they wrote. Big news!
I had not, in fact, seen it yet. I tapped out of my messages and opened my email. At the top of my inbox was a newsletter I’d been subscribed to for months now; a newsletter that I had always enjoyed and respected, written by someone I consider to be a thought-leader in the doula world. Clicking on the snappy subject line, I started to read.
Hey Michelle, I wanted to share some news—NEDA is exploring the development of a nationally recognized certification program for end-of-life doulas. This is something that’s been talked about for years, but it looks like they’re finally taking steps toward it.
Not just another course. Not just a patchwork of trainings. But the possibility of a true national standard that could shape how our work is recognized and valued in the wider field.
I groaned. I’d barely gotten a few lines in and I knew this had been written by AI.
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It’s no secret that AI is everywhere these days. We’re seeing it in generated images, videos, and social media captions. We’re seeing it in emails and on websites. I’ve even noticed it in how some comments are written, too…
And I’ve grown so, so wary of it.
While there is no denying that AI is shaping up to be a great tool for generating ideas, pulling research, and speeding up planning, I’m seeing more and more people rely on it to think and write for them, and it scares the crap out of me not only as a human being, but as someone who is creating a new model of doula care that is built on the shoulders of presence and authenticity.
I can’t help but wonder what happens when someone goes in search of a doula to support them, only to realize that we’re all saying the exact same things, in the exact same ways.
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Listen. I get it. AI makes our day-to-day work so much easier, quicker, and on-point. It can be exceptionally powerful when you use it as a tool that boosts your productivity. This, coming from someone who is literally building AI prompts into the next version for the Transplant Doula’s courses so that you can develop the pillars you need when growing a sustainable doula practice! So no, I am not anti-AI in the least.
But there is a fine line, I think, and perhaps that line exists in understanding that how we do anything is how we do everything. That means that how we show up as a doula, how we choose to engage with the online world, and how we present what we have to say—matters. How we choose to share the lessons we’ve learned and the wisdom we’ve gathered, matters. How we pour time and effort in nurturing the connections we foster, both online and off, matters. And say nothing of the fact that there’s a moment that happens in our hearts when we hear, read, or see something that truly resonates in our soul, and that every time that has ever happened to me, it was over something that felt real. True. Honest.
I’m not convinced we can ever feel that way over AI content.
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What I’m trying to say is this: keep your voice, and everything you share in your voice, human. The internet is a world grown from wires, not veins, after all. So if we can continue to show up in ways that goes deeper than a draft thrown together by ChatGPT in 0.2 nanoseconds, then I say more of that, please.
Because what kind of doulas are we if we can’t even take the time to write a post ourselves? And if that hits hard, sit with it.
They say how you do anything is how you do everything, and in that vein, how I show up as a doula, is my everything. And that’s worth holding on to…no wires attached.