Volunteering with Amma Birth Companions is an incredible way to support women and birthing people who would otherwise give birth alone. We provide care, information, and advocacy to ensure parents experiencing multiple disadvantages can give birth and parent safely and with dignity.
Amma offers a completely unique doula training. In addition to learning about birth and the postpartum period, our volunteers are taught how to provide culturally safe, trauma informed care and advocacy.
We greatly value the contributions of our volunteers, who make our work possible. This is why we invest an enormous amount of time and effort into each volunteer. We aim to promote and nurture volunteer wellbeing through the support of a dedicated volunteer manager and regular peer support meetings facilitated by a mental health professional.
We offer several volunteer roles designed to suit a range of availabilities and interests.
Companion Roles
Companion volunteers generally work as part of a small team which may include birth and/or pregnancy companions. Each case is overseen and coordinated by a Perinatal Team Leader, who will ensure that safe, appropriate and trauma informed support is always provided. All volunteers are managed by our Volunteer Manager. Across the organisation, we have several experienced doulas, midwives and infant feeding experts who can assist as necessary.
The role of the volunteer Birth Companion (BC) is integral to Amma’s work. Birth companions offer emotional and practical support during labour and birth to clients who might otherwise give birth alone.
BCs support clients primarily during labour and birth but will ideally meet the client at least once before giving birth. BCs are expected to be on-call from the 37th week of their client’s pregnancy until birth.
Click here for more full information on the role and required skills and experience
The role of the volunteer Pregnancy & Birth Companion (PBC) is integral to Amma’s work.
PBCs offer voluntary emotional and practical support during pregnancy and birth, and for a
short period following birth. Please note: This is a time-intensive role with unpredictable
hours.
PBC’s support clients in their homes, at hospital appointments, and during birth. PBC’s are
typically expected to be part of an on-call roster from the 37th week of pregnancy until birth.
Postnatal companions (PCs) work voluntarily to provide practical and emotional support to
parents during the postnatal period.
PCs provide postnatal support from one to eight weeks following birth, depending on the
complexity of the clients’ needs. The level of support PCs provide is gradually reduced over
this timeframe until parents are ready to confidently exit our 1:1 service and/or transition to
peer support. We aim to let PCs know in advance of taking on a new client how long the
support is anticipated to last and assign volunteers according to availability.
Volunteer Parent Supporters offer emotional and practical support to our clients during late
pregnancy and the early postpartum period. This is an ad hoc role designed for volunteers with limited availability or inflexible schedules.
Parent Supporters are typically not assigned to one specific client. Instead, tasks are assigned
to Parent Supporters according to their specified availability.
Parent Supports assist clients in their homes, at hospital appointments, and occasionally at
Amma’s office.
Other Volunteer Roles
The volunteer delivery person will support the organisation by helping us to reduce the costs
of cab fare and provide a safe and trustworthy support for clients receiving items into their
home.
• Picking up and dropping off baby items (e.g., pram, baby furniture, supplies)
• Carrying items into clients’ home, potentially helping to set up item (e.g., cot)
• Supporting Amma to deliver gifts to clients during holiday period
Language Supporter volunteers will accompany staff members, companion volunteers, and
other specialist perinatal supporters on home visits and in-office appointments to interpret
for clients during their pre-and postnatal periods.
Interpreting support is tailored to each Language Supporter’s skill level, as well as the client’s needs, but may include:
**We are currently not recruiting language supporters. Please keep an eye out for future opportunities**
• Interpreting information about rights, processes, and choices in relation to birth and pregnancy
• Interpreting conversations about sensitive topics, such as experiences of trauma
• Interpreting discussions about clients’ wider support needs to enable our Perinatal Team Leaders to signpost/make onward referrals
The event support role is a dynamic and fun volunteering opportunity. We're looking for flexible and friendly volunteers to welcome participants and their babies to our vibrant and busy regular group events, and provide practical support before, during and after.
• Practical support to create a safe and welcoming environment for participants
• Engaging with a diverse group of participants to help them feel welcome and support a positive group dynamic
• Support with children in the group, which may include holding babies or entertaining children so their parents can engage in groupo activities. (Parents and Amma staff will always be present)
Our clients include refugees, people seeking asylum, survivors of human trafficking, and other birthing people experiencing multiple disadvantages.
Our volunteers come from all walks and stages of life and that’s what makes the team so great! We do ask that our volunteers:
We have an intensive volunteer training and shadowing programme which will teach you the rest, and ongoing staff support who are there for you at every turn.
We are inclusive of all women (CIS and trans). We welcome non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming people who share or have shared lived experiences of women’s issues and are comfortable in a space that centres women.
We are so appreciative of all the time and effort that our volunteers give to the charity. We do not want our volunteers to be out of pocket for supporting clients:
When you join Amma you are joining a diverse community of people who are passionate and caring. It’s a supportive place to make friends while embarking on a journey of self-exploration. The support our volunteers offer makes a tangible impact on real people experiencing hardship, and the training and staff support equips you to take that on without feeling out of your depth or burning out. Witnessing birthing people transition into parenthood and spending time with brand new babies is an incredible privilege that never gets old.
It is difficult to witness the many systemic injustices and disparities that our clients are facing, and to sometimes feel powerless to help. This is why it’s so important that volunteers attend supervision and lean on the support of the wider team.
Here at Amma we strive to create an inclusive environment. We recognise that different people learn in different ways and at different speeds. Most of our online training contains videos instead of reading, and much of our in-person sessions are experiential and discussion based. Outside of the in-person sessions, each volunteer works at their own pace towards sign off.
Some of the roles have physical requirements. Birth companions, in particular, perform physically demanding duties that involve standing for long periods and providing physical support to the labouring parent.
If you have a physical disability and are interested in volunteering with us, please reach out to our Volunteer Manager, Jenny Block, to discuss possibilities.
We have composed a trauma informed doula training that includes both external and internal facilitators. Our training explores different ways of learning, promotes discussion and connection between participants, and leaves our volunteers feeling supported and excited to enter the vital field of birth work.
Topics for the induction training include:
We also provide ongoing training opportunities to support volunteers in their roles.
It’s important to recognise that this is expansive and amazing work but also can be challenging at times. It’s bigger than the average volunteer role. You should only apply to train and volunteer with us if you have time to dedicate and feel that you are in a steady and supported place in your personal life.
In exchange for all that we invest in our companions, we ask our volunteers to commit to supporting at least two Amma clients over the course of a year (although many of our volunteers stay on far beyond that initial commitment).
Please read through the role descriptions to learn more about the time commitments for each role.
Volunteer companion applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so even if you can’t make the next round of training you are still welcome to apply.
Companion training takes place at our Glasgow city centre office twice per year (January-March, April-June).
The next companion recruitment and training dates are:
Please note that we only have 15 spaces for each companion training round and these do fill up quickly. If you are not successful for one round of applications, you are welcome to apply to the next.
When Angelina Edwin arrived in Glasgow from Sri Lanka, she didn’t know that her experience would see her support new parents as they found their own feet in a new country.
When Morag Riddet discovered Amma, she knew immediately it was an organisation she wanted to be part of. But having missed the first intake of volunteers, the doula, massage therapist and yoga teacher had to wait patiently before coming on board.
A “random” application for an Amma volunteer post through a Glasgow-wide website for volunteering opportunities turned out to be one of the “best decisions ever” for mum-of-one Gemma Dool.
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