Doula: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

Doulas work in a variety of settings and have been trained to provide physical, emotional, and informational support to a mother before, during, and just after birth and/or provide emotional and practical support to a mother during the postpartum period.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the 73.9% share means that 12,271 active Doula-taxonomy NPI records have the sole-proprietor field marked yes in NPPES. Because that field is self-reported, it is an imperfect proxy for private practice and does not by itself show a doula's legal, employment, billing, or practice arrangement.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• These are active NPI records with Doula as the primary taxonomy, not a census of every practicing doula.
• First-enumeration year reflects when an NPI was first issued, not necessarily when a doula began practicing or how many are currently active.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions