I would say my experience was overall negative, but I still think doulas are fantastic and I'd highly recommend them to everyone, as long as you do your homework and screen the person you hire well and feel confident they are the right person for you. I had a horrible time finding doulas in my area as there aren't many. I was only able to interview two (and that took some effort to even find those!). One of them just wasn't a good fit for me, so I decided to go with the other. I had some misgivings at the beginning that she was a bit flaky, since she was hard to get in touch with and didn't always respond in a timely manner or follow up on things she promised to send me. But I really liked her as a person, so I hired her anyway since it was either her or no one. She ended up planning to leave the country for a month before she was supposed to be on call for me and scheduled her return flight for 5 days after she should have been home and on call. I ended up going into labour the day she flew home and she barely made it from the airport in time for me to start pushing! We never even got to have our final prenatal appt because she wasn't around. When she came for my postnatal appt, she just chatted about herself and her kids like we were just friends hanging out rather than answering any of the questions I had or helping with breastfeeding. She disappeared after that and I never even heard from her again, so I ended up not paying her anyway (which I'm thankful for frankly).
So yeah, it wasn't great and I'm not sure I'd hire one again because I did great on my own (literally it was just me and my husband for most of the birth until she and the midwives arrived when I was pushing). But I do think doulas are great in general, especially if you are having a hospital birth. My best friend is a doula so I'm a big supporter of doulas, even if it was a disappointing experience for me personally. Just make sure you feel good about the person you hire and set firm expectations of what they'll do for you and when so that everyone is on the same page. Trust your gut. My gut told me at one point that I shouldn't have hired her and even my doula friend warned me about some 'red flags' but I didn't listen and got burnt. That can happen with anything though and it shouldn't stop you from hiring a doula if you find someone who's right for you.
