Business Advice Birth Workers Should Ignore in 2026 (And What Actually Works Instead)

If you spend any time on business Instagram or TikTok right now, you’ll notice a steady stream of posts telling people what works in business in 2026.

Stop posting educational content.
Use custom AI tools to run your business.
Say something controversial to grow faster.

There’s always a new wave of advice like this circulating online. And often it’s delivered with a lot of certainty, as if these are universal truths about running a business...ha, if only!

The reality is that most of this advice is coming from people who are selling to coaches, creators or influencers. They are not people working in healthcare-adjacent professions like birth work with clients like pregnant and postnatal families.

And birth work is different, and birth work marketing needs to be different too.

As doulas, lactation consultants, antenatal educators and postpartum professionals we work in a field that is rooted in trust, credibility and care. Families are choosing someone to support them through one of the most vulnerable and transformative experiences of their lives. So strategies designed to generate quick online growth don’t always translate well into a profession built on relationships and trust.

So let’s look at three pieces of business advice that I'm seeing everywhere right now and why as a birth worker you should think carefully before following them.

The idea that educational content doesn’t work anymore

One of the most common pieces of advice circulating lately is that educational content no longer works. You’ll hear people say that educational posts don’t grow accounts anymore, that people can simply ask ChatGPT if they want to learn something, and that teaching content doesn’t bring in paying clients. Instead, the suggestion is to focus on entertainment, personality-driven content or controversial opinions.

There is a reason this advice exists. Social media algorithms do tend to favour content that creates a strong reaction. Entertainment, humour and drama can travel quickly across platforms because they encourage comments and shares.

But birth work isn’t the same as influencer marketing. When someone is pregnant or caring for a tiny baby, they want to learn everything they can. They are searching for information about birth, breastfeeding, newborn care, hospital systems, and evidence-based guidelines. They are curious, excited, sometimes anxious, and so very deeply motivated to understand what lies ahead and educational content meets that need.

It also does something so important for birth workers: it builds trust. When someone learns something helpful from you, something that reassures them or helps them understand a situation more clearly, they remember that.

They might save the post.
They might share it with their partner.
They might send it to a friend who is also pregnant.

And later, when they need support, they remember who helped them understand that topic in the first place.

Educational content doesn’t need to feel like a lecture. In fact, it usually works best when it doesn’t. It can be conversational, story-led and simple. It can explain a concept through a real experience you’ve seen in practice. It can answer a question you hear from clients all the time. But the idea that birth workers should stop teaching altogether simply doesn’t make sense in a field where families are actively searching for guidance.

The rise of custom AI tools

Another trend that has exploded recently is the idea that every business owner should have their own custom AI. You may have seen tools advertised as “AI trained on my expertise” or bots that promise to deliver the same advice someone would give you in coaching or mentoring and the implication that AI can replace large parts of the thinking involved in running a business.

But when you rely too heavily on AI, especially someone else’s custom AI, you risk outsourcing something important: your voice. Content that comes from generic prompts or pre-trained systems often starts to sound the same. The nuance disappears. The personality fades. Everything becomes slightly more polished, but also slightly less real. And in birth work, realness matters.

Families don’t want advice from a machine that has scraped together general information from the internet. They want to hear from someone who has actually supported families. Someone who understands how complex and emotional these situations can be. Someone who knows the questions to ask before offering guidance.

That doesn’t mean AI has no place in a birth work business. Used as a tool (not a replacement), it can be incredibly helpful. It might summarise a research article into plain English. It might help format a piece of writing when you’ve dictated a blog post out loud. It might help you map out a rough timeline for a project or organise your thoughts for a podcast episode. In those situations, AI is acting as a tool, supporting your thinking, not replacing it.

The key is to keep your expertise, judgement and lived experience at the centre of your work. AI can help organise ideas, but it should never replace the voice that makes your work uniquely yours.

The pressure to be controversial

The third piece of advice that seems to be everywhere right now is that controversial content grows the fastest.

You’ll see creators encouraging people to say the thing nobody else will say. To spark debate. To be polarising because it increases engagement.

And it’s true that controversial content can attract attention. Strong opinions travel quickly online, especially when they trigger arguments or emotional reactions (look at all the debate around the Mansophere).

But attention isn’t the same as trust and birth work is built on relationships and credibility, and those things tend to develop slowly. Families need to feel that the person supporting them is grounded, thoughtful and safe. Posting something purely to provoke a reaction can undermine that sense of safety. It can also alienate people who might otherwise have worked with you.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing your perspective or speaking about issues you care about. Many birth workers have thoughtful, important opinions about maternity care, breastfeeding support and the systems families navigate. But expressing those views thoughtfully, carefully, is very different from creating controversy simply to drive clicks.

One viral post may bring visibility, but it’s rarely worth compromising the trust you’ve spent years building.

So, what actually helps birth businesses grow?

If chasing trends isn’t the answer, what does work?

In my experience working with hundreds of birth workers at all different stages, growth usually comes back to a few simple principles.

The first is trust. Families choose practitioners they feel safe with. That trust builds through consistent communication, grounded information and a tone that feels supportive rather than dramatic.

The second is consistency. Showing up regularly with helpful content tends to matter far more than trying to engineer the perfect viral post. Familiarity grows over time, and that familiarity often turns into trust.

The third is recognising that not all advice applies to every stage of business.

Someone who has never posted on social media before needs very different support than someone with an established audience. A brand new doula might simply need to build the confidence to start sharing information online. Someone with a fully booked practice may be thinking about entirely different questions around growth or sustainability.

When people try to implement strategies designed for a completely different stage of business, they often end up overwhelmed and burnt out. (Check out The Birth Biz Quiz to find your stage and three easy to implimnet steps to take depending on the stage you're at).

My final thought

Marketing trends will always come and go.

But birth work has always been built on something deeper than algorithms.

Families are looking for someone they trust. Someone who understands the realities of pregnancy, birth and early parenting. Someone who can guide them through an experience that is both joyful and vulnerable.

So in 2026, birth workers please don't abandon educational content, outsource your voice to AI or manufacture controversy for attention.

Because the most effective path forward is much simpler than that.

Teach what you know.
Show up consistently.
And build your business in a way that reflects the care and integrity at the heart of your work.