Doulaing The Doula Courses
Find the Right Training and Education for Your Needs
Doula work has evolved, so has our training. When you choose to work with Doulaing The Doula for your educational needs or recreational interests, you are selecting a doula training program that is intentionally adaptable to varying cultural approaches to birth support.
Our training and courses:
- Emphasize communication skills and teach participants how to work alongside medical professionals for the benefit of birthing parents
- Recognize that there is a broad spectrum of birthing parents and intentionally support and celebrate this diversity
- Actively center the Black experience of birth
- Develop your brain’s built in caregiving system
- Teach the science of why and how doula support encourages better birthing outcomes
- Model trauma informed care throughout the program
- Increase your confidence using these skills in everyday life
Understanding Pre-Course Requirements
How to Prepare for Your Doula Training
Most people know a lot more than they think they do. If you’ve always been interested in birth, you’ve probably listened to a few birth stories, read some articles and seen some videos. That’s great because that’s exactly what you’ll continue to do to prepare for the training!  But now you’ll have more direction and focus. Each of our doula courses and workshops include important pre-course requirements that will help you thrive during your learning process with Doulaing The Doula. These guidelines are intentionally designed to ensure you can make the most out of your investment.
DTD Childbirth Course
The DTD Childbirth Course is required to complete our Birth Doula Training workshop. This is a one-day course that you can take the day before the three-day Birth Doula Training workshop. This course covers the basic knowledge to get started as a doula. It is an excellent resource for any professional working with pregnant families. Our coursework is full of learning activities, videos, and in-depth information you won’t find elsewhere. As a participant, you will receive context for childbirth today while examining the political, racial, social, and psychological aspects of birthing and being born, not just the basic biology.
Birth Doula Training
This workshop trains participants to become expert labor support providers. During this course we will utilize a 300+ page training and reference manual; leverage videos, slides, games, and activities to increase your knowledge; and use simulations to build confidence and practical skills. This workshop is one step in the process of certifying as a birth doula with Doulaing The Doula.
DTD Postpartum Course
The DTD Postpartum Course is a new addition to our training series. This course can be taken by anyone. We explore the postpartum period as a biopsychosocial event that affects all relationships and life circumstances of the new family. This four hour, self paced online course covers the physiology and psychology of postpartum for all new parents; influences on postpartum recovery; discovering baby; cultural support and postpartum wellness; intimate relationships, body and genital self image; and best practices for supporting and working with families. This course includes interviews with postpartum experts and parents. Doulas intending to certify with DTD complete the course with an art project.
Postpartum Doula Training
Expand on the DTD Postpartum Course with our training and certification program. Take core courses like the DTD Childbirth Course, Postpartum Doula Training, and the DTD Newborn Communication Skills to enhance your postpartum support toolbox and learn how to better support families in the first year after birth.
Infant Feeding Course
This course is fun, interactive, and taught by our International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, Mandi Wagnild, who is enthusiastic about providing as much support to new and expectant families as possible. You can expect this class to be inclusive and free of gendered hetero-normative language. Bring the knowledge that you already have, your curiosity, and an open heart and mind to learn about how to feed an infant from birth to weaning!
Newborn Communication Skills
We’ve designed this newborn communication skills course to help doulas and medical professionals explore, identify, and respond to infant communication so they can better support their parent clients and patients in connecting with their new infants.
Foundations of Practice
Our Foundations of Doula Practice course is open to all people, whether they have trained under the Doulaing The Doula program or have learned their craft through other avenues. In this nine meeting course, you will be guided by a Foundations Coach who will mentor you through key topics designed to improve and build your practice.
Advanced Learning Community
Unique to Doulaing The Doula, we offer an annual membership in our mentored advanced learning community on Thinkific. While you can take each course separately, joining gives you access to all of our continuing education courses along with an experienced doula mentor to answer your questions and encourage ongoing discussions with members. Our courses are all based on Dr. Gilliland’s research, and include Powerful Prenatal Relationships, Recognizing the Previously Traumatized Person in Labor, Your Social Brain, DTD Birth Film Festival and Introduction to Postpartum. While we list this as a post-training option it is available to anyone at anytime.
Continuing Education (CE & CME) Workshops
Nurses, physicians, nursing and medical students are welcome in all workshops, but this one is designed with your career needs in mind. Nurses and doctors who have a repertoire of labor support skills have much more to offer their patients! While doctors and nurses are trained to focus on the processes of birth, doulas are trained to focus on the person birthing. The most effective practitioners embrace both perspectives, which is challenging to do in the real world. If you are going to be working alongside doulas, administering a program, or promoting doula support as a solution to racial inequities in your area, this training is designed to give you the tools you need to be successful.
