We wanted to share inspiration from recent BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Training students and key takeaways from their learning experiences. (Please note: We do not record our workshops, so people attend and participate live during all workshop hours.) After each day, we asked these students what they experienced as most valuable. Below is what they said was the most insightful and of most importance:
Day 1 takeaways:
- Affirming the competency of the mother to empower her
- Importance of the golden hours (not just one hour) up until the first year of life
- How to debrief in prenatal meetings or to support parents later to tell their birth stories
- How to use energy matching to meet our clients and parents where they are
- Finding calm in myself to create clear energy before going to be with clients, so I bring calm to the family to start (no matter what is going on for them)
- What specific tasks postpartum doulas do and what they do not do (clarity on the scope of practice)
- The importance of breastfeeding for decreasing the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Day 2 takeaways:
- Women of color get less quality support and have increased risks perinatally
- Deep value of kindness and caring
- Information on cultural preferences and context to best serve different families
- We need to understand credible community resources to refer parents to
- Discussing crucial things that might bring up disagreements before the baby is born
- How important crawling is for babies and their brain development
- That babies from the moment of birth are capable
- Knowing Dunstan Baby language–what the “words” (cries) are and the importance of listening to the baby, especially in the earliest weeks
Day 3 takeaways:
- How vaccines given to babies right after birth or in the early months (if they are in a doctor’s office because they are sick, and get vaccines at the same time, or get multiple vaccines) can cause even more health issues later
- Value in understanding the sleep states of babies and when not to wake them
- How to help physical healing in mothers after birth by teaching them how to massage the top of the uterus (known as the fundus) to encourage it to contract and start to shrink
- The connection between the timing of lochia (in mothers’ bodies) and mental wellness (e.g. normal baby blues or if there are serious mental health concerns) and how a mother’s mental wellness over six weeks (depending on the support she gets) impacts her physical healing over first six weeks (and the difference in need and timeline, if there was a cesarean)
- The power of certain words (such as asking “why?”) can put people on the defensive, so framing inquiries–in initial parent meetings and later when at home with families–in different, positive ways, keeps communication loving and kind
- Babies’ body clocks are programmed to receive information and have experiences across the placenta
| WHAT OUR OTHER POSTPARTUM DOULAS SAY: Once I decided I wanted to be a postpartum doula and serve new mothers and their families, I did a lot of research to find a program that aligned with my philosophy and would be flexible for my life as a mother… As soon as I saw “Birth is Instinctive” on the BirthWorks website, my interest was piqued about a holistic, physiological approach to birth and postpartum care. The program furthered my admiration and respect for newborn babies and mamas. It deepened my conviction that babies are wise, and postpartum mothers and their families are so deserving of respectful, heart-centered care. That’s the most important lesson the program taught me, and it’s something I carry with me to every client and in all my interactions with people. ...the intimate format allowed for a great deal of interaction. I was energized and inspired by the knowledge and wisdom being imparted during the course of those four days. My expectations were far exceeded. BirthWorks' postpartum class is very detailed and in-depth. It was beneficial to chat with others in the community. This class helps show how to build a mother's confidence and love for her baby. |
Over the years, BirthWorks Trainers have experienced the deep care and wisdom of each new student group—and what each student brings to their BirthWorks journey. Over time, people have become much more knowledgeable, informed, and inspired to help shift the current state of birth. This is excellent because it means our starting place for “teaching” is more evolved, and we can get into more depth in our workshops and training programs. We do this live, interactively, so people learn from each other and connect heart-to-heart to heal and get uplifted personally. Professionally, they learn key educational points—like those above— and gain professional guidance on building clientele, handling social marketing, and growing their businesses.
BirthWorks has, over three decades, consistently taken feedback from our students to improve our offerings. Our students were key in starting new programs (parents became our first childbirth educators, our educators asked that we create the birth doula training program, and our postpartum doula program came out of requests and needs of our birth doulas!) Each student is asked to evaluate their training workshops and give ongoing feedback to their Trainer and Personal Mentor… and we use the deep sharing, ideas, inspirations, and concerns for continual improvements to training workshops and the certification process. We do the same with our parent classes!
Thank you to these students for sharing what they learned and helping us understand what else we can add to future workshops! Together, we change the birthscape for better births.
Want to attend our Postpartum Doula Training Workshop (open to all birth professionals) and/or go on to get certified as a BirthWorks Postpartum Doula? Learn more here. You may also be interested in becoming a Newborn Care Specialist (Kangaroula) who advocates for the baby’s needs. You can read about that here.
