Your presence after a new baby is born provides comfort, safety and ease. Offer the unique BirthWorks Experience – evidence-based best practices with a human-values approach. This means integration of mind-body-spirit in birth is also carried into the significant moments after birth and with baby. Join high-quality, comprehensive training with Personal Mentoring!

Path to Become a Postpartum Doula

Register

Workshop

Online at Home

Work w/Clients

Be Certified!

Path to Certified Postpartum Doula ~ CPD(BWI)

  1. Pay $550US Certification Fee and receive BWI Postpartum Doula Certification Packet describing all steps
  2. Connect with your Personal Mentor for support and start interactive training – to enhance growth on key topics and receive feedback on your work
  3. Complete reading and written requirements from home – seven book reviews, two essays, and application and understanding questions for postpartum doulas
  4. When you are ready, register ($475-525US fee) for BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Workshop. (You will be sent BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Program book before you attend.)
  5. Fulfill requirements for Infant CPR/First Aid Certification and Lactation Education
  6. Do a practice mock interview with your Mentor
  7. Provide postpartum support to two families and submit evaluation forms
  8. Become a BirthWorks Certified Postpartum Doula

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Frequently Asked Questions

Complete reading and written requirements – 

  • Read seven books from our reading list and do book reports for each (250-500 words)
  • Write two essays – on what made you decide to become a doula? (250-500 words) and the value of a postpartum support (500 words)
  • Read your BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Training Book, ideally before taking the workshop
  • After the workshop, answer the Application and Understanding Questions for postpartum doulas.

Attend all hours of the BirthWorks Postpartum Workshop and receive your Certificate of Attendance and BirthWorks-Inspired status

Fulfill Infant CPR/First Aid Certification and lactation education – give proof of current professional lactation certification OR attend a breastfeeding class taught by an IBCLC (or other certified instructor) OR watch the Breast is Best film and submit a 250-300 word essay describing ten new things you learned

Personal mock interview with your Mentor to practice active listening and enhance client communication

Provide postpartum support to two families with infants less than 12 weeks old and submit postpartum doula care evaluations. They must be a minimum of eight hours each and can be completed in more than one visit. (Postpartum client-care experiences must take place after attending the workshop.)

Our blended-learning combines both online education including regular interactions, support and feedback from your Mentor, with face-to-face classroom experiences in the workshop, as well as you actually offering birth doula services. Our professional programs include transformational self-development work and training that is evidence-based and holistic – after completion you will be confident and highly-trained to be a fabulous, successful BWI professional.

  • Certification cost is $550 (including Mentoring during your 18-month training period). *Refunds are offered within 30 days of receipt of payment minus a $95 processing fee.
  • Your workshop, one of the certification requirements is $475-$525 (get $50 off with early discount)
  • You can do the Workshop first OR you can start your Certification work – that is up to you!
  • FREE BirthWorks Membership during your 12-month training period! ~ $75 Value
  • Your BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Certification Packet with all detailed requirements
  • Your comprehensive BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Training Manual
    useful during the workshop
  • Access to BirthWorks online learning platform to work toward certification
    from home any time you want.. There you will access online resources,
    upload assignments, see your progress, and stay in communication with your Mentor. It includes significant reading topics and online questions to enhance your growth on key issues such as: being an exceptional doula, human values, marketing and interviews, birth plans, third trimester, herbs, our mothers, releasing fears, grieving and healing, nutrition, medical procedures and obstetric drugs, physiology of birth, ways to help labor progress,
    connecting state of mind with labor and parenting, emotions in labor, comfort measures, risk factors, cesarean sections, postpartum and breastfeeding, infant massage, Blessingway ceremonies
  • Your personal BirthWorks Mentor offers any guidance and support needed (throughout your 12-month training period) and also reviews and comments on your work (as you upload assignments) through our online learning system.
    You can reach out to your Mentor any time!
  • Professional listing in BirthWorks online directory for referrals
  • Ability to set up your own small business, determine your own fees
    and keep all revenues
  • International recognition as a Certified BirthWorks Postpartum Doula from a
    highly-respected organization
  • Opportunity to become a BirthWorks Mentor and a BirthWorks
    Ambassador to promote BirthWorks in your area and
    earn extra money!
  • Be part of an inspiring, passionate global network and community of birthworkers
    who are working together for a great cause!

We’re proud of the quality of our doulas and deeply care about the character of those we train! Birth is an emotional, exciting, and changing time in parents’ lives. They are influenced by their doula’s beliefs, attitudes, lifestyle, and if relevant how she gave birth. BirthWorks Doulas exemplify the importance of respecting one’s body, and taking care of self, family and home. This encompasses a lifestyle that strongly discourages smoking and recreational drug use. A BirthWorks Postpartum Doula:

  • Strives to be an excellent listener who is non-judgmental and open-minded
  • Believes in the instinctual knowledge born within women during birth and parenting
  • Seeks personal growth through life experiences
  • Supports safety of VBAC over scheduled repeat cesarean section in most cases
  • Promotes the nutritional and emotional benefits of breastfeeding as the healthiest way to feed
  • Understand the deep significance of the mother-baby-dyad and skin-to-skin contact for essential neurodevelopment of the baby
  • Honors all cultural traditions and perspectives
  • Keeps personal attire and language professional so her clients feel safe and welcome

BirthWorks Postpartum Doula certification is set up for 12 months – but it’s flexible! You can choose to complete all requirements more quickly. If you need more time, just purchase an annual extension. Then, when all your work is complete, pay a mentoring fee for your final review and certification.

You chose what is best for you! You can start with the workshop – some people take it, then are inspired to become certified. You can also join the certification training and begin online learning as well as reading and written requirements, then do the workshop later. (The workshop is good for three years toward your Certification if you want to spread out costs.)

You receive this status after all of the following:

  • Full participation in all hours of the BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Workshop – afterward you are sent a Certificate of Attendance and you are granted BirthWorks-Inspired status
  • Successful completion of all BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Certification requirements, except for the client experiences (and related documentation)
  • Ongoing good standing with BirthWorks, with all certification (and if needed extension) fees paid in full

Provisional Certification brings you credibility to offer postpartum doula services — because you can show support from an internationally-respected certifying organization. BirthWorks can provide a professional letter saying you may begin offering postpartum services and are almost completed with final certification. Provisional status may give you access to work with clients in venues where pandemic-related policies are limiting access.

For these visits to count toward your certification requirements, they must be attended after you do the workshop. At that point, you will be able to apply the BirthWorks Philosophy, approach and experience in a deeper way – which assures you are more prepared and confident and that your clients have the best experience possible with you as their postpartum doula. (It is up to you if you charge your clients or not.)

You communicate with your BirthWorks Mentor throughout your training period. They give you continual feedback on all your work, help answer specific questions, and work with you to fill any gaps so you feel ready and confident to work. You can connect directly to your Mentor and also email info@birthworks.org or call with any questions.

This 200-page book includes a massive amount of information you need to be successful as a postpartum doula! Learn all about the value and considerations of doula work, scope of practice, practical doula care, primal health, bonding, postpartum physical and emotional recovery, postpartum depression, the importance of sleep, ways to be most effective providing postpartum care, as well as infant care, sleep states of babies, infant feeding and the significance of breastfeeding, using formula, baby language, care for multiples and special needs, cultural traditions, LGBTQIA* experiences, interviewing and business development, plus self-care! and more…

No exam is required for certification. The workshop, plus significant topic reading with application and understanding questions, plus reflective essay writing provide comprehensive training. Also, your postpartum client support experiences and reflections are invaluable to your learning.

After you are certified, you can Mentor others. Also, you can become an Ambassador helping host local events or market workshops and earn a percent of the incom! Some of our birth professionals become BirthWorks Trainers and others join our Board of Directors. Please join us! – Be Involved

Birth of a Postpartum Program!

Birth of a Postpartum Program!

BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Certification was co-created in 2015 by Maria Pyanov CCE(BWI) and Cathy Daub, PT, BirthWorks Founder. It was a natural extension of our Childbirth Education and Birth Doula Certification Programs as professionals requested another BirthWorks program! Cathy wrote the BirthWorks Postpartum Doula Training Book and the training was offered online only. Varied BirthWork professionals in New Zealand asked and three-day in-person workshops began. Now the workshop is offered both in-person and virtually in the US and abroad!

Your certification organization matters!

Join a community that supports, mentors and cares for you… during and after your training!
Reach us with questions anytime info@birthworks.org or +1-609-953-9380.

Have a Question? Let’s Chat.

Please don’t hesitate to reach us, happy to be in touch.

Cristin Tighe
Executive Director & International Coordinator
info@birthworks.org
1-609-953-9380
1-202-276-3521 Mobile/WhatsApp