doula education

[westcoastma]

I've recently started looking into getting certified as a doula (how the LO change our lives, eh?) and I live in Vancouver BC. I was wondering if any of you out there would recommend a specific program for this, in my area or not (I've seen a lot of correspondance courses and that's primarily what I'm interested in).

From the little looking around I've done I've come across a couple programs. One is through DONA International, one through CBI, and one is taught by a private instructor, Gloria Lemay link I'm sure there are more private classes out there, just an example.

Any personal experiences? The privately taught class says that students will receive certification, but would it be more credible to go through DONA? Is there a portion of DONA taught in a class setting? It says there is pre-reading, practicum work etc but is there class portion as well? (I need to work around my 5 month son) Cost???

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I would appreciate all input!!!

TIA

[westcoastma]

[Inner_Serenity]

I certified through CBI and found it was not only very thorough in the information you learn but wa very easy to work around family and home stuff... I believe cost wide it is also very effeciant. I personally have not run into any issues of people not hiring me because I am not DONA certified. Honestly that distinction doesn't mean that much to most parents. Now if you want hospitals or Dr.s to refer you it may have a bit more impact on them.

Gloria Lemay is an incredible woman. I can only imagine her training would also be incredible. If I had this as an option I would most likely would have taken it.

Tia

[Sage.Naissance]

I took DONA training and I a 28 week holistic doula training, which is specifically geared toward our area and special needs here. It is spectacular. We are trained in homeopathy, herbalism and massage therapy, and have a very thorough education as well as shadowing and mentoring for births.

I felt that DONA training was too breif and not very thorough. We spent all of our time talking about legislation and what we WERENT allowed to do as doulas(ie reccomend herbal teas for maladies, check up on nutrition, etc). I felt it didnt suit the doula work I wanted to do, and I didnt feel that the training was adequate enough to make sure we were GOOD doulas. I'm not that keen on aligning myself with a group whos determination of certification is jumping through a bunch of beaurocratic hoops and chasing after docs for evaluations, rather than being good educated doulas. I did love my DONA teachers and classmates and it was a great bonding weekend but I dont feel like I could have left that and gone to a birth as a confident and secure doula. I DO very much feel that about my Holistic training.

I reccommend Gloria's class. She actually came to our class a couple months ago when she was on our side of the continent, and stirred things up a lot. Shes brassy as hell and hilarious, but dont be surprised if she tells you that doulas are useless and interfere with the birthing process. Thats what she told us.

Anyways, what I am getting at is; dont worry about certification, because being a good doula speaks WAY more and people will hire you if you are good. Go for education over a big name certification. I promise, especially in Van.

RE: Correspondance, birth is physical and dynamic and cant really be learned just through books. A lot of what we learn in our courses is how to smell, feel, hear and see when a baby is coming without knowing dialation and all that. Doula classes are likely to be one evening a week or something not a big committment, something with shadowing is ideal.

[birthmamma]

Hi! New to the board but I thought I would throw in a word or two. I am originally from the coast (born and raised) but now live in the Shuswap. I took Glorias birth assistant class 2 years ago and it was *awesome*. I had been to her house a few times previously for film nights when I was pregnant with my 2nd so I already had an idea of what she was like and what her teaching style was. Anyways, it was 4 intense days of TONS of info that you will *never* be taught in a DONA course,lol.
As I remember, it was around 300$ canadian and worth every penny


Carrie

[Gunter]

i liked my birth doula training through ALACE but they are hard to keep in touch with these days as their office is going through an adjustment or something.

i just did the post partum doula training with DONA and it was good. it wasn't as strongly evidenced based as ALACE though. There were a lot of people in the training who just shared our ideas about things vs. the instructor giving us true info.