7 reasons doulas should train as childbirth educators
You're an amazing doula. It's so incredible to help families through the birth experience, but you know that's only part of the puzzle. Have you ever felt frustrated at a prenatal visit because there's just so much that your clients don't know? Do you find yourself spending too much time at those visits educating your clients about the basics of birth? Do you find that your clients who have the best birth experiences have also taken a great class? Childbirth education is a specialty area of birth work, and it can add so much to your business — and help your clients have better births. Have you considered training with Heart Soul Birth Pros to become a Lamaze childbirth educator?
Doulas make great childbirth educators.
Here are seven reasons you might like to grow your career in the birth world by becoming a Lamaze childbirth educator.
1. More services to offer your doula clients — and education on the things you want them to learn.
Lamaze offers so much flexibility in what you can include in your childbirth classes, as long as they are in keeping with the Healthy Birth Practices. You will have an extra skill set to support every family you serve, and potential for a new income stream. Your doula clients can become your students, and your students can become your doula clients.
2. Open up career opportunities with hospitals, nonprofits and agencies.
Lamaze is a trusted and respected name in the childbirth education world, and often one of just a few certifications accepted by hospitals and other organizations. It's an international organization, recognized everywhere you go. Whether you want to teach independently or for a hospital — or maybe a little of both — you'll have options.
3. You'll get solid on evidence-based practices.
If you want a nudge to get really familiar with the best evidence-based maternity care, Lamaze certification is the path to take. Lamaze offers great resources for you and your future students, and Heart Soul Birth Pros is the only Lamaze program in the world that will also give you a six-month subscription to the Evidence Based Birth Academy.
4. Contact hours.
Our Lamaze training comes with 23.75 nursing contact hours (also good for most doula recertifications), and if you take the advanced courses from the Evidence Based Birth Academy, you can earn another 23 nursing contact hours.
5. Increased legitimacy.
The Heart Soul Birth Pros training is the first step toward certification with Lamaze International. Once you're certified (the main steps after my training are to study and take the exam), you can proudly add those LCCE credentials to your name. Whether you're interacting with parents or health care professionals, they'll know you have that extra layer of training and credibility.
6. Be in the birth world without being on call 24/7.
If you're a doula, you know how hard it is to be on call 24/7, or even to share call time with someone else. As a childbirth educator, you'll have a set, known schedule. That can be a nice way to stay in the birth world if this isn't a great season in life for your doula work.
7. A whole new aspect of this work to love!
It's amazing to get to see families grow and learn over their time in your class. You’ll love seeing all the lightbulbs go off, again and again. You have knowledge that can help your students have better births. Our Lamaze training focuses on how to teach adults, with creative, interactive activities that will help information stick (research tells us that great adult ed is interactive). Did we mention our training is super fun? So. Much. Fun.
You already know a lot about birth as a doula, but our training focuses on solid, evidence-based, creative teaching for adults. What does research say about how adults learn? What kind of activities would you teach? We have the inside scoop for you.
We teach every year in Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan, plus other locations around the country. You can see our full, current schedule on our Lamaze childbirth educator registration page. Would you like a training in your home city? If you can bring together at least six people who are interested, we'll come to you. Email Jessica for details. We'd love to help you become a Lamaze childbirth educator.
Why are you thinking about childbirth educator training? Did we miss anything in this post? If you're both a childbirth educator and doula, how has that combination enriched your work? Share your thoughts by leaving us a comment below, or email info@heartsoulbirthpros.com any time with questions.
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