Hello Colleagues (or future colleagues!)
Professional Courses
Are you a professional who wants more confidence in working with multiples or preemies? Are you wondering how to update your lactation support without having to become an IBCLC? We have built several professional courses that can support your goals, and give you more to offer your doula clients, or students in your education classes.
Lactation Updates for Doulas & NCS
As postpartum professionals we deal with breastfeeding & pumping families every day. Lactation is one area we always need updating to gain knowledge that will help our clients. In this 6 hour workshop, we will use a scenario based learning approach to review hands-on skills like hand expression, engorgement relief, clogged duct treatment, reverse pressure softening, the new recommendations on flange guidelines and inflammatory mastitis, plus bottle & breast transitions that stay inside the scope of a postpartum doula. Taught by an IBCLC that is also a postpartum doula, we offer this lactation update to review difficult conversations about issues like tongue and lip tie, D/MER, colostrum harvesting, and other topics doulas often encounter. Designed for professionals who want to provide up to date information while supporting the feeding plans from IBCLC’s. CEU’s available. $250-$295
More Information
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Dec 14th 9 am to 3 pm MST (live virtual)
Jan 18th 9 am to 3 pm PST (live virtual)
$250 virtual, $295 in person
Certificate of Attendance provided
6 Nursing CEU’s available for $25
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D/MER
Hand expression
New protocols on inflammatory mastitis
Engorgement relief
Clogged duct treatment
Reverse pressure softening
New recommendations on flange guidelines
Bottle & breast transitions
Oral restrictions & bodywork
Colostrum harvesting
Practice stations so you can hone your skills
Working with Preemies
Tiny babies require special skills! If you are intimidated by working with babies before their due date, have no fear. Doulas, NCS, and nannies often find they are working with teeny tinies coming home at 34-38 weeks, and even some before 34 weeks. These babies are a different breed, often come with heightened parental anxieties, and can be tricky to feed and monitor. Show your clients you are ready and confident to help them in their earlier than planned days. Virtual, self-paced. $67 (You can watch this on a quiet overnight shift.)
Working with Multiples
This is an advanced training that builds on your postpartum doula or newborn care specialist training. With 8 modules covering over 8 hours of instruction and hands on practice, this workshop now is fully self-paced to accommodate the overnight workers and their unique sleep schedules! Once completed it provides a certificate to show new clients your dedication to advanced education. Tandem feeding, tandem holds, and tandem babywearing skills are covered extensively. Newly updated with current research on co-bedding and safe sleep for multiples. $157
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This is a fully recorded and self-paced course now! You can sign up and watch the very same day, and learn portions at a time at your convenience.
Pricing is $157 for the Working with Multiples with an optional add for the Working with Preemies course for $67. These used to be bundled but were separated for specific interest.
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Postpartum emotions and hormones
How to support a twin mother nutritionally
Swaddling options for twins/preemies
Skills for the prenatal interview
Welcoming the family home; emotions and hormone waves
Planning to feed 2 or more; setup and skills
Setup & equipment
Scheduling and routines
Tandem baby wearing safety
New Parent Educator
Looking to teach classes, either in a group or private format? This workshop can help you build a class, customize the knowledge and skills you bring to parents, and monetize it to serve your community. This is a 2-3 day training that will challenge you to design classes that represent your wisdom and use your skills to equip new parents. Kimberly Bepler and Laura Nance wrote this original program together, and Laura now teaches this live and virtually. (Kimberly is taking a hiatus from teaching doula and educator trainings to focus on grandparents in 2025.)
If babies are your thing, and inspiring parents to work as a team is your goal, you will love this training that will help you equip others with your special baby whispering skills. This training can equip you to teach private classes, work in a community educator role, or teach online. Certification options are also available to support teaching in a hospital setting or working within a healthcare system.
More Information
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Nov 2-3, 2024 Live Virtual 9am-6pm EST
January 10-12, 2024 Live Virtual (3 days) 8:30-4 pm PST
Virtual options: $625 (30 days before training), $675 after deadline
IN PERSON options available to book (usually 8:30-6:30, weekends are best)
IN PERSON Cost: $675 (30 days before training) $725 after deadline
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Because there is more to Prenatal Education than childbirth! New Parent Educators can be found helping educate new families in a variety of different settings. Many work at hospitals teaching Baby Care classes, some work in community clinics that support new parents, and others work within care provider offices or in private settings. Several are teaching exclusively online as entrepreneurs. They all share the common goal of assisting and equipping families to make educated decisions about their babies.
If you are looking to add New Parent education to your childbirth or breastfeeding classes--and want a certification that illustrates your commitment to non-judgmental, evidence-based education--the New Parent Educator program is for you.
This course brings many different baby and parent professionals together, and creates the most dynamic and fun training as you practice teaching, learn new approaches for student engagement, and challenge yourself to write the beginnings of a curriculum for your own classes.
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The Newborn – Characteristics, Procedures, Feeding, and Care
Parental Relationships After Baby
Evidence Based Practices
Teaching to Adult Learners
Curriculum Development
Soothing the Newborn
SUIDS/SIDS and Safe Sleep
Postpartum Expectations for the birthing person
Postpartum Expectations for the Partner/Non-Birth Parent
Preparing the Home and Family
Specialty Class Ideas
Practical application of Scope of Practice, Ethics, and Integrity
Business development, marketing, and networking
CAPPA certification and policies
Postpartum Doula Training
Love babies and new parents? If you want to become a professional that serves families after baby comes, this is the training for you. Get started with in-home care nurturing new parents and infants to a harmonious postpartum. If you are looking to join our ABC Doula team, we recommend this class with Laura Nance, with certification options easily available. (Kimberly is taking a hiatus from teaching doula and educator trainings to focus on grandparents in 2025, but has co-taught with Laura for 20 years, and highly recommends this pathway for training and certification.)
This training is 3 day course, taught virtually via Zoom, and filled with case studies, practice scenarios, group interaction, and Laura’s wisdom over 20+ years of postpartum doula support. It is the first step to getting certified with PPA, an approved certifying body for working with Carrot and other benefit programs.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Start with a foundational training, which is 18-24 hours long. We offer it over 2 days in person or online via Zoom over 3 days.
Becoming a doula takes a few steps:
Take a training
Complete a reading list
Apply for certification & become certified
The training will begin the process, and you will follow up with CAPPA to complete your certification.
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There are no official prerequisites, however there is a Pre-Training Assignment that we ask students to fill out before they attend a workshop.
We might require you gather some materials in advance, however the training is open to anyone. This is a lay profession that doesn't require extensive training in other arenas, but is greatly benefited from caregiving experience such as parenting & nannying, or any other healing modalities.
Getting certified is a longer process however, and the workshop is only 1 step into that process. There will be plenty to do to get certified after the training.
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Doula work is my life and passion. I have been a postpartum doula for over 24 years, 15 of which have been full time, while supporting my family of 4. I live and breathe postpartum doula work, having served well over 3000 families, and I still love it!
I teach scenario based trainings where you get to collaborate and practice through the examples we have experienced from real life families we have served in Portland, OR and Vacouver, WA. Real families (although protected for confidentiality) give us the best opportunity to learn skills that you will use and apply in your work. The activities we use are right out of what I see parents needing every week.
I am also a fun instructor! I don’t like boring education, and I need to have fun as an educator, so I keep things moving! Students say I am responsive to questions, they love my passion and are inspired to get out into their communities. They often say they learned more than they expected, and love the collaborative learning environment.
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Topics covered in this course include:
The Role & Scope of the Professional Postpartum Doula
Hormone Changes in Early Postpartum
Breastfeeding, Bottlefeeding, and Pumping Support
Modern Newborn Care
Safe Sleep Support
Family Adjustment, including Partners and Grandparents
Doula Business Development
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If you want to find out more about the CAPPA Postpartum Doula certification process, please see the Postpartum Doula section on the CAPPA website for information on certification, membership, and all the benefits!
You will be looking for CAPPA Academy–this is the certification program for doula and educator trainings.
CAPPA is the largest childbirth organization in the world, and hosts a low cost conference every year to keep the members updated and relevant. They also have the best customer experience we've ever seen in the birth world, and support their members to their own personal success. We are proud to represent this organization and offer our workshop as the first step.