What Didn’t Change:
I still did the early December doula training, mostly because I had the backup of a doula trainer friend in attendance. I wanted to “check” my new
Doulaing The Doula curriculum and get their honest feedback. It was a lovely group, see our (photo left).
My work is a lot of my life, and birth doula training excellence is one of the legacies I want to leave. My goal is to create a Birth Doula Trainer Mentoring Program to increase the amount of high quality faculty in diverse neighborhoods. If everyone deserves to have a doula with their
background who “gets” them, doesn’t that extend to doula trainers, too?
Over time, birth doula trainers establish formal and informal labor support communities in their networks. That in turn, changes the conversation about birth, which changes consumer expectations, and brings about innovation. But it all starts with a reliable education
source.
With that in mind, I have been mentoring two new birth doula trainers in 2022, and one of them is ready to launch! Welcome Amanda Echols of Random Lake. Wisconsin, who will be doing her first training in Milwaukee in February 23-26, 2023!
In addition, Doulaing The Doula received a grant from Wisconsin
Department of Health Services to recruit and mentor four birth doula trainers representing communities who experience inequities in birth outcomes. This is a career training, enabling the trainer to conduct workshops and make their own income and become a strong community influencer. Doulaing The Doula Standards of Practice, Code of Ethics, and Training Curriculums can be the vehicle to create more doulas and sustainable long term labor support communities.
What Was Postponed (Or What To Look Forward To):
Our fancy new website with all the new functions! With our expansion into new programs, and addressing diverse audiences with our programs, we needed a more functional, streamlined site. With multiple trainers offering workshops on multiple dates, and adding
more certified doulas, we needed a site that could handle those functions. It was ready to go in early November, but I’m not recovered enough to handle the responsibilities!
Chat feature! You can reach us through the Chat feature on the new website. No need to email and wait for a reply, and it’s no longer just me (but other Trainers and Coaches) handling communications.
More Foundations of Doula Practice groups. Now that it’s separate from certification, anyone can sign up. That means more people, which means more staff and coordinating schedules, and now you can see why this task had to be postponed. Look for more meeting dates and Coach announcements soon.
Winter online classes – Now starting February
2!
2023’s entire schedule – our first three are below.
I want to thank all of you for your support through emails and Facebook replies and posts. If you want more details, you can friend me to read my recovery journal on Fb: AmyGillilandphd .
