Other Workshops

Breastfeeding for Birth Professionals 
Join us for a 4 hour Breastfeeding class that provides invaluable info for anyone working with new mama-babies and counts toward certification with BWI or any organization that requires a 4hr BF class by an IBCLC.  This class is included with the BWI Postpartum Doula Training. 

Here’s a quote from Linda (IBCLC), our instructor: I see my job as giving the mother the power and the information to breastfeed. I latch and position babies very differently... with an eye to comfort for both mother and baby in sustainable positions. I want to make this job as easy for the baby as possible on the premise that what is easiest and fastest for the baby is also easier for the mother... I take care of my mothers.
 
The Art of Prenatal Appointments 
Help your clients and you prepare for an easier birth.  Create or improve your client-paperwork, check-list, and explore some essential topics to cover during prenatal client discussions.  Explore ways for clients to unpack and process previous birth experiences or the stories of others.  Navigate mine-fields such as families who don’t support birth support.  Angie and Karen have a combined 35+ years and over a thousand prenatal appointments to draw upon, with lots of lessons along the way. 

Business for Doulas

Doulas are passionate about their work, but many struggle with the business/financial aspects.  This contributes to a high burn-out rate.  You deserve to take care of your clients while also making a living and a long term career.  Learn the basics of running a business that includes your head and your heart. 
Topics include:  “Wow” potential clients at an intro meeting and increase your “yes rate”; attract your ideal client; benefits of working in partnership / shared care; sustaining a solo practise; allowable tax expenses and a few tips for organizing your books; navigating (or not) the beaurocracy of license etc; options for fee-models; creating your ‘offer’.  We’ll also discuss creating a harmonious (or at least a neutral) work environment in a new-to-doulas area and working with hospital staff that may be threatened by doulas or empowered women.   

Creating Winning Birth Plans

Support your client in making a birth plan that will be read and respected by care providers.  Learn to draft and edit this document with her to create an empowering vision for her birth.  It can become an effective communication tool for the woman with her partner, her birth attendants, her primary medical caregiver and other staff.  This process also averts the common situation where the birth plan is actually an impediment to good relations with the birth team as some birth plans contain more “do not’s” than positive statements and are often based on out-of-date information or her past experiences/trauma.  
We will share our perspective on listening to the client’s fears and perceptions, offering her a template for her draft, and how to edit compassionately.  This process can realistically prepare her for the birth, actively inform her on options and, hopefully, get her to the place where she can start dreaming her ideal birth.  

Common Crossroads: What to do and Say

We’ll cover specific strategies for some common cross-roads and how the doula can help her clients navigate. These crossroads can be physical, emotional, medical, or related to power / communication struggles.  Learn to anticipate and either avoid or deal with issues that arise, using intelligence and intuition.  Topics include epidural use; working effectively with other birth attendants such as partners, family, staff; exhaustion; fear; past births; being “on the clock”; interventions.  

Fertility Awareness to Avoid or Achieve Pregnancy 
Trying to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy? Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), when used properly is 99% reliable in avoiding pregnancy. It’s also an extremely accurate indicator of fertile times for conception. FAM is totally natural, non-invasive, non-time consuming, and easily fits into your life. Learn about your hormonal cycles and indicators of fertility. Note: This is not the “Rhythm Method” that’s made parents out of many surprised couples!

Processing the Birth Story 
After every birth there’s a story, from the clients’ and the doula’s perspective.  Whose story is it?  Often that story differs.  Often the story changes.   Learn the pros and cons of reflecting back to your clients with conversations and possibly a doula birth log that won’t influence the processing of their birth memory and story.
As birth workers, we will also discuss the active and necessary processing our own emotions, doula experiences, and your own birth stories so we can attend births with awareness of our vulnerabilities and triggers.  We’ll discuss  this self awareness (bias, perspective, what kind of advocate you are); how your perspective colours the story; appropriate feedback vs. appropriation of the story; awareness of our own traumas and vulnerabilities and the need for mindfulness; restoring your faith after a difficult birth. 

Working with Survivors 
Anyone who works with pregnant and birthing women needs to understand how past abuse, trauma, and sexual assault can affect the birth process.  In this class you’ll learn how events in prenatal care and birth settings can be triggers for women with past traumas, including language used, medical procedures, and general practises.  We’ll also discuss how some of the ways that women are routinely treated in labour and birth can lead to the original trauma. Come and learn tips and tools for helping Survivors get through or even look forward to their upcoming births.

The Womanly Art and Science of Placenta Encapsulation
Birth Ways International offers a hands-on intensive workshop that prepares you to provide placenta encapsulation to clients.  

Open to anyone interested in placentas, whether you plan to encapsulate or just wish to enjoy the workshop and sharing!  Topics include a ‘placenta tour’, respectful and safe handling, discussion of making placenta prints and TCM methods, drying the cord, safety and sanitation, special circumstances, steps involved in preparing, dehydrating and making capsules, as well as tips on placenta smoothies.  Navigating hospital policies will also be discussed.   
Glove up! Cut, dry and encapsulate real placentas! You will see the entire process and practice it all under the guidance of instructors that have processed hundreds of placentas.