Global Birth Educators Network
Training and encouraging doulas and birth educators globally.
About Us
The Global Birth Educator Network exists to train, encourage, and provide continuing education for the birth educator or doula serving in their community or cross culturally. We want to offer high quality, thorough, and easy to understand information to equip those desiring to work or volunteer in whatever community they find themselves in. Our goal is to level the playing field wherever there is inequity and injustice experienced by pregnant and birthing mums.
Doula & Birth Educator Training Seminars
A Doula (or Birth Partner) is a trained companion who gives emotional and physical support to a woman in labour. This training seminar is suited to those wanting to empower women to have safer birth experiences. A doula supports a woman to make informed decisions about herself and her baby during the birth process. Research shows that a doula’s presence reduces the need for unnecessary interventions and improves a woman’s feelings about her birth experience.
A Birth Educator explains pregnancy and birth-related topics in a way that women can understand and use to positively affect their own birth experience. The Birth Educator portion of the seminar dives deeper into the doula training topics with a focus on teaching adult learners in a multicultural setting.
This three-week training will equip you in the global effort towards creating safer experiences for mothers and their babies. Doula support and quality birth education should be accessible to all women, not only those who are able to pay for it.
Our goal is to level the playing field by working with women who are otherwise under-served in this area, whether in our neighbourhood or the rest of the world.
WEEK 1
Reproductive anatomy
Stages and phases of labour
Global maternal health awareness
Importance of antenatal care and the 3 delays
Relaxation and the fear-tension-pain cycle
Comfort techniques and labour support
Signs of approaching labour
Birth and immediate postpartum
Initiating breastfeeding
Variations in labour
Informed consent and decision making
Role of the Doula
WEEK 2 – 3
History of childbirth education
Nutrition in pregnancy
Precautions in pregnancy
Foetal development
Physical and emotional changes in pregnancy
Common discomforts and remedies
Physical conditioning for pregnancy
Postnatal and newborn care
Breastfeeding
Trauma-informed care
Teaching adult learners
Developing teaching outlines
Developing and using teaching aids
Resources for the Childbirth Educator
Opportunities to develop and present teachings with supervision
The DBES currently runs in Australia and the US.
Please email globalbirthnet@gmail.com for upcoming locations and dates.
Certification Requirements
DOULA CERTIFICATION:
Attend the Doula Training portion of the DBE Seminar
(submit completed module form) from approved locations.
Complete reading and submit the reading verification form:
1. The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
2. Pregnancy Childbirth & the Newborn by Simkin, Whalley, Keppler et al or
The Simple Guide to Having a Baby by Simkin, Whalley & Keppler
3. The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers by Jack Newman or
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League INTL or
Breastfeeding … Naturally by The Australian Breastfeeding Association
4. The Thinking Women’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
Submit evidence of 3 labour/births that you attend and the specifics of your role as a doula.
Submit all documents with a certification fee of $25 USD
CHILDBIRTH EDUCATOR REQUIREMENTS:
Attend the Birth Educator Training portion of the seminar (submit completed module form)
Complete reading and submit the reading verification form for all of the books for doulas plus:
Myles Textbook for Midwives, 16th edition
Section 3, Pregnancy - Ch. 8 - 10,
Section 4, Labour - Ch. 16 - 18,
Section 5, Puerperium - Ch. 23, 25, 26,
Section 6, The Neonate - Ch. 28, 34
2. The Dance of Teaching Childbirth Education by Livingstone and Jensen
Teach an evaluated teaching series (6 sessions) and submit information for review
Submit all documents with a certification fee of $25 USD
GBEN is available to help guide you through the process of learning and certification. We will continue to support and update you as you establish yourself as a certified birth professional in your community.
To get in contact please email us at globalbirthnet@gmail.com
Our Trainers
Leslie
Subic, Phillipines
Leslie Nabong is the founder of the Global Birth Educators Network. She has trained childbirth educators and doulas internationally and has worked with hospitals, birth centers and the homebirth community. Over the years she certified as a DONA doula trainer, a Bradley instructor, and was a state coordinator for the International Childbirth Education Association. In 2005 she developed the Doula and Birth Educators Seminar to equip others to help pregnant women all over the world. Leslie now focuses on pregnancy and birth consultations.
Hollie
Aotearoa (New Zealand)
After doing her nursing degree and practicing for a few years, Hollie began serving in mother and child healthcare in a global capacity. For 17 years she has supported mums and babies in multiple nations and in her own neighbourhood. She is passionate about seeing mums have an empowering birth experience and to see the rise of a level playing field for maternal health globally.
Becca
Dharawal Country (Australia)
Becca has been involved with maternal health since 2005 and is trained as a Doula and Birth Educator with a Trauma-Informed focus. Her own experience of birth trauma and a Postnatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder created a desire to see all women feel supported during birth and early motherhood. She currently volunteers with women in her community offering pregnancy, birth and postnatal support.
Consuelo
El Paso, Texas, USA
Consuelo York has spent many decades serving women all over the world in mother and child healthcare. She is a Certified Professional Midwife and currently runs a 3-year professional midwifery training program and is also a doula and birth educator trainer for the GBEN. Contact Consuelo at lifereaching@gmail.com
Aimee
Tyler Texas, USA
Aimee Krol has has worked with Living Alternatives, mentoring young mums through unplanned pregnancies and in parenting skills. She saw that many pregnant moms were alone or didn't have the support they needed on that day. She received her certification 8 years
ago through Global Birth Network and has organized 4 trainings through
GBEN since then. She now leads Better2gether Birth Services which provides chidbirth education and free doula services for underserved women in her community. She will run a training for volunteer doulas in September 2021. She can be reached at aimee.krol@living alternatives.org
