Requirements are as follows:

• Read through the educational modules provided.
• Complete the assignments presented throughout the unit.
• Attend at least two clients that you provide full care for. This includes a pre-natal intervew in which the needs of your client are assessed, the supportive care given, and a follow up interview in order to establish that your care fulfilled her needs and she is able to cope on her own.
• For each birth, write up a care plan on the form which will be provided for you.  Use the New Beginnings Intake form for each one, and send it to rachel@trainingdoulas.com.  It should follow the theories of Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs  and the Nursing Process.  You should also make sure each of your clients signs a confidentiality-release-form.
• Read the four required books and write a page about each.  Send to rachel@trainingdoulas.com.

Required Readings

These books can be read at any time, but will be referenced at certain times in the course.

• The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers, by Jack Newman
• Mothering the New Mother, by Sally Placksin
• The Baby Book, by William Sears
• Nurturing the Family, by Jacqueline Kelleher

Course Content

The course content is as follows:

I. Doula Assessment Skills

A. Provides research on the benefits of postpartum doulas.

B. Provides a framework to help you assess the needs of a postpartum woman and how to provide supportive care for those needs.

C. Provides coursework on where and how to find good research as well as a basic understanding of research papers.

II. Postpartum and Newborn Physiology

III. Newborn care

IV. Household management

You should have access to all the units if you paid all the fee upfront. These include Doula Assessment Skills, a Birth Packet, Maternal and Newborn care, and Household management.  They should be used in that order.

You may begin to provide postpartum doula support once you have finished with Maternal and Newborn Care.