2025 Doula & Birth Assistant Workshop

Name: 2025 Doula & Birth Assistant Workshop
Start: 2026-02-27T09:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-01T17:00:00-05:00
Location: Breath of Life Midwifery

Schedule

Fri, 27 Feb, 2026 at 09:00 am to Sun, 01 Mar, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Breath of Life Midwifery | Roanoke, VA

Join us in person to learn the ins and outs of supporting births as a doula and birth assistant!
About this Event

Want to be a fantastic support for mamas on their incredible journeys? Sign up for our in-person Doula & Birth Assistant Workshop!
This hands-on experience is just what you need if you’re passionate about birth support and eager to learn the ropes. You’ll get to connect with others, pick up some practical tips, and boost your confidence in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Come learn, share, and grow with us! This class blends our traditional doula training with our midwifery birth assistant workshops. On Friday and Saturday, you’ll learn how to support families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum as a traditional doula. On Sunday, we’ll dive into how to assist midwives at out-of-hospital births. To get ready, you’ll need to complete some pre-requisite assignments, attend the 3-day workshop, and do some postafter the workshop. We’ll use a mix of lectures, interactive games, videos, demonstrations, role-playing, and more to cover these topics:

- What type of birth professional do I want to be?
- Scope of practice
- Reproductive anatomy, physiology, and terminology
- Social determinants of health
- Supporting families prenatally
- Pros/Cons of birthing techniques/methods
- Physiological birth process
- Non-clinical ways to recognize the stages of labor
- Comfort measures for stages of labor
- Supporting the partner and encouraging involvement
- Maintaining a supportive birth environment
- Normal variations of labor
- Complications
- Navigating and supporting loss
- Interventions - benefits, risks, alternatives
- Informed consent, effective communication, and advocacy
- Postpartum support
- Facilitating breastfeeding
- Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders
- Building relationships with the birth community
- Charting and record keeping
- HIPAA
- Mandatory reporting
- Universal precautions
- Identifying midwifery equipment
- Midwifery setup/cleanup
- Basic birth assistant skills

16-hour doula/birth support workshop (two 8-hour days, with potluck lunch) 8-hour birth assistant training workshop (one 8-hour day, with potluck lunch)

To get the most out of this training, please complete the required reading and assignments. We need at least five people to make it happen. You’ll receive an attendance certificate once you’re done. Plus, we offer post-workshop consultations, mentorship, and testing if you’re interested.
Cost
The training costs $800. We’re offering a 50% discount for BIPOC students and students facing financial difficulties. If you qualify, you'll need to provide income verification. We will use the 2025 FPL to confirm your financial need. You can also pay in installments if that works better for you.
A $200 non-refundable deposit is due when you register, and the rest is due on the first day of training. If you’re interested in becoming a doula for Breath of Life clients, you can trade your training cost for experience at $100 per birth. We’re not currently approved for Medicaid coverage, but we’re working on getting that approval soon.
Do you need any special preparation?
Before the first workshop, please complete the required reading list, familiarize yourself with medical terminology, and watch the video playlist. It’s also helpful to have a basic understanding of the birth process, terms, practitioners, and interventions to fully grasp the workshop.