Considering Doula Training? Come Join me in Nova Scotia!

There are times you come home from a birth and are filled with the feeling, "I understand many of the things I saw happen in the hospital were done by good people, performed with well educated as well as loving intention in the hopes of sparing a labouring mother and baby from unwanted birth complications.... yet despite that, I cannot help but feel I have witnessed something brutal." What do you DO with these feelings?

Sometimes you can come home with all of the beauty and struggle you've witnessed and feel like there's no way to ground it all, and to process everything you've seen and learned. How do you build a community to gain strength from?

Birth is an amazing thing, and you may feel like you want to participate in the process, helping a couple feel emotionally safe and supported while they work hard to bring their baby into the world. How do you go about doing so?

Perhaps you've always wanted to be involved in childbirth, but didn't feel like you wanted the clinical responsibility that being a doctor or midwife entails. Where do you go to learn how to provide empowerment and comfort to women birthing in all kinds of different settings?

You may see the childbearing year as an opportunity in a woman's life for immense healing and personal growth, and wonder how you can learn to nourish her health and build up her resources to birth the way she wants. How do you learn how to move beyond "timing contractions" and applying techniques, to truly embracing the whole woman and guiding her to finding her strength to give birth happily, whatever that means to her?

Are you interested in not just witnessing and helping with birth and mothering, but in participating in creating healing for our challenging birth culture one mother, father, and baby at a time?

Are you interested in getting off the divide between "us" and "them" when it comes to a holistic vs. medical approach to childbirth and learn to build bridges to create healing on a global level, serving what women want and where they are at right now?

Would you like to learn how to be a doula in a beautiful environment, learning not only about the art of doula care but discovering more about yourself, your strengths and your fears, and finding opportunities for your own personal growth and healing?

Would you like to learn how to be a doula in a supportive community, receiving feedback and followup as you transition into your important role?

Would you like to feel that mothering and learning are not mutually exclusive, and feel that your nursing child is welcome within a circle of women learning the same things?

Would you like your learning process to be a powerful, nurturing, transformative experience for you?

Do you want to immerse yourself in the learning of all things birth-y over a period of six days and evenings in a workshop that goes beyond what you ever thought you knew about being a doula?

Would you like to let go of the pettiness of politics and mandatory qualifications and fear based impositions to flourish as the doula YOU are meant to be, embracing your work as the grassroots but deeply socially responsible role it is?

Would you like to learn the art of doula care from someone who has been doing this work for nearly two decades?

Did you know that a doula is not a liscensed professional, and that papers and organizations are not necessary to bring your very best work to a birth? Certifying papers show you have met the requirements of any given body who provides doula training and an outline of agreed upon doula behaviour. While this is a great way to feel you've accomplished what you set out to do and a good way to know you are on the right track by being evaluated by an experienced person/organization, you are technically allowed to do doula work anytime in your life, with or without papers. Would you like to feel confident about your abilities to provide excellent doula care even if you are called on to be at a birth before being or without being certified?

Then come and join me! I am giving a training in beautiful New Germany, Nova Scotia, at Windhorse Farm www.windhorsefarm.org from July 24th to July 29th.

The deadline for applications is June 18th. No applications will be taken beyond this point. For more information, go to: http://www.motherwit.ca/MotherWit.ca_Birth-Doula-Training-Intensive.pdf

I would love to see you there! Send me and email and we can chat about it if you have questions. Payment plans are an option. info@motherwit.ca

This course is neither the beginning nor your end of your journey. Never at any point will you learn all the tricks to being a doula and then you're done. It is a life long process. It is my hope this training will serve as the garden where you will push down your roots deeply and find nourishment, so that one day your branches reach far into the sky as you contribute in your own loving, unique way to the path of healing.