Why Full Spectrum and Childbirth Educator Trainings Are Better Together
We are so honored that many BADT students are repeat students taking two or three or four or all of our courses! There is quite a bit of overlap in the students who take our Full Spectrum Doula Training and our Childbirth Education Training, and we love seeing how our students put their learning into action in their communities. Together, these two 12-week courses can help new birth workers create a strong foundation for partnering with families in anti-oppressive and client-centered ways. Likewise, these trainings offer experienced birth workers an opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills in values-based and actionable ways.
Full Spectrum Doula Training
Our 12-week online Full Spectrum Doula Training provides doula education for all stages and potential experiences of a birthing person's life-- from preconception, to abortion, to birth, to postpartum, to miscarriage and loss. We also discuss topics and issues facing our broader communities and the birth world, such as the black maternal health crisis, food insecurity, and queer and trans birth and family building.
After taking this training, doulas will be prepared to serve birthing people through a wide range of reproductive and family building journeys. At the center of doula work is the capacity to witness, support, and care for your client. While it is highly valuable to know the details about the various physiological experiences your clients will be going through, your presence is your greatest tool!
Check out our blog Everything You Want to Know about Full Spectrum Doula Work here to learn more about our inaugural course! You might also like to read about a BADT-training full spectrum doula’s personal perspective here!
Childbirth Educator Training (aka CBE)
This training gives doulas and educators the knowledge and tools necessary to provide inclusive, trauma-informed, comprehensive, and evidence-based education to birthing people in their communities. The BADT CBE curriculum also includes education on topics such as paths to conception, consent and trauma, birth and disability, and how to create a sustainable childbirth education practice.
After taking this training, doulas and educators will be prepared to support birthing people through labor and birth preparation classes-- either in the individual or group setting.
Note: this training is currently offered in an on-demand pre-recorded format, and will not be offered live again until 2022.
Pairing BADT Trainings
Doulas and educators who commit to taking both the full spectrum and CBE trainings will find these courses complimentary. The full spectrum training will help folks who primarily plan to teach childbirth classes hold space for clients and recognize the barriers their clients may face during preconception, labor, birth, and postpartum.
Likewise, doulas who plan to primarily offer direct client 1:1 doula services will gain a deeper understanding of the transition birthing people experience. The CBE course will prepare doulas to have conversations not just about some of the mechanics of labor and birth, but also how to honor and ritualize the change in roles and identities that birthing people may experience.
A student who takes both courses will leave with deep and wide knowledge of birth and beyond. It is important to note that when you work with pregnant people, you will inevitably be working with people who have experienced loss, miscarriage, abortion, and so on. People have complex and dynamic lived experiences, and with BADT’s paired trainings, you will have lots of content to draw from as you support clients.
How Prepared Will I Be to Start Working?
In short, you will leave these courses ready to partner with families in your communities right away!
While “classroom learning” is crucial, most students find that once they start working with clients and get to apply their knowledge, it lands in new and impactful ways. At first, doulas and childbirth educators can be nervous about getting started or worried that they are imposter while working with their first clients. These feelings are real and valid. Working with folks through their reproductive experiences can be intimate and sensitive. AND if you are actively engaged in the practice of showing up as an unbiased, supportive, compassionate space-holder, you will learn and develop so much as you work alongside your clients. You do not have to be an expert in all things in order to serve clients and students; in fact, an essential part of your job is to encourage them to be the experts of their own experiences.
The learning and unlearning doesn’t stop after one or two courses. Furthermore, your education and commitment to ongoing studies as a birthworker are important. (This is why BADT is now offering specialized continued education courses as well!) So, while our full spectrum and CBE classes offer students a strong foundation for getting started or developing their birth work practices, we also honor the fact that this work is dynamic and ongoing. In other words, if you are committed to values that align with the BADT values, the work never stops.
Note: While we are using the terms learning, education, and studies, we are committed to decolonizing learning spaces. Thus, our process often looks different than the process most of us know and have been socialized to expect from learning spaces under dominant culture.
Ready to Train with BADT?
Find all of our courses, including full spectrum and CBE here, and be sure to sign up for our email list so you’ll be first to hear about new courses, open enrollment periods, and scholarship opportunities. We would love to see you in class!