The Ins and Outs of Working as a BADT-Trained Childbirth Educator
Childbirth education (CBE) is a crucial part of preparing for welcoming a baby earthside. Whether you are a doula, aspiring doula, or someone who wants to provide classes, CBE training will support you in providing quality educational opportunities to birthing people in your communities.
This article is meant to serve as an introduction to our CBE Training while also providing you with tangible tools and ideas to use in your birth work practice.
A Broad Overview of BADT’s CBE Course:
BADT’s Childbirth Educator 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.
Like most typical childbirth educator trainings, we cover:
Labor and birth
Pathways to reproduction
Pregnancy experiences and care
Postpartum recovery
Newborn care
Supporting partners
In addition to these traditional CBE topics, we also cover the following:
Consent
Trauma and boundaries
Mental health
Pregnancy/birth and disability
Inclusive lactation and infant feeding
Grief and loss
We want our educators to have foundational knowledge of pregnancy, labor, and birth, as well as an in-depth and inclusive understanding of all aspects and realities of birth and birthing people.
While this course includes resources and information specifically for Canadian and U.S. contexts, the content provides a broad enough framework to be applicable and meaningful globally, and our students join us from all over the world.
Diving Deeper into BADT’s Speciality CBE Topics
We are consistently proud to be facilitating and participating in conversations about the full spectrum of a birthing person’s (and their family’s) experiences. Some of these specialty topics include:
Consent: Informed decision making is an important part of navigating any healthcare decision. The medical industrial complex (MIC) can move quickly, and we believe that part of our big work is to contribute to the slowing down of oppressive systems. Our childbirth educators are equipped to pass along decision-making tools to their students and clients, such that they are empowered to slow things down, get information they need and want, and make decisions in ways that feel intentional and centered.
Trauma and boundaries: Most humans have experienced what they would describe or categorize as trauma. It is every client’s right to be respected as whole humans who have complex histories and unique needs. Our trained educators will be able to support their students in exploring and naming boundaries they would like to implement in their medical care. This can range from requesting that providers use specific gender-affirming language to refusing certain procedures or asking for information to be delivered in a specific way.
Mental health: We have an acute understanding that each person is arriving to their birthing experiences with their own tapestry of life events, traits, needs, and preferences. We honor the fact that many people live with mental illnesses, neurodivergences, disabilities, and traumas. The MIC can interact (and clash) with these aspects of someone’s health and wellness, and our educators gain skills for addressing this reality with their students.
Pregnancy/birth and disability: Disability is a normal part of the diversity of human experience. Whether the birthing person, partner(s), or baby is disabled, we want folks to have tools for navigating their needs through the birthing experience, and CBEs can support them in identifying gaps, needs, requests, and boundaries with their providers.
Inclusive lactation and infant feeding: Infant feeding can happen in a variety of ways–each valid and important in their own way. BADT trained educators are well-versed in using inclusive, nonjudgmental language around lactation and infant feeding.
Grief and loss: Birth and loss are deeply intertwined, and our educators can hold space for each family’s unique journey. It’s imperative that childbirth educators have knowledge and tools around grief and loss, such that they can honor each family’s journey and the often unpredictable nature of birth.
To Seek Certification or Not
CBE certification, like all BADT certification, is optional. Certification comes with additional requirements (see below). Our CBE certification is for life, so you will not need to recertify.
CBE certification requirements include the following:
Complete 12 online student modules.
Complete the reading list (6 books) and book reports.
Complete an Infant/Child CPR Certification course. (We accept local or virtual options.)
Attend 4 hours of a group class focused on a topic related to birth work. (Examples include: childbirth education class, infant feeding support group or class for parents.) The four hours can be divided among different classes and instructors.
Complete a course outline for your own CBE course to be used with your future students.
Complete all written assignments thoroughly and thoughtfully.
Write an assessment of available local resources and gaps.
Outline your business strategy.
Participate in our private online community.
Benefits of Getting Certified as a Doula
Certification, as we shared, is optional, AND we think it’s invaluable! In the process, you can learn and integrate a ton of information. At BADT our certification track is comprehensive and includes reading, applying knowledge to projects, building resource lists, getting hands-on experience, and more. Below are our top 3 reasons to seek certification as a childbirth educator:
Clients may be able to get insurance reimbursement, or you may get paid by medicaid.
Certification provides motivation for continued learning.
You may have increased web presence and trust from clients.
You can learn more about our thoughts on whether or not to become certified here.
BADT’s Complete Curriculum for Childbirth Educators
We are passionate about holding space for your learning, AND we want you to head out into your practices with resources in hand. To facilitate that, we have a Complete Curriculum for Childbirth Educators for purchase. This comprehensive bundle includes everything you need to get started immediately: slide decks, teacher companion guides and resources, student handouts, and marketing templates!
Our curriculum materials cover the following topics:
Pregnancy Experiences (Changes, Discomforts, Providers, and Care Settings)
Self Advocacy (During Pregnancy, Labor, Birth, and Postpartum)
Labor (What to Expect, Progression, Comfort Measures)
Medical Support in Birth (Inductions, Technology and Interventions, Complications)
Postpartum (Experiences, Planning, and Infant Care)
Upon purchase, educators have permission to rebrand and adapt these course materials. Users have permission to use them with clients and student groups.
Learn more about our first complete curriculum here.
Using Your CBE Training in the Real World
We have been inspired as we witness BADT students take their learning into the real world! There are a range of ways birth workers and educators can use their knowledge from our CBE training to support families in their communities–both virtually and IRL.
Four ways we see BADT-trained childbirth educators serving their community include:
Private CBE classes
Doula add-on service
Public classes
Community-based classes
Pairing BADT Trainings
Doulas and educators who commit to more than one of our 12-week trainings will find these courses complimentary of one another. The Full Spectrum Doula 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. The Full Spectrum Lactation Educator (FSLE) Training will offer folks a more robust feeding background which can allow childbirth educators to teach even more comprehensive classes and offer postpartum education. Finally, the Postpartum Doula Training will support birth workers in building their knowledge and resources for supporting families after birth.
Caring for Yourself as a Childbirth Educator
As a facilitator you will be holding space for folks to process and explore some vulnerable and personal topics and experiences. While it may look different than direct service roles, like attending a birth, you will very likely interact with students’ trauma. Check out this article about secondary trauma for ways to be with yourself through these experiences.
As you navigate this role of facilitating and holding space for others, it is imperative that you have strong self and community-care practices. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Use a cleansing ritual (herbs, candles, etc.) before and after classes to help hold your energetic boundaries.
Schedule coworking times with colleagues to work on course material or business administrative tasks in a supportive, gentle way.
Debrief challenging scenarios with other, trusted childbirth educators or birth workers.
Move your body before, during, and after classes. Offer breaks for movement and reset during classes. Getting the wiggles out will benefit everyone!
Find a co-facilitator or backup teacher to share the load with.
Schedule intentional self-care time before and after teaching class– a walk, nap, massage, nourishing meal, or a treat, for example.
Teach in ways that work for your needs and lifestyle. For example, consider: virtual vs. IRL or day-long classes vs. hour-long classes.
What else do you already have in your toolbox that you can use as a childbirth educator?
Preparing for Facilitation
For BADT, facilitation is a dynamic, ever-evolving process that is co-created between facilitator(s) and learners. This co-creation means that as a facilitator, you approach your work from a place of openness and awareness of the communities you are serving and connected to. Facilitation involves ethically curating and sharing resources that uplift the work already happening in our communities so that participants can confidently move through their own learning processes feeling supported and witnessed. At BADT, our hope is that through a shared facilitation process– one we model, and one we offer to CBE teachers– everyone grows into themselves, their autonomy and their knowledge of available options.
While we delve into this topic more in our 12-week training, we wanted to shout out some top-notch facilitators who inspire our work:
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown
Holding Change: The Way Of Emergent Strategy Facilitation And Mediation by adrienne maree brown
Training and support with marita deLeon
anti-oppression resource & training alliance (AORTA) trainings
Support and strategy from Toi Smith
Advertising Your Offerings
In order to get folks in your classes, you’ll need to spread the word! Depending on the format of course you plan to teach, you may find certain marketing and advertising avenues a better fit than others. Below is a list of possible ideas for getting your course out into your communities:
Engage in intentional networking. Connections can be everything!
Host your event at another complimentary business. You may have some passive and active marketing from this other business, attracting their regular customers to your offering. Think: birth centers, midwifery clinics, perinatal therapists, chiropractors, gyms, and other wellness or perinatal spaces.
Create content and ask fellow birth workers to share your posts, emails, and brochures with their communities.
Send your offerings to BADT for a community highlight or post in Thinkific communities.
Share in nearby local neighborhood groups, like Facebook groups, listservs, or other publications.
Print marketing materials to leave with complimentary businesses.
Join Us in Community
We’d love for you to join us in the BADT community! Sign up for our email list if you’re a birth worker or aspiring birth worker, so you’ll be the first to hear about new courses, open enrollment periods, and scholarship opportunities. Payment plans are also available.
Ready to learn? Enroll in our CBE training (and check out our bundles!) here.