Prerecorded Abortion Doula CE Course
(Canadian Context)
Our Abortion Doula Continuing Education course is a space for radical, supportive doulas and advocates who are ready to contribute to change in their communities and at the systems level.
Together, we will explore solutions to the tough questions and obstacles that abortion doulas and our clients face.
So what does an Abortion Doula do?
Abortion doulas provide emotional support to clients.
Emotional support is non-clinical and patient-centered. In other words, you will not be diagnosing, offering medical labels, or prescribing care.
The process of providing emotional support can occur before, during, and after the abortion procedure.
In the fast-paced, stressful, patriarchal, and often biased medical-industrial complex, people often leave appointments with their care providers feeling unheard and confused, or even gaslit.
As a doula, your work is to validate and affirm the big (and little) feelings, questions, and concerns clients share with you. The ways you see and hear them are invaluable. Your partnership can support the client in feeling stronger in their ability to advocate for themselves throughout their medical journey.
This continuing education course offers an opportunity to explore what it means to support abortion as a part of your practice.
Together, we’ll unpack misconceptions about this work and clarify the scope of this role.
We will consider policy and support you in understanding access in your local area.
There will be context given for understanding abortion legislation (Canada), as well as working in both collective and private practice settings to increase access to safe and empowered abortion in your community.
Additionally, because doulas and clients may be met by anti-abortion rhetoric, policy, and bias, we will hold space to discuss scenarios and conversations that can arise in this work.
As we go deeper, you will gain direct and accurate information about what actually happens during various procedures.
You will get a sense of what to expect and how to prepare for being in-clinic with clients. With this context, you’ll build a toolbox of support ideas to use in direct-client support.
As an abortion doula, your primary role is to support clients in feeling as comfortable and safe as possible.
You co-create the space for clients to self-advocate through their reproductive experiences.
In community, we will consider the logistics of how to offer abortion support and contribute to access in your community. Some doulas join abortion support collectives and others, like many full-spectrum doulas, support folks through their private practices.
Finally, we will address community and self-care for doulas. This work is deeply important and it can be emotionally and physically taxing, as all companionship work can be. You will consider rituals and practices that will support you in showing up to this work well-resourced, as well as decompressing after offering support to clients.
As a full-spectrum organization, we prioritize creating courses and offerings that contribute to reproductive justice for all.
“SisterSong defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”
Access to abortion care is a crucial and foundational part of reproductive justice.
Doula work is community care work, and while trainings and training organizations like ours may be relatively new, this work is not.
We honor all of the people who have supported their family members, friends, and community members through abortions (including self-managed abortions) across history and across cultures, and we give credit to the folks who have worked at the policy level to protect bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.