Childbirth Educator Training
Our 12-week online 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.
In addition to the typical topics found in childbirth education, we will also be covering the following topics:
paths to conception consent,
trauma and boundaries,
mental health and trauma,
pregnancy/birth and disability,
inclusive lactation and infant feeding,
and grief and loss.
We want our educators to not only have a basic knowledge of pregnancy, labor, and birth but an in-depth and inclusive understanding of all aspects and realities of birth and birthing people.
This course includes resources and information for Canadian and U.S. contexts, and a broad enough framework to be applicable and meaningful to everyone—even if you work outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Dominique Hagen
“WOW! I feel like a better human leaving this training! I learned so much about disabilities, the LGBQT community, the painful past about certain communities, and obviously a lot about birth and postpartum. I can't say enough good things about this amazing program! I will definitely go back through all the material again and again. I highly recommend taking this course even if you don't have dreams of being a CBE. You will come out a more informative human being that the world would benefit from :)”
Julia
“The CBE class by BADT pushed me to think of ways to create a curriculum that is inclusive to those who are navigating childbirth and need to prepare themselves adequately in systems that doesn't think of everyone.”
General Overview
This training includes:
12 modules of material that include prerecorded material, lessons, materials and assignments. Move through everything at your own pace!
Access to our private online community.
One year of access to all materials and recordings (and a free, one-time, 6-month extension, if you need more time!)
Optional certification. Certification comes with additional requirements that vary. Our certifications are for life, you will not need to recertify.
A free listing in our directory (click!). You can make your directory listing as soon as you enroll! You do not need a completed certification to join!
Automated captioning provided on live calls; corrective captioning provided with replays of live sessions. Please send an email to info@birthingadvocacy.org for other accessibility needs.
Certification Requirements
If you choose to pursue certification with us, you will be asked to:
Complete online student modules
Complete reading list and book reports (books must be obtained by student, we provide PDF downloads when available, and encourage lending/borrowing)
Complete an Infant/Child CPR Certification
Attend 4 hours of a group class focused on a topic related to birthwork (childbirth ed class, infant feeding support group or class for parents, etc.) 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 thoughtfully
Write an assessment of available local resources & gaps
Outline your business strategy
Participate in our private online community
Childbirth Educator Training Enrollment Options
Prerecorded Childbirth Educator Training
$750
Bundle: Prerecorded Childbirth Education Training + Curriculum
$1,250
Note: We do not offer refunds or reimbursements once you enroll, and encourage you to budget accordingly. If life circumstances prevent you from participating in the course as planned, we may be able to extend your enrollment or adjust. You can make this request by emailing info@birthingadvocacy.org
Meet Our Teachers
Sabia Wade
Core Teacher
Sabia (she/they) - The Black Doula - is a Radical Doula, Educator, Doula Business Coach, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (in training), and Reproductive Justice Advocate. She founded Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings in 2019 with the goal of bringing necessary education to doulas that are seeking to go beyond the traditional doula role and into advocacy work for the communities that need them.
Jenna "JB" Brown
Core Teacher
JB (they/he) - of Love Over Fear Wellness and Birth - is a full-spectrum doula and community educator, with a passion for pelvises, humans, trauma-informed care, and the complexities of transformative justice. As a transmasculine, non-binary person, they are practiced in the art (and awkwardness) of transition, and bring this knowing and compassion to their work as an educator. He supports people through reproductive and identity-related transitions, and provides education to other professionals towards the end goal of a more affirming and gender-liberated world.
Cristen Pascucci
Cristen Pascucci (she/her) - After the birth of her son in 2011, Cristen left a career in public affairs to study American maternity care and women’s rights within it. In 2012, she joined Improving Birth as vice president, spearheading a multi-year grassroots media strategy to get the maternity care crisis in national news, creating a legal advocacy hotline for pregnant women, and raising awareness around obstetric violence. She is co-creator of the Exposing the Silence Project and host of Birth Allowed Radio. As the founder of Birth Monopoly, Cristen advocates for a freer maternity care market, working closely with leading national advocates, organizations, and birth lawyers, as well as educating the public and healthcare providers about women’s human and legal rights in childbirth. After six years of full-time work on the issue of obstetric violence, Cristen is now working on a documentary film on the subject: Mother May I? Cristen lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her son, Henry.
Molly Dutton-Kenny
Molly Dutton-Kenny (she/her) is a Registered Midwife in Ontario, as well as an educator and advocate. She specializes in community education around full spectrum pregnancy loss and abortion, and midwifery-based management and support of these experiences, centering home and holistic medicine as options for most people. She is also a member of the Abortion Care Network and the National Abortion Federation, and has served on the hotline for Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights and on the Board of Choice in Health clinic in Toronto.
Davinah Simmons
Davinah (she/they) is a Black full-spectrum doula and educator originally from Tongva land, otherwise known as Los Angeles, CA and is now living on unceded Coast Salish and Duwamish territory, commonly known as Seattle, WA. As a birth worker, Davinah is passionate about supporting her community as they make connections to the internal, spiritual and physiological landscapes that the reproductive spectrum introduces us to. She believes in ritual and ceremony to mark thresholds and commune with our grief, transitions, and becoming. Davinah relies deeply on her intuition, humor, and story-telling to create medicinal offerings to those that she supports. Davinah is most passionate about grief/loss and the postpartum experience.
Jessica Johnson
Jessica (she/her) is a full spectrum doula, child birth educator, & lactation specialist who has been practicing since 2018 in Ottawa,ON on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory. In2019, Jessica started her role as a perinatal outreach worker working in collaboration with the urban Inuit community and the ORACLE midwifery team providing care to individuals experiencing substance use, mental illness, homelessness, violence, and/or involvement with the child welfare system. Jessica is the lead doula and co-founder of Rooted & Resilient: The black-led Doula and Breastfeeding Program established in 2020 which provides affordable doula and breastfeeding support to Black parents in the Ottawa-Gatinea region. Jessica is the Chair of the Board of Directors for Community Doula Access. Jessica is currently completing the certification requirements to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.
Hollis Wakefield
Hollis (she/her) is a postpartum doula, registered Kangaroula, and educator in Dallas, TX providing virtual and in-person doula services to support families of all kinds through hospitalization/bed rest, life in the NICU, and the transition home. Hollis is equally passionate about working with all LGBTQIA+ folx throughout their pregnancies and postpartum.
Aruna Boodram
Aruna Boodram (they/she) is a queer, fat, gender expansive community organizer and legal worker from the Caribbean diaspora based in Treaty 13, Dish with One Spoon Wampum territory (Toronto). She is an educator and facilitator that works within the legal world, is centered in collective liberation, abolition, decolonization and loves teaching about fertility, queer and trans family planning and supporting QTBIPOC families. She is the autonomous-solo (by choice) parent of Surya Amaris, a thriving and resilient former 24 weeker micro-preemie Sagittarius. Aruna is also a therapist in training, the advice columnist for Shameless Magazine, council member for the Children’s Peace Theatre in Toronto and a National Family Advisor for the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation.
Jen Mayer
Jennifer Mayer (she/her) is a financial counselor, doula collective owner, and mom of two living in Brooklyn, NY. She started her career in the wellness industry as a licensed massage therapist and birth doula for almost 15 years. She has helped hundreds of families prepare for the birth of their baby during pregnancy, and the transition into parenthood postpartum. Jennifer owns a doula collective in NYC called Baby Caravan, where she manages a team of over 50 doulas supporting families.
Student Feedback
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The BADT CBE course was fantastic! I’m so glad I did it in addition to the full-spectrum doula training because I think it helped me expand and solidify my existing knowledge about pregnancy and birth in a way that equipped me as an educator and birth worker. The content felt both challenging (lots of good questions!) and supportive, and sparked many big ideas that I’m excited to bring to fruition. I love the open-ended nature of the course and the focus on crafting your own curriculum rather than just being taught to regurgitate a particular lesson plan or method.
Andrew Rich (@theandrewaugust)