Become a Doula
Become a Doula: ADVANCED Training SkILLS
Advanced Training
We offer the following to doulas expanding their skills:
- Motiviational Interviewing
- (THW) Traditional Healthcare Worker Training
- Lamaze Childbirth Educator Training
- Gateway Doula Group & PDX Doulas Orientation
- TENS Unit for Pain Management
- Advanced Comfort Techniques for Birth
- Reclaiming Your VBAC for birth workers
- Cultural Responsiveness for Birth Workers
- Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Workers
- Collaborative Practice for Birth Workers
- Lactation and Feeding Newborns for Doulas
- Loss Bereavement and Termination Support
- CPR/BLS Healthcare Provider Course
Motivational Interviewing For Traditional Health Workers
5 Contact Hours LIVE ZOOM SESSION
Online Seminar
Tools to help navigate addiction:
Our Motivational Interviewing for Traditional Health Workers class equips doulas and other health workers with tools to navigate the unique challenges of supporting pregnant people experiencing addiction.
Core Principles:
Participants will learn the core principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) to empower clients, build trust, and guide meaningful conversations.
Harm Reduction:
The course also explores Harm Reduction as a compassionate, nonjudgmental framework for promoting positive outcomes. Through hands-on practice and realistic scenarios, attendees will develop practical, actionable strategies they can immediately apply in their work.
Audience:
Doulas, peer support specialists, THW, birth workers, and maternal health advocates.
What you will learn:
- Understand the tension doulas/health workers may feel when supporting pregnant women suffering from addiction.
- Learn and apply the principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) to empower clients and foster trust.
- Understand Harm Reduction as a compassionate and nonjudgmental approach to support positive outcomes.
- Practice skills in realistic scenarios and walk away with actionable strategies.
Format:
Live Zoom Interactive workshop blending storytelling, skill-building, panel discussions, and multimedia elements.
Cost:
$175 for individual learner (solo practitioner), non-profit.
Contact us for group or commercial rates
(THW) Traditional Health Worker
Become Oregon Certified!
Online Seminar
HW 3-Part Complete Training:
- (Birth Doula Training -step 1)
- 6 credit hour of Trauma Informed Care
- 6 hours of Cultural Competency
- 6 hours of Inter-professional Collaborative Practice/HIPAA
Gain these skills:
- Cultural Sensitivity for Birth Workers (6 hrs);
- Collaborative Interprofessional Practice with the birth team (6 hrs);
- Trauma Informed Care for Birth Workers (6 hrs);
- Health Information and Privacy (HIPAA)(1 hr);
- Oral health (1hr) in pregnancy
- Ongoing cohort support in how to apply for the Traditional Health Worker – Doula State Registry
You will receive the require certificates at the end of evaluation forms. The links will be emailed to you upon purchase (or by next business day).
On-demand Webinar
Scholarship Opportunities – for more info contact info@mothertreebirth.
COST:
$175 On-demand webinar ($350 live session)
$90 for Oregon Doula Association (ODA) Member oregondoulas.org
Lamaze Educator Training
Become a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator
MotherTree Classroom
Passion for Birth Workshop
Passion for Birth’s Lamaze CBE workshop is three days full of hands on learning exercises, teaching strategies and support that will fully prepare you for becoming a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator and start you off on the right foot for offering innovative classes that meet the needs of new families in your area.Continuing Education
Even if you are already a CBE, this three day workshop will provide you with hundreds of fresh ideas, new activities and renewed enthusiasm for the important work you do.Support Your Clients
If you are a doula, and never plan on teaching formally, this workshop will help you to support your clients and share information in effective and easy to understand ways that will benefit your client’s birth experience. This class meets the requirements for many midwifery programs, including Bastyr University and also meets the workshop requirements for ICEA CBE Certification.FORMAT:
In Person, Hybrid and Live Zoom offerings
COST: $695
Ask about our BIPOC Scholarship Fund (or payment options)
Gateway Doula Group & PDX Doulas Orientation
ON DEMAND ORIENTATION
Gateway Doula Group (serves families at Gateway Midwifery Clinic birthing at Providence Portland and WHA Midwifery Birth Center in SE Portland.)
PDX Doulas Serves families in the greater Portland Metro Area with THW Model care (2 prentals, birth, 2 postpartums as well as shift care at Adventist Midwifery in SE Portland.
Orientation Provides
- 2-hour overview of the roles, responsibilities and training for the groups volunteer staff
- Satisfies step one to becoming a Gateway Doula Group volunteer doula
COST:
$85 annual membership
TENS Unit for Pain Management
Learn the basic functions, evidence and safety measures of this extremely useful early labor tool for long labors, back labor and more.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a method of pain relief involving the use of a mild electrical current. A TENS machine is a small, battery-operated device that has leads connected to sticky pads called electrodes.
What you will learn
- Basics Functions of a TENS UNIT for labor pain management
- Evidence for the effective usage of a TENS Unit
- Safety Measures for the TENS Unit
- Hands on Practice and Relay of skills
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
$99 fee. This includes a 2 credit hour certificate.
Comes with a peanut ball and birth ball!
Going beyond basic hip squeezes this advanced course focuses on the most challenging aspects of long and difficult labors.
What you will learn
- The anatomy of the pelvis
- Optimal Fetal Positioning
- Birth Ball – Advanced Techniques
- Advanced pushing positions
- Navigating long / difficult labors
- Safety measures for comfort positions
- doula self care after the 24 hour mark.
FORMAT:
In Person
COST:
$99 fee. This includes a 2 credit hour certificate.
Reclaiming Your VBAC for Birth Workers
Supporting a Vagainal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
What you will learn:
- Gentle Birth choices for VBAC
- Birth Story Listening-holding space for the prior birth stories
- Clarifying needs for the new birth story
- Safety plans / Confidence Scale
- Optimal fetal positioning
- Visualizations for VBAC birth
- Resources
FORMAT:
Live Zoom
COST:
$99 fee. This includes a 2 credit hour certificate.
Cultural Responsiveness for Birth Workers
Cultural Responsiveness for Birth Workers leads through a foundation of understanding language, communication styles and practice in lived experience within the birth room.
What you will learn:
- Definition of terms
- Understanding your own privilege checklist and personal bias
- Defining diversity (and the dangers of a single story)
- Ways of knowing ~ understanding perspective
- Information Gathering
- Practicing cultural respect with different clients / cultures
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
$75 fee. This includes a 6 hours certificate.
Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Workers
Defining Trauma in relationship to the childbearing year and how it uniquely impacts your clients and your personal practice.
Birth workers are supporting families through a highly charged environment of the childbearing year, medical events and peak life experiences. Learn the basics of developing a trauma informed practice, safety plans for your clients and reducing vicarious trauma for yourself.
What you will learn:
- Defining What is Trauma.
- How is Trauma Institutionalized (Parallel Process)
- Introduction the NEAR Science of Trauma
- Understanding the Neurobiology of Trauma
- The Epigenetics of Trauma and how it relates to Birth
- Creating safety plans
- Navigating when trauma happens in the moment
- Supporting clients through difficult births.
- Define what Trauma Is in relationship to the Childbearing year
- Identify and discuss clinical and scientific research and review current Trauma Research;
- One Coping Skill for trauma careC
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
Three-Part Series (2 hours each)
$35 fee.
This includes a 2 credit hour certificate.
Take all 3 for $75
Collaborative Interprofessional Practice for Birth Workers
(ON DEMAND WEBINAR)
Collaboration is the key to successful Birth Team interactions and advocating for improved maternal and newborn outcomes.
What you will learn:
- Professional boundaries
- Attending to unconscious biases
- Self awareness
- Enhancing the environment
- Engaging the birth team
- Navigating points of conflict
- Cultural perspectives
- Understanding your personal advocacy style
- creating a personal plan of action, communication technique
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
$75
5.5 DONA CONTACT HOURS
Satisfies the Oregon Health Authority THW – DOULA requirement for Doula applications “collaborative practice.” Satisfies Gateway Doula Group Member Requirement. (Purchase with Gateway Group Rate)
Lactation and Feeding Newborns for Doulas
What Doulas Need to know for Certification
Doulas play a unique role in helping parents feed their newborns. Understanding the basics of feeding and newborn hunger cues, lactation, supplementation options, when to refer and scope of a doula in connection with a lactation counselor/consultant. Breast/chest feeding anatomy, body milk changes, comfort measures
What you will learn:
- Anatomy of Breast/chest Feeding and Body Milk changes
- Newborn Hunger cues
- Scope of Practice of the doula and newborn feeding
- Advanced comfort measures
- When to refer to a lactation consultant
- Collaborating and facilitating feeding plans
FORMAT:
On Demand
COST:
$75 fee. This includes a 3 credit hour certificate. This course is taught by Kisha Johnston, IBCLC.
Loss, Bereavement and Termination Support
Loving Presence: Doula Training for Critical Reproductive Support for Bereavement, Loss and Termination (Full Spectrum)
This two-day training provides a compassionate and comprehensive foundation for doulas supporting individuals and families through abortion, pregnancy loss, and bereavement. Participants will begin by grounding in shared values, exploring the history of abortion care in the U.S., and understanding the evolving legal landscape, particularly in Oregon. The course will address the demographics and reasons people seek abortion care, dispelling common misconceptions and center in reproductive justice.
What you will learn:
- Gain insight into abortion procedures
- Learn est practices for emotional and physical support, including compassionate communication
- Create meaningful rituals such as preparing for photos, keepsakes, and sensory considerations.
- Explore grief and loss doula care, featuring specialized Bereavement/Loss Doulas and a panel of bereaved parents and doulas sharing their experiences.
- Focus on deep listening and guided discussions, participants will develop skills to hold space for clients, partners, and families with empathy and presence.
Attendees will have a special invitation to join our OHSU Abortion Doula Demonstration Project. Stipends included for services granted.
FORMAT:
Live Zoom Sessions or On Demand
COST:
- $199 ON DEMAND Self Paced
- $400 LIVE ZOOM In Person
17 Credits for Continuing Education 400
CPR/BLS Healthcare Provider Course
Anina Gaither, Certified BLS/CPR AHA Instructor
The AHA’s BLS course trains participants to promptly recognize several life-threatening emergencies, give high-quality chest compressions, deliver appropriate ventilations and provide early use of an AED. Reflects science and education from the American Heart Association Guidelines Update for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC).
- High-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants
- The AHA Chain of Survival, specifically the BLS components
- Important early use of an AED
- Effective ventilations using a barrier device
- Importance of teams in multi-rescuer resuscitation and performance as an effective team member during multi-rescuer CPR
- Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for adults and infants
FORMAT:
In Person
COST:
$125 included card and two year certification
Limited to 8 spots of in-person learning.
Location: Portland, OR Emailed at registration
Additional Classes for Doulas
Traditional Health Worker (THW) Track Training: 3-Part Complete!
Become a Traditional Health Worker: Doula. Are you passionate about childbirth and live Oregon? Train (or cross train!) to become a Traditional Health Worker (THW) Birth Doula and support birthing families with physical, emotional and informational support through the childbearing year.
Traditional Health Worker (THW) Track Training: THW Requirements
Includes skill-building: Cultural Sensitivity for Birth Workers; Collaborative Practice with the birth team;
Trauma Informed Care for Birth Workers; Health Information and Privacy (HIPAA); Oral health in pregnancy Ongoing cohort support in how to apply for the Traditional Health Worker – Doula State Registry
Collaborative Practice Advanced Training for Doulas
This training focuses on widening perspectives, understanding the different roles of the birth team, and troubleshooting communication from birth team member to birth team member.
Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Professionals: Webinar 3 of 3 – ON DEMAND
Session 3 of 3 – Objectives of this course: Creating safety plans;
Navigating when trauma happens in the moment; and Supporting clients through difficult births.
Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Professionals: Webinar 2 of 3 ON-DEMAND
Session 2 of 3 – Objectives of this course: Define what trauma IS in relationship to the childbearing year; Identify and discuss clinical and scientific research and review current trauma research; and One coping skill for trauma care
Adopting Trauma Informed Care for Birth Professionals: Webinar 1 of 3 ON-DEMAND
Session 1 of 3 – Objectives of this course: Defining What is Trauma;
How is Trauma Institutionalized (Parallel Process); Introduction the NEAR Science of Trauma; Understanding the Neurobiology of Trauma; and The Epigenetics of Trauma and how it relates to Birth
I was impressed with how aware of diverse needs Jesse was in her space-holding. She consistently used gender-neutral terminology, illuminated the racial disparities in this field, and brought a social-justice approach to the curriculum. She was offered up-to-date research about birth and techniques
Attribution
Contact MotherTree for more
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