Postpartum Doula Training
This prerecorded training is open for enrollemnt!
Our 12-week Postpartum Doula Training covers a wide range of topics surrounding postpartum, from the perspective of some of the most respected voices in the field.
Students have the opportunity to explore what it means to provide meaningful, supportive, comprehensive support to postpartum people through the lens of BADT values. In addition to learning practical knowledge and skills for providing care, students will also be given context and approaches for the integration of cultural humility, trauma-informed care, and inclusivity into their practice.
This training is available for new doulas as well as experienced doulas.
General Overview (Prerecorded)
This training includes:
12 modules of material that include prerecorded material, weekly lessons, materials and assignments.
2-4 business strategy sessions per year (and an invitation to each of these future sessions once your training has ended for extended business support).
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
Assist with 12 hours of postpartum care
Attend a chestfeeding/infant feeding support group or class for parents (1 class total)
Attend at a postpartum/infant care class for parents (1 class total)
Complete all written assignments thoughtfully
Write an assessment of available local resources & gaps
Outline your business strategy
Participate in our private online community
$750
PRERECORDED Postpartum Doula Training
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, CEO
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.
Lara Esrey
Core Teacher, Project Manager
Lara (they/them) is a queer non-binary full spectrum doula. Within their doula practice they offer childbirth education, lactation & infant feeding support, and mentorship for new birthworkers. In their own practice they are especially passionate about helping folks prepare for, and feel supported through, postpartum. They love building relationships with their clients and helping them through the big transitions that come with reproductive choices and new parenthood. Behind the scenes of their business they can be found hiking, reading, cooking, or knitting. They are always finding something new to learn!
Mystique Hargrove
Core Teacher, Program Manager
Iya Mystique (they/she) is a “unicorn”, Black queer femme, tech baddie, and full spectrum perinatal educator. With a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a "retired therapist" with over 10 years of mental health and wellness experience, Iya Mystique is also a certified BADTie full-spectrum doula, lactation educator, childbirth educator, lactation specialist, perinatal-child health community worker, and a Reiki I and II practitioner, along with being a trained newborn care specialist.
As a teacher and the program manager at Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings (BADT), Iya Mystique works with students and professionals to transform partners and accomplices in the movement to change the current birth environment locally, nationally, and globally.
In addition to work in the perinatal space, Iya Mystique is an initiated Ifa priestess (spiritual midwife) who specializes in Caribbean-Indigenous practices centered around reproductive support, full-spectrum access, advanced holistic plant medicine, "Blactation" (Black lactation), mental health wellness, and healing justice for Black LGBTQ+ communities, along with innovative web and app development as a UX/UI designer and software engineer.
MaryNissi Lemon
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.
Whit McWilliams-Black
Whit (she/they) is s a full-spectrum doula, Whit Williams-Black (she/they) is dedicated to serving the community. Early on in Whit’s birthwork journey, she felt the call to serve Black mamas, young parents, poor, LGBTQIA+, and QTBIPOC people in the South. Her goals are to one day become a community midwife and to open birth centers and community gardens across the Southeastern States of America.
Whit began studying power, reproductive justice, and feminist movements in 2015. She obtained a B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies with a minor in Social Justice in 2018 from Hollins University. Since graduation, Whit has become a certified full-spectrum doula with Ancient Song Doula Services in NYC. Whit also completed Whole Body Pregnancy Childbirth Educator training in 2021! Professionally, they have served as a Community Educator-- facilitating workshops on Reproductive Justice, Consent, and Pleasure.
Jeffrey Shiau
Jeffrey (they/he) is a marketer, mentor, and writer among many other things. Re-imagining how we do business/marketing (sans manipulation, exploitation, and oppression) is at the heart of what they do. His work is rooted in how we can work, and more importantly, live well under capitalism in a way that moves us towards our collective liberation. They are passionate about supporting people and organizations that share the same aspiration.
Kaytee Crawford
Kaytee (she/her) is:
Owner of private practice, Doula Kaytee
Supports families in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum
Lactation Consultant
Crainosacral Therapist
Childbirth Educator
Birth and Postpartum Doula
Babywearing Educator
Passionate about sharing experiences in pregnancy and lactation as a Black woman and a person living in a larger body to create safer, trauma-free experiences for others
Student Shares
BADT Postpartum Doula Trainings offered more useful, engaging and well rounded content than any training I’ve ever taken. Every instructor, from the core teachers to the guest speakers, brought something special to this course.
- Maya Avilucea (@ancestral_birth)
BADT Postpartum Training program was nothing short of excellent. It gave me the tools to care for all type of families and I felt myself grow which each lecture. I am forever a student of them and my goal is to take every class offered by them. I highly recommend this training to anyone is who is thinking of entering the world of "Birth Work".
-Desiree (@Goldi__loxx)
My top thing that I enjoy about the BADT courses is that they are self-paced and the Postpartum doula training is no exception. I usually try to keep up with courses in real-time but it's such a relief knowing that if I miss a class one week or fall "behind" on assignments that I haven't actually fallen behind and won't face repercussions! The content and teachers are also such a joy. I learn so much from the conversations. BADT trainings have helped me reframe how I practice as a birthworker as well as how I structure my business!
- Shannon (@DoingDoulaThings)