Doula Training Program

Eva Bild is a childbirth, lactation, and sleep educator and birth doula trainer with over 30 years of experience. She practiced as a birth doula for 25 years and has attended over 160 births. She trained as a Childbirth Educator with the Vancouver Community College. She completed the Douglas College Breastfeeding Course for Health Professionals. She offers her services in Victoria as a Lactation Educator and provides Breastpump rentals.

Eva trained as a doula in 1994 and was certified as a doula by DONA International in 1999. As a DONA International Approved Birth Doula Trainer, she trained over 700 doulas. Her workshops have been attended by aspiring doulas from all over BC, Alberta, Yukon and Washington State.

Eva has now retired from teaching for DONA International in order to focus on the Douglas College Doula Training program. She is proud and excited to be designing a course specifically for British Columbian Birth and Postpartum Doulas. She looks forward to many more years of training doulas with Douglas College.

Crystal Colbourne is a birth and postpartum doula and a childbirth educator. She started her training with Douglas College in 2005 at a DONA approved doula workshop. After supporting families, she welcomed her third child and took a step back from birth support. In April 2020, she started her Non-profit called Rising Mama Collective. She is passionate about supporting families in their postpartum period, with a special emphasis on mental health. In order to continue supporting families in their perinatal experiences, she expanded her education by enrolling in the Childbirth Educator Program at Douglas College in 2021. Since completing the program in 2023, she has been working full time in the birth world as a birth and postpartum doula, as well as a Childbirth Educator. She lives in Chilliwack, has  been married 16 years, has 3 beautiful children, loves coffee, the ocean, animals, people, books and cooking. 

Educating families and empowering them in their birth journey is her passion in life. She is excited to expand her reach by supporting new doula students in the exciting and fulfilling career as a doula. 

• History of birth
• Guiding principles of doula work
• Standards of practice and code of ethics for doulas
• Evidence basis for doula care
• Long term impact of the birth experience
• Reproductive anatomy
• Hormones of pregnancy, labour and birth
• Basic fetal development
• Stages and Phases of Labour
• Positions and movement in labour
• Pain in Labour
• Relaxation in labour
• Pharmaceutical pain management of labour
• Birth interventions
• Advocacy and informed decision making
• Business of being a doula
• Communication and trauma informed care
• Challenging and complicated labour
• Cesarean birth
• Immediate Postpartum period
• Newborn needs
• Caring for a newborn- the basics
• Caring for the new family
• Postpartum mental health
• Lactation- initiating breastfeeding, supporting other feeding methods

We recommend that you own and read (or at least skim) ONE of these two books BEFORE the course begins, if at all possible.  They will give you basic information about Pregnancy, Birth and the Postpartum period.
 

Douglas, A. (2015). The Mother of All Pregnancy Books: An All-Canadian Guide to Conception, Birth and Everything in Between, 3rd edition.
 

Simkin, P., et al. (2018). Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn: The Complete Guide, 5th edition.
 
 These four books are essential to your work as a Birth and Postpartum Doula. We recommend that you own them - second hand copies, or slightly older editions are fine!

• Simkin, P. and Rohs, K. (2018). The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas and All Other Labor Companions (most recent edition)
• Gilliland, A, (2018) The Heart of the Doula: Essentials for Practice and Life.
• Kelleher, J. (2019). Nurturing the Family: A Doula’s Guide to Supporting New Parents.
• Mohrbacher, N. and Kendall-Tackett, K. (2010). Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers. 
   

Reading Assignments:

Each week you will be assigned Homework, which will usually involve sections from one or several of the books above. For each section you read you will be asked to provide one question, comment or reflection on what you have read. You will be asked to write that question or comment on the homework page. The questions and comments will be taken up in the next class.

Are attending births required to complete the program?

No. We offer optional mentorship for your first birth after completing your training. We don't want you to stress about finding a client. We prepare you to offer your services as soon as you complete the program so you will feel confident and excited (and likely still nervous) about supporting families in their prenatal, birth and postpartum journeys. We encourage doula support groups with other students, and have experienced doulas connect with students to offer insights and answer any questions they may have.

What if I can't attend the workshop?

Attending the in-person workshop, and all of the live zoom sessions are required to complete the program. If the dates conflict with your schedule, we encourage you to wait until the next course run and register when you can join all the classes and the workshop. Requests for missing one class may be accommodated but require instructor approval.

What if I only want to attend births/support postpartum?

There is value in offering both Birth and Postpartum services. You may want to offer Birth services for some of the year, and offer Postpartum services when on-call support doesn't work for your schedule. Training as both enables you to provide continous and comprehensive care to families from their pregnancy to postpartum. We've combined the trainings to make it stress free and simple to expand your knowledge, and business opportunities.