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Home › Articles › Professionals and Policies › Want to be a Doula?

Want to be a Doula?

How to Become a Certified Doula

By Felicia Hodges

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Perhaps you've given serious thought to becoming a labor or postpartum doula. But how do you get started down the road to certification?

The Certification Process
In the United States, there are only three agencies that certify doulas: The Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators, The National Association of Childbirth Assistants and Midwives and Doulas of North America. Although each has slightly different requirements, all have detailed certification processes that involve:

  1. workshops on labor and delivery, which help the doula become familiar with labor and the emotional stages women experience;
  2. textbook reading, including medical books on topics such as the physicality of childbirth and midwifery;
  3. final exam, consisting of short answer and essay questions to test the doula's knowledge;
  4. attendance of a set number of births, varying among the different agencies;
  5. written birth reports of the attended births;
  6. written evaluations from staff members (such as the attending physician, nurse, midwife) or the birth mother; and
  7. infant and adult CPR certification.

Once the requirements are met -- a process that can take several years -- the doula is officially certified to assist during hospital, birthing center or at-home deliveries.


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