Hello Colleagues (or future colleagues!)
Professional Courses
Are you a professional who wants more confidence in working with multiples or preemies? Are you wondering how to update your lactation support without having to become an IBCLC? We have built several professional courses that can support your goals, and give you more to offer your doula clients, or students in your education classes.
Working with Multiples
This is an advanced training that builds on your postpartum doula or newborn care specialist training. With 8 modules covering over 8 hours of instruction and hands on practice, this workshop now is fully self-paced to accommodate the overnight workers and their unique sleep schedules! Once completed it provides a certificate to show new clients your dedication to advanced education. Tandem feeding, tandem holds, and tandem babywearing skills are covered extensively. Newly updated with current research on co-bedding and safe sleep for multiples. $157
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This is a fully recorded and self-paced course now! You can sign up and watch the very same day, and learn portions at a time at your convenience.
Pricing is $157 for the Working with Multiples with an optional add for the Working with Preemies course for $67. These used to be bundled but were separated for specific interest.
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Postpartum emotions and hormones
How to support a twin mother nutritionally
Swaddling options for twins/preemies
Skills for the prenatal interview
Welcoming the family home; emotions and hormone waves
Planning to feed 2 or more; setup and skills
Setup & equipment
Scheduling and routines
Tandem baby wearing safety
New Parent Educator
Looking to teach classes, either in a group or private format? This workshop can help you build a class, customize the knowledge and skills you bring to parents, and monetize it to serve your community. This is a 2-3 day training that will challenge you to design classes that represent your wisdom and use your skills to equip new parents. Kimberly Bepler and Laura Nance wrote this original program together, and Laura now teaches this live and virtually. (Kimberly is taking a hiatus from teaching doula and educator trainings to focus on grandparents in 2026.)
If babies are your thing, and inspiring parents to work as a team is your goal, you will love this training that will help you equip others with your special baby whispering skills. This training can equip you to teach private classes, work in a community educator role, or teach online. Certification options are also available to support teaching in a hospital setting or working within a healthcare system.
More Information
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IN PERSON options available to book (usually 8:30-6:30, weekends are best)
IN PERSON Cost: $675 (30 days before training) $725 after deadline
Training dates are in the works, but please reach out with any specific requests and we will see if we can make it work!
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Because there is more to Prenatal Education than childbirth! New Parent Educators can be found helping educate new families in a variety of different settings. Many work at hospitals teaching Baby Care classes, some work in community clinics that support new parents, and others work within care provider offices or in private settings. Several are teaching exclusively online as entrepreneurs. They all share the common goal of assisting and equipping families to make educated decisions about their babies.
If you are looking to add New Parent education to your childbirth or breastfeeding classes--and want a certification that illustrates your commitment to non-judgmental, evidence-based education--the New Parent Educator program is for you.
This course brings many different baby and parent professionals together, and creates the most dynamic and fun training as you practice teaching, learn new approaches for student engagement, and challenge yourself to write the beginnings of a curriculum for your own classes.
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The Newborn – Characteristics, Procedures, Feeding, and Care
Parental Relationships After Baby
Evidence Based Practices
Teaching to Adult Learners
Curriculum Development
Soothing the Newborn
SUIDS/SIDS and Safe Sleep
Postpartum Expectations for the birthing person
Postpartum Expectations for the Partner/Non-Birth Parent
Preparing the Home and Family
Specialty Class Ideas
Practical application of Scope of Practice, Ethics, and Integrity
Business development, marketing, and networking
PPA certification and policies
Working with Preemies
Tiny babies require special skills! If you are intimidated by working with babies before their due date, have no fear. Doulas, NCS, and nannies often find they are working with teeny tinies coming home at 34-38 weeks, and even some before 34 weeks. These babies are a different breed, often come with heightened parental anxieties, and can be tricky to feed and monitor. Show your clients you are ready and confident to help them in their earlier than planned days. Virtual, self-paced. $67 (You can watch this on a quiet overnight shift.)
Postpartum Doula Training
Love babies and new parents? If you want to become a professional that serves families after baby comes, this is the training for you. Get started with in-home care nurturing new parents and infants to a harmonious postpartum. If you are looking to join our ABC Doula team, we recommend this class with Laura Nance, with certification options easily available. (Kimberly is taking a hiatus from teaching doula and educator trainings to focus on grandparents in 2026, but has co-taught with Laura for 20 years, and highly recommends this pathway for training and certification.)
This training is 3 day course, taught virtually via Zoom, and filled with case studies, practice scenarios, group interaction, and Laura’s wisdom over 20+ years of postpartum doula support. It is the first step to getting certified with PPA, an approved certifying body for working with Carrot and other benefit programs.
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Topics covered in this course include:
The Role & Scope of the Professional Postpartum Doula
Hormone Changes in Early Postpartum
Breastfeeding, Bottlefeeding, and Pumping Support
Modern Newborn Care
Safe Sleep Support
Family Adjustment, including Partners and Grandparents
Doula Business Development
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If you want to find out more about the Postpartum Doula certification process, please see the Postpartum Doula section on the Perinatal Professional Association website here for information on certification, membership, and all the benefits!
PPA offers a certification program for doula and educators that qualifies for benefit programs like Carrot Fertility and Maven where clients can get reimbursement for doula support. Apply here!
We are proud to be members of this organization and offer workshops as the first step to getting provisional certification.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Start with a foundational training, which is 18-24 hours long. We offer it over 2 days in person or online via Zoom over 3 days.
Becoming a doula takes a few steps:
Take a training
Complete a reading list
Apply for certification & become certified
The training will begin the process, and you will follow up with CAPPA to complete your certification.
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There are no official prerequisites, however we might require you gather some materials in advance. This training is open to anyone as education is a profession that doesn't require extensive training in other arenas, but is greatly benefited from teaching experience as well as caregiving experience such as parenting, doulaing, nannying, or any other healing practices.
Getting certified is a separate process and the workshop is the first step into that process. There will be some additional work to do to get certified after the training, but we have streamlined the process and can help you along the way!
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Doula work is my life and passion. I have been a postpartum doula for over 24 years, 15 of which have been full time, while supporting my family of 4. I live and breathe postpartum doula work, having served well over 3000 families, and I still love it!
I teach scenario based trainings where you get to collaborate and practice through the examples we have experienced from real life families we have served in Portland, OR and Vacouver, WA. Real families (although protected for confidentiality) give us the best opportunity to learn skills that you will use and apply in your work. The activities we use are right out of what I see parents needing every week.
I am also a fun instructor! I don’t like boring education, and I need to have fun as an educator, so I keep things moving! Students say I am responsive to questions, they love my passion and are inspired to get out into their communities. They often say they learned more than they expected, and love the collaborative learning environment. (Kimberly is currently taking an hiatus on doula training so recommends training with Laura Nance through New Horizons Training Network for a similar training experience.)
Doula and Birthworker Retreat Jan 17-20, 2026
Join us this January in sunny Phoenix, Arizona for a heartfelt place to connect while relaxing in a spacious villa surrounded by beautiful desert sunsets. Experienced professional doulas and birth workers will lead mini-workshops designed to help you grow and challenge you to map out your impact in your community. You’ll meet new friends and make new plans in small groups, with special goal-setting sessions to inspire you to dream big for 2026.
When Kimberly missed the connection of a doula retreat this fall due to cancelled flights, she was inspired to bring her own to the sun, so others can leave with a renewed spirit for their work life while being nurtured in a community of strong women. All meals will be provided and enjoyed family style, with many spaces where you can focus on your business, your goals, your dreams—in a quiet corner or with a small group. The schedule will be relaxed, so you have time for sun soaking, swimming, or simply to rest and recharge. Think shared coffee time before morning group stretching, naps in the sun chairs after lunch, cozy evenings in the hot tub beneath the stars--even time to create content for your business, all built into 4 days of learning and sharing.
Retreat Information
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Shared room; king, queen or airbeds (first come, first reserved, prices vary)
All meals and coffee provided (BYOB)
All learning session and small group breakouts
Discounts if you offer a mini-workshop for the group
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Registration is $995 for lodging, meals, and educational sessions.
Discounts and offers:
Sharing a king ($200 off for each registration—3 options)
Airbed options for $100 off (shared room)
Teaching a mini workshop on a doula business topic (discount TBD on topic/length)
2 Payment plan (half up front, remainder paid by Dec 31)