The profession of Childbirth Education is becoming obsolete in the mindset of other birth workers, in part because of the great success of the doula movement, which has taken the world by storm in these last 20 years and with it, a blurring of the lines of who is properly trained to prepare couples for childbirth.
As Director of a foundation that exists to train and give recognition to childbirth educators and childbirth education around the globe, I highly recommend that all doula training programs include workshops about ethical professionalism, guidelines for teaching childbirth preparation and the observation of a childbirth preparation course, as part of their training.
Those who do not make an effort to differentiate between the role of a doula and the role of a childbirth educator are complicit in this diminishment of quality preparation courses and further a lack of seriousness in the great responsibility that comes from facilitating new knowledge and skills for parenting, so important for these new families.
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