Check!

Elizabeth Baer, CD(DONA)

Eleven months after I bought my DONA Birth Doula Certification packet, my DONA certification is done. I'm now a DONA-certified Birth Doula.

In case you were wondering, to become a DONA Doula, I had to:

• Pay for DONA membership
• Pay the certification application processing fee
• Fill out the application
• Read The Birth Doula's Contribution to Modern Maternity Care; The Doula Book; The Birth Partner; Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn; Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers
• Attend a childbirth class (where I wasn't a pregnant participant)
• Complete the course at http://www.breastfeedingbasics.org/
• Attend a DONA birth doula workshop
• Attend three births and submit three evaluations from mothers, three from caregivers, an essay about each one, DONA Birth Record sheets for each one
• A resource list with resources from 30 different categories
• Write an essay on the value of labor support
• Sign Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice
• Take multiple choice quiz

To some people it sounds like a lot. Some people think that DONA certification is super-easy. I think that DONA Certification is a starting point, not an ending. It's an introduction into learning the things that one needs to know to serve families as a doula. I'm going to continue to learn as much as I can about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and working with women.

My next project (that I've already started working on) is the BirthWorks Childbirth Educator certification.