Same Syllabus, Different Doula Training
Same Syllabus, Different Doula Training Two courses can have almost the same syllabus. Physiology of birth. Postnatal support. Infant feeding. Loss. Business. On paper they look identical. In the room they are nothing alike. Let me tell you why it makes a difference for anti-racist doula training The difference is the framework: the lens every topic is taught through. Content tells you what a doula does and Framework tells you who the doula is doing it for, what the system is doing to that person, and what you are going to do about it. Here’s what it looks like A content-led course teaches you the signs of pre-eclampsia whereas a justice-led course teaches you the signs of pre-eclampsia, and then asks why a Black birthing person reporting those signs is more likely to be told to go home and rest. Then it teaches you what to say when that happens, and how to escalate. A content-led course teaches postnatal support as a checklist, but a justice-led course asks who is at the door after the birth, who is being watched, and why. In over twenty years at the bedside, I have watched Black families find social services involved faster than white families in the same circumstances. A content-led course has a session on cultural competence and a justice-led course has culture running through every single session, because culture is present at every birth, every postpartum, every feeding choice, every loss, and every interaction with health professionals When Birthwork Calls Anti-racism Training Birth Doula Course Postnatal Doula Course “We don’t want inclusive practice as an optional extra” – Mars Lord You can pick up extra content anywhere. You cannot unlearn a lens that taught you racism was an optional extra. That is why, when choosing UK doula training, the framework matters as much as the content. Arguably more. Choose the lens before you choose the course. Next: What to look for
What Doula UK Approval Doesn’t Tell You
What Doula UK Approval Doesn’t Tell You Abuela Doulas is not a Doula UK approved course and I get asked about that more than almost anything else. It feels easier to answer it here than simply in an FAQ What approval actually measures A Doula UK approved course follows the Doula UK Core Curriculum. It’s assessed by an independent assessor against that curriculum, and the course is led by an experienced doula and trainer. Once the assessment is completed, they are invited to join Doula UK as a member. This process tells a prospective student that a course covers a defined curriculum and that someone has looked at it. What it doesn’t tell you is whether that curriculum was built with Black and Brown people in mind., or whether the assessor who signed it off understands what it costs a Black woman/birthing person, or doula, to be dismissed in a delivery room, or whether “inclusivity training” as a tick box produces anything different in how a doula actually shows up. What it doesn’t measure Doula work in the UK is unregulated. There is no legal qualification that you need. Approval is a membership stanadard set by one organisation, not a floor for the whole profession, and it was never built to answer the question Black and Brown women and people are actually asking when they come to me: “will this doula understand what’s happening to me, or will I have to explain racism to them whilst I’m in labour?” A course can follow the curriculum, pass its assessment, and still teach cultural safety as one afternoon module bolted onto a birth physiology day. What we see is that complicance with someone else’s curriculum tells you a course exists inside their framework. What it doesn’t tell you is whether that framework was built with your body in the room. When Birthwork Calls Anti-racism pathway Birth Doula courses Postnatal Doula courses I’ve watched what Doula UK approval does and doesn’t stand for. It does not stand consistently for marginalised communities, and I’m not interested in asking permission from a body that hasn’t show me it will hold that line, to validate work that already holds it. “I’m not interested in asking permission from people who build without us in mind.” Why I built a different standard Abuela Doulas is the UK’s first Black owned and led doula training organisation. I didn’t build this to fit inside an existing curriculum with a module added for diversity. Anti-racism is the architecture the whole course runs through: how you’re taught, what you’re taught and how the room is held when harm shows up in it. Every other course I could find added a cultural competency session. I built the Abuela Doulas course around it. That’s a harder thing to build and a harder things to assess, because there’s no external body checking it. I’m the standard. I’ve had twenty-two years in this work, trained initially by Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers (Paramanadoulas), I had a seat on RCOG Race Equality Taskforce, and every Black, Brown, queer, disabled and marginalised student who’s come through this training came because they knew it would be a safe space for them and because they couldn’t find what they needed anywhere else. It’s a body of work that you can check yourself. I have the receipts. What you actually get When you train with Abuela Doulas, you leave with a certificate as an official Abuela Doula. You don’t leave with Doula UK membership, because that was never the offer. What you leave with is training that treats justice as the foundation and a facilitator relationship that doesn’t end when the course does. If you’re comparing training providers and Doula UK approval is on your checklist, ask what it’s actually measuring before you let it decide for you. Ask who builds the curriculum, who it was built for and whether the course you’re looking at was designed around your community, or fitted your community into a template buillt for someone else. Abuela Doulas is built around Black and Brown people because that’s who kept walking through the door needing something no one else was offering. That’s the standard and I’m standing ten toes down.
What does it really mean to train as a doula in the UK?
When people ask whether doula training is worth the cost, they are usually asking something more specific: will I get clients? Will I be able to build a practice? Will this change anything?
How Much Does Doula Training Cost in the UK – And Is It Worth It?
When people ask whether doula training is worth the cost, they are usually asking something more specific: will I get clients? Will I be able to build a practice? Will this change anything?