What's a Doula? A Catholic Doula Program?!! Fast-Track

I just finished a radio interview with Dave Palmer the manager of the local Catholic Radio Station Guadalupe Radio Network. This particular interview will air on August 26th, so I thought I should blog about this too.

On the program, we were talking about doulas and the Catholic Doula Program.

Let's back up, so, "What's a Doula?" The word "doula" means "Servant" in Greek. A doula is a servant to the mother during childbirth and labor. She helps the mom with physical, comfort, spiritual, and emotional support. There are also postpartum doulas who help after the birth. Most doulas work in hospitals, but we also go to home births and home births too.

In our interview, we also had my friend and recent grad and on our board of directors Christy Willis talk about her experiences as a doula. She even helps the homeless give birth. Now, that's pretty nice to have a doula help at a birth like that. I am sure they appreciate the extra support.

So, what's the "Catholic Doula Program" about? Well, when I first created the program I wanted to fill in a much needed niche market of a spiritual based doula program. So, I wanted to base it on Catholic beliefs. I got inspired by offering the program to be based on the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost. For example: The Gift of Fear of the Lord can help mothers "Let go of fears" of birthing, the Gift of Counsel can help mothers with thoughtful decision making during their pregnancy and labor, etc.

Does a doula replace dad during labor? No, I find the opposite to be more true--we help enhance the father's experience. He is constantly wanting to know what he can do to help, but he doesn't really know what to do. A doula can help the father become a good birth partner for the mother. Plus, we can give dad a much needed break (even let him take a nap); so this is a good way to have a doula there for support. Some births can last awhile, so some doulas even have back-up doulas to help when labor is lengthy. That way mom has continuous support even if there are 2 doulas working together.

One of our interview on the radio was also about our upcoming Special Fast-Track Doula course for those wanting to train as a doula. We have a special teen pricing and adult pricing. Please check the website for details. We also have a special early bird deadline of September 8th for the special adult pricing. Teens ages 16 and up are welcome to take the course. Sometimes homeschoolers are looking for elective courses for their teens to take and this could be something for them to consider.

Our course does run through mid-January in order to accomodate some seasonal breaks -- there will be short break in October, longer break for Thanksgiving and 2 week break for Christmas time.

We also offer special extra mentors for the course.

In order to learn more please choose a link below to go to our Catholic Doula Program:

Main website: www.catholicdoula.com

Fast-Track Course Page: http://www.catholicdoula.com/fast-track-page.html

Book Page: http://www.catholicdoula.com/fast-track-book-page.html

Fast-Track Enroll Page: http://www.catholicdoula.com/fast-track-enroll.html

Fast-Track Mentor Page: http://www.catholicdoula.com/mentor-page.html

Thanks so much!