Requirements for

BIRTH DOULA Certification & Re-certification

Becoming a ToLABOR Certified Professional Birth Doula is an important step in your career in birth work.

Importance of Certification

ToLABOR (TL) encourages TL-trained doulas to pursue and maintain professional certification throughout their career. As public awareness of the doula’s role and the number of doulas increases, toLABOR feels it is critical that the doula profession be treated with the same deference and respect as all other professions which require specialized training, broad knowledge, expertise of skills, and professionalism that reflects the integrity of doula work.

Doulas are among the most specialized and experienced care providers for all who labor, and ToLABOR doulas are widely regarded as expert and professional assistants. While it is of course possible to be an excellent doula without formal certification, ToLABOR believes that certification provides legitimacy, acknowledgment, and credibility that is crucial for our field at this juncture.

For those who are still considering certification there are a number of important factors that may impact your decision.

What is DOULA Certification?

Certification is a formal process in which ToLABOR validates a doula’s skill, knowledge, experience, judgment, and abilities in a defined area of practice based on ToLABOR’s certifying standards. While certification requirements differ by organization, ToLABORdoulas achieve certification after attending a training workshop, attending six births as a doula, reading a number of required materials, and passing a comprehensive certifying exam, among other requirements. Click here for a full list of required reading and other certification requirements. Certification is renewed each year through demonstration of an active doula practice and proof of ongoing continuing education and involvement in the community.

Certification serves as official recognition of achievement, experience, knowledge, and skill. It is a mark of excellence that requires continued learning and professional growth. Doulas are highly skilled, carefully trained, and provide some of the most valuable support a laboring person may get. This expertise must be formally recognized through certification.

 
 

Requirements for DOULA Certification 

  • Attendance at our 3-day Birth Doula Training workshop (no longer than 5 years may elapse prior to sending in completed requirements)

  • Completion of the required reading list (see below)

  • Observe/Audit a series of Childbirth Preparation Classes

  • Observe/Audit a Breastfeeding Education Class

  • Written summaries of 6 births you have attended

  • Written evaluations from 3 people you’ve assisted (may be the birthing person/partner).

  • Successful completion of the written exam

  • Current membership* ($50/year) and certification fee ($25)

    * First year membership included in tuition

    We recommend that our participants follow through with the certification process and encourage completion within a year of the training. When all requirements are successfully fulfilled you will receive your certification documentation and your listing on the website will be upgraded to “Certified Professional Doula”. Re-certification is required each year. If more than 5 years elapses between original certification and re-certification, further requirements will need to be completed.

Required Reading, Listening and Viewing for Birth Doula Certification:

Required reading 

 
 

What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section
www.chilbirthconnection.org

Reproductive Justice: An Introduction
Loretta Ross & Rickie Solinger
— or —
Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth
Julia Chinyere Oparah & Alicia D. Bonaparte

The Radical Doula Guide
Miriam Zoila Perez

Mothering the New Mother
Placksin

Nursing Mother’s Companion
Huggins
— or —
Bestfeeding
Renfrew, Fisher, Arms

* A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth
Enkin, Keirse & Chalmers

 

toLABOR Birth Doula Training Manual
Resources/Articles section
(received at workshop)

Optimal Care in Childbirth-The Case for Physiological Birth
Henci Goer & Amy Romano

Pushed
Jennifer Block

The Birth Partner
Penny Simkin

The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth
Sheila Kitzinger

The VBAC Companion
Diana Korte
— or —
Birth After Cesarean
Bruce Flamm


* Understanding Diagnostic Tests in the Childbearing Years
Frye

 
 

*These last books are required for reference purposes.

Required Listening 

 
 

Requirements for DOULA
Re-Certification 

ToLABOR Certified Professional Birth Doulas are required to fulfill yearly re-certification requirements to maintain their status:

  • Current membership ($50) with ToLABOR

  • Certification Fee ($25)

  • One written summary of a birth you have attended this year
    please use Birth Report Form provided

  • One written evaluation from a birth client you have attended this year
    please use Client Evaluation Form provided

  • Written summary of what you have learned, participated in, created and/or experienced in the past 12 months that is related to the pregnancy year. Describe what you did to enhance your role as a birth doula and/or create awareness of doulas in your community or beyond. You may describe classes, workshops, seminars, webinars,  etc that you attended. Other examples can be donating funds to a BIPOC or LGBTQ+ birth organization or participating in events in your community such as but not limited to; Meet the Doula Night, birth circles, health/birth fairs, movie screenings, speaker and/or book events.

Membership and re-certification work will be due each year in the month your certification expires. You will automatically be notified of your payment through our membership library (MemberSpace), and we will send you your recertification forms to fill out and send back. We’ll then send you your updated certification. 

IMPORTANT: Failure to re-certify each year will result in the inability to use the title certified and removal from our website listing. If more than 5 years elapses between original certification and re-certification, further requirements will need to be completed. Requirements will be addressed on an individual basis; please contact Membership to discuss your status.