Smart Pregnancy & Birth

       Assisting as a doula at birth is a very rewarding experience for women wishing to serve in this way.  Nothing compares with the joy of seeing a newborn baby the first time and the doula can participate in this wonderful experience by serving the women in her care. 

Register by going to the contact page and filling out the form.

The Doula's Role

        Doulas experience the wonderful satisfaction of helping a couple become a family.  They encourage the newly expectant couple giving them information on birth plans and providing them with information to make informed and wise decisions.  Doulas attend the woman in labor providing those experienced hands to help her through this transition into parenthood.  They work alongside the parents encouraging them, supporting them, providing much needed comfort measures, providing education in choices, and being a constant advocate for the mother.
      Doulas do not provide medical treatment.  Their role is to provide parents with information from reputable sources, guide them in preparing a birth plan, and assisting them at the time of their birth with the choices the couple has selected.  While helping women achieve a natural birth can exercise the doula's repertoire of skills, it is helping the woman achieve her birth wishes that is the doula's role whether that be an epidural / medicated birth or a natural birth

The CAPPA Labor Doula Workshop
        Labor support training is provided with a doula training workshop certified through CAPPA ^*  www.cappa.net.   The workshop provides a comprehensive study of the ways the doula can assist women in the pregnancy experience through emotional, educational, and physical support for birth and postpartum. Doulas have been shown through medical studies to significantly reduce the need for operative interventions at birth such as forceps, vacuum extraction, and Cesarean delivery.  Mothers who have had the experience of having a doula assist them with their birth reported their birth experience as more positive than those who did not and would choose to have a doula present for a subsequent birth.

      The workshop will cover information on birth choices, comfort measures, benefits of various labor and birth positions, information on creating a birth plan, the labor and birth process, breastfeeding, marketing your practice, many labor and birth videos and more. In addition to the workshop, CAPPA requires selected book readings, attendance at a childbirth education class, labor and birth attendance with evaluations, and an exam.  After successful completion, the candidate is a Certified Labor Doula with CAPPA.

       Labor doula training is the first step for all students wishing to enter Dar la Luz Midwifery studies to become a Licensed Midwife.  
       A calendar of currently scheduled trainings is available at the CAPPA website or email susan@smartpregnancy.net for current trainings. The doula training workshop fee is $350.   Mail the registration fee to 

Susan Smart
950 Jolley Road
Chesnee,  SC  29323

^{*CAPPA has no religious affiliations.}