Professional Birth Worker Training
+ Doula Immersion Program
Melanin Milk SD
Doula Training Education + Immersion Program
Focuses on empowering professional birth workers to be top notch skilled doulas ready to successfully start and maintain a business that supports ALL folks desiring a doula, birth or body worker in their community.
Culturally competent comprehensive professional birth worker training that gets you prepared to start supporting ALL expecting families.
I built my birth and chest/breastfeeding business from less than 100 to more than 1,700 followers in one year…I want you to grow too. We uplift the community by uplifting each other. I have 10+ years of experience and many stories to share.
Let a Black Doula + Birth Worker teach you!
Who Runs This?
Hey, I'm Chardá Bell (rhymes with Hey!) or like Sade the singer.
Credentials:
Mom & Bonus Mom (over 18 years experience)
Full Spectrum Doula (Jennie Joseph Commonsense Childbirth Institute)
Lactation Consultant - IBCLC exam candidate (LER)
Childbirth Educator (CBAI)
Perinatal Health Navigator
Family Advocate & Activist
Elected Public Official since 18'
Professional Birth Worker
Entrepreneur
Promised Birth Workers
+ Doulas Unite!
No experience necessary, get started with the recorded course on your own pace or take the live interactive robust 6 week course.
THE FRAMEWORK
Reproductive Activism + Advocacy
Physiological Birth + Chest/Breastfeeding
Evidence-Based Research, Information and Education
Mindfulness + Movement
Rituals + Red & Black Cultural Healing Practices
Ancestral Tradition + Ancient wisdom
Anatomy + Sex
Self-Care + Spirituality
PROFESSIONAL DOULA EDUCATION
Online Program with Chardá Bell + Guest Teachers.
Live options in Fall & Spring. Recorded options available Winter & Summer.
This program is open to all regardless of experience. Our doula trainees come from all walks of life and everyone is welcome here. Everyone has something unique to contribute to this effort.
6 LIVE Zoom classes over a 6-Week period
Access to a private doula community via online forum, chat and meet ups
Online student class portal access; with extended access for 6 months
Mentorship support (virtual)
DOULAS:
Decrease the number of cesarean sections
Lower the rate of epidural and pain medication use
Increase healthy birth outcomes and breastfeeding rates
Decrease perinatal mood and anxiety disorders such as depression in moms & dads (PMADs)
COMMUNITY DOULAS
A community centered doula (CCD) provides emotional, physical, informational, and relational support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period up to one year after birth in communities that are impacted by social systems that create adverse maternal health outcomes and experiences, a community doula provides culturally congruent support.
How It Works
Using a peer-to-peer support model, community doulas navigate their clients through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period understanding the social determinants of health that increase the risk of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, as well as laws, policies, and systems that negatively impact marginalized and/or under-resourced communities.
The community doula relationship is unique in that it typically begins in early pregnancy and continues until at least one year after birth or longer, depending on the doula.
Community doulas provide emotional, physical, informational, support related to childbirth & chest/breastfeeding education, postpartum companionship and connect families to resources & services that are culturally aware.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Anyone who considered themselves a promised doula, meaning you’ve always wanted to do this! If you wish to help people along their birthing and reproductive journey, you are a promised doula.
Aspiring & New birth workers
Experienced doulas seeking robust holistic training
Bodyworkers
Teachers & Educators
Energy workers + Healers
Lactation Professionals
Nurses
Healthcare Workers
Activists
MPH graduates & candidates
Social Workers
New & Experienced parents
Grandmas, Aunties, Godparents
Should I Take This Course?
I'm already a trained/certified or experienced doula / birth worker...
Is this going to teach me something I don’t know…
Yes! First of all, get your mindset right…You should always be continuing education, building your skills, resources and support systems to reach your goals and best serve your clients. You can still gain a robust holistic learning experience from this course, and love for lifelong learning is a doula’s best attribute.
Doula Immersion Program
A shadowing collaborative for those who complete this training and/or want to work with us as a doula to foster volunteer experience, build confidence and develop paid opportunities for yourself through networking and our prospective client matching system.
We receive inquiries almost daily for doula work.
Join the content creation train to widen your exposure through business to business sharing and promotion. We uplift each other's work in the community!
Mentorship + Guidance
For Black, Indigenous and people of color there is a lack of access to doulas due to systemic racism generated financial barriers, wage disparities, inadequate health care, and an absence of providers from these populations.
With the Immersion Program, we will generate more positive birth outcomes for families in San Diego County by providing volunteer doulas to these marginalized communities to assist in pregnancy, labor and delivery, and by training the next generation of doulas to serve their own communities.
Birth workers in the immersion program will volunteer in all settings, including in traditionally underserved and marginalized communities. Our program is a pathway to securing work as a practicing birth worker and we provide mentees the opportunity to secure birth clients through our matching service and private partnerships within our immersion program.
Program By Week
Week 1
Preconception Wellness + (in)Fertility
Pregnancy Support
Week 2
Birth - education, labor comfort measures, warning signs
Loss + Bereavement
Week 3
Immediate Postpartum
Postpartum up to 40 days / “4th Trimester”
Long term doula work
Week 4
Chest/Breastfeeding for Doulas & Birth Workers
Week 5
Business of Birth Work, Social Media Marketing, Local Resources
Week 6
Building Community + Networking, Reproductive Justice Advocacy & Radical Self Care
“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.”
--Angela Y. Davis, 'Freedom Is A Constant Struggle'
Now Is The Time!
This professional doula education program is a training that covers the full spectrum of doula and birth work, lactation education, social media marketing, business management and skills.
Get your doula business off the ground, build a community and have doula siblings to lean on.
If you've been looking for a course like this, now is the time!
Early investor pricing now until Jan 1st 2023.
Training Dates
Fall Cohort I
FULL
LIVE course every Sunday for 6 weeks: 2-5pm PST via Zoom
Winter Cohort I
Dec 1 - Jan 31 2023
Recorded course available for purchase all Winter long until Spring Cohort I begins
Spring Cohort I
Feb 19 - Apr 2 2023
LIVE course every Sunday for 6 weeks: 2-5pm PST via Zoom
Summer Cohort I
TBD
Recorded course available for purchase all Summer long until Fall Cohort II begins
Reclaim - Empower - Uplift - Support - Connect - Love - Culture
Guest Teachers
may include but not limited to or guaranteed:
And Finally...
3 Opportunities for Growth
Doula Education Professional Birth Worker Training
Doula Immersion Program
Southeast San Diego BIPOC Birth & Reproductive Collaborative
Empower, Uplift, Support
2 Paths for Course Work
1. 6 LIVE weekly sessions with real time peer and teacher interaction; includes access to ongoing office hours.
2. 6 Recorded sessions completed at your own pace with scheduled opportunities for virtual mentorship through pre-set office hours monthly and peer to peer interaction via online forum.
Easy Application
Apply / Register (pay in full or use a payment plan) for your training.
Gain access to resources and reading lists before class
Meet doula siblings and connect in the forum
Take the course, finish, feel amazing
Get your certificate and start your business!
Real Support
This course certificate is good FOREVER, no need to re-take it unless you want a refresher!
Office hours will be offered on a monthly basis in a group setting, provided by Charda or another experienced birth worker.
Freebies
Stock photos of Charda and her agreed clients, will be provided in this course for your usage in your own marketing materials to add a personal touch.
Contracts, emails, and intake paperwork will not be provided as we think it’s important to choose what works best for you and your community. However, we will provide samples you can use if you’d like and will recommend many places to purchase these materials during the course work and mentorship.
Certification Path Guidance
Pathways to certification, if desired but not required. You do NOT have to be certified to be a doula or birth worker. Some hospitals require doulas to be certified by specific organizations, however in San Diego we have not seen this as a problem. In fact, the county will be rolling out a pilot doula program in the near future and has not made any references that these doulas must be certified. Therefore, certification is an optional personal and business choice.
need more info?
we got you...
Here’s what you’ll learn for sure:
How to support a client solo!
Hands on skills for comfort and relief during pregnancy, labor and postpartum
How to make a business out of birthing support
How to choose your clients and not just let your clients chose you
How to engage clients during all phases of their perinatal journey
How to build and retain clients through expanding your skillset & good marketing
How to support Belly Births and alternative birthing/family expansion
Unique ways to support postpartum clients immediate and long term
How to create a sustainable business model for birth work
Ways to connect with your community and make your mark!
ADVOCACY
BIPOC Southeast San Diego Birthing + Reproductive Collaborative
BIPOC Southeast San Diego Birthing & Reproductive Collaborative is for our birth and body workers to have the opportunity to do public speaking, advocacy & legislation meetings through Chardá's connection in the political world as a public official. If you are not a birth or body worker but interested in this type of work and volunteering you can still join the collaborative!
This collaborative has a focus on addressing the Black maternal health crisis, advocating for Black mothers, babies + family rights. We do fundraising efforts to provide free doula & lactation support for BIPOC families throughout southeast San Diego and other highly oppressed areas of the county.
"Talk Birthy To Me"
Mixer & Networking Events
Join us for monthly Friday night fun! An opportunity for birth workers, parents and influencers to engage. Focusing on connecting birth workers and birth A time for approved brands to interact with consumers and professionals who are in contact with birthing individuals and families. Develop authentic connections with the community and grow your business! Includes watch parties, keynotes, table talks, demos, and exploration.
Event is open to all involved in birthing and wellness work and those who are just curious! Join us for informative programing, educational content, peaceful relaxation, fun giveaways and friendly mingling!
Here’s how we come together to hang & chat!
Birth work is heart work and hard work, we need to decompress, laugh & cry together.
Examples of Friday night birth worker Netflix watch parties:
Human Resources
Call the Midwife
Workin Moms'
Ali Wong stand ups
The Letdown
Black-ish
To name a few!
My Why
Black & Indigenous People are the Original Doulas
We have always been doulas and birth givers. We have been doing this for ourselves and for others--sometimes against our own will and desire--for hundreds of years. We KNOW better than anyone, what this work is and how to do it.
I firmly believe that we just need to learn how to tap back into our ancestral roots, a cultural reset if you will, in these perinatal and reproductive spaces to reclaim our practices. We need to take pride, recover and heal. We don’t need any more 'White saviors' looking to dismantle the Black Maternal Health Crisis for us, and honestly I'm tired of seeing non-Black folks profit off of Black bodies and minds. Some of y'all are getting uncomfortable now and that’s ok. If you are, then you definitely need to take this course because cultural competency is key when supporting communities other than your own and no one can tell you how to treat a Black woman but a Black woman, so learn to listen. That was my second reason for creating this course
The Work
My First Reason
Is about building capacity within our communities. I want everyone to have a positive birth experience and I want maternal mortality rates to be non-existent for all...
but particularly due to the Black Maternal Health crisis, it is necessary to do something that would make systemic changes and waves across the system, and that is increasing the number of confident doulas and birth workers, immersing them in this work while supplying the community with the support they so need and deserve without financial barriers being a reason for lack of access.
Scholarship
Learn + Mentor + Serve
Really excited about this but the bills are too damn high, the rent needs to be canceled and you are just trying to make it out in these streets?! We get it! I’m there with you. We have scholarships for BIPOC, LGBTQAI+ and Single parents looking to expand or create a new career for themselves and be successful doing it.
We offer full and partial scholarships, based on need and we conduct a short interview for acceptance. You must identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color, LGBT+ or be a single parent. We will have questions about family origins, residency, previous experience, and goals to confirm eligibility. Daygo is a community oriented place, so those from my hood, Southeast San Diego, will be automatically eligible. Must have proof of current or past residency, which may include storytelling.
Melanin Milk SD is available for private and corporate consulting for all training, education and speaking engagements that are regarding Maternal and infant health, which includes pregnancy, childbirth, volunteer doulas, postpartum companionship and more!
Contact us today to train your staff, unit or group. If you are feeling generous, you may wish to make a donation to our organization. Social media influencer media kit is available upon request, rates vary.
― Angela Y. Davis
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”