Continuing my re-search on what things to do while living overseas, I am interested in becoming a doula, but was wondering if anyone has had any experience with those programs that are 100% long distance or have heard any good/bad reviews on them.
Doula: generally used to describe a person who provides emotional and physical support for a laboring mother and her family.
I don’t want to sound stupid, but what’s a doula?
As far as I understand (and others are welcome to correct me), a doula is a woman that accompanies an expecting woman throughout the pregnancy and especially at birth itself, providing emotional support and help.
A doula is a person trained to help women through their labor and delivery. They do not deliver the baby, but help the women with pain control, breathing, relaxing, etc. Essentially they are the advocates for the expecting mom. Statistics I have seen show that women who use a doula have fewer complications, use less medication and require less c-sections. North Texas being the capitol of forward thinking (ha, ha) we don’t have a single doula or midwife (or at least we didn’t when I had my two children), so I was never lucky enough to get to use one.
If you go to the Yarn Harlot’s blog and go to her archives, she talks a bit about being a doula. That was her career before becoming a writer.
That sounds nice. Thanks for explaining it to me.
Hmmm… Just goes to show ya learn something new everyday, I’d never heard of this before.
I should’ve added a brief definition, hehe. Edited first post to add a tiny one 
I joined AllDoulas.com for information on distance learning programs and it seems to everyone agrees that Childbirth International is the best one. CBI even offers a free introductory course for people who want to become doulas, are curious about it, etc. The free course can be found here: http://www.wannabeadoula.com/
It’s been a long time but I was a DONA (Doulas of North America) certified doula. I haven’t attended a birth in years (dh travels for a living and finding childcare for those middle of the night births and long labors was gettting very tough) and I had to let my certification lapse. I was incredibly lucky to be part of a hospital-based doula program that allowed for flexible scheduling but with my dh’s frequent travel I couldn’t commit to being on the schedule as often as they needed me to be.
I don’t know anything about distance learning programs for doulas but I do know that DONA gives certification programs all over the country. You can find out more about their programs on their website here: DONA
I did notice that there will be a DONA training workshop in August in Pierre.
Where are you going to be moving overseas? You might want to do research on any doula organizations where you will be moving. Even if you are going to be learning through a distance learning program you will find that a mentor will be worth her weight in gold, especially in another country where birth practices may be different from what we are used to in the States.
You also may need certification from a doula organization in the country where you are living in order to practice and attend births.
Best of luck,
Susan
Hi! I’m doing some research on the different doula programs available and happened upon your post. My organization, Wombroom.mom, does full-service doula work. We have experienced a number of different remote doula training services. If it will be of any help to you in your search, we would be happy to answer questions or concerns about your options for remote trainings. You are welcome to contact us if you have any questions.