Continuing Birth Education (Free Webinar Round Up)

I have a good friend who has become very interested in training as a doula. I love sharing information and resources with excited women new to the birth work field! It is rejuvenating and reminds me my own enthusiasm for women and birth. When I shared this same sentiment on Facebook a fan commented with this lovely observation: “Birth is an ever-evolving subject, and there are as many different ways to do it as there are fingerprints!! How could anyone get bored in the birth work field?? I love it!! It keeps me in the Presence of Now and reminds me of the Sacredness of Life…” 🙂

Anyway, I’ve been collecting books like crazy to lend to my friend (just a word: never ask me for a book about anything unless you are ready to be overwhelmed with options!) and doing so reminded me of some free webinars that have crossed my desk(top) recently as well as some other, older continuing education resources for birth professionals or aspiring birth professionals. I always go to books first and to written information. Love it. Can’t get enough words! But…many people learn better through other mediums. Here are some non-book, free possibilities for self-education in birth work:

Lamaze has an offering called, Push for Your Baby Nurse and Educator Webinar: Arming Women with the Tools to Push for the Safest, Healthiest Birth Possible
Injoy is offering a free webinar: Secrets of a Postpartum Doula: Newborn Care and Soothing Techniques…
And, Maternity Prep is offering a webinar based on The Greatest Pregnancy Ever: The Keys to the Mother-Baby Bond

Edited to add another free webinar from ICEA (with paid contact hour option) that I just learned about:

Prenatal Fitness Webinar

Join us online

Thursday, December 13, from 9-10 pm EST for this new educational offering

worth 1.0 ICEA Continuing Education Credit!!

Click Here to Register

This offering is free for all participants to audit.

The continuing education credit may be purchased after viewing the webinar for $35.00 by clicking here!

Once the credit hour is purchased, print out your receipt for confirmation of your hour earned!

A reader also commented to share that she is enrolled in a free Coursera course on contraception (she also took one that looks great about community change in public health!). There are a variety of interesting looking courses available from well-known institutions in the Coursera offerings under Health & Society and Medical Ethics.

And, for those who do well with auditory learning, I have some podcast recommendations that are available on an ongoing basis:

La Leche League International offers a series of free podcasts, my favorites being:

And, the Motherlove blog has some awesome resources too, including:

Podcast: Preparing for a VBAC, with the president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network
Podcast: Birth on TV and in the movies
Podcast: How can you avoid getting “pushed” into a birth you don’t want?
Podcast: Biological Nurturing and Laid Back Breastfeeding, with Suzanne Colson

(I recommend “laidback breastfeeding” to mothers ALL the time! It can be very helpful in getting breastfeeding off to a good start after birth.)

And, finally there are some great free classes and certificate programs available from Global Health eLearning Center. Many are designed for global audiences and are not specifically geared toward doulas (or even midwives, but more of health workers in general). I particularly enjoyed this class: Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy

Enjoy! And, if you have favorite recommendations to add, please let me know! (free, please)

Due to reader request, a book recommendation post will soon follow! Past book recommendations can be seen in this post, as well as a postpartum list, and also in my book reviews section.