Doula from Within: In Person Training
Bring heart and soul into childbirth preparation and support in our 5-day in-person doula training, which combines a unique embodied retreat with dynamic hands-on and interactive learning to bring you a workshop experience like no other.
We honor the knowledge and lived experience of the mentor and the parent, and we challenge trainees to shift their lens towards self-compassion, flexibility, and resilience.
Five day training (four full days and one half day) with pre and post self paced digital learning.
$1,600
(no fee payment plans available)
*Limited* scholarships available for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Disabled birth workers
-
Minneapolis, MN, hosted by Blooma, April 23 - 27, 2026
Duluth, MN, hosted by Doulas of Duluth, May 14-18, 2026
*Hosted events are not eligible for discounts, transfers, and scholarships offered by BfW. Please contact the event host for registration information.
Be sure to read the full Refund & Cancellation Policy in the Terms of Service when you register.
This training includes:
35 hour in-person workshop including our signature Crossing the Threshold retreat
Pre- and post-course online learning modules
1 year of membership (listing in our Parent Directory, monthly continuing education calls, use of the Birthing from Within name and logo, and more!)
Optional 2 hours of one-on-one mentoring sessions with a certified Birthing from Within trainer
Business Essentials for Birthworkers Workbook by Sabia Wade
Certification packet and quarterly certification support calls
This isn’t just a weekend workshop.
Dive deep into childbirth preparation and support, tapping into ancient inner knowing in conjunction with evidence-based modern knowing, and learn to provide meaningful guidance to those in their childbearing years. Enjoy a space created for intentional self-exploration, skill development, and new learning about birth with storytelling, art, ritual, dialogue, and community connection.
Begin your journey with online self-paced learning, attend four full days and one half day (35 hours) of dynamic and embodied training, and conclude with continued self-paced modules.
Experience and gain new processes and frameworks that you can bring to the families you support right away.
In-person and online learning topics include a combination of foundational, professional, and practical skills, birth justice, and exclusive Birthing from Within processes and frameworks.
"One of the things I have learned through this is how to hold space for the unknown during birth and how to help my clients access this understanding prenatally. This training has helped me to let go of outcome based thinking."
-
-Stages of labor: physiology and support for
-Function of hormones in birth
-Fetal development
-Prenatal Nutrition
-Medical support tools & interventions
-Pain medication options
-Cesarean birth
-Physiology of postpartum
-Coping with the challenges of the postpartum period
-Infant feeding
-PMAD (Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorders) prevention, screening, support, & resources
-Planning prenatal and postpartum sessions
-Making medical decisions
-Informed consent
-
-Six dynamic pain coping practices
-Tools for embodiment & self reflection
-Birth trauma reduction tools
-Working with fear & uncertainty
-The Labyrinth of birth: using metaphor to prepare to cope with internal and external complexities of the birth experience
-Celebration and ritual for postpartum
-Ritual for birth workers
-Mentoring vs teaching: offering authentic, practical, individualized support
-Solution focused dialogue
-Using storytelling and the framework of the heroic journey as tools for preparation and healing
-Archetypes for understanding and addressing clients’ needs
-
-Support for stages of labor
-Labor positions and hands-on support
-Pain Coping practices for labor and birth
-Support of cesarean birth
-Postpartum support (visits, transition plan, expectations)
-
-History of birth and midwifery in US
-Anti-racism & anti-oppression concepts and frameworks
-Identity and inclusivity
-Racism and inequity in the healthcare system
-Implicit bias and privilege
-Birth and disability justice
-
-Collaborating with medical teams
-Best practices for trauma informed care
-Creating a resource list for clients
-Self care for birth workers
-Active listening skills
-Interviewing
-Managing commitments & contracts
-Advocacy
-Confidentiality
-Being on call & doula lifestyle
-Planning prenatal and postpartum sessions
-Getting your business up and running
-Business Essentials for Birthworkers, a workbook by Sabia Wade
Training led by:
-
Christine D'Esposito (she/her) is a skilled mentor, full-spectrum doula, educator, facilitator, and consultant with over twenty years of experience in the field of birth work. She first discovered Birthing From Within in 2003 at a doula training. It was the concept of honoring birth as a rite of passage and a transformational experience for everyone involved that spoke to her most. This has driven her life's work to include supporting and celebrating the passages of fertility, birth, postpartum, coming of age, grief, loss, and the many thresholds in between. Christine is the Director of Programs, a co-owner and steward of Birthing from Within. She also works as a Doula consultant, helping to establish equitable community doula programs in hospital systems. She is a natural leader and innovator with a strength for navigating the unknown.
Christine has a passion for the intersection of birth and social justice work and aspires to be an agent of change in the world. In addition to her many years of experience and the technical expertise that comes with it, Christine brings to her work a sense of playfulness paired with deep life wisdom. This unique combination of traits makes her a truly effective mentor who invites all of us to keep diving into the ongoing work and play of life’s journey.
-
For Christy, Birthing From Within is about remembering that becoming a parent is an ancient rite of passage. Birthing From Within offers a precious gift to parents: time and space to slow down, be, and listen within, while being witnessed and unconditionally supported. She was drawn to birthwork because of the transformative potential of the childbearing year. When she read Birthing From Within during her second pregnancy, she felt for the first time that she was not alone in this knowledge. Birthing From Within also connected with her love of art, and ignited a new passion: storytelling.
In addition to being a Birthing From Within facilitator, Christy is a bilingual (Spanish/English) birth doula, Intentional Creativity teacher, and director of a community-based nonprofit that supports expectant parents and incarcerated women in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
