Childbirth Educator Training

Are there prerequisites for the Simkin Center Childbirth Educator Training?

No, however, for students without prior experience in the field, it will be helpful to attend the Simkin Center DONA-approved Birth Doula Skills Workshop or observe a childbirth education series as preparation for the class. It is also helpful if you have attended at least one labor and birth, either as a birthing woman or as a support person or birth doula.

Who attends the Childbirth Educator Training?

The Childbirth Educator Training is primarily designed for people who would like to teach structured childbirth preparation classes, for a hospital or the community. We cover instruction of childbirth preparation, breastfeeding and newborn care. The course is also appropriate for anyone who works with expectant parents and would like to incorporate client education into their work. Birth and postpartum doulas, midwives, nurses, prenatal exercise instructors, massage therapists and social workers, among others, have completed the training.

What does the Childbirth Educator Training prepare me to do?

On completion, you will be well qualified to provide formal and informal education to expectant parents, as a supplement to other services that you provide (birth or postpartum doula support, pre- and perinatal massage therapy, prenatal yoga instruction, mental health and nutrition counseling, integrative care, etc.).

If you want to teach a formal childbirth preparation class, you will want to become a certified childbirth educator. Hospitals and other employers often require certification to teach. To teach childbirth education classes in the community, there is no legal requirement to be certified. However, most professionals in the childbirth field consider certification essential to ensure that all expectant parents are well served.

What organizations provide certification in childbirth education?

The Childbirth Educator Training prepares you for certification with the International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA) and is approved for 16 ICEA contact hours.  In the Puget Sound area certification is available through Great Starts Birth and Family Education, click here. If you live in the Puget Sound region, this is a good organization to choose. There are other certifying organizations that require you to attend their specific training program, and this course does not prepare you for their certification. These include Bradley, Lamaze International and Birthing from Within, among others.

What is the certification process?

Different programs have different steps to certification. These may include taking a training class such as the Childbirth Educator Training, observing one or more childbirth series, and teaching under supervision. The course applies toward certification with the International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA). For information on certification through Great Starts, visit their web site.

After I am certified, what jobs are available to me?

Hospital education programs hire certified childbirth educators to teach childbirth preparation classes, breastfeeding classes and newborn care classes. Check with hospitals in your area to find out about job opportunities. You can also organize community-based classes. Community classes can be formed in collaboration with midwives or obstetric practices. They could be offered through parks department educational programs, community colleges or other adult education programs. There may also be public sector employment available to you. Some hospital programs require their educators to also be nurses. A few hospitals will only use certified lactation educators to teach their breastfeeding classes.

What is the pay like for childbirth educators? Could I make a living doing this?

Most settings pay by the hour. A hospital in the Seattle area may pay $22 to $35 an hour for a beginning childbirth educator. This typically covers class time, plus some time for setting up for class, and for cleaning up after a class. Pay rates increase with experience.

Note that time spent developing curriculum or handouts, or preparing materials for classes, is not paid time. Childbirth education offers a flexible job to bring in some extra money, to contribute to the community, and to combine professional development with other responsibilities such as parenting. Typically, an instructor has flexibility in setting her own schedule. Some instructors teach for only a few hours a week, or only in summer, or only during the school year. Some instructors teach multiple evenings each week. It is generally not possible to work full-time as a childbirth educator, or use this as a primary source of income, because the available working hours are limited. Because of the work schedules of expectant parents, childbirth classes typically are offered between 6 and 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday evenings, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Even if someone taught all these available slots each week, it is not a full-time job.

What are the advantages of Simkin's childbirth educator training compared to other training programs?

The majority of technical content childbirth educators need to know is covered in the online modules, at the students own pace.  Intensive on-site days allow focus on adult learning, gaining teaching skills and methods and especially practice teaching.  During the training, you will have the opportunity to present five different mini-classes (each presentation is 5 to 10 minutes long) to a supportive group of four to six other students. An experienced childbirth educator will observe and provide productive and specific feedback. This opportunity to practice teach in a supportive environment significantly increases your readiness to begin your new career as an educator. The Childbirth Educator Training is taught by some of the most experienced childbirth educators in the community, from a variety of backgrounds. The Childbirth Educator Training offers the best parts of many childbirth education theories rather than sticking solely to one philosophy of childbirth preparation.

I already have a lot of background and training in the birth field. Is there a way to "test out" of part of the course?

No. We expect all of our students to have a basic working knowledge of pregnancy, birth and newborn care. However, the blended curriculum allows students who already have specific knowledge base to spend less time on topics you know and focus on content areas you need to strenghthen.  On-site it's all about how to teach this information to a variety of adult learners, to a variety of different learning styles. 

The Childbirth Educator Training is a blended curriculum including 35+ modules in online classroom with three intensive on-site classroom days (22.5 clock hours) on the Bastyr campus.

Students learn the basics of how to teach childbirth and newborn care to adults.  Instructors model a variety of teaching techniques including lecture, use of audio-visual aids, role-playing, active learning methods and small group activities. Students apply their learning through practice teaching sessions, which offer each student a chance to give a short presentation to peers and receive an experienced childbirth educator's feedback.

Topics include:

• The History of Childbirth Education
• Scope of Practice for the Childbirth Educator
• Art and Science of Learning and Teaching
• Reproductive anatomy and physiology
• Fetal Development
• Physical Changes in Pregnancy
• Emotional Experience of Pregnancy, Labor and Postpartum
• Nutrition and Exercise in Pregnancy
• Prenatal Care and Prenatal Testing
• Complications and Interventions in Pregnancy, Labor and Birth
• Stages of labor
• Comfort Measures for Labor
• Pain Medications
• Birth-Planning and Informed choice
• Cesarean Birth
• Postpartum, Breastfeeding, Newborn Care and Safety
• Transformation of Birth, Postpartum and Early Parenthood
• Learning Objectives and Developing a CBE Curriculum
• Dynamics of Group Learning
• Teaching Strategies
• Curriculum Development
• Understanding Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Designing Evaluations
• Certification and Job Opportunities

Since most expectant parents plan to give birth in a hospital, most opportunities for childbirth educators involve teaching about hospital birth. Therefore, the class focuses primarily on how to teach about hospital birth, although out-of-hospital birth is also addressed.

Required Texts

• Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn by Penny Simkin et .al.

Recommended Texts

• The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence Elson
• Maternity and Women's Health Care by Deitra Lowdermilk and Shannon Perry
• The Breastfeeding Answer Book by Nancy Mohrbacher and Julie Stock
• The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers by Jack Newman and Teresa Pittman

• Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth Edited by Julia Chinyere Oparah and Alicia Bonaparte