Blooming Water Lilies

Doula Mentorship & Training Program

Blooming Water Lilies Doula Care offers a Doula Training and Mentorship Program. The core curriculum, written by a veteran doula with more than 20 years experience supporting women and families in all birth settings. The goal is to adequately train, mentor, and guide new doulas to enter the community as highly skilled doulas who can offer something to families that no other training program can offer, with the option to learn from a distance, or include 1 – 2 years of hands on experience and personal mentorship with the author of the training program.

General training programs available for doulas today, consist of attendance at a weekend workshop (2-3 days of training), reading a few books, completing book reports, and then attending 3 births for free, by themselves. The new doula may have a certification paper, but what she is lacking is experience, know-how, deep seeded knowledge about the unfolding of the natural birth process, benefits and risks of common and sometimes necessary medical interventions, what to cover with families in prenatal visits, plus administrative skills, quality paperwork – such as contracts, form, documents, including accounting and business keeping of her new practice, etc. What the clients often end up missing with a new doula, is an organized, professional, and fully skilled support person at their side who knows pregnancy, labor, and the birth world, inside and out.

In “training” doulas in this manner, we miss some very crucial steps in ensuring doulas are capable of providing quality care, and that the families they serve are deserving of. Blooming Water Lilies feels that we should be training doulas in such a way, that they are able to walk into the birth space feeling confident, skilled, and aware of how to provide the best support to each family every step of the way, and also having a savvy business sense to grow a thriving practice.

Within this training program, is an in-depth understanding of everything a doula needs to know to be skilled in the birth space, knowledgeable during the prenatal and postpartum periods, and savvy on the business and administrative side of running a prosperous and growing doula business. Through the internship portion of the program (optional), student doulas attend births alongside the owner of Blooming Water Lilies as part of the learning process, for a minimum of 15 months. Learning by observation and gaining hands on experience.

The internship portion of the training program is very similar to how midwives train, apprenticing under the guidance of a highly skilled Midwife.

Let’s Take a Look at the Difference in Training Programs

Standard Doula Certification Programs require the following to gain ‘certification’ status:
– Attend a weekend workshop

– Read 3 – 4 books and turn in book reports

– Attend 3 births solo, for free

Blooming Water Lilies Training Program Options

Option 1 – Distance Learning Program (online)

– Completion of a 15 Module Educational Training Program surrounding pregnancy, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, family support, and business skills. Training program is online, and completed in self-paced blocks.

– Attendance at 15 one-on-one workshop training sessions, covering each of the in-depth Module topics. Workshops typically cover 3 – 5 hours of educational content, with live mentorship using an online communication platform.

Option 2 – Local Learning Program (mix of online and in person)

– Completion of a 15 Module Educational Training Program surrounding pregnancy, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, family support, and business skills. Training program is online, and completed in self-paced blocks.

– Attendance at 15 one-on-one workshop training sessions, covering each of the in-depth Module topics. Workshops typically cover 3 – 5 hours of educational content.

– In this program, you have the option for workshops to be in person, rather than through an online communication platform.

Option 3 – Apprenticeship Learning Program (must live in the SA / Austin surrounding area)

– Completion of a 15 Module Educational Training Program surrounding pregnancy, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, family support, and business skills. Training program is online, and completed in self-paced blocks.

– Attendance at 15 one-on-one workshop training sessions, covering each of the in-depth Module topics. Workshops typically cover 3 – 5 hours of educational content, with one-on-one, in person, mentorship.

– Attendance at Natural Childbirth Class Series’s taught by Blooming Water Lilies, for repetition of learning and connection with expectant families.

– Attendance at a maximum of 50 births, minimum of 10 births, over the course of 15 – 24 months, learning alongside the mentor doula. This is hands on learning at the heart of the doula care profession.

(All Doulas learn at a different pace, so each individual doula has the flexibility within her training, along with input from the Doula mentor, to determine when they feel skill-ready to branch out on their own in regards to birth attendance)

– Learn the birth atmosphere in the local area, meet numerous care providers, build local networking connections, gain familiarity with local birth facilities, and so much more.

– Internship as a Blooming Water Lilies Doula with -or without- the presence of her Mentor.

Program Fees

Online Interface
Access to the online training program is $50/month, due on the 1st of each month. Students may complete a maximum of 1 Module per month (with the exception of the first 3 modules which may be expedited), over the course of 15 months. This is a self-paced program, and students may take extended time on Modules, if academically necessary.

Workshop Fees
Students receive 15 one-on-one training workshops with their mentor doula (either in person for those local, or online for those distance training), covering each of the 15 Modules in the training program. Workshops are generally between 3 – 5 hours each session, and also include discussions on recent births attended for students in the apprenticeship portion of the program.

  • The first 3 Module workshops are free to apprenticeship students, and $50 for online students. The first 3 Modules are generally expedited expedited and completed within 30 days.
  • Modules 4  – 15 are $150 per workshop

Training Fees
Option 1 – Pay the online interface and workshop fees, only.

Option 2 – Pay the online interface and workshop fees, only.

Option 3 – Pay the online interface and workshop fees, plus the hands-on training fee of $3500 prior to the start of Module 9.

  • Payments accepted. This is a Pay-As-You-Go program.
  • Enrollment: $150 to start the online program. This gives you access to the first three Modules (Modules 1 – 3). These three modules are combined into an expedited group which typically takes 30 days (or less) to complete. The workshop for Modules 1 – 3 is also combined and completed in one setting.
  • Apprenticeship: Through the 15 – 24 months in the apprenticeship program, students can bring in their “own” clients, as Blooming Water Lilies Clients, with the student being the primary doula, and the mentor doula assisting and training. This is such an amazing way for students to learn, and receive guidance, feedback, and back-up support, plus begin to build their own practice – with their own clients. If the student contracts 7 births during her apprenticeship, the entire $3500 fee is covered in full ($500 deducted from the student balance, per client family), with no out of pocket cost to the student doula, for her hands-on training.
  • Apprenticeship: A limited number of local students are accepted into this apprentice program, making it a contracted position with Blooming Water Lilies.

Apprenticeship Consultation

The first step is setting up a free consultation with Blooming Water Lilies to see whether apprenticeship in the program is a right fit for you.