Our Curriculum teaches Doula care and Doula skills. You will leave our trainings not only with information but also how to teach and educate the families you serve.
Often, we study a craft and may be able to implement what we have learned but teaching it to someone else may still be a challenge. DTI takes this on in each of our workshops.
The doulas in our trainings learn certain skills to teach to their clients, for example, the double hip squeeze. Yes, you get plenty of information of why and when this technique would be helpful–but you also are taught the ways in which this information may be taught to a client in an effective way. Also in our trainings, you get a lot of time to practice different ways of teaching these skills to each other. A good example of this is an exercise we do in our postpartum doula training where you must come up with three different ways of teaching the same newborn care skill; i.e. how to swaddle a baby or how to use the Moby Wrap.
When working with clients, how to talk about something is just as important as what to talk about. Offering evidence based info to your clients is a must that you are encouraged to stay up to date on. But how do you convey this information to your clients? DTI will teach you the skills necessary to listen to your clients needs, assess how you can be most helpful, and how you can then lead them to meeting their own goals.
People learn in different ways so we must also teach in different ways. What method works for you and what will work for the client should be considered when working with each new family. A good example of this is, for a birth doula we should model a calm presence for the partner to follow during labor. How does the partner learn? Does he or she respond to soft voices, low tones, or matching the birthing woman's breath? What will make the partner follow suit? Another example is, for the postpartum doula we teach parents newborn care techniques like, diapering, swaddling, soothing, etc. What is the best way to educate so that the clients learn and remember what you teach? Do they respond to watching you perform the technique or do they prefer doing the technique while you walk them through it. Everyone learns differently and doulas need to be prepared to change their teaching style.
What have you found that works in your own practice? Have you come up with a way to teach that you would like to share?