Hosted by Nicole Heidbreder, MA, BSN, RN, BDT (DONA)
This course offers participants 7.5 Nursing CE Hours & 7.5 DONA International CE Hours.
“This course came at a time when I needed it the most. After 5 years as a midwife, I was feeling overwhelmed, drained, and worn out.
I was contemplating leaving this career permanently but Nicole’s course helped me learn tools to use to help replenish and re-ignite hope and passion for this field.”
When you enroll, you're getting access to:
7.5 Nursing CE Hours and 7.5 DONA International CE Hours
Weekly Module Content
Video training
Audio meditations
Handouts
Worksheets
Recording of the Zoom meetings
Bonus guided meditations and mindful embodiment and movement practices from our guest contributors
Private online community forum to ask questions, witness each other and receive feedback and support from me and other birth professionals
6-month access to the pre-recorded and written course materials, yours to revisit as you need
This course is designed to foster emotionally, spiritually, and physically resilient birth workers.
Drawing on Nicole's 17 years of experience as a birth doula, L&D nurse, birth doula trainer, and nurse educator, you will learn practical self-regulation techniques to implement before, during, and after births.
By the end of this program, you will gain these practical skills…
Practical skills of nonviolent communication for high-stress birth situations
Understanding and caring for our nervous systems
The healing, life-affirming power of tending to your body
How self-compassion supports our resilience
Why allowing space for grief can deepen our healing
Practical skills for grounding
Setting and maintaining empowering boundaries of love
Healing the looping mind through reflection and forgiveness
Developing the antidote to judgment and othering
Engaging in birth activism from a viewpoint of pleasure and wholeness for all
Come away with a renewed connection to the joy of birth work and the ability to continue to find magic in it for years to come.
Before I tell you more about this beautiful digital course, let’s talk about who this is really for:
This course is for any birth worker who has found themselves leaving the hospital after supporting a birthing person never wanting to return.
This course is for any birth worker who has felt so depleted after back to back 3-day inductions/shifts that they weren’t sure they could show up to a friend’s birthday party.
This course is for any birth worker who has read countless offerings about how we can provide trauma-informed-care to our clients/patients, but has been struggling with their own vicarious trauma/compassion fatigue.
We will NOT be talking about holding space for birthing people. We WILL be talking about holding space for ourselves!
This digital course is intended for OB attendings and residents, medical students with a focus on obstetrics, full-spectrum doulas, CPM and CNM midwives, and L&D nurses. As long as you identify with at least one of those words, you are in the right place.
I group those roles into the umbrella of being a ‘birth worker,’ so if you identify as one, then you are in the right place. Your gender is irrelevant to this particular work. Your heart, on the other hand, is essential.
I highlight issues of racial and gender injustices in this course. I also highlight the inadequacies of our healthcare system in a larger context and specifically in our maternal health context. I point out ways in which many roles in our maternity system are being burned out by “the system.” I welcome people from the various roles above to talk about our collective burnout, passion, and judgment.
"This course should be required for anyone working in the field of obstetrics. The course provided me with a historical foundation of how our maternal health care system evolved, why hospitals operate the way they do and why burnout is so prevalent among healthcare workers and allied health workers within this specialty. Nicole does an excellent job of addressing challenging issues with respect, dignity, objectivity, and humanness. I would give this course a 15 out of 10 for both its therapeutic and educational value at a time in my life when I needed it most."
- Genee
Your Host
Nicole Heidbreder
Nicole Heidbreder is an L&D and Hospice nurse, DONA International Birth Doula Trainer, and Clinical Educator for Johns Hopkins Nursing school.
Guest Contributors
Ester Nicholson
The author of the Soul Recovery: 12 Keys to Healing Dependence, Ester turned her incredible journey from addiction to freedom into a practical program that heals the root cause of unworthiness, shame, and trauma.
Nwabueze Okoye
Eze is the founder of Village Qi Gong, an organization that promotes self-healing. He believes movement is medicine and teaches Chi Kung, the science and art of empowering Life by taking care of our Energy.
Monica Corrado
Monica Corrado, MA, CNC, CGP is a teaching chef, Certified Nutrition Consultant, and Certified GAPS practitioner who is passionate about illuminating the connection between food and well-being.
Ilyas Kourosh Kashani
Ilyas is a healer, teacher, writer, and spiritual guide. He primarily teaches Traditional Islamic Healing and Medicine, Classic Chinese Medicine, and Osteopathic Manipulation. He is the founder of Circle of One, a 501c3 Center of Traditional Medicine and the Hakim Wellness Project.
Dr. Joanne Wolf
Dr. Joanne Wolf specializes in improving overall wellness as well as treating acute and chronic conditions involving fascial restrictions, sports injuries, repetitive movement injuries, TMJ (temporal mandibular joint) dysfunction, concussions, GI issues, and pelvic floor dysfunction.
Yael Flusberg
Yael Flusberg is a Washington-DC based yoga therapist, writer and coach who helps people find resiliency, relief and creativity in the midst of transition and loss, and in the aftermath of trauma.
We'll also hear intimate conversations from these leading birth worker legends.
Penny Simkin
Penny Simkin, a physical therapist, has been a childbirth educator and doula since 1968. She trains childbirth educators, doulas, and doula-trainers and frequently conducts workshops for doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals.
Ibu Robin Lim
Robin Lim is a midwife and founder of Yayasan Bumi Sehat health clinics, which offer free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid to anyone who needs it.
Debra Pascali-Bonaro
Debra Pascali-Bonaro is a world-renowned inspirational speaker, filmmaker, doula trainer, childbirth educator, and author. Debra's passion comes from her over 30 years of working with women, men, midwives, doulas, physicians and nurses in over 40 countries bringing comfort, love, and pleasure to birth and life.
What’s Inside Resiliency for Birth Workers?
This course will start June 1st, 2022 and runs for five weeks.
5 Weekly 90 minute calls will be Wednesdays @ 2pm EST
Week 1
Assessing Birth Culture and Ourselves
Week 1 begins by exploring the present culture of birth.
Module Highlights:
Using systems-level data to situate the individual experiences of birth workers and their clients, we will
consider maternal statistics on traumatic births and statistics on vicarious trauma and burnout as reported by maternity workers
explore how the inherent history of race, sex, and power play into our modern maternity system
explore the definitions of burnout by looking at vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and moral injury—and how to recognize the signs of it in ourselves
explore both the internal and community dialogue on self-regulation, self-fulfillment, and finding a higher power to steady our path
Week 2
Preparing for Birth
In week 2, we will develop practices and tools to help birth workers prepare for birth emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
Module Highlights:
Qi Gong, breathing, meditation, intention-setting, grounding, and the use of symbols/talismans are just some of the techniques we'll learn. We'll also discuss the must-haves every birth worker should have with them while they support a birthing person.
Week 3
Releasing After Birth
Week 3 complements week 2 by providing techniques for birth workers to release emotionally, spiritually, and physically following a birth.
Module Highlights:
Through journaling and dialogue, we will
consider topics like gratitude, forgiveness, and grief
master practical techniques like Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), myofascial release, energetic clearing meditations, water rituals, massage, breath work, and sleep hygiene specific to birth workers
Week 4
Love and Communication During Birth
In Week 4, we begin by considering the boundaries of love and the applications of non-violent communication in birth work.
Module Highlights:
We will
discuss techniques for maintaining boundaries and avoiding saviorism while working with clients
demonstrate and practice strong communication in the birth room
Week 5
Integration
Week 5 is the culmination of the course where you will integrate the ideas and tools into you practice, reaffirm your connection to a higher power, and find strength in your community. The focus of week 5, and what weeks 1-4 build towards, is finding resilience in your own birthing practice and in your life outside birth work.
Module Highlights:
We'll explore connections between birth and other human relationships and experiences. You will be encouraged to make personal commitments and implement tools from this course into your work and in your life.
"Getting back to the basics of burnout and what it does to our bodies was a “wake up call” for me; I thought I was taking care of myself moderately well — this course showed me all the places I was remiss but not in a judgmental way. Nicole helped remind me of the tools we already possess to make our lives more balanced and, as a corollary, more full and rich. I want everyone I know to take this course!"
-Lena
Imagine walking into your next birth with:
A trauma-informed understanding of your nervous system's response to stress, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and burnout.
Simple, effective techniques to root into a sense of stability when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Cultivate compassion for yourself—even your most frustrating patterns—as you navigate these uncertain times.
A stronger, more trusting relationship with the wisdom of your body, mind, and emotions.
Mindfulness practices that work with—not against—your natural tendencies.
Honor and communicate your boundaries gracefully without defaulting to systems over giving and saviorism.
Practical communication skills for high-stress, traumatic birth situations that honor the humanity of everyone involved.
Self-awareness and skills to show up more purposefully and authentically in your work, activism, and community.
A realistic, sustainable self-regulation plan that prioritizes pleasure and puts you at the center of your own life.
Increased resilience and an expanded capacity to take the inherent challenges of birth work in stride.
And most importantly,
A supportive, inclusive, heart-centered community.
Ready to build resiliency in the work you love?
Here's the truth... None of us heals or grows in isolation.
In fact, simply being witnessed in our experiences—in the context of a supportive, nonjudgmental community setting—is itself deeply healing for many of us.
I find that the group container is so much more than the sum of its parts, which is why we'll have weekly group calls and a forum to foster connection.
"Birth professionals need to resource ourselves to manage the stresses that are inherent in our work. This program offers both compelling data to support the need to improve our resiliency as well as a variety of approaches to achieve this goal. Exploring the material in a combination of self-paced material and group calls meets another need - which is that of community."
-Aarthi
Time Commitment
The time commitment of this program is flexible. You’re welcome to go as deep or shallow as you’d like with the suggested practices and reflections. Please know that nothing in this program is required—everything is optional and for your own benefit! I fully trust you to learn and absorb the material at a pace and depth that works for you.
If you want to engage only with lessons and calls, that will amount to about 2 hours per week. If you'd like to go deeper with the written reflections, bonus meditations, and online community forum, expect to spend a total of 3-4 hours per week. Add between 5-20 minutes per day to engage with the suggested daily practices, and you’ll be getting the most out of this course.
We'll be touching on a number of deep topics in a short period of time, so it's totally expected that you may not integrate it all right away. Remember, you'll have access to the pre-recorded and written materials for life, so you can revisit them at any time!
*Please note for those of you registering for nursing CEs, you will be required to spend about 2 hours a week and will have to fill out a survey at the end of the course to receive your certificate.
Questions?
Contact Us!