Welcome to the SBD Birth & Bereavement training, and congratulations on entering into the most comprehensive training on these subjects!
Before We Begin
There is a brief narrative portion to complete at the end of this Welcome Letter.
Before you receive your training materials and invitation into the classroom, I’d like to make sure we’ve covered a few things:
This entire page, web link and everything in it is confidential information exclusively for the registered stillbirthday student.
If you completed payment and didn’t enter in the “Why I want to become an SBD Doula” narrative portion, you can still do that below.
Your PayPal receipt for your purchase can serve any of your bookkeeping needs, as well as this welcome letter. The first attempt at distributing your Welcome and Entrance materials will be through your paypal email address, as that is the first one we receive. To adjust your preferred form of communication, you can use this form below and if you’ll like you can feel free to connect by friend request and/or private message to Heidi Faith on facebook. If you need to cancel this session for any reason simply connect with Heidi Faith and we can work together on options of moving into a different session or going more slowly during this session. The reasons to want to change course can be any and is something we look at in the FAQ and Student Support pages, all expanded on from the registration page. This course is a big journey and you are not alone.
Please feel invited to join our SBD U Admissions group on facebook once your tuition has been sent, while you wait for your class session to open. This is the best way to navigate the differences in paypal name, email name, and online name. Because our classroom is on facebook, your joining the admissions room prior to your session helps to find you easiest.
Announcing Your Enrollment
If you’d like, you can wear the SBD U student logo on your social media or other online platforms. Additionally if you are the recipient of a scholarship or are enrolled through an advanced partnership such as through Sufficient Grace Ministries, you can connect with Heidi Faith for logos or other information you might need. If you entered our program through sponsorship, please find your name on our Previously Sponsored page, and review the names of those who sponsored you into the program, so that you can send them a “thank you” for their encouragement for your journey. Sending a free e-card can be a nice gesture.
Do your loved ones want to know about what you’re learning? You can use our Student Feedback to leave comments for your loved ones to watch your journey.
Because your announcement of your enrollment may inspire someone you know to register for the training, please be sure to know that once the session officially starts, enrollment is moved toward the following session.
Receiving Your Materials
Your “Hello and Welcome Packet” should have been automatically downloaded at the time of your registration. If technology got wonky (which, it can) simply find me on facebook or by email and let me know this needs to get to you. It is also a file in the SBD U Admissions room.
You will begin the training itself when you are manually added into your session classroom from the SBD U Admissions room. If you choose not to use facebook, you can begin your session with an email with a SBD U Entrance Information subject line, approximately one week before the actual start date for the session. The entrance information email will give you the link and one-two passwords to begin the training. Everything you’ll need will be in that SBD U Entrance Information email. This will give you plenty of time to get settled into the contents of the materials themselves.
Core Training Contents & Preparatory Installations
From the files within the actual classroom (or from your Entrance email) you’ll receive access to the main Student Resources module, which is a hub to all of the 8 modules. You’ll move forward through the modules in sequential order, by successfully completing the corresponding chapter reading and open book exam.
The chapter files are received through an instant download process within each module page. You might prepare now by making sure you have the latest edition of Adobe Reader installed. If you’ll be using your iPad or other device, you might install Adobe Reader for Mobile, DropBox or a reading app such as Notability. Our files have been downloaded hundreds and hundreds of times and do not contain any malicious content. However, it is your responsibility to upkeep your computer with anti virus protection.
There are helpful links published here at stillbirthday under the header of SBD Doula Registration, including the Student Checklist, which you’ll be using weekly in the course. You can begin to familiarize yourself with these extra resources as well.
Facebook Group
While this class is at your own pace, many students like to dialogue with one another. While the core weekly conversations are pre-scripted for the forum, they are also available in the facebook group, as well as providing you an opportunity to utilize our designated fb group to post general questions, thoughts, or share with your classmates in a more extemporaneous and organic way. Within the facebook group, you’ll also have access to a designated Student Lead who works as a Student Aide to you along the journey. The information to access this group too, will be included in your entrance email.
If your facebook profile name is different than your Class Roster name, please have this information ready to provide when you send in the request to join the session group. All exams must have your Class Roster name on them.
It is totally OK to skip the SBD Forum entirely and just chat in our private facebook group designated for our class session. Most students do.
Virtual Conferencing
The socialization among the classmates is not a requirement to complete the training, but is such an enriching part of the experience. Your classmates are in different timezones from all over the world, so designating specific timeframes where we can all engage in real time is often very difficult, however, we do have Skype-like conferencing we can try out if anyone in the class would like to “meet” one another. Just let Heidi know in the class.
Forum
The forum is considered an alternative if you prefer not to be on facebook. It is not required.
Successfully completing each of the 8 modules is all that is required to complete the classroom portion of your training. For that, you can simply download your weekly modules and respond to each weekly exam. We have a pre-scripted template for thought provoking questions within the student forum, and you can answer these posed questions there.
Here is the SBD Forum – which you also can prepare for class by joining now. Only when the session before you has ended and your session has officially begun, I can update your status within the forum to a moderator level. This will allow the class forum to become visible to you (it won’t be visible to you until you 1. join the SBD Forum and 2. become promoted to moderator at the start of class). At any point in the session, if you’ll like to take a peek at the class forum to see what it has, you can just connect with me and I’ll make that happen. As your class session expires, your level then will return to the visitor status so that future classes also remain confidential.
As an SBD Student
FAQ
You might have a lot of questions getting started – making sure you understand the logistics of things, as well as some really important emotionally-based questions. Are you emotionally ready for this course? What happens if you fail the class? Please, refer now, and whenever you need to, back to our frequently asked questions about the training. Our program is not precision-driven. Accuracy is important as an SBD doula, but equally important, and in some situations much more important, is the willingness to take the journey of not knowing, of being present in a place that doesn’t always make sense, and even when it’s not the most comfortable. There will be no trick questions and the program is designed to allow you to explore the subjects authentically.
In the Public
You are authorized to share publicly that you are an SBD student. Only upon successful completion of the course (8 weeks training plus 2 book reviews and 1 community project), you will earn the federally protected and globally respected designation of Birth and Bereavement Doula. You will only then be able to promote that you serve birth in any trimester and in any outcome, and that you are trained to support birth diversity. Until credentialing, the role of the student is that of a probationary SBD Doula.
Integrity of Character
It is unacceptable, unprofessional, and illegal to apply for the stillbirthday training only to receive the contents and then rescript them into something you market with your own name on them. Individuals enrolling into the doula program with the objective of teaching hospitals or teaching others how to serve families need to first slow down, first engage in the training, first actually serve families from within your own community and from within the scope of the credentialed Birth and Bereavement Doula. We offer fantastic partnership options for you to share with others from within your community whom you want to see supporting families as well. You can incorporate this partnership as part of your package for your own presentations, or you can, later, after graduating, after serving, apply to become a Speaker in your community. The moment you receive access to the stillbirthday training contents you are held accountable to this understanding. The SBD credential is one of excellence, it is a designation of a stamp of quality that is federally registered and is monitored freely by the public. Pulling anything away from stillbirthday and rewriting it for your own gain is a disservice not only to the SBD doulas who endure and work hard in our circle of trust, it is a disservice to your own agenda as no matter the breadth of content stolen or rescripted it will never hold the enormity of what is the stillbirthday relationship, but most importantly, it is a horrendous disservice to those families who would be supported by an individual part of our global family and who has successfully completed our emotionally rigorous and academically intensive program. Our program is affordable so that it is accessible, because we all bring something tremendous together. Your moving forward is recognition that you honor that.
Cross-Promotion and NSE
Stillbirthday is considered a collegiate level academic institution. As you encounter relationships with fellow classmates and after you graduate, you may have knowledge or insight accrued from multiple sources. Please know that the sharing of resources among classmates and colleagues is not to be construed as stillbirthday endorsement. Stillbirthday has precious relationships with many organizations, businesses and professionals in the fields of birth and bereavement, and we share of them and about them openly. A stillbirthday leader or faculty has the right to edit or delete resources that are not in line with the core values of integrity, collaboration, and authenticity that we stand for.
In this line, some of our students choose to use their certification to create speaking events or other group learning opportunities. We encourage and promote such a passion through the development of our Speaker team. Our speakers receive our endorsement and promotion, offering full liberty to announce such offerings freely throughout our social media platforms, among other great benefits. Non-endorsed events, gatherings or promotions that include any manner of for-profit, including suggested donation or offering, can acquire advertising opportunities which can be purchased through our Chief Services Officer.
Confidentiality
The classroom environment is a trust building place to learn. You are invited to share personal and professional experiences with birth and bereavement. Do not reveal identifying information from your professional experiences, and any photos you might share must have express, written permission from the person depicted. Identifying information is defined as including any name of any location or person, including the babies themselves.
You are not allowed to mock, ridicule, shame, sarcastically or rudely communicate with or condemn either privately or publicly any fellow SBD student, faculty or contributer at any time.
- Limited Extension of Permission upon Graduation
You are not allowed to share, trade, transit, exchange, duplicate or reveal access encryption, links, files, codes, content or any information learned in the session of the training or from within the classroom with anyone outside of the classroom – even in the central stillbirthday group or in any stillbirthday related group, page, blog or other platform. We provide you with pre- selected, minimal portions of our training compiled into a Client Curriculum as a resource for you to use, and only within a very specific doula/client relationship. Our monitored Student Sharing page is a simple way to know that your sharing of your student experience isn’t breaking that trust. Neither are you authorized to misuse any stillbirthday communication, including classroom conversation, as any kind of “ammunition against” any conversation, debate, forum or other audience. Upon graduation you will also be provided with documents and resources that help you in offering public awareness to your role and services.
If it is determined that you have broken our standard of trust, your place in the training and in stillbirthday will be revoked without refund.
In this line, the stillbirthday doula tuition remains highly competitive. Tuition, in fact, is the only area in which we strive to be competitive. The affordability of our program allows you to continue to invest in your education and by extension, the families you serve. We encourage continued education and exploring other programs with affiliated areas of expertise. With this objective in mind, two things must be mentioned. The confidentiality of our program is paramount. What you will learn through our program deepens the information already available freely from the website. The doula tuition becomes invested into the ongoing activities and resources stillbirthday provides, and so your enrolling into our doula program is literally your investment into further support for others. Additionally, if you have taken a training from another organization, it is required that you maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the other organization. You will not share contents of any other training with stillbirthday, with Heidi Faith, with any student Lead, or with any student whatsoever. Stillbirthday is a program that is important and valuable, based on our own merit, and we uphold the integrity and value that other trainings also bring. In fact, we will link you to various supplemental resources and programs through the training.
Manners
An over-indulgence in self-righteousness is an interference to humility, curiosity, and an ability to serve.
As a learner, you will be exposed to things that make you feel uncomfortable. It is my job to prepare you for that in ways that mirror what will happen in real situations you may serve in. It is not only a certainty that you will be uncomfortable, you may even be offended. It is your right as a student to share any feelings, concerns, questions, frustrations, doubts, anxieties, or any other perspectives you are experiencing directly with Heidi Faith. I take your feelings seriously and dedicate myself to committing time to hearing your heart. It is not your right to try to navigate aversions from the training environment to wrestle for a place of authority. I am the founder of stillbirthday and I am your faculty. I establish the tone of our learning environment and I share that platform with those who seek to guide you in navigating the material to respond to exams. I share the platform with students, who want to share, post pictures, links, questions, comments or thoughts, but to derail the safety environment as a whole to unpack stored anger and misdirected hostility is an abuse of the learning environment and if a student manipulates the trusting environment by exhausting the attention, time and energy of the Leads, students and/or myself, the student will simply not qualify for credentialing. There are multiple sources from our previous experiences that might have instilled in us concepts that might have value at their core but have become corrupt and toxic to the core of stillbirthday values. Habits of perspective and of misuse of concepts, application and even relevant vocabulary can take time to work through, and I commit to investing in your healthiest journey, but I will need your commitment as well, through a demonstrated and progressively improved effort toward the principles learned in the training content. We uphold respect and words of affirmation for one another and our organization at all times. Practice now, exploring the concept that the role of doula isn’t compartmentalized and exclusively only for laboring mothers. You can doula every person you meet, by slowing down, validating, providing options and supplementing resources. You don’t know yet how that fully looks and pieces together, but for now, simply start by sharpening your manners. They are a skill set.
Stillbirthday gives platform for students to engage freely, within our frame of mutually uplifting engagement, while also practicing communicating as SBD certified doulas. As such, there’s a lot of liberty that can be taken in our speech during this time, but it does need to be moderated and sometimes, edified. The opinions of your fellow classmates are not necessarily those endorsed by stillbirthday. Through the journey, we strive toward affirming your authentic exploration while also protecting the hearts of your fellow classmates. These values at times are at odds with one another and decisions of moderation and edification are done with an endless pursuit of best discernment. Please know that your opinions not only of the training content, the classroom dialogue, and faculty decisions all are important to me and you can communicate your feelings with me at any time.
To limit the occasions of student communications that might not be within the stillbirthday foundational structure of support, it is a wise decision to review our Principles of Service now, so that you’ll have an idea of the ways we support and why we support in the manner in which we do. Stillbirthday maintains the right as a collegiate level institution to remove a student from the roster for violating the written rules of the course. Your tuition does not mean a purchase of our credential or of unlimited access to all of the contents, but is an investment toward the prestigious SBD Doula credential, and all it entails. Access to the materials is a privilege of those moving forward successfully and for our credentialed SBD doulas.
Endurance & Vulnerability
The SBD doula training is emotionally intensive and the study is rigorous. It is not uncommon for a student to find the training inviting them into a space of new growth in their own journey. Learning together allows us to be raw and transparent in rich and healing ways. I encourage you to be open and curious about what the study and the environment might bring you, and, what you might bring to the other students. We care very deeply for our students, and I want to reiterate that as an enrolled student, we also hold you within our student support mentoring and that you are held accountable to the SBD high standards of professionalism, of respecting your humble but significantly valuable role in your community, even now.
Please check out our FAQ as well as our benefits of SBD Credentialing for any clarification of what to expect of the training.
We’re in this together, and it is an honor to be on this journey with you.
Modules & Chapters
There are 8 module pages, each corresponding to the Student Checklist listing of weekly subjects. A module page looks much like this very page you are reading. Each module includes a Notes page with a series of thought provoking self reflection questions that are just for your growth, and a series of group questions which are also posted in our class as opportunities for us to discuss them. Within the module page, there are several links available for you. One of those links is your actual training chapter contents. Each chapter is approximately 50-75 pages of reading material, which contain helpful videos as well as photography to enhance the learning experience. When you complete a chapter, you’ll return back to your corresponding module page, where you can then enjoy the additional links as supplemental / reinforcing material, or, turn in your exam. Please be aware that the chapters will likely explore concepts in a designated, chronological pattern that may not fit within your timeline of wanting questions answered, and that once the class as a unit has explored a chapter together, the ways in which any of us may approach the related topics may soften, deepen, and mature. Therefore, this course takes patience. Student Feedback and the Student Checklist as well as our introductory Welcome Materials download (which you should have now), offer you a timeline of the course contents.
Within each module page, the chapter file (50-75 pages of that week’s subjects) will be accessible via the same {instant download} format that you used when enrolling and receiving your Welcome Materials packet. If you did not receive the Welcome Materials download packet, please email Heidi.Faith@stillbirthday.info so that it can be issued to you now.
Please hold onto this {instant download} guide for your information.
Exams
Successfully passing each week of training consists only of achieving an 80% or higher on each exam. We have created many different ways of connecting and engaging with one another and while these are often celebrated by the students, you are not required to participate in these extra opportunities; this includes video/audio/instant message conferencing, the forum and the facebook group.
Details regarding examination grading are outlined in your training materials. Your grades are not returned to you, but if I find concern with any of your responses I will contact you immediately. If you are concerned about an exam question you can also open a corresponding link on your module page which contains a helpful guide to the exam you’re working on. After each exam, you are invited to connect privately with your designated Primary Student Lead, a volunteer peer who is SBD Alumni who simply is available if you can’t find where in the chapter an exam question is referring to.
This is in many ways a self-paced course within the small community of fellow students. There are multiple ways of getting connected, but the responsibility of your own completion of work and successful graduation of the program is ultimately your own responsibility.
Extra Supplies
A few additional items that will prove handy to have during the training include:
- at least one balloon (or condom, if you have a latex allergy or prefer)
- play doh, or other similar material such as flour and water
- an egg (if you are an ethical vegan you can have the opportunity to creatively seek an alternative to this; one student used a bell pepper)
- a ping pong ball
- a camera to take photos to share with the class
- two books of your choice from our reading list
- a phone or other means of contacting resources in your community (starting in exam 4)
- details for these items are outlined in class
2 Book Reviews & A Community Project
Please utilize and familiarize yourself with the sub-tabs of the doula training for your benefit, including our Student Checklist and Book Listing.
Besides successfully completing the 8 consecutive week training, please note that you also have two book reviews and a community assessment project, all of which have 6 months from the start of the class to be completed, as well as reading and signing our Principles of Service. This is considered an outline of professional conduct. As a registered student, it is considered by default that you have read and are in understanding of the Principles of Service just as any doula who lists their services with stillbirthday.
There are several times in the course of the 8 week training that you will be instructed to establish contact with various professionals and organizations within your community. Success in these activities is gauged by your respectful communications and an expressed appreciation of the services they provide to families. Introducing yourself as an aspiring Stillbirthday Birth & Bereavement Doula, curious and appreciative of their work sets a foundation for a great relationship with them as you begin to supplement their work with your comprehensive birth & bereavement services.
There are many ways to get supported if you find yourself struggling during the training. You can contact Heidi Faith at any time by emailing Heidi.faith@stillbirthday.info with any questions, thoughts, feelings or concerns at any time, and you and I can work on getting the support you deserve.
In the last week of the training, you will be invited to give feedback using this training evaluation. If you are in need of nursing contact hours, the best time to complete the evaluation is when you complete your two book reviews and community project, so that your credentialing and contact hours will all be filed together.
Re-Enrollment
It is not uncommon to take the training twice – the first time believing you’re learning as a professional, yet discovering that the material is speaking directly into your heart as an individual – and then a second time to apply the content in a new level so that you can serve professionally. If you feel like you’re falling behind or feeling especially challenged emotionally, you are invited and encouraged to contact Heidi Faith directly. We can work out a plan for your success. There is a formal re-enrollment option at the main registration page.
Needing More Time & After Training
The training is intended to be a part of your life, not replace or supersede necessary parts of your life.
If you find that life events or other challenges present themselves and you need extended additional time to complete the training, once your certification is complete, it will be dated as the most recent graduated class, even if that was not the one you were in. Postdating certificates isn’t a stillbirthday practice. Once you are a graduated SBD doula, you have seven days from the publication date of your unique URL for a reissued portfolio. After this time there is a $25 reissue fee if you need a reissued graduate portfolio, which contains your certificate and other special exclusive SBD doula materials. You can utilize the “Transition” module of the training for guidance in these things.
Finally, here is that helpful and simple checklist again, that you can use to keep track of what to expect in the training.
Now
As an enrolled student, you may use this logo on your blog, website, or other social media page to announce your commitment to higher learning and deeper service to families.
Just click the logo to enlarge and save.
From Now Until Class Begins
You can email Heidi Faith at any time from now until this entrance email is delivered to you, with any questions you may have, and visit our Class Roster at Stillbirthday University to verify your enrollment (updates are usually within 24 hours after enrollment). Within the form below, please use the email address you’ll want me to send these emails to. With maiden, divorce and married names, paypal emails, personal and professional emails, it can be extremely difficult to coordinate every student’s information accurately. This is part of why an extra week is given at the beginning of class to make room for any changes that need to take place.
You will have access to the classroom for 3 months (12 weeks). Within those 3 months, it is highly recommended that you complete the materials weekly. In this way, there are 8 weeks of chapters & corresponding exams, with 4 free weeks for you to review and seek the specific guidance you need.
From now until class begins, you might review our required reading list so that you can determine which two books you’ll prefer to read, and even check your local library for a savings. We have a book entitled “Supporting Birth & Bereavement as a Doula” that contains all of the information in our Immediate Decisions booklets, plus select content for doulas. It is not at all required to have, even on the reading list, but the title is listed in our reading list as an option for you to consider. You can also go over the registration page and take your time through the additional inks involved.
Self Care
Because each weekly chapter is approximately 50-75 pages of reading material, it is a practical consideration to prepare now for the mental and perhaps emotional journey ahead. What may be very difficult concepts for you will be explored in this training. Consider now laying out strategic rewards for your diligence, endurance, and commitment to completing this journey. A treat for yourself each weekend of the training is a fantastic stewardship of your own mental health.
Your First SBD Birth
- Panic can set in big and fast. Doula at Birth was created just for you.
- As a new SBD doula student, simply print our Documentation Package for Hospitals and place in a folder within your doula bag. That way you can easily present information about your role to the hospital care team – and, you can quickly find helpful links for yourself, right within the document.
- Remember you can utilize the SBD University Student logo. Perhaps print this so you can make a temporary name badge.
- It is your responsibility to articulate in a very clear manner to members of the care team that you are not yet SBD credentialed.
SBD U Entrance Information ~ Starting Your Session
If you have not received your “SBD U Entrance Information” email by the start date of the session, please contact Heidi Faith immediately. You can email Heidi.faith@stillbirthday.info with subject line “Waiting on Training“.
Alright! Let’s begin!
After you complete the form below, your student access information will be delivered to you , just before the beginning of the next scheduled class session. While you wait, please make sure you plan for your book reviews and community project; details are at the registration page. As an enrolled student now, it is assumed that you have read and agree to the contents of this welcome letter.
Please return to our doula registration page for details to any of this information.
Student Narrative
Please Sign
In our transition, this is a duplicate page, which is moving here: {www.stillbirthday.academy/welcome}
SBD U HomeComing!
It’s the class reunion you want to go to!
Each year, stillbirthday has an opportunity for you to meet fellow SBD doula alumni, current students and other stillbirthday supporters, through our HomeComing. Visit our Global Network for details.
