Role Summary

A Community Perinatal Doula is a trained, non-medical perinatal support professional who walks with a client through the full perinatal journey, from pregnancy through birth and into postpartum. This role is education-led and relationship-based. You help families understand what to expect, prepare for appointments, and make informed, values-aligned decisions. You also provide steady emotional support, hands-on comfort measures, and continuous, in-the-room support during labor and birth. Throughout the journey, you help clients navigate resources and referrals so they are not left alone when needs fall outside doula scope.

What Makes This Role Different

Education first. Support always. Resources when needed. Community Perinatal Doulas lead with clear, plain-language education and practical preparation, then reinforce that learning with hands-on support and continuity of care across pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide continuous perinatal support across pregnancy, birth preparation, labor and birth, and postpartum so clients experience consistent care and guidance.

• Teach in plain language so clients understand common pregnancy, birth, and postpartum terms, procedures, and what to expect.

• Help clients prepare for appointments by identifying questions, priorities, and concerns to raise with providers.

• Support birth preferences and birth planning by helping clients clarify what matters to them and prepare a plan they can discuss with their provider.

• Provide continuous, hands-on, non-medical labor support including reassurance, coping strategies, and comfort measures such as position changes, breathing support, comfort touch, and counterpressure.

• Support communication with the medical team by reinforcing informed consent and shared decision-making and helping clients voice preferences and questions respectfully.

• Provide postpartum recovery education and practical self-care planning (rest, hydration, nutrition, and home support).

• Teach early parenting basics (infant cues, soothing, diapering, bathing, safe sleep, and realistic newborn rhythms).

• Provide basic infant feeding education within non-clinical limits, and refer out appropriately when challenges arise.

• Recognize warning signs and use referral and escalation steps, including encouraging clients to contact appropriate medical, lactation, and mental health supports when needed.

What You Help Families Do

In this role, you help families understand the perinatal season in a calm, practical way. You help them prepare for key decisions before they feel urgent, build coping skills they can actually use, feel supported and informed during labor and birth, and transition into postpartum with realistic plans for recovery, newborn care, and feeding support.

Skills and Strengths for Success

• Clear, compassionate communication and the ability to teach in plain language.

• Practical comfort-measure coaching skills for labor support (positions, breathing cues, and partner coaching).

• Strong professionalism and boundaries, including knowing when to refer and how to escalate concerns appropriately.

• Resourcefulness in connecting families to community supports and building client-ready referral tools.

• Reliability and follow-through to provide continuity and steady presence.

Scope of Practice and Boundaries

A Community Perinatal Doula provides non-medical education, emotional support, physical comfort measures, and resource connection. Community doulas do not diagnose, treat, prescribe, or direct clinical decision-making. Doulas support informed decision-making by teaching options, questions to ask, and communication skills, and they encourage clients to consult licensed healthcare providers for medical concerns. When needs fall outside doula scope, the doula supports the family with appropriate referral and escalation steps.

Community Perinatal Doula Certification Requirements

To earn your Community Perinatal Doula Certification, you will complete the following required course:

• Community-based Perinatal Support and Childbirth Education

Pre-requisite: High School Diploma or Equivalent

Build Deeper Skills Through Further Specialization Training

The Community Perinatal Doula certification gives you a strong foundation to explore a wide range of perinatal support ministries. As you get out in the real world and serve clients, you will discover what you are most drawn to.  Consider adding a specialization, such as Birth Doula, Postpartum Doula, or Newborn Care Specialist, to build deeper skills and expand your service. 

Role Summary

A Birth Doula provides continuous, non-medical support to a birthing family before, during, and immediately after birth. You offer steady, compassionate presence that helps parents feel informed, calm, and supported through every stage of labor and delivery. In this pathway, your care is Christ-centered and prayerful when welcomed, grounded in professional standards, and focused on practical comfort, clear communication, and a peaceful birth environment.

Primary Responsibilities

• Build a trusting relationship with the client and their support team through prenatal planning and education.

• Help clients clarify and communicate birth preferences, including creating or reviewing a values-aligned birth plan.

• Teach and practice comfort measures and coping skills so clients feel prepared before labor begins.

• Provide phone and text support in early labor, helping families discern timing, rest, hydration, and coping strategies.

• Offer in-person support during active labor at the family’s chosen birth place, using hands-on comfort techniques (positioning, counterpressure, breathing support, encouragement, environment support).

• Support and coach the spouse or birth partner with practical ways to participate confidently.

• Maintain a calm, Christ-honoring presence that avoids New Age spiritual practices and instead offers biblically consistent encouragement.

• Stay through delivery and immediate postpartum (up to a defined window), supporting bonding, comfort, and a smooth transition.

• Provide a postpartum follow-up visit that includes emotional processing of the birth and practical support for recovery, newborn adjustment, and basic breastfeeding assistance within scope.

• Communicate promptly and professionally, including appropriate check-ins and boundaries around availability.

Typical Service Model You May Offer

Before Labor

• 1–2 prenatal visits to prepare the heart, mind, and practical plan for birth

• Support creating or reviewing birth preferences and communication goals

• Exploration and practice of comfort measures and pain-coping strategies

• Encouragement and prayer when desired

During Labor

• Phone and text support during early labor

• In-person, continuous support during active labor at the chosen birth place

• Hands-on comfort techniques, pain-coping strategies, and positioning support

• Guidance for the spouse or birth partner so they can support effectively

• Calm, Christ-honoring presence without New Age practices

• Support through delivery and up to 2 hours postpartum

After Birth

• 1 in-home postpartum visit

• Time to process the birth experience

• Support for breastfeeding basics, newborn care, and postpartum recovery within a non-medical scope

Skills and Strengths for Success

• Steady, reassuring presence under pressure, including long labors and unexpected changes.

• Strong communication skills, including the ability to help clients ask questions and understand options without pressuring decisions.

• Hands-on comfort skills: positioning, counterpressure, touch, environment support, and coping coaching.

• Partner support skills: coaching, encouragement, and practical direction that strengthens the family unit.

• Professional boundaries and scope clarity, including knowing when to refer medical questions to licensed providers.

• Dependability and emotional maturity, including confidentiality, punctuality, and respectful collaboration with the care team.

• Comfort offering faith-sensitive encouragement, including prayer when invited, in a way that remains compassionate and non-coercive.

Scope of Practice and Boundaries

A Birth Doula offers non-medical physical, emotional, and informational support. You do not diagnose, treat, interpret medical tests, or make clinical decisions. You support informed decision-making by helping clients understand questions to ask, clarify preferences, and communicate respectfully, while deferring medical guidance to licensed healthcare professionals.

Why This Role Matters

Major medical guidance recognizes the value of supportive labor care practices, and ACOG’s guidance on limiting intervention during labor and birth includes discussion of supportive measures and care practices that can promote physiologic labor for appropriate candidates.

Compensation and Pricing Context

Birth doula services are often packaged to include prenatal meetings, continuous labor support, and one postpartum follow-up visit. Example package pricing: $850 (prenatal meetings, birth support, and 1 postpartum visit).

Birth Doula Certification Requirements

To earn your Birth Doula Certification, you will complete the following required courses:

• Community-based Perinatal Support and Childbirth Education

• Advanced Birth Doula Practice

Role Summary

A Postpartum Doula supports the mother’s recovery and the home’s stability in the first days and weeks after birth. You are practical, calm help in a vulnerable season, providing household support, recovery-focused comfort measures, and compassionate listening. You are not a baby-care specialist or lactation expert. Instead, you help the family navigate early adjustment with basic education and a strong referral mindset, escalating to a Lactation Consultant or a Newborn Care Specialist when needs go beyond your scope.

Primary Responsibilities

• Prioritize the mother’s rest and recovery during the early postpartum period, with special focus on the first two weeks and a realistic understanding that full recovery often continues for several more weeks.

• Provide hands-on household help that directly supports recovery, including light cleaning, laundry, and simple meal prep.

• Set up practical comfort and recovery supports such as preparing a soothing sitz bath, gathering postpartum supplies, and helping create a restful recovery environment.

• Offer non-medical comfort measures like a foot massage for tired feet and supportive check-ins that reduce stress and overwhelm.

• Serve as a trained, compassionate listener to help the mother process her birth experience in a healthy, supported way.

• Hold or soothe the baby briefly so the mother can shower, eat, or rest, while maintaining safety, respect, and clear boundaries.

• Help families troubleshoot next steps by identifying who to call for concerns that require licensed medical care or specialized support.

• Provide basic, non-expert guidance on early newborn adjustment and breastfeeding basics, drawing from childbirth educator training, and refer out when issues become complex or clinical.

Service Formats You May Offer

• In-person hands-on support visits focused on practical home help and maternal recovery support.

• Virtual emotional support visits focused on listening, encouragement, recovery planning, and helping the mother process her experience.

What You Do and Do Not Do

You do:

• Support the mother’s recovery through rest-protecting practical help.

• Provide light household tasks that make recovery possible.

• Offer gentle emotional support and birth processing.

• Help organize referrals and escalation when something is outside scope.

You do not:

• Provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

• Function as a Lactation Consultant or manage complex breastfeeding problems.

• Serve as a Newborn Care Specialist or provide advanced newborn care training.

Referral and Escalation Expectations

A key part of this role is knowing when and how to escalate. You should be prepared to recommend and help connect the family with:

• A Lactation Consultant for persistent pain, weight gain concerns, latch difficulties, suspected tongue-tie, low supply concerns, or any situation that needs clinical lactation expertise.

• A Newborn Care Specialist for specialized newborn support beyond basic adjustment and typical newborn care.

• A licensed healthcare provider for postpartum warning signs, medical questions, or mental health concerns that require clinical evaluation.

Skills and Strengths for Success

• A steady, service-oriented attitude that notices what needs doing and does it gently and efficiently.

• Competence with basic household tasks and simple postpartum meal prep.

• Strong boundaries, professionalism, and confidentiality inside a family’s home.

• Excellent listening skills and emotional steadiness, especially when a mother feels overwhelmed, tearful, or exhausted.

• Ability to support without taking over, honoring the parents’ preferences and home rhythms.

• Clear judgment and humility about scope, including comfort referring out quickly when needed.

• Dependable communication, punctuality, and follow-through.

Scope of Practice and Boundaries

A Postpartum Doula provides non-medical support focused on recovery, practical help, and emotional care. You do not diagnose or treat postpartum conditions and you do not provide clinical feeding management.

Postpartum Doula Certification Requirements

To earn your Postpartum Doula Certification, you will complete the following required courses:

• Community-based Perinatal Support and Childbirth Education

• Postpartum Specialty Practice

Role Summary

A Newborn Care Specialist (NCS) is a non-medical, in-home newborn professional who provides calm, competent care for infants in the early months, often during overnight shifts or extended blocks of time. You are trusted to work independently with a newborn (including twins) so parents can rest, recover, and function well. You support families with safe, developmentally appropriate newborn routines, feeding support that protects breastfeeding goals, and practical education that builds parental confidence. Many families hire an NCS for twin care, night duty, or when a parent works from home and needs uninterrupted sleep or work time.

This role is commonly described as direct newborn care in the first weeks and months, including overnight care so parents can rest.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide attentive newborn care during scheduled shifts (commonly 8–10 hours overnight) so parents can sleep and recover.

• Perform routine infant care: diapering, soothing, burping, settling baby back to sleep, and supporting a peaceful overnight rhythm.

• Handle feeding support based on the family’s plan, including bottle feeding (pumped milk or formula) and bringing baby to the nursing parent when needed.

• Clean and reset feeding supplies used on shift (light bottle and pump-part cleaning, basic station reset).

• Follow safe sleep guidance consistently and help families set up a safe sleep space and habits.

• Support breastfeeding goals with basic troubleshooting, pumping guidance, and bottle-feeding techniques that protect breastfeeding (for example paced bottle feeding when appropriate).

• Provide gentle newborn sleep tips that are appropriate for the newborn stage and aligned with the family’s values and parenting preferences.

• Communicate clearly with parents about feeds, output, sleep stretches, and any concerns observed during the shift.

• Maintain professionalism in the home: confidentiality, reliability, cleanliness, and respectful collaboration with the family.

Faith and Presence Expectations

Offer a peaceful, Christ-centered presence when welcomed by the family.

Provide encouragement that is nurturing and respectful, without using New Age spiritual practices.

“Sleep When Baby Sleeps” Expectation

During stretches when baby is sleeping peacefully, the NCS may rest lightly in a nearby room or designated space while remaining responsive and available. This expectation should be clearly communicated and agreed upon as part of the overnight care arrangement.

Skills and Strengths for Success

• Strong newborn handling and soothing skills (especially for fussy periods and frequent waking).

• Excellent safety judgment and consistent adherence to safe sleep and safe handling standards.

• Confident bottle-feeding technique and ability to support breastfeeding goals with paced feeding and pumping basics.

• Calm, steady temperament for overnight work, with dependable punctuality and strong stamina.

• Professional communication, including written logs and clear handoffs to parents.

• Comfort caring for multiples or higher-demand scenarios (twins, parents working from home, recovery after a difficult birth).

Scope of Practice and Boundaries

A Newborn Care Specialist provides non-medical newborn care and evidence-informed education. You do not diagnose, treat, or provide medical advice. You escalate concerns promptly to parents and appropriate licensed professionals (pediatric provider, IBCLC, etc.) when issues exceed basic support.

Newborn Care Specialist Certification Requirements

To earn your Newborn Care Specialist Certification, you will complete the following required courses:

• Community-based Perinatal Support and Childbirth Education

• Advanced Practice Newborn Care and Basic Lactation Support

Role

A Perinatal Support Specialist is a “one-stop” non-medical support professional who can walk with a family from pregnancy through birth and into the early postpartum and newborn season. This role combines education, hands-on labor support, mother-focused postpartum recovery support, and newborn care services (including basic lactation and pumping support). The goal is simple: to provide consistent, compassionate, Christ-centered care across the whole journey, while keeping clear boundaries and referring to licensed providers and specialists when concerns go beyond scope.

What You Do

A Perinatal Support Specialist may serve families in several ways, depending on what they need and what you offer:

Pregnancy Support and Education

• Teach families how pregnancy and birth work, how to cope effectively, and how to make informed decisions that align with their values.

• Help parents prepare questions for their provider and build a wise birth plan.

• Connect families to helpful resources.

Birth Support (Doula Care)

• Provide prenatal planning visits and continuous, non-medical labor support (comfort measures, positioning, emotional reassurance, and partner coaching).

• Maintain a calm, faith-sensitive presence that supports the family’s spiritual preferences.

Postpartum Recovery Support

• Protect the mother’s recovery with recovery-sensitive home help, practical comfort supports, and compassionate listening.

• Help families identify when to escalate concerns to medical care or specialized support.

Newborn Care and Feeding Support

• Provide competent newborn care for longer shifts when needed (including night care), especially for families with twins, parents working from home, or families who need structured help.

• Support breastfeeding goals with basic troubleshooting, pumping guidance, and breastfeeding-supportive bottle feeding while referring complex concerns to an IBCLC or other appropriate providers.

Best Fit If You Want

• To offer families a continuity-of-care experience instead of one isolated service.

• Flexibility to serve through teaching, birth work, postpartum recovery support, and newborn care shifts.

• To build a fuller service menu for a perinatal ministry or professional practice.

Scope of Practice and Boundaries

A Perinatal Support Specialist is non-medical. You do not diagnose, treat, or provide clinical care. You support families with education, comfort measures, practical help, and evidence-informed guidance, and you refer to licensed medical providers and specialists when needed.

Perinatal Support Specialist Certification Requirements

To earn the Perinatal Support Specialist designation, complete all of the following courses:

• Community-based Perinatal Support and Childbirth Education

• Advanced Birth Doula Practice

• Postpartum Speciality Practice

• Advanced Practice Newborn Care with Basic Lactation Support