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Become a professional, trained birth doula with Birthing From Within. Hosted by Blooma and taught by highly experienced and credible experts, this program is designed to lay the groundwork for becoming a fully-certified doula. Your journey to becoming a trusted birth companion begins here, October 2-6, 2025.
Bring heart and soul into childbirth preparation and support in this five day in-person doula training, hosted at Blooma and facilitated by Birthing From Within. This training combines a unique embodied Birthing from Within retreat and dynamic hands-on and interactive learning to bring you a workshop experience like no other.
Birthing From Within’s training focuses on honoring the knowledge and lived experience of the mentor and the parent, and challenging trainees to shift their lens towards self-compassion, flexibility, and resilience. The weekend will dive deeply into childbirth preparation and support, tapping into ancient inner knowing in conjunction with evidence-based modern knowing, and teach you to provide meaningful guidance to those in their childbearing years. Enjoy a space created for intentional self-exploration, skill development, and new learning about birth with storytelling, art, ritual, dialogue, and community connection.
Begin your journey with online self-paced learning, attend four full days and one half day (35 hours) of in-person training, and conclude with continued self-paced modules.
In-person and online learning topics include a combination of foundational, professional, and practical skills, birth justice, and exclusive Birthing from Within processes and frameworks.
The workshop will be held in-person at Blooma. The address is 5315 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55419.
The workshop schedule is the following:
-Thursday, October 2nd from 6-9pm
-Friday, October 3rd from 9:30am – 5:30pm
-Saturday, October 4th from 9:30am – 5:30pm
-Sunday, October 5th from 9:30am – 5:30pm
-Monday, October 6th from 9:30am – 5:30pm
Snacks, water, and tea will be included in each full day session. There will be a lunch break where you can bring your own lunch or pop out to a local restaurant or grocery store nearby.
Please plan to bring a notebook, pen, and chalk (not oil) pastels. We are a shoe-free studio, so please plan to bring any other items you need to feel comfortable – slippers, comfortable layers, additional snacks, etc.
Yes. Blooma’s mission has always been and remains the empowerment of all people; in 2007, we started our work in the Twin Cities to support and uplift all types of families and all types of birth choices. We acknowledge the beautiful linguistic, racial & cultural diversity in the Twin Cities; we also acknowledge the gaps in accessibility to healthcare & wellness services that lead to health disparities that primarily affect women of color.
We’re deeply committed to the work of closing the care gaps in maternal health. If you are interested in applying for financial assistance please fill out an application.
A full refund is available for cancellations 3 months or more in advance. Blooma will not offer refunds with less than 3 months notice. If you will be unable to attend this training for any reason, please contact us as soon as possible.
Completion of the training does not guarantee a job, however, we are often hiring at Blooma and looking for passionate, experienced, dedicated individuals. At the completion of your training, certification and a minimum of 12 births attended, if you are interested in working at Blooma, you can email terra@blooma.com for more information.
I absolutely love being a Facilitator with Birthing from Within.
Mentoring parents is wonderful, but I especially enjoy the deep dives that are possible when working with other birth professionals. Sharing ideas, knowledge and community with people like you is a joy and a privilege. We can do so much when we work, learn and grow together.
I first came to Birthing from Within as a pregnant parent in 2007, and immediately felt I had landed in just the right place. I was seeking birth preparation that treated me as a whole person and acknowledged I was passing through a transformation in all aspects of my life, not just preparing for a single event. It was so exciting to find a community and a philosophy in BfW that met me so fully in all the aspects of my process of becoming a parent.
I became a Mentor in 2010, and I have been an active member of the BfW community ever since. My particular areas of interest within BfW these days are: storytelling, mythology, archetypes and symbols; self and community care for birth professionals; BfW and midwifery; and trauma informed care.
I am also a Licensed Midwife with a home birth practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been attending births in a variety of settings since 2009. I am a co-developer (with Rosanna Davis, Stephanie Freeman and Pam England) and facilitator of Village Care ™ , a unique group midwifery care model that blends clinical care with BfW concepts, processes and community building. I’m also a clinical preceptor with the National Midwifery Institute, and I find the work of mentoring and training the next generation of midwives to be one of my favorite parts of being a midwife.
I have been a bodyworker since 2000, specializing in Craniosacral therapy and bodywork for pregnant folks and babies. I was formerly an instructor at The McKinnon Institute of Massage in their professional training programs. I also taught mindfulness, guided meditation, and stress management classes in English and Spanish. (Yo soy una de las mentoras bilingües de BfW, y estoy disponible para ayudar a participantes habla hispanas en nuestros programas.)
My newest work is guiding and mentoring women as a Women’s Health and Sexuality Coach, with a focus on embodiment, pleasure and self-expression.
Beyond work, my loves are language (reading, writing, poetry, learning foreign languages), doing Pilates, spending time at the ocean and in the forest, sharing community with friends and family, and laughing with my teen daughter.
I love hearing the questions that develop as folks move through this course, and being part of the team that excavates them. I look forward to sharing this process with you!
I am honored to be one of Birthing From Within’s co-owners and stewards, alongside Lauren Vallone.
I’ve been a member of the BfW community since 2004 and have served as an advisor to new mentors for over a decade. After reading the book Birthing from Within at my first doula training in 2003, I felt called to join the mission of changing the conversation about birth in my culture, and finding ways to honor and celebrate birth as a rite of passage. Over the next twelve years, I had an opportunity to study with and learn from Pam England, Britta Bushnell, Virginia Bobro, and a variety of other wise mentors. The BfW methods and philosophy are not just something I practice with parents in preparation for birth — they inform and guide my life personally and allow me to stay curious as a lifelong learner.
As a birth and postpartum doula and childbirth educator, I have served hundreds of families over the past twenty years, and witnessed the capacity that birth has to be a transformational experience for everyone involved. In 2018, I became a trainer with BfW and now work primarily supporting other birth professionals through the lens of birth as a heroic journey. In 2021, I became a steward and co-owner of Birthing from Within, alongside Lauren Vallone. I also work as a doula consultant to help establish equitable community doula programs in hospital systems. This work fuels my passion for the intersection of birth and social justice work and my desire to be an agent of change in the world.
In addition to my passion for birthwork, I have a deep love for and fascination with the natural world. I feel most at peace on a still lake in a kayak with my little dog, Lula Bell, or getting my hands dirty in the garden and tuning into the cycles and rhythms of the earth. I am excited to offer you guidance with the ancient maps for modern birth. I look forward to walking alongside you on your journey, and watching you grow as a mentor.
