Download the Application here!

Frequently Asked Questions

1) Can I do labor support for any woman in Jersey City/Hudson County as part of the HPC Community Doula Fellowship? No.  The women we serve as birth doulas MUST referred to HPC Doulas by Hudson Perinatal Consortium and are clients of HPC.  Clients of HPC include women enrolled in the WIC program, the Jersey City High School teen moms program, or women getting prenatal care at the two federally funded health clinics.

If you know of an expectant family in need of doula care in Hudson County, NJ, please make sure you get permission to share their information with the Access to Care Director, Jeanne McMahon.  We are funded by the State of NJ to serve women at risk for poor birth outcomes.  We want our program to be inclusive and welcoming, so if you meet an expectant Hudson County mom who is not part of HPC services, please have her contact Jeanne McMahon, Access to Care Coordinator at 201-876-8900 x 231.

2)  What are the requirements and demands of serving as an HPC Community Doula? We will be answering this in person a lot over the course of our training.  But the quick reply is you and one other HPC Community Doula will collaborate on two 90 minute prenatal visits, labor support and one 90 minute post natal visit. The pre/post natal visits will be scheduled based on the client’s availability and your schedule to determine the dates/times.  In most cases, these visits take place at the clients’ home, but as share in The Community Doula Book, issues of privacy may arise for expectant women who are living with extended relatives.  So again, we follow our clients’ lead on how to serve her with stress reduction practices, healthy empowerment tools in her pregnancy and support…we currently do not have the room resources to do prenatal doula care at the FQHC’s, but it is a space issue that would be very helpful to making the program sustainable.    Our prenatal visits model healthy self care and become nourishing tools of empowerment.  Sharing resources, recipes, and other perinatal support topics, like encouraging your client to attend a breastfeeding class or childbirth education class by compassionately reminding her are ways to lead by example your interest in her health and wellness.  We have a strong lending library and can photocopy resources to share with to the women you serve.  You will be model, by word and deed, culturally competent care, compassion and kindness for healthy pregnancy, birth, postnatal and motherhood passage.  Doulas leave a legacy through resources, support, information and inspiration even before labor, which is why the two prenatal healing arts sessions are essential to create relationship.

3.  Is HPC a national doula certification program?  Is HPC is one stop shopping? Yes!  Receiving your HPC Community Doula  fellowship supports you in the application, reading requirements, additional trainings in breastfeeding/childbirth, fees and assists you with paperwork.  The reason getting four births done from March 2012– August 2012 for the 4th fellowship doula program  is essential is so you can have your national certification earned with support. According to DONA International, of the the three certifying births, only one can be a cesarean birth.

In addition to the DONA International doula curriculum, additional trainings on therapeutic touch, nutrition, massage, creative visualization, relaxation practice, prenatal yoga, childbirth education are taught.  We have a social justice foundation that reducing perinatal disparities, reducing low birth weight babies, reducing preterm labor, increasing breastfeeding initiation & retention, and reducing perinatal disparities in birth outcomes are part of the HPC philosophy and commitment of service.