Childbirth Education

We offer private and group childbirth education classes. Our educators believe that there is no single right way to give birth; instead, we believe in offering information and options, and respecting the parents' ability to choose for themselves what their right path will be.

All students have open access to our extensive lending library of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, baby care, and postpartum books! Any of our books are FREE to be checked out and taken home.

The topics covered in our childbirth classes include:

  • Anatomy and Terminology
  • Nutrition in Pregnancy
  • Stages of Labor
  • Physical changes throughout labor/delivery
  • Emotional responses to labor
  • Coping techniques
  • How to be a good labor support person
  • Pain relief options
  • Interventions - Your options and all of the benefits/risks
  • Preventing tears and episiotomies
  • Postpartum care of Mom
  • Newborn proceedures
  • Newborn care - 2-hour class including diapering, bathing, swaddling, cord care, etc
  • Breastfeeding - a full 2-hour class is devoted to breastfeeding

CPR and First Aid

Please contact Morgan Sivesind with questions or to sign up for the CPR or First Aid classes, at 480-818-3299.

We offer CPR and First Aid classes focusing mainly on children and infants. Our goal is to educate and influence people to prevent accidental injury as well as offer instructions on how to handle emergency situations.

Some of the topics offered in the class include:

  • Basic Life Support (CPR and AED)
  • Bleeding and Wound Care
  • Shock
  • Burns
  • Serious Injuries
  • Bone, Joint, and Muscle Injuries
  • Sudden Illness
  • Poisoning
  • Cold and Heat Emergencies
  • Common Childhood Problems and Injuries

Basic Training for New Dads

This fun 2-hour class is designed to help fathers prepare for what lies ahead.

Topics to be covered include:

  • Supporting your wife through pregnancy and labor and delivery
  • Newborn care and adjusting to fatherhood
  • Intimacy after baby comes

Professional Education

Please contact either Rose Day - 480-835-8944 or Nicole Ausdemore - 480-671-4534 with any questions regarding either our Labor Doulas or Childbirth Educators programs.

Labor/Birth Doula Training and Certification

Those who complete certifications requirements for the labor/birth doula program qualify to use the initials AZCD after their name to designate them as Nurturing Hearts Certified Doulas.

  • Requirements for Certification
    • Attend a training workshop - full weekend course $200 (scholarships available for those who qualify)
    • Attend an approved childbirth education class series
    • Obtain five letters of recommendations from families for whom you've provided doula services
    • Sign a Standard of Practice form

    After taking a Nurturing Hearts Doula training workshop, you will be able to:

  • Define "normal childbirth" in America
  • List the clinically proven benefits of labor support
  • Classify different doula types
  • Recognize the doulas role at the birth
  • Demonstrate communication skills
  • Recognize the importance of evidence-based education
  • List the importance of a good relationship between the hospital staff and labor support person
  • List non-pharmaceutical comfort techniques
  • Demonstrate labor positions
  • Employ labor support techniques with families
  • Demonstrate a working knowledge of doula tools
  • Recognize appropriate responses to unexpected outcomes
  • Examine the importance of labor support to the breastfeeding relationship
  • Identify the importance of the business aspect of being a doula

Childbirth Educator Training and Certification

    We believe that there is no single right way to give birth. We believe in offering information and options, and respecting the parents' ability to choose for them what the right path is. We believe that it is the parents responsibility to take care of their health to the best of their ability and to do what they can to have a healthy pregnancy. We believe in informed consent and empowered birth. We believe that the childbirth educator's job is to give the information to the parents that they can use to have as healthy and empowered of a birth as possible.

    Those that train and certify with us can thereafter use the initials AZCCE after their names to show that they are Nurturing Hearts Certified Childbirth Educators.

  • Requirements for Certification
    • Training workshop - full weekend course $200 (scholarships available for those who qualify)
    • Observe a childbirth education class series
    • Submit class outline
    • Pass a final examination (option of written or oral)

        After taking a Nurturing Hearts Childbirth Educator training workshop, you will be able to:

    • Define normal childbirth in America
    • Explain the importance of evidence-based teaching
    • Define the types of learners and methods employed to help students retain information taught.
    • Explain the importance of language and word usage when teaching
    • Discuss the signs of pre-labor and warnings signs of pregnancy
    • Explain the stages and phases of labor both emotional and physical.
    • Explore the Gate Control Theory and Fight or Flight and their impact on childbirth.
    • List various comfort measures for labor and birth and describe their benefit.
    • State the questions of informed consent and how this may empower childbearing women.
    • Discuss the immediate postpartum period and routine procedures that occur during this time.
    • Explore the postpartum period and the adjustment to parenthood
    • Discuss the benefits of breastfeeding and ways that childbirth educators can encourage breastfeeding.
    • Explore unexpected outcomes including cesareans and precipitous births
    • Explain the importance of working within the birthing community and being an active member
    • List supplies helpful for childbirth classes and describe how they can be used.
    • Discuss the business of being a childbirth educator.
    • List various games and explain how they may be used in a childbirth preparation class.
    DUAL CERTIFICATION OPTION

    This is designed specifically for experienced doulas or chilbirth educators - certified through a recognized organization who would like to add on the NHBS certification.

    • Requirements for Dual Certification
      • Copy of certification certificate from approved organization
      • Sign a Standard of Practice form
      • Submit a 500-word essay on Birth in Arizona

        To see when classes are scheduled, please take a look at the Schedule of Events.


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