WHERE IS THE DOULA?
PART TWO
From Knowing to Doing:
Practicing Community Care in Perinatal Psychosis
A two-hour live practice lab for doulas
September 18, 2026
10 AM–12 PM Pacific • 1–3 PM Eastern
Live on Zoom • Recording included
Didn’t attend Part One? Perfectly okay. Part One is included with your registration and available immediately to watch.
COME PRACTICE WITH US
$40–$200 community-supported sliding scale + 10 fully supported seats
WHAT WE’LL PRACTICE AND HOLD TOGETHER.
Part One helped us understand perinatal psychosis and locate the doula within a larger circle of care. Part Two asks what happens when we have to put that understanding into practice.
Together, we’ll get practical about the parts of this work that can leave doulas wondering, What do I actually do here?We’ll work through realistic case studies and explore intake and planning, documentation, confidentiality and HIPAA, mandated reporting and mandated supporting, communicating concerns, navigating crisis, and knowing what belongs within, and beyond, our scope.
We’ll practice what it can look like to notice, ask, document, communicate, collaborate, and stay alongside a family without stepping into a clinical role.
And because there is rarely one perfect answer when real people, real systems, and real crises are involved, we’ll make space to think together, ask hard questions, reflect on what we’ve witnessed, and learn from one another.
This is less lecture, more practice: a facilitated learning lab for building the knowledge, judgment, and confidence to stay present when care gets complicated.
Build mental health into the care before there is a crisis.
Explore what mental-health-aware intake, prenatal planning, support mapping, and crisis preparation can actually look like in doula practice. We’ll consider what we need to know, what we need to ask, and how planning ahead can make it easier to respond when something changes.
Preparedness is part of care.
Know what to do with what you notice.
Work through realistic cases to practice the messy, practical parts of this work: what to ask, what to document, how to communicate concern, confidentiality and HIPAA, mandated reporting and mandated supporting, when to involve others, and how to recognize the edges of our scope.
Knowing is different from doing. We’re here to practice.
Understand what remains ours when care gets complicated.
Explore the doula’s role when a client needs more care than we can provide ourselves. What can accompaniment look like during escalation, evaluation, hospitalization, discharge, and recovery? How do we collaborate with clinical care while continuing to tend the relationships, family, home, and community around the person?
The edge of our scope does not have to be the end of our care.
WE ARE ERICA AND SHISHI.
We’re postpartum-centric, full-spectrum doulas and educators with over 20 years of collective experience in this work. We have both cared for families navigating postpartum psychosis and recovery, and we are mothers ourselves. Our work is rooted in a deep commitment to birth and postpartum justice and to building communities where no one has to face crisis alone.
“Instead of feeling intimidated by the role doulas can play, after your class I felt more empowered and more prepared to do so—in a way that’s responsible, within my scope, and grounded in community.”
— Laura
“I really appreciated the ‘how to doula’ in the scenario of a patient going inpatient.
I would love to hear more about specific intake questions that you all were alluding to.”
— Jillian
“CASE STUDIES. Would love a good chunk of Part 2 to be brainstorming and suggesting ideas and approaches.”
— Laura
“I would love a reality where we could wrap people around like you mentioned… The specific role of the doula as a care provider who can now bill insurance...is a new dynamic that should be expanded upon.”
— Anna, Certified Postpartum Doula
WE HEARD YOU.
Part Two is built as a practice lab: more case studies, more application, more time with the questions that arise when knowing has to become doing.
We have 10 fully supported seats available, prioritized for Black, Indigenous, disabled, people of color, and queer doulas.
If you need one, email Erica at Birdsong Doulas dot com to request a seat. No application or explanation of your financial circumstances is required.
LEARN MORE