Neurodiversity Course for Doulas
Neurodiversity & Birth Course for Doulas
Neurodiversity & Birth: Making Birth Neuro-Inclusive
Neurodiversity Course for Doulas
As a doula, you're probably already supporting neurodivergent clients, whether or not anyone's put a name to it yet.
This intro to neurodiversity course for doulas gives you the essential and foundational knowledge to understand and support neurodivergent clients through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, plus a clearer picture of how neurodivergence might be shaping your own practice too.
Upon completion, you’ll be able to run more accessible intakes, adapt your communication and environment across neurotypes, and advocate confidently for neurodivergent clients within their care teams.
Neurodiversity course for doulas
Ideal for:
- Birthworkers
- Birth Doulas
- Postpartum Doulas
- Midwives and nurses interested in expanding their skill set
Benefits of Neuro-Inclusive Care:
- Better birth and postpartum outcomes for ADHD and autistic clients
- Stronger, more trusting doula client relationships
- Fewer communication breakdowns with clients and care providers
- Sensory aware environments that reduce distress during labor and early parenthood
- Practical systems that help neurodivergent doulas sustain their own practice
- Confidence recognizing and responding to signs of overwhelm, shutdown, or dysregulation
SELF-Directed
Learn online at your own pace-
Fully self-directed online course
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4 Modules covering the foundations and practical application of neuro-inclusive birth support
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Individualized review of your electrode placement
Neurodiversity Course for Doulas Curriculum
- Types of neurodivergence
- Why neuro-inclusive care matters it the perinatal period
- How neurodivergence shapes the birth journey
- Challenges that may be experienced and various needs
- How birthwork is different for neurodivergent brains
- Tools for building a sustainable, accessible practice
- Workplace considerations and advocacy
- Integrating inclusive practices into care
- Practical takeaways
Meet Your Instructors: Dusty Chipura & Alixandra Bacon
Dusty Chipura is a master certified, AACC-accredited ADHD coach and certified doula based in Vancouver, BC, who coaches adults through an anti-oppressive, anti-racist lens with a special focus on ADHD and pregnancy.
Alixandra Bacon (BMW, MA) is a neurodivergent Registered Midwife, Clinical Faculty at the University of British Columbia, and Past President of both the Canadian Association of Midwives and the Midwives Association of BC.
Together, Dusty and Alixandra co-authored the ADHD and Pregnancy Workbook and ADHD Postpartum Workbook, and created adhdpregnancy.ca. Their work has taken them around the world educating healthcare providers and expectant families about ADHD, AuDHD, and Autism in the perinatal period, and Dusty has been featured on the HowToADHD YouTube channel speaking on ADHD in pregnancy.
There are SO many great reasons to build neuro-inclusive skills into your practice:
- Better Outcomes: impacted birthers face measurably higher rates of adverse birth outcomes. Doulas trained in neuro-inclusive care are equipped to advocate earlier and more effectively.
- Stronger Client Trust: Clients who feel understood, not judged for lateness, bluntness, or sensory needs, stay in care longer and communicate more openly.
- Better Communication Across Care Teams: Learn to bridge gaps between neurodivergent clients and providers, reducing the miscommunication that so often derails care.
- Sensory Aware Environments: Understand how to adjust lighting, sound, and touch protocols to reduce distress and support regulation during labor.
- Supporting Yourself, Too: Birth work draws a huge number of neurodivergent practitioners. This course gives neurodivergent doulas real, sustainable systems for charting and time management, not another planner you’ll abandon in three weeks.
- Reduced Burnout: Learn to build a practice around your actual capacity, not the capacity you wish you had.
- Real Advocacy Skills: Walk away with language and frameworks for advocating for neurodivergent clients in real time, high stakes appointments.
- Overall, neuro-inclusive care isn’t a specialty anymore. It’s becoming a baseline expectation for excellent birth support. Who better to lead the way than YOU!
