DOULA SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF BC
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  • Home
  • About
    • About the DSA
    • Code of Ethics
    • Standards of Practice
  • For Families
    • Find a Doula
    • For Indigenous Families
    • Doula FAQ
  • For Doulas
    • Membership >
      • New Membership Application
      • Scholarship Application
      • Membership Renewal
    • Becoming a Doula
    • Professional Events
    • Covid-19 Announcement
  • The Volunteer Doula Program
    • The Volunteer Program
    • Support The Volunteer Doula Fund
  • Contact

Professional Events.

Throughout the year, the DSA either hosts or participates in many different events. Some are for families and others are specifically for doulas and community friends.
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You've committed to putting feminist values into practice in your business to change the world. How can you grow as a feminist entrepreneur?
​Sunday, March 28, 2021
4:00-6:00 pm
via ZOOM
Register Now
About this Event
What does it ask of us, to be a Feminist Entrepreneur?
How do we shape our personal path and our business's roadmap so that we can become more feminist in how we work together, provide needed services, generate fair revenues, and demonstrate a transformational way of doing business?
Together, we’ll craft a Feminist Framework for Entrepreneurship and sketch out our own personal learning paths.

​In this interactive workshop, we will:
  • Explore what it means to be a "feminist" entrepreneur.
  • Define for ourselves what our radically inclusive, collective feminism entails.
  • Discuss the challenges feminists face as they "make things that matter", such as businesses, ventures, services, products, and communities, in a world that prefers the status quo.
  • Assess our current strengths and gifts as feminist business people, and consider where we want to build our business competencies and our political commitments.
  • Craft a learning plan and a set of commitments to guide our next steps.
This workshop is best for:
  • People who are comfortable with saying that they advocate for a radically inclusive feminism (think "not White" or "not Lean-In") and are open to exploring what they need to learn and do next.
  • Folks who are in the earliest stages of starting a business, a non-profit or community, a side hustle, or any beloved project and who want to pursue their venture in a more feminist way.
  • Folks who have already established a feminist business or non-profit enterprise, who want to clarify their path forward.
  • This workshop will also be useful for people who mentor and/or lead business accelerators and women's entrepreneurship programs, who want to understand how to support people with explicitly feminist business agendas.

People who are uncomfortable with feminisms that embrace all anti-oppression efforts and feminisms that envision a future where everyone and the planet flourishes may find that this workshop is not for them.

​What to Expect
Prework:
Participants will receive some introductory reading to complete the week before the workshop.
Drawing on feminist teaching practices, participants will be asked to reflect on different models of participating in the community and make a commitment to participating on a level that works best for them.
During the workshop:
Participants will work with each other in small breakout groups as well as in a large, full group conversation.
Folks in this workshop will be asked to participate under the Feminist Collaboration Agreement, in which all parties agree to keep personal and business details private and not share them except within the workshop community.
Follow-up work:
Participants will receive a resource list for further learning and a self-reflection exercise to help you personalize your learning.
As part of the commitment you make by participating, you'll be expected to complete a feedback exercise to help improve the workshop and help us understand what support you might need as a (more) feminist entrepreneur.
Meet CV Harquail, PhD
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​CV Harquail, PhD, is an author, management scholar, consultant, writer, and tool maker. Her new book, Feminism: A Key Idea in Business and Society (Routledge, 2020), is the first to analyze business from a feminist perspective and to propose a feminist business praxis. CV is the co-founder of FeministsAtWork.com (a feminist business practice consultancy) and co-founder/producer of the Entrepreneurial FeministForums.com, a conference and community for feminist entrepreneurs. She is the designer of the Feminist Business Model Canvas and Feminist Business Toolkit.
She serves as a mentor and design team member in the Fifth Wave Feminist Business Accelerator, an initiative of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab.
CV is a big fan of doulas and birth workers, having had the life-giving experience of a doula’s support during her own pregnancies and deliveries. CV believes that doulas have an inside line on feminist business practice, since their own work revolves around caring for and supporting the process of bringing life into being. CV advocates that we craft our work, design our products, set our ambitions, run our companies, and partner with our stakeholders in ways that lead us and our businesses to advance social justice and promote flourishing for everyone.
Follow CV on Instagram and and Twitter.
Feminist Ticketing Tiers
As part of our exploration of feminist pricing strategies, we'll be using a tiered ticket format. Please note, all profits will be going directly back in to the Doula Fund.
The Steadfast Ticket is for birthworkers who are financially secure and covers the cost of your participation. - $25
The Supporters Ticket is for birthworkers who are able to contribute, beyond the cost of your own ticket, to add extra funds towards the doula fund and to help cover the costs for those in the Solidarity Ticket level. - $40
The Solidarity Ticket is for folks with limited financial resources; your tickets will be supported by the community. $10

We are also offering 5 scholarships to BIPOC and QT folks. If you would like a scholarship, please contact us.

To select the ticket option that feels right for you, draw on the wisdom and example of Holly Poole-Kavana at Red Bird Botanicals. Holly created this guidance (below) which we cite with gratitude.
“Consider choosing a lower ticket level if you:
  • are supporting children or have other dependents
  • ​have medical expenses not covered by insurance
  • receive public assistance
  • have immigration-related expenses
  • are an elder with limited financial support
  • are an unpaid community organizer
Consider choosing a higher ticket level if you:
  • own the home you live in
  • have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money
  • travel recreationally
  • have access to family money and resources in times of need
  • work part time by choice
  • have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education (or gender and racial privilege, class background, physical ability, etc.) Even if you are not currently exercising your earning power, I ask you to recognize this as a choice."
Register Now

New Doula Orientation

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WHEN AND WHERE

THURSDAY April 8, 2020 at 7:30pm

​ONLINE THROUGH ZOOM
Join us and Hear About:
  • Becoming a member of the Doula Services Association + the member benefits
  • Tips of starting your doula business
  • Learn more about working as a doula in BC and our local birth community
  • Meet some of the DSA Board Members where we will have an open Q+A where you can ask your questions
  • Learn more about the doula referral program and how you can get your first births while supporting the community
  • Meet other new doulas who are going through the SAME things you are!
Register to zoom here

​Acupressure for pregnancy and childbirth

This webinar will explore of the uses of acupressure, as well as a demonstration of how to perform and teach acupressure for prebirth and labour. There is a growing interest in utilizing non-invasive, non-pharmacological methods of pain management. Acupressure offers a tool that is simple enough to be taught to partners and birth team members via an afternoon workshop, or as one-on-one, in conjunction with a prenatal visit.
Preliminary reviews show that acupressure is cost effective, does not require equipment and most importantly, is safe.
This course will review the current body of evidence for acupressure in labour as well as review the techniques and functions of each point and how to properly administer acupressure as cervical ripening and birth preparation, as well as in labour.
​Seminar objectives:
1. Understand the use of acupressure for birth preparation and labour
2.Explore settings and opportunities for the use of acupressure in birth preparation and labour
3. Learn how to administer acupressure and how to teach labour support staff, family and
partners acupressure
4. Review current perinatal acupressure research

Sunday April 18, 2021
4:00 PM on ZOOM

Register Now
Feminist Ticketing Tiers
As part of our exploration of feminist pricing strategies, we'll be using a tiered ticket format. Please note, all profits will be going directly back in to the Doula Fund.
The Steadfast Ticket is for birthworkers who are financially secure and covers the cost of your participation. - $25
The Supporters Ticket is for birthworkers who are able to contribute, beyond the cost of your own ticket, to add extra funds towards the doula fund and to help cover the costs for those in the Solidarity Ticket level. - $40
The Solidarity Ticket is for folks with limited financial resources; your tickets will be supported by the community. $10

We are also offering 5 scholarships to BIPOC and QT folks. If you would like a scholarship, please contact us.
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​Dr. Emilie Salomons is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been practicing in
reproductive health for 15 years. She is the President of the Obstetrical Acupuncture Association (OBAA), as well as a fellow of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM). She has also co-developed the first Acupuncture training program for Midwives in Canada. In 2015, Emilie became a cluster lead for Maternal Infant Health Canada.
In keeping with her commitment to work at the community level, Emilie has volunteered locally with several organizations, as well as in Uganda, Nepal and Mexico teaching Nurses, Midwives and Traditional African Medicine Practitioners. She has also worked and volunteered as an Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist in Vancouver, Richmond and New York. Emilie currently works as a Doctor of Chinese Medicine at Inlet Community Birth Centre in Port Moody, with a focus in reproductive and mental health.

Monthly Doula Support Group with counsellor Loren Thompson

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It is with great joy that the DSA is able to offer our doula members the opportunity to join a FREE monthly support group from counsellor Loren Thompson of Mindful Space Counselling.

Join this intimate group of other doulas and Loren, online, once a month.  The purpose of this group is to provide a safe space to process thoughts, feeling and emotions around the work that you do with the goal of renewing energy, vigour, passion and sustainability so you can continue to do what you love. Numbers for this group are limited and preregistration is required.
Learn More about Loren
Register here

ALL PREGNANT PEOPLE : TRANS BIRTH FOR BIRTHWORKERS

The DSA is so proud to be partnering with Trystan Reese from Collaborate.Consulting and Biff and I to bring to the DSA members and our BC Community of Birth Workers - ALL PREGNANT PEOPLE: TRANS BIRTH FOR BIRTHWORKERS
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This absolutely essential module prepares birthworkers of all types to offer meaningful, effective support to your trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming clients.
Course Curriculum:
- Understanding Trans Identities
- Retrain Your Brain: Gender Neutral Pronouns how-to
- Understanding Intersex
- Fertility preservation, Hormones and Cultivating Humility
- Pregnancy Experiences and Data
- Labour and Postpartum
- Next Steps

Use coupon code "dsa2021" for $50 off your ticket price - making the course ONLY $100usd.
Register Here

Doula Chats

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Every month the Doula Services Association hosts DOULA CHATS.

The meetings happen through ZOOM so that our members from all across the province can join us. 

Each meeting has a different topic to be covered, as well as gives our members an opportunity to connect with each other. Past topics include: home birth, miscarriage and abortion support, making doula life sustainable and more. Upcoming topics include: understanding the psychology of branding your doula business, understanding biological sleep norms, and gentle birth.

To join the next doula chats, you MUST be a DSA member. Invites are sent via email and posted on our private Facebook Member Group.
Website built by Samantha Gagnon Consulting
Photography provided by Stages Doula + Photography