Full spectrum, inclusive, equitably priced, accessible, trauma informed birthwork (doula) and childbirth educator training rooted in reproductive justice, community, and harm reduction.

What you’ll receive when training with us:

Accessible online live and pre-recorded learning modules led by a multidisciplinary team of birth workers, nurses, midwives, organizers, and advocates with lived experience and a shared vision of collective liberation through birthwork.

All classes are closed captioned, our live sessions are recorded with replays available, and you have access to the material for two years after you sign up. You'll gain immediate access to free live group mentorship and our private Facebook group.

Full spectrum doula training through an expansive lens that encompasses the entire reproductive lifespan and all its transitions. You'll receive an evidence based, trauma informed, justice rooted training to equip you for the birthwork practice that fits your needs and the needs of your community.

We use the green bottle sliding scale framework to price our courses equitably.

"For a sliding scale to work it relies on the principles of truthfulness, respect for complexity, and accountability. I do not ask for income verification. I trust my students and clients to be honest. Community thrives when accountability is a central value, because that is where trust grows and depth work can be done. Teachers deserve to get paid and students deserve classes which recognize the multiple realities of economic access and privilege that exist." - AJC

Foundational Birthwork Courses

  • This foundational course covers supporting folks through the prenatal period and the labor & birth process. Our labor and birth training will provide you with a trauma informed, patient rights based framework for your practice, a deepened understanding of the intersectional aspects of birthwork, and practical hands-on skill to support all clients throughout their pregnancies and births. This course is closed captioned.

  • This foundational course covers supporting folks through the fourth trimester [postpartum period]. Our postpartum training will provide you with a trauma informed, patient rights based framework for your practice, a deeper understanding of the intersections between emotional, psychological, and physical health in the postpartum period, and practical hands-on skill to support all clients throughout their full spectrum of the fourth trimester. This course is closed captioned.

  • Learn the art and skill of trauma informed collaborative facilitation in this radical reimagining of childbirth education training. This CBE teacher training will provide you with the knowledge and tools to craft a curriculum that meets the needs of YOUR community. Built upon a framework of birth justice and human rights, Cornerstone childbirth education is rooted in interconnectedness, resiliency, joy and mutual aid. This course is closed captioned.

  • Advanced Full Spectrum Doula Training will help deepen your practice to become expansive, radical, revolutionary, and transformative. This one of a kind live virtual training brings birthworkers together from all over the world to connect, skill share, and co-create a birthwork movement for collective liberation. This course is closed captioned.

Skills Workshops

  • This workshop led by home birth midwife Juli Tilsner, LM, CPM will prepare you for the very special experience of attending an unmedicated birth at home, and will provide you with home birth specific labor techniques, as well as tool for working with midwives and hospital birth transfers. This workshop is closed captioned.

  • When we can examine and make sense of the issues that surround this topic - fetal positioning - we can truly effect positive change in birth outcomes.

    This workshop is one step toward bringing humanity and choice [back] to childbirth. This workshop is closed captioned.

  • Being a birth worker is much more than teaching comfort measures and attending births.

    In this course I bring my 22 years of Midwifery experience of talking clients through the intricacies of each of these tests and procedures to help them make informed choices for themselves and their babies.

    These classes also illuminate issues that are hard to find or left out of the typical informed discussion and handouts that pregnant people get from their prenatal visits within the medical system. These workshops are closed captioned.

  • Learn homeopathy techniques to use in your birthwork practice and in your community. This workshop is closed captioned.

  • Eliminating stigma: harm reduction, and how it saved my life.

    Storytelling is vital to organizing and creating social change.

    I've often mentioned that harm reduction saved my life. I am ready now to tell you how. I hope that my story will give you more context around why I believe that harm reduction and eliminating stigma are critical components of social and reproductive justice. This workshop is closed captioned.

Join us.

Our Mission: Cornerstone is a collaborative, educational community hub that provides full spectrum, intersectional birthworker trainings rooted in harm reduction, inclusivity and reproductive justice. Our programming supports birthworkers and careworkers to serve their communities in every transition throughout their lives.

Our Vision: I​​nformed by the teachings and leadership of Black, Queer, Trans, Indigenous & People of the Global Majority, we envision a global community of birthworkers who center equity and accessibility in reproductive healthcare and beyond, with the goal of collective liberation and thriving for all peoples.

“WOW! I am so grateful that I decided on Cornerstone to complete my doula certification. This online program was seriously amazing, and helped me, as a registered nurse, to truly look at birth in a completely different way. I feel that I will be able to provide my clients and patients with a care that goes so much deeper than just physical, but emotional, spiritual and mentally.”

- Carol Farrell Raffa @Carolfarrell

Join Our Community!

Sign up for our mailing list, and get a FREE PDF download of Cornerstone's Common myths and misconceptions handout.

 
Cornerstone Common Pregnancy Myths PDF.png

“I had spent time looking for trainings and did not feel moved by what I had found or the interactions I experienced, but when I came across Cornerstone, I knew I had found the right course. Thank you for the spotlight you put on birth rights advocacy and the inequalities faced by women of color, particularly Black women. Thank you for your mindfulness. My identity intersects at many points, and my whole self felt seen throughout this training.”

- Shay Pak, @orianadesolitude