Embodied Birth Doula + Pre-Natal Teacher Training

Established 2026

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The Flow of Life Yoga

Program Instances

Hybrid

Dates: TBD

500 hours • TBD

Asheville, NC, US

Led by

Sue Ann Fisher

CYT-L3

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Purpose

Community: Throughout the Flow of Life training, trainees will feel the value of community. We believe that strong communities lead to healthy pregnancies and families. This training will demonstrate how to hold spaces for people in all stages of pregnancy.

Functional Movement Practice: We approach yoga asanas and doula practices based on functional anatomy. Our trainees will learn:

What to expect

Why some asanas and movements are beneficial for pregnancy

Why some asanas and movements are not beneficial for pregnancy

How to alleviate common pregnancy aches and pains

Pelvic Floor health

Tools to relieve discomfort and develop coping skills

Style/Lineage

Why Choose the Flow of Life Prenatal Yoga Teacher & Doula Training?

Fact-based, inclusive childbirth education: Our course will include childbirth education that is designed to give yoga teachers & doulas access to accurate and up to date information about childbirth.

Additional Information

What’s unique about our approach?

Inclusion: We believe all pregnant people deserve to feel safe in their bodies, to be respected in their choices and to be seen, heard and valued. We will model inclusion in our classes, inclusion in our language and inclusion in our actions. We are committed to continue learning more about our own biases in order to better serve a diverse community of people.

Want to ...

~Learn not only how to doula, but why to doula?

~Support clients & students in every stage of their pregnancy, fertility, and postpartum journey?

~Learn the fundamentals of fact-based childbirth education and the benefits of doula support?

~Implement a functional, movement-based prenatal yoga practice?

~Cultivate community?

~Plan your steps to begin a career as a birth doula and/or a prenatal yoga teacher?

Core competencies

By the end of this program, graduates will be able to…

Teaching Skills	Demonstrate prop-supported variations of restorative, seated, quadruped, and standing poses, offering options that keep pregnant student safe and comfortable. Explain how pairing an emotional or spiritual theme with a physical focus creates clarity for students, using a concrete class example. Identify inclusive alternatives to gendered and assumption-based language, such as pregnant person, birthing person, and support person, using each term correctly in context. Apply safe postpartum movements such as breathing, core integration, and gentle strengthening while accommodating new parents and babies needs, consistently. Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of chosen poses, evaluate how they are received and offer alternatives based on common pregnancy discomforts. Design an original prenatal class that applies the prenatal class flow to plan a full class with an opening, quadruped flow, standing stations, and restorative close, keeping transitions slow and safe moves through every station of the class flow, as well as offering appropriate modifications for the different stages of pregnancy.
Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics	Assess a birthing environment for its effect on hormonal flow, justifying adjustments to lighting, sound, and comfort items with clear reasoning, and model appropriate touch, breath, and environment changes that promote oxytocin and calm the nervous system, that promotes a sense of safety for the birthing person. Demonstrate the self-check for abdominal separation and foundational exercises such as 360 breathing, pelvic tilts, clam shells, and bridges, using safe technique and evaluate when postpartum movement should progress or pause, determining when referral to a care provider or pelvic floor specialist is advisable. Demonstrate an understanding of physiology of birth, including the three elements of birth (effacement, oxytocin, rotation and decent of baby), applying techniques to support movement patterns for fetal positioning, regulations skills, breath work, coping techniques. Identify and apply knowledge common physical and emotional experiences of each trimester, including nausea, fatigue, round ligament pain, heartburn, swelling, relaxin, vena cava compression, and shifting center of gravity to choose safe positions for pregnancy. Identify the bones, joints, and landmarks of the pelvis, including the ilium, ischium, pubis, sacrum, coccyx, and pubic symphysis and explain the role of the pelvic floor in pregnancy, birth, and recovery, the causes of symphysis pubis dysfunction, sacroiliac joint pain, and round ligament pain, describing how each relates to pelvic stability. Apply knowledge of the pelvic inlet, midpelvis, and outlet to select movements such as wide-knee squats, asymmetrical lunges, and side lying, with clear purpose.
Business Skills	Apply an on-call checklist and lifestyle plan that protects sleep, boundaries, and family commitments, maintaining reliability for clients. Develop a complete birth doula service package with pricing, visit schedule, on-call terms, and boundaries, written clearly and professionally, using contracts, invoicing, and client management platforms to formalize a doula agreement, maintaining clarity and transparency with clients. Create resource list for future students and clients, that include care providers such as, doulas, pre/post-natal teachers, perinatal mental health therapists, pelvic floor PT's, pre-natal massage therapists, pre-natal chiropractors, and perinatal support groups.
Lifestyle & Ethics	Identify what is in and out of scope for prenatal yoga teachers and doulas, including diagnosis, prescription, counseling, and touch without permission, classifying each correctly. Explain how embodied consent goes beyond a verbal yes or no to include non-verbal cues and power dynamics, with clear examples, comparing shared decision making with informed consent models of care. Analyze power dynamics and boundary challenges in birth work, identifying people-pleasing patterns and personal triggers with honest reflection and explain how doula advocacy differs from conflict, describing how a doula amplifies the client's voice while respecting the care team. Examine signs of overwhelm or dissociation in a client, distinguishing moments that call for grounding from those that call for referral.
Practice Skills	Differentiate coping practices that can be used in early labor, active labor, and pushing, examining how each supports the birthing person's energy, facilitating deep belly breathing, open-mouth exhales, and vocal toning, sustaining a steady and relaxed rhythm throughout. Identify comfort measures for labor, including touch, counter-pressure, hydrotherapy, rebozo, birth ball, aromatherapy, and position changes, naming the purpose of each measure, explain the intention of touch between and during contractions, describing how firm, steady pressure and soothing touch support the birthing person and demonstrate labor positions such as slow dancing, leaning forward, squatting, and side lying, along with hands-on support, using safe body mechanics. Examine personal movement patterns for pelvic asymmetry and tension, distinguishing areas that need stability from areas that need release and develop a personal functional movement routine that integrates breath, pelvic stability, and endurance, sustained consistently over time.
Yoga History & Theory	Identify the pillars of prenatal yoga, including breath, functional movement, intuition, connection, community, evidence-based childbirth education, and inclusion, defining each with a clear example. Use questions about care model, involvement in decisions, and support for preferences to help a client choose a care provider, with clear purpose. Analyze the spectrum of interventions for benefits and risks, distinguishing how each may affects labor progress and physiology with evidence.