Neurodiversity and Birthwork for Doulas

Learn how to provide confident, neuro-inclusive support throughout pregnancy, birth & postpartum.

Neurodiversity and Birthwork Online Training

As doulas, we’re often working with clients who process the world differently than we expect, and we don’t always have the language for it. Maybe a client goes quiet mid contraction and you’re not sure if that’s calm or crisis. Maybe a birth plan feels less like a wish list and more like something they truly cannot deviate from. Maybe you’ve wondered, more than once, whether some of what makes you a great doula also makes admin day feel impossible.

This Neurodiversity and Birthwork course is designed to give you the knowledge you need, as a doula, to understand how ADHD, autism, and AuDHD can shape pregnancy, birth, and postpartum for your clients, and how to adjust your care accordingly. After you complete the course, you’ll have a foundational working framework for running accessible intakes, reading sensory and communication needs accurately, and supporting neurodivergent clients (and possibly yourself) with far more confidence.

We will also touch briefly on how birthwork tends to draw in many neurodivergent people as well and we’ll discuss ways to make your own doula practice easier if you yourself are neurodivergent.

You’ll be able to work through this course at your own pace.

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Recommended for

This course is for doulas who want to better understand neurodivergent clients, provide more accessible care, and build a more sustainable practice—including neurodivergent doulas themselves.

Why Learn Neuro-Inclusive Care?

There are SO many great reasons to build this into your practice:

Better Outcomes: ADHD and autism impacted birthers face measurably higher rates of adverse outcomes including preterm birth and perinatal mood disorders. Doulas who understand this can advocate earlier and more effectively.
Trust That Lasts: Clients who feel understood, rather than judged for lateness, bluntness, or sensory needs, stay in care longer and open up more.
Fewer Communication Breakdowns: Learn to bridge the gap between neurodivergent clients and their care providers, catching miscommunications before they derail care.
Calmer, Safer Environments: Understand how lighting, sound, and touch protocols can be adjusted to reduce distress and support regulation during labour.
Support For You, Too: Birth work attracts a huge number of neurodivergent practitioners. This course includes some basic suggestions around sustainable systems for charting, time management, and dealing with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and more.
Less Burnout: Learn to build a practice around your actual capacity, not the capacity you wish you had.

Overall, neuro-inclusive care is quickly becoming a baseline expectation of excellent birth support, not a specialty. Who better to lead the way than YOU!

This is a self-directed course you'll move through at your own pace. In total, there are four modules covering neurodiversity foundations, the neurodivergent birther's experience, the neurodivergent doula's own practice, and how to build neuro inclusive care into your daily work.

This course is designed to give you a working framework you can put into practice at your very next intake, not just background reading. You'll walk through real case studies, reflection prompts, and practical tools for both your clients and yourself.

This short, succinct course qualifies for 2 CEUs with Doula School.

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WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAYS

Join students across Canada who’ve changed how they run intake, communicate with care teams, and support their own neurodivergent brains

Steph

★★★★★

“This course gave me language and actual tools, not just awareness. I’ve already changed how I ask questions at intake.”

Sarah

★★★★★

“As someone with ADHD myself, the module on neurodivergent birth workers felt like it was written about my life. I finally have a charting system that doesn’t fall apart after two weeks.”

Get to Know 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.

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