Childbirth International (CBI)

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Childbirth International (CBI)

Childbirth International provides comprehensive online training for today's informed birth and lactation professional CBI was born in 1998.

We wanted to provide birth and lactation professionals with the tools they needed to help clients define their own path. We wanted to provide training that was consistent, comprehensive, and culturally respectful. The first courses we launched were Birth Doula and Childbirth Educator. We began teaching these face to face in 1998 (as Parentlink, Singapore), and then started providing distance training from 1999. In 2008 we launched the Postpartum Doula and Lactation Counselor courses. In 2009 we launched the Business of Birth course. The past year has seen us seen us significantly increasing our focus on social media and launching our new website. We have been updating all of our course materials with the most recent research and responding to our student requests to include more topics. We gave the Business of Birth module a facelift and included it in all our training and certification programs. We have added the option to purchase gift cards so your loved ones can give the gift of training (in full or part) to you. We also added the Business of Birth module as a standalone course option for those who are not CBI students but would like to develop their business. Students can now choose business mentoring to guide you through the Business of Birth module, and can have private mentoring of up to four hours to guide you through challenging problems. We continue to work on our Advanced Birth Doula course which will be available later in the year. Our philosophy has remained consistent. We now provide training for birth and postpartum doulas, childbirth educators and lactation counselors. We remain true to the belief that training should be flexible, without time limits, or rules telling you who you can and cannot work with, or what you should charge.

01/01/2026

From our team to you, we wish you a Happy New Year! May 2026 be the year you achieve all that you set out to achieve, get the rest you need to thrive, and are surrounded by love, light, and good food the whole year ‘round.

30/12/2025

As we wrap up 2025, it’s time to look back on the year as birth and lactation professionals and make plans for the year ahead.

Take some time over the next few days to move through a few of these reflective questions, consider your goal or theme for 2026, and celebrate all the growth and learning you experienced this year.

Now is the time to think about what your monthly and yearly goals are! If you’d like, share them in the comments below and see if there are others with similar goals you can connect with for accountability.

25/12/2025

Happy holidays from all of us here at Childbirth International. May your holiday season be gentle, inspiring, and full of all that warms you.

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23/12/2025

Our Head Office will be closed from December 24th to 26th and from December 31st to January 1st for the holidays. We’ll be back December 27th to 30th, and again January 2nd to welcome in the New Year!

21/12/2025

“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past let’s go and becomes the future’ the place of caught breath, the door of a vanished house left ajar.” — Margaret Atwood

19/12/2025

Did you know? A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of midwifery continuity of care found significant impacts on labor, birth, and maternal/infant outcomes. Birthing parents were more likely to birth vaginally and after 37 weeks gestation, and less likely to have a cesarean, episiotomy, or induction of labor.

Consider what continuity of care looks like in your community, alongside access to midwifery care. How might you support clients in your community in advocating for greater continuity where it’s an option for them?

You can learn more about the review here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2025.105300

14/12/2025

https://youtu.be/YzyoAacsX_Q?si=7k3RqyeaMEG-dAFq

Jen McLellan () recently gave a TedTalk about how people in larger bodies access healthcare and the treatment they receive. Check out her talk! It’s a great resource for care providers, birth/lactation professionals, and parents who are preparing to advocate for themselves and/or their partner while accessing healthcare.

10/12/2025

Human Rights Day commemorates the publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document facilitated by the United Nations that outlines fundamental human rights as a global blueprint for informing laws and policies at every level of governance. It “enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, s*x, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

This year’s theme is “Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials,” serving as a reminder of the core rights each individual should expect to have every day and to share and explore what the everyday impact is of having, or not having, these rights respected and attainable. In our role as birth and lactation professionals, we can consider how we advocate for families in our communities on an individual and community level, ensuring that they continue to have access to safe, supportive care and the rights to choose where they give birth and what kind of care provider they want to have.

Learn more here: https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day

06/12/2025

With the holidays approaching, one of the most common questions to come up in our doula groups is especially relevant! Many new doulas wonder what gifts other doulas give their clients at the end of their contracted time together. Small gifts or tokens can be a great way to close out our time together while also offering a little memento of the support we gave. From a practical perspective, they can be handy little promotional tools, too, as they increase the overall value of our support and help clients stay connected to our business. If we’re lucky, we’ll make such an impact that they’ll share our business with their friends and family!

A quick and easy DIY gift is bath salts. You need minimal supplies, can make them in bulk, and can use them for client gifts or offer them as samples when doing community events.

Supplies:

- small mason jar + lid (or) cone bag + twist tie
- Epsom bath salts
- dried lavender
- small bowl and spoon for mixing
- branded sticker or tag
- ingredients and instructions tag
Optional:
- pink himalayan bath salts

Instructions:

1. Combine 3 parts Epsom bath salts and 1 part dried lavender to a small bowl (optional: 2 parts Epsom bath salts, 1 part pink bath salts, 1 part dried lavender)
2. Mix well, then add to jar or cone bag.
3. Top with a sprinkle of dried lavender before tying off or sealing jar
4. Apply a branded sticker or tag with ingredients listed

03/12/2025

The theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.”

The WHO Factsheet on disability shares, “Health inequities arise from unfair conditions faced by persons with disabilities, including stigma, discrimination, poverty, exclusion from education and employment, and barriers faced in the health system itself.” When we consider our role in the birth world, we want to reflect on how we’re complicit in supporting ableist ideas and practices as we are supporting our clients. We can also investigate how parents with disabilities navigate our community, including the barriers they face in accessing care, support, and resources. It can be important, too, to evaluate how we present our services through social media and our webpages, and whether we’re excluding disabled parents by not actively including their experiences in the resources we create, posts and stories we share on our social media, and in the professional development we do to grow our knowledge, understanding, and skills.

WHO Factsheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health

01/12/2025

Universal Human Rights Month seeks to promote the basic human rights of all, across nations and at every level of governance. A key way we can contribute to the protection and promotion of universal human rights is to learn about the people, cultures, and communities around us - locally and internationally. You may want to take some time today to research the experiences of pregnant, birthing, and postpartum parents in different countries and parts of the world to help broaden your understanding of the intersection between birth and human rights.

28/11/2025

Did you know? All of our core courses include our “Business of Birth” mini-course to help you get started on your business and marketing plan while you move through your doula, lactation counselor, or childbirth educator studies with us.

Address

19e Blake Street, Ponsonby
Auckland
1011

Website

http://www.childbirthinternational.com/

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Our Story - A Different Way of Training Birth Professionals

CBI was born in 1998. At the time, there were few options for training as a doula, childbirth educator or breastfeeding counselor. You could choose a two-day workshop but we were seeing many birth professionals who felt unprepared and ill-equipped for the challenges of their role. We wanted to up the game. To help people feel confident in their skills, knowledgeable, and to be able to learn in a supportive environment. And we wanted to make training and certification more accessible for those who had families, jobs and lives outside their work!

But how to do this? How could we reach people who lived in areas where training wasn’t available? People in rural areas? People who worked full time or didn’t have childcare? People who wanted more than just the basics but wanted to feel prepared, confident and professional in their role? We looked at what skills and competencies were really important in working with birthing families. What really made the difference? What we discovered was that birthing families felt strong and empowered when they had knowledge. But they also needed tools to know how to use that knowledge effectively. And birth professionals needed to have time to not just absorb knowledge or practice a double-hip squeeze, but to reflect on their work, on the choices that clients make, on their own feelings about those choices. Time that just isn’t available in two days! We realized that our training would need to be different. We didn’t just change the rules. We made new ones! We made training a journey rather than a destination. A journey where the focus is on personal growth and building competency, rather than simply receiving a certificate. A journey that pairs students with a dedicated trainer to walk the path together, for as long as it takes, and access to a global peer community even after you complete your training.

Our first courses in 1998 were for Birth Doulas and Childbirth Educators. In 2008 we added Postpartum Doula and Breastfeeding Counselor courses. Over the past 20 years maternity care has changed. More technology and interventions are used and more rules exist within the health care system. Technology has also allowed clients to become aware of their options, seek out support, and communicate faster with others. The birth professional world has changed too with people wanting to learn ways to make their businesses successful and take part in lifelong learning to become even more skilled in their work. CBI has risen to these challenges by expanding our course offerings and giving our students, you, more options. Our Business for Birth Professionals course supports you in growing your business. The Trauma-Informed Professional advanced program prepares you to better meet the needs of clients who come to birth and parenting with trauma and to work towards eliminating obstetric violence. Advanced modules on a wide range of topics provide continuing education opportunities for you to develop specialist skills and build your professional portfolio. We have also seen a growing interest in health professionals - midwives, nurses, doctors - wanting to learn more about supporting families effectively and we have responded to this with the launch of professional development programs.

Through all of this growth, we have stayed true to our core values.

Inclusivity: CBI’s core values have always included the goal of offering a learning platform that is welcoming and inclusive of all individuals. We strive to develop reflection and empathy so our students can interact in their community with dignity and respect for all persons.

Diversity: We recognize the disparities in health care and outcomes for minority and marginalized groups and seek to be part of the solution to eliminating these through listening, understanding, dialogue, and education. We embrace and celebrate the diversity of humanity and continually seek out diverse perspectives.

Sustainability: We are committed to social, cultural, environmental, financial and personal sustainability and look for ways to minimize consumption of natural resources, support individuals in fostering healthy communities, and encourage a maintainable work/life integration through flexible employment and study arrangements.

In designing our training programs, we consider flexibility, affordability and an appreciation for the individual and unique needs of each student. We want to ensure that in choosing your training program, you are able to define for yourself what your business will look like and how that business will be run. That you can be successful in your training in a way that is flexible enough to adjust to your priorities and lifestyle, using online learning and adopting new technologies to make this easier for you. Training that enables you to feel supported and strengthened by your peers and trainers as you complete your learning and continue to grow for years to come.

We will always provide courses that identify best-practice, and teach skills that build competencies to support families in a way that enables them to have empowered, positive experiences through the childbearing years. We endorse the World Health Organization in their goal to “ensure that not only do women survive childbirth complications if they arise, but also that they thrive and reach their full potential for health and life” (WHO, 2018). Parents who are educated, supported and respected through this period are more likely to be strong advocates for themselves and their families. When families are healthy, communities are healthy.

You have a vital role to play in this process.