University of Hyderabad’s & Fernandez Foundation much-awaited Birth Care Practitioner-Birth Doula Accredited Certificate Course commenced today. This non-medical course has been designed to equip aspiring birth professionals with the skills and knowledge necessary to support mothers before, during and after childbirth. The self-paced online training of 6 months must be completed within two years from admission and is structured into three sequential parts: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Courses, each spanning 1, 2, and 3 months respectively.
MoU FF 2 group Jan 23
During the course, the candidates will be trained and certified to offer additional support services to pregnant couples, such as prenatal yoga, childbirth education, lactation counselling, hypnobirthing, etc., helping the candidate serve a pregnant couple through pregnancy, labour, childbirth, and postpartum.
Course Launch – November 23
During the launch, the Hon’ble VC of UoH Prof B.J. Rao of stressed on the importance of such programs in the context of the National Educational Policy and its positioning to be a skill development initiative. He urged the team to find an Indian equivalent nomenclature for a doula as well as look at scale in the next course learning from this experience. The Dean, School of Medical Sciences, Prof. Geeta said it was long time coming and impressed that such programs along with other socially relevant programs are very integral to the mandate of the school. Dr Evita Fernandez, Chairperson and Managing Director of Fernandez Foundation expressed her profound happiness that the efforts have come to the level of fruition and motivated the participants to be the trendsetters for the others in this journey of becoming a Doula. Dr. G. Pramod – Director of Social Initiatives at the Fernandez Foundation while agreeing with the VC on the name of the personnel also talked about how doulas in the Indian context are not only new and very few and far and the need to increase numbers manyfold.
Course Inauguration July 24
Prof. Jeelani, Director CDVL, UoH & Prof. Nagendra Kumar S, Associate Director, E-learning Centre (CDLTR), UoH provided the academic and technical administration details while Dr. Pooja and Ms. Celestina of the Fernandez Foundation and Prof. B.R. Shamanna, Coordinators of FF and UoH respectively gave the details of the course and what leads to the certification. The participants then introduced themselves and the reason for enrolling for the course. The enrolled 16 students for this course hail from various regions, including Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gurgaon, and Dehradun, showcasing the diversity and inclusivity of the student body.