The Madriella Doula Network has provided training and certification to over 3,000 women in a dozen different countries through our online adult continuing education courses.

Our program is designed to teach women how to provide comfort and support measures to other women during pregnancy and childbirth. Many are serving as professional Doulas and are active in caring for women during childbirth and teaching other women how to do so as well.

Why we are different
Unlike other Doula certification programs Madriella has never been about making money in a birth industry career – it’s about helping other women through the most challenging and rewarding time in their lives.

We are trying to foster a paradigm shift in our culture, to make Doula training as common as CPR/First Aid courses are. While this might earn some enmity from organizations that are making a lot of money offering very expensive Doula certifications we believe it is the right thing to do.

While our graduates can and often do charge money for their Doula services we encourage them to earn money by teaching Childbirth Education workshops for new parents and by helping us spread the word about our program as website affiliates. These additional revenue opportunities make it easier for them to volunteer their services to women that need a Doula but would not be able to pay $500-600 or more for one.

The Madriella Mission Statement
We believe that birth is a sacred event and that motherhood is an anointed institution.

We believe that all women need and deserve the support of other women during pregnancy and birth.

We believe that the knowledge of labor support is the heritage of all women and should be shared.

We believe that financial blessings are a result of the sharing of knowledge and that our members deserve to benefit from it.

The enroll now banner depicts a pregnant woman's belly and she is holding a teddy bear next to it.

The History of Madriella
The Madriella program began in 2006 as a continuing education class for massage therapists at Golden State Massage School (GSMS) in Turlock, California.  Golden State Massage School offered FREE prenatal massages to any expecting mother in the community, as long as they were okay with a student working on them with an instructor present. The idea was to give the students the great experience of learning while working on real pregnant women, and the women in the community could benefit from the care.  When the owners saw the good that the program was doing for the women of their city they resolved to expand the program and to serve as many women as possible. This was the humble beginning of Madriella.

In 2008 GSMS was absorbed by the Somatic Arts and Sciences Institute, the nation’s largest provider of continuing education for massage therapists online. Madriella is now owned by the Somatic Arts and Sciences Institute.

The Online Doula Certification Course
You may be wondering how we teach women to be birth assistants with an online course? The “hands on” part of being a Doula is actually very simple. It involves safe massage procedures and coaching in positioning. Our online program shows you how to do all of those things, and they are tried and true methods that are safe for the mother.

You will demonstrate physical competency in these skills by practicing them at home with a volunteer model, taking pictures, and then having the pictures uploaded to our website as directed in an assignment.

Nothing we teach you will ever endanger a mother or her baby, it is all very natural and easy to do. You will learn these simple hands-on techniques by watching short video clips of them being practiced.

The majority of the program deals with information-birth physiology, how to write a birth plan, how to present options, provide emotional support, plan for the birthing event, and how to provide postpartum care.