Doin it Doula

Aiighht....where to start, where to start?

Well.......there are (as always) multiple paths that I could take. I could go the apprentice route, or I could go the certification route. Because of who I am, and the timing around when and how I want to get this done, I'm going to go the certification route. That, of course, presents an entirely different set of options, as there are NINE different certification organizations, each with - a slightly different focus, a slighty different course list, a slighty different style. They are:
Childbirth International (CBI)
Doulas of North America (DONA)
Birthworks
International Childbirth Educations Association (ICEA)
Association of Labor Assistants & Childbirth Educators (ALACE)
Birthing from Within
Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association (CAPPA)
Childbirth Education Foundation (CEF)
Global Birth Institute (GBI).

I sent out an email to the midwifery groups that I'm on to get some opinions about the different groups and so forth - I'll be listing them here as well. I think that I would be interested in either CAPPA, ICEA or ALACE the most not sure why not DONA - considering they are most likely the best known certification org in the states - or at least the biggest. But really, right now I'm not sure of ANYTHING.

One thing that I did do was go to all of their websites and grab their reading lists, compile them, list what orgs suggested them (as most had a long reading list and allowed you to chose 5-10 books from it) and found out how much they would cost.  There are close to 150 books on the list, and it rings up to about 2500.00 - not to bad for damn near a full doula library - one that can easily be expanded to a midwives library.

I'm going to gather some more input from various sources, and - once I figure out who I want to go with - start.