Postpartum Doula Recertification Planner

How postpartum cross certification works

BBU’s postpartum cross certification is for people previously trained or certified as postpartum doulas. You sign up, reply to BBU’s email with proof of your previous postpartum training or certification, and are admitted to the online program, which BBU’s FAQ says takes about 6–8 hours. It leads to a three-year certification and includes access to the full Postpartum Doula Training Workbook.

The postpartum program’s topics differ from the birth program’s: a postpartum doula’s role, scope of practice, family dynamics and culture, going above and beyond, and newborn sleep and feeding.

Logging postpartum CEUs

Renewing a BBU certification takes 15 CEUs, which BBU says can be earned through its mentorship programs and perinatal professional programs. The planner’s CEU log defaults each row to “postpartum,” totals what you add, shows how many are still to log and flags any CEU dated outside your three-year window so you can ask BBU whether it counts. Among BBU’s Nursing-CEU classes, Newborn Care for Perinatal Professionals and Breastfeeding/Infant Feeding for Perinatal Professionals sit closest to postpartum work; their pages ask you to confirm with BBU how they apply to doula renewal.

If your training was in birth work

BBU’s FAQ matches the route to your training: a labor doula training leads to the birth cross certification, not this one. If that is you, the planner says so and points you to the Birth Doula Recertification & CEU Planner. If you have no doula training yet, the full Certified Postpartum Doula Training is the route.

Printing your record

The printed record carries the postpartum discipline in its heading, so it is ready to keep with your postpartum certificate: your route, BBU’s steps, your three-year window with check-in points, your CEU log and blank rows to fill in later. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Your three-year window

Enter the date you cross-certified, or the date you plan to finish, and the planner dates the end of the three-year certification BBU describes. It adds check-ins at 12, 24 and 30 months: these are planning points of ours, not BBU rules, placed so you are not hunting for CEUs in the last few weeks. Spread evenly, 15 CEUs over three years is five a year. CEUs dated before the window starts or after it ends are flagged so you can ask BBU whether they count.