Reflecting on 2023 and Welcoming 2024
It’s been another big year at BADT, and we are honored to have the opportunity to pause, reflect, celebrate, and vision with you all!
Rituals like this are an important part of birth work AND a crucial part of community. After a birth, we sit with the birthing family and listen as they share about their experience. After supporting someone through loss, we connect with another birth worker to process. After we connect a family with resources, we check in to see how things are going. After working on a big project or training together, we pause to give ourselves credit. And so on.
Taking the time to engage in this ritual, not only as a BADT team, but with our broader community, feels important! This is an opportunity for us to honor the processes we have been through, as well as build momentum towards what’s next– together, with you. We value transparency as we continue to provide accessible, conscious, culturally appropriate, diverse, and action-oriented courses.
2023 At a Glance
We are proud of the ways we have been intentional with our offerings this year. We’ve focused deeply on our core Full-Spectrum Doula and Childbirth Educator trainings, while also bringing new, transformative offerings to the birth work world. Below, you will find highlights of our course enrollments and highlights surrounding community care.
584 enrollments in 2 cohorts of our Full-Spectrum Doula (FSD) Training
213 enrollments in our Childbirth Educator (CBE) Training (including live and prerecorded)
186 BADT scholarships + 50 externally-sponsored scholarships = 236 total scholarships awarded
680 registrations for our live Lactation Masterclass in November. The recording is available for purchase here!
317 enrollments in our free, virtual Narcan Training in February
134 enrollments in our Abortion Continuing Education Course (We still offer a US version + a Canadian version!)
Total of 357 participants enrolled in all CE courses (including abortion). We want to highlight our newest CE course, Reproductive Support for People Who Use Drugs and Those In Recovery, because this is truly one of a kind!
Over 1,000 members in the BADT Directory!
Over $1,000 of mutual aid distributed to BADT community members via our new Annastasia Wells Memorial Care Stipend
A 2024 Preview
As we move into 2024, we have lots to look forward to. We will continue to curate a wide range of offerings from live 12-week trainings to prerecorded CE courses, to one-off events. Check out all of the things we are feeling excited about, and be sure to sign up for our email list and follow us on IG, FB, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop!
In 2024, we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary, and we are already basking in gratitude and joy about this.
We’ll offer our cornerstone Full Spectrum Doula Training in the Spring and Fall.
Our *new* 12-week Lactation Educator training will be debuting in Summer 2024. Find all the details here!
In August 2024, we will be offering an IN-PERSON doula practicum AND a new iteration of our Reclaiming Our Bodies Retreat. Details to come soon!
We are eager to increase our collaborations with other organizations and excited about growing externally-sponsored scholarship opportunities in 2024 and beyond. Stay tuned for more information on how to do that or reach out here!
We are currently in the process of making offerings available in other languages! Big thank you to our students for their feedback about this. Look out for Spanish offerings for our FSD training in 2024.
As of December, we are using Thinkific Communities to house our conversation and resource-exchange spaces. Being in community is a huge part of care work, and it’s so great to see participants connect and support one another in this way.
BADT will continue to offer free community events throughout the year. We like to hold space and flexibility for unique offerings that the community wants and needs as things emerge, so thanks for being on this journey with us!
Join Us in the Work
Thank you for joining us in reflecting on this year and for helping us vision for our future. BADT continues to grow, expand, and adapt alongside our community and because of our community. Thank you for all of the ways you show up! We would be honored to share space and continue advocacy work with you in 2024 and beyond.