CHILDBIRTH EDUCATOR CERTIFICATION

ICEA certified childbirth educators have verified that they have the necessary knowledge and experience to enable them to facilitate expectant parents' mental and physical preparation for pregnancy, labor, birth and parenthood. This program promotes the concept of the childbirth educator as an advocate of the natural process of childbirth and the right of the expectant parent to make informed choices based on the knowledge of alternatives.

Study Modules

While completing the prerequisites for the certification examination, candidates use the modules contained in the study guides for self-paced, independent study. The modules contain extensive appendices and are divided into the following ten subject areas:

• Module I - Family-Centered Maternity Care (FCMC) and the Role of the Childbirth Educator
  
• Module II - Preconception, Conception and Pregnancy
  
• Module III - Nutrition for the Childbearing Year and Infant Feeding
  
• Module IV - Psychosocial and Emotional Changes in Pregnancy
  
• Module V - Labor and Birth
  
• Module VI - Labor Coping Skills
  
• Module VII - Obstetrical Tests and Procedures
  
• Module VIII - Cesarean Birth and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
  
• Module IX - Postpartum and the Newborn
  
• Module X - Teaching Skills

Each module contains key concepts, overview, learner objectives and content outline, references, and required reading.

Required readings for these programs are:

• Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn, by Simkin, Whalley and Keppler (PB0185)
  
• Childbirth Education: Practice, Research, and Theory, by Nichols and Humenick (ND8007)
  
• Family-Centered Education: The Process of Teaching Birth, by Booth (IC0095)
  
• Maternity and Women's Health Care, by Lowdermilk, Perry and Bobak (ND0408)
  
• Teaching Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting: A Childbirth Educator's Perspective, by White (IC2221)

Recertification

ICEA encourages continual growth in childbirth and postnatal education by requiring its certified educators to recertify every four years. During each four-year period of certification the educator is expected to work toward completion of the recertification requirements. The recertification requirements are:

1. Maintain continuous ICEA individual or supporting membership
   
2. Obtain a minimum of twenty-four ICEA contact hours within the four-year period of certification or attend an entire ICEA convention core
   
3. Complete one of the following within the four-year period of certification
   • Observe a minimum of three labors or births according to ICEA guidelines
   • Have a class series observed by another educator
   • Observe another educator's class series
   • Earn additional contact hours by attending a complete ICEA Professional Training Workshop or ICEA convention core.
   
4. Complete a self-evaluation of teaching.
   
5. Submit verification of recertification requirements with application and fee of $100.

Evaluation and verification forms required are supplied by ICEA.