Our Vision 

Safe, Powerful, Healthy Natural Childbirth

We provide support and resources for birth consumers.  We raise public awareness of preferred childbirth preparation classes which promote healthy birth information and birth advocacy for mothers and their babies.  We welcome childbirth educators from all walks.  Not every birth educator comes from a birth education only organization.  Women need to know that there are wonderful midwives, doulas and formerly certified birth educators who have taken their hands on birth experiences and created a truly independent birth curriculum.  In addition some of our childbirth educators are also trained and certified in other fields of care that are especially healthy in pregnancy and birth.

The Association of Independent Childbirth Educators was formed in 2005 and grew from an initiative to bring together childbirth educators from all certifying backgrounds for the common goal of promoting normal childbirth at the grass roots level.  It is our belief that every woman, and her family, must be recognized as being an individual with her own unique expectations for her baby.  It is our belief, therefore, that all birth educators or information providers must be supported in their ability to create a more personable environment for the woman to learn about birth, her body and her birth options.  Our goal is to provide a variety of birth information options for families without compromising the value of credible, evidence based birth education. 

We are not a certifying organization.  We are a supporting organization promoting credible independent continuing education.  We believe that childbirth educators are individuals with individual personalities and will teach with a personal perspective when mothers and their families need it.  We believe in their ability to be proactive, finding current information and ensuring birth is a joyful time for every couple.  They must be supported as they seek to acquire credible information then share it with families in all settings including their formal certified settings.  Today, there are many ways of promoting birth information beyond the recent traditional formal childbirth educator style.  There are doulas – formal and traditional – who are asked to provide birth consumerism and physiology education.  There are midwives who teach childbirth education both in a group setting and as a public outreach.  There are individual women who provide birth information in the traditional form of birth circles.

Independent Childbirth exists to support all healthy birth educators regardless of certifying organizational background.  They are individuals with their own unique outreach gifts.  We encourage educators to be confident as they guide mothers and families through dialogue to explore for themselves what they need and to make their own informed choices.  We firmly believe that economics should not stand in the way of a mother finding positive birth support.  We are continually inspired to  create a wider awareness of healthy birth via support of birth educators in their endeavors to balance the medical model of birth education.  

Independent childbirth education makes a difference in birth outcomes!