Doula Training

February 6-14, 2027

Casa Curativa, Tzununá
Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

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An in-person, immersive 9-day training rooted in traditional birth wisdom and physiologic birth weaving the clinical and the ceremonial to empower whole doulas in service of the next generation.

Become a Birth Keeper

A 9-day immersion into the ancient and essential work of the doula: the one who holds the invisible architecture of safety so that a mother and her baby can remain intact, undisturbed, and sovereign.

Birth is not merely a moment. It is an initiation that reshapes a woman's entire being, and those who tend that threshold carry a profound responsibility.

Together we will walk the full arc of the reproductive journey from conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release. Learn what it truly means to protect the sanctity of each stage.

You will study the hormones, nervous system, biomechanics, fetal rhythms, and birth ecology that physiologic birth depends on. Discover how to tend the subtler, unseen dimension of birth: the realm where intuition, presence, and ceremony anchor trust into the room.

This training is a weaving of classroom learning, ritual, hands-on practice, and embodied knowing. The mentorship, practical skills, and deep inner inquiry needed to serve as a Doula with integrity, devotion, and clarity.

You will leave rooted, ready, and aligned with the sacred nature of this work.

A woman is giving birth in a bathtub surrounded by greenery. A newborn baby is crying, held by the woman, with two people assisting and observing during the birth.

Our Curriculum

    • Female reproductive anatomy in depth: uterus, cervix, pelvis, pelvic floor

    • The hormonal cascade: estrogen, progesterone, oxytocin, prolactin, cortisol

    • How the body changes across pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, trimester by trimester

    • The menstrual cycle as a map of women's health

    • Reading the body's signals: what's normal, what needs attention

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Nine threads, nine days. Woven for both the practical and the sacred of being a doula.

    • The cuarentena: the sacred 40 days and why they shape a woman's health for decades

    • Postpartum physiology: uterine involution, hormonal shifts, milk arrival, mood and energy changes

    • Warming, nourishing postpartum foods and traditional recipes that rebuild

    • The practical work: tending the household

    • Matrescence

    • Supporting the whole family

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    • Fetal development week by week

    • The three trimesters: what shifts physiologically, emotionally, and relationally at each stage

    • Prenatal nutrition: what truly nourishes mother and baby

    • Supporting a woman's nervous system through the vulnerability of early pregnancy

    • How to prepare her body and mind for the threshold of birth

    • Birth preferences and building trust within a care team

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    • Miscarriage, stillbirth, termination, and neonatal loss: the physical process and the emotional terrain

    • How to hold space for grief

    • Ritual and ceremony for honoring family

    • How to care for yourself after witnessing this depth of loss

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    • The hormonal cascade of undisturbed labor: oxytocin, endorphins, adrenaline, and why they must be protected

    • Fetal positioning and biomechanics: how a baby navigates the pelvis and how to help

    • Movement, positioning, breathwork, acupressure, counter-pressure, the rebozo

    • What disrupts birth ecology and how to protect the container so labor can unfold

    • Navigating medical environments while holding the sacred

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    • Nourishing infusions, mineral-rich broths, and warming postpartum teas

    • Healing sitz baths, womb steams, and herbal smudges for the birth space

    • Herbs for labor support, afterbirth recovery, milk supply, and the postpartum nervous system

    • Hands-on formula and recipe making

    • Placenta encapsulation and tincture

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    • The songs, prayers, and practices that open and close sacred space

    • Coming into relationship with your elemental nature

    • Holding a blessing way, the ancient gathering of women around a mother before birth

    • Working with altar, smoke, water, and song as medicine in birth

    • Traditional practices from the lineages present in this training, shared with reverence

    • Finding your own ceremonial voice: what feels true to you and how to offer it authentically

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    • The theory behind Mayan abdominal massage

    • How tension, scar tissue, and misalignment affect fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum recovery

    • Hands-on technique practice under guidance with prenatal and postpartum applications

    • The art of the faja: traditional belly binding and how it supports the postpartum body to close and integrate

    • Proper wrapping technique and when to use it

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    • What it means to practice with reciprocity

    • Building relationships with midwives, care providers, and other doulas

    • Navigating the tensions between traditional wisdom and medical systems

    • How to build a practice that sustains you

    • Community structures, peer support, and referral networks that hold you over the long arc

    • The inner landscape of the birth worker and the vision of birth culture you are here to build

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It is our birthright to be held through the full journey of conception, birth, and matrescence.

The path back to wholeness runs through each other.

Why Train with Us?

The world needs more birth keepers. Women have been slowly an deliberately separated from the knowledge, the hands, and the community that once surrounded them through the transformation of birth. A doula is part of the remembering. Someone who brings that support back within reach.

This work is both practical and profound. As a doula you will offer emotional presence, evidence-based guidance, and skilled hands that help a woman stay rooted in her own power through pregnancy, through labor, through the tenderness of postpartum. You become the bridge between what she knows in her body and what the system may ask of her.

To train as a doula is to join a revolution. The rebuilding of woman-centered, community-rooted reproductive care. It is the reclaiming of a lineage: women holding women through the thresholds of life.

That tradition is older than any institution, and it is ours to carry forward.

Join this training and become part of the generation of women rebuilding a world where birth is sacred, mothers are sovereign, and no woman walks this threshold alone.

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Is this training for You?

This doula training is for the women who feel the ancient pull in their bones. Who know, without being able to explain it, that they were always meant to stand at this threshold. A reclamation of something older than language.

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You know this is your work, even if you can't explain why yet

The mysteries of womanhood stir something in your belly that logic can't settle. You have always felt drawn to the threshold, to birth, to the places where women are most raw and most powerful. You don't need to justify it. This training will feel like coming home to the best parts of yourself.

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You are a new or aspiring doula craving hands-on learning

You've looked at online trainings and felt nothing. You want the heat of a fire, the presence of mentors, the living transmission that only happens in circle and on the land. You know this kind of knowing can't be downloaded. It has to be felt, practiced, and received in person.

A woman holding a newborn baby in a cozy, wood-paneled room.

You are a mother who knows this threshold as a profound initiation

You know what it means to be changed by birth the way it breaks you open and reconstitutes you as something new. Now you feel the call to carry that torch for others. To walk beside other women on their path.

You feel the ache of severed lineages

Something in you grieves what was lost. The midwives, the aunties, the birth keepers who once wove the fabric of a woman's passage. You long to reweave yourself into that web. This immersion will feed that hunger.

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You believe in the revolution of community-based care

Women's sovereignty.
Mother-baby protection.
The village.
You see the birth culture we're rebuilding and you want to be part of it with real skills and a real community behind you.

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You already serve women and you're ready to go deeper

Herbalists, yoga teachers, therapists, bodyworkers, space holders: you've been orbiting this work for years and you know it's time to step fully into it. You want tools that are embodied, ancestral, trauma-informed, and rooted in the real physiology of the feminine.

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You are an activist committed to protecting reproductive rights and dismantling institutional birth trauma


You're devoted to rebuilding a world where mothers, babies, and families are protected. You understand that real change requires embodied knowledge, not just good intentions. This training gives you the tools, the language, and the backing to stand firm inside medical systems and outside them.

Meet Your Guides

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  • Clinical Herbalist • Natural Builder • Birth Keeper • Educator

    Ashley McDonell is a birth keeper, clinical herbalist, natural builder, and educator whose work weaves together physiology, ancestral wisdom, and the sacred arts of womanhood. For more than 15 years, she has served families across the reproductive continuum—guiding women through conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release with deep presence, sovereignty-centered advocacy, and unwavering devotion.

    Her lineage of study includes mentorship with Whapio, Rachelle Segal, traditional midwives, birth attendants, and teachers of the Wise Woman and physiological birth traditions. Ashley’s approach blends evidence-informed understanding with ancestral knowledge, nervous system literacy, and trauma-aware birthkeeping. She holds a rare capacity to translate complex physiological processes into embodied, intuitive knowing.

    As the creator and lead educator of Casa Curativa’s Doula & Birth Keeper Training, Ashley teaches from the intersection of activism, ritual, and biology. Her work centers the protection of the mother–baby dyad, the restoration of undisturbed physiologic birth, and the remembrance of birth as a profound initiatory rite. She is known for helping women reclaim their sovereignty while preparing birth workers to stand as guardians of the sacred, skilled advocates within medical systems, and compassionate stewards of community-based reproductive care.

    Ashley’s teaching style is both deeply rooted and radically human—equal parts technical, poetic, and fiercely aligned with the values of reciprocity, reverence, remembrance, relationship, and responsibility. In every container she leads, she brings her full self: the herbalist, the builder, the ritualist, the activist, and the woman devoted to reweaving our connection to the earth and to one another.

    Her mission is simple and profound:
    to restore the dignity of birth, to return power to women, and to train a generation of birth keepers who can hold the thresholds of life with skill, integrity, and sacred regard.

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  • I am a mother, a devotee to humanity’s umbilical connection to life itself, to reciprocal prayer and intuitive medicine.

    I am a woman weaving together the threads of tradition and new culture to create a continuously evolving and integral ways of collective living.

    I am one of those that bridge the teachings of elemental laws to become part of our everyday living prayer.

Meet Your Guest Teachers

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  • Family Zavala come from an unbroken lineage of traditional mayan birth keepers [parteras], of pregnancy and post partum care.

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  • Midwife, Mother, Herbalist & Abdominal Massage Specialist

    Mariu is a Guatemalan, born and raised midwife, healer and massage therapist. After working with indigenous midwives for ten years in the Maya highlands and studying midwifery for 4 years she gracefully integrates traditional and professional midwifery. Offering her services to local indigenous women and foreigners alike. Especially to women who seek a safe humanized birthing space, in the comfort of their home. 

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  • Midwife

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  • Venus has been driven by her main passion: What does it mean to be embodied in a female body?

    Exploring, feeling and studying for more than 10 years through Tantra, Motherhood, Dance & Movement, Yogatherapy, Breathwork, Somatic Healing, Conscious Touch and Ritual, her devotion towards the Heart is her commitment to Spirit.

    Her life experience of birthing three daughters and her devotion to womenhood has taken her to mentor women through their paths of Maidens, Mothers and Crowns,

    Her spiritual path is to explore and practice Tantra in a devoted way, accepting and understanding her own duality; believing that if we live sexuality consciously, it can become a door to awakening, and that consciousness and energy are our essential polarity, opening the profound path of communication between the Feminine and the Masculine within.

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  • Prenatal Yoga Facilitator: Jessi Luna, E-RYT 500
    Jessi has been teaching yoga since 2009 and facilitating yoga teacher trainings since 2012. She attended the Holistic Doula Training with Holistic Midwifery in 2019 and immediately knew it was an offering for Seven Springs. Jessi gave birth to both her sons, Kai and Cedar, in the Peru yurt at Seven Springs, and she is delighted to open this space to empower more women and mothers in the power of birth. Jessi will offer morning yoga, she teaches a Vinyasa based practice to combine elements of dance and natural movement with traditional yogic sequencing. She incorporates attention to rhythm of the breath, and allows for organic movement to flow in each pose.  A creative entrepreneur at heart, Jessi explores how to do business in a good way for the planet and people. Jessi is a cofounder of Kula Collective Yoga School along with 6 other friends, as well as Seven Springs along with her husband and parents. 

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  • I am Jibreska, a Devoted Mother of 3, former MD, root cause medicine doctor, craniosacral and Innate Postpartum practitioner. My devotion for the mother baby dyad started during my own motherhood journey, sensing the biological, nutritional, behavioral and emotional needs that women need to thrive and experience vitality together with their children and the next generations to come.  My work is focused on molecular nutrition, behavioral aspects, imprints and generational patterns for Mothers and Families as I deeply believe it to be the foundation of society, health and community.

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  • Isa is a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) guided by values of healthcare equity and compassionate, person-centered care. She started her path as a birth doula working with underserved communities around her home-land of the Twin Cities. Inspired by these experiences, she committed herself to become a midwife in order to better serve people throughout the reproductive lifespan and beyond. Her undergraduate bachelor of science in “cultures of healing” was completed through the University of Minnesota and focused on the intersection between modern and traditional medicine. Isa graduated from Marquette University with a post-master’s certificate in nurse midwifery and worked as a labor and delivery nurse during the years she lived in Milwaukee. Isa started her midwifery career at the US border with Mexico in Texas, where she attended births at a free-standing birth center and honed clinical skills with community-based programs focused on accessibility. Bilingual in Spanish and English, she enjoys opportunities to travel particularly throughout central and south America. Isa is inspired by traditional and integrative approaches to healing from wisdom keepers in Minnesota and the broader Americas. When not midwifeing, she loves to make craftwork, cultivate plants, practice yoga and eat delicious food. Isa is honored to serve as a midwife and educator for the next generation of birth workers.

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  • Rosa Maya Cubides Sánchez was born in the Colombian Andes region of Boyacá.

    For over ten years, she has walked the path of traditional medicine within the Chibcha/Muisca, Maya, and Mexica territories. She is also a Moon Dancer in Mexico. For the past decade, she has lived in the territory of Guatemaya alongside her children and her partner.

    She has been practicing massage for as long as she can remember; her work focuses specifically on traditional therapeutic bodywork and healing massage.

    She also emphasizes how to care for the body using traditional methods rooted in the elements—including steam baths and Temazcal ceremonies.

    She supports women through their various life transitions, as well as during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.

    Her practice centers on reconnecting with the roots of our ancestral lands, applying the wisdom of herbal medicine and ancestral steam therapies, and—above all—maintaining harmony within our physical, mental, and emotional bodies.

Our Daily Flow

A typical day during this 9-day training looks like this:

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8:00-9:00

Embodiment Practice

9:30-1:00

First lecture (ex: birth physiology)

1:00

Lunch at the Lodge

2-5:30

Guest teacher and hands on practice

5:30-7 pm

Optional Evening Activity
(Sauna, Fire, Etc)

What Our Students are Saying

  • "You can't sign up quick enough. It will be the best investment you can make on your journey as a doula and birthworker. It is filled with rich wisdom that many instructors, classes or textbooks can not teach you. It is like dipping your toes into a well of ancestral knowledge and a deep remembering of what it means to live a sovereign life as a birthing woman."

  • "I would join in a heartbeat!! It is the most heart-centered, community led, meaningful doula course I can imagine. You will be immersed in another reality where matricentric culture is real, mothers and children are cherished, community is uplifted and every day is filled with song, ritual, laughter and herbal medicine. All of your senses will come alive and you will feel a deep sense of embodiment and aliveness."

  • “Finding a training where I could be immersed in the world of ritual and song, traditional practice and a supportive environment was so amazing. These teachings changed my life and I am forever grateful.

  • "The energy Ashley brings into the space is beyond. It has been so passionate and everything she told was so profound. The passion and enthusiasm was highly contagious, thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge, time and energy with us."

  • "Thank you Ashley and Isa for your unique magic, wonderful teachings, and for holding us all in this beautiful space. Being together with you and all the amazing women was so healing for my soul."

  • “For me all of the hands-on, ritual type experiences like working with the faja, the temazcal, singing together are what really help distinguish this from an online training, these are parts of the practice you cant get anywhere else”

  • “There is nothing like an in person training to give you the confidence and support you need to feel able to hold powerful space for birthing people. This training gave me the soul food to go back and support my community in a more skillful way”

Doula Training
without Accommodation

All inclusive course and 3 meals per day,
without accommodations.
Payment plans available.

Total: $1,900

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Pricing & Accommodation Packages:

February 6-14, 2027

Every package includes 9 nights in your chosen accommodation, 3x meals a day, and the full 9-day course and resources.

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GARDEN TENT

  • Tent nestled in the heart of the garden

  • Comfortable bedding and cozy rug

  • Shared hot showers and bathrooms

  • Access to shared kitchen

All inclusive course, accommodation and 3 meals per day.

$2,305

reserve today
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SHARED ACCOMMODATION

Stay in our newest and largest shared accommodation The Lodge:

  • Comfortable single beds

  • Full shared kitchen and living room

  • Private terraces to rest and enjoy the nature

Only 2 Spots Left in the Lodge!

All inclusive course, accommodation and 3 meals per day.

$2,548

reserve today
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PRIVATE ROOM

Stay in our private accommodation we have three options to meet your unique desires and needs!
Click bellow to tour each of our magical spaces.

The Zome

The Honeycomb

The Riverside Cabin

All inclusive course, accommodation and 3 meals per day.
starting at $2710

explore the options

Course Investment

A 9-DAY DOULA TRAINING :

Full Course + 3 meals daily · Accommodation not included: $ 1,900

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    • Full 9-day course curriculum across all nine threads — anatomy, birth, postpartum, herbs, ritual, and beyond

    • In-depth notes packet to take home and return to throughout your practice

    • Three nourishing meals a day prepared with love on the land

    • Daily yoga and embodiment practice to open the body and ground the learning

    • Multiple temazcales: the ancient sweat lodge ceremony woven into the rhythm of the training

    • Practical rituals, ceremonies, and tools you can bring directly into your work with clients

    • Lifetime access to recorded supplemental classes to deepen your learning long after you leave

    • The Casa Curativa community: a living network of birth keepers, herbalists, and healers

    • A circle of sisters forged in 9 days of shared learning, who will tend you as you grow in this work

  • When you stay at Casa Curativa you wake up in the garden, share meals with your sisters, and let the lake hold you between sessions. That immersion is where the deepest shifts happen.

    We offer a range of accommodations to fit every budget from a simple garden tent to a private cabin with lake views. See the pricing section below to find what fits you best.

    Prefer to stay off-site? You're welcome to book nearby and commute in each day, just be sure to choose the tuition-only option at checkout.

    Any questions about travel or where to stay? Message us! We're happy to help.

  • This training is genuinely rare and not just because of the curriculum. Most doula trainings are either clinical and evidence-based, or ceremonial and ancestral. This one is both, held in equal measure, on the land at Casa Curativa on the shores of Lake Atitlán.

    You'll study physiology, hormones, biomechanics, fetal positioning, birth ecology — alongside ceremony, herbal medicine, ritual, and embodied practice.

    You'll be held in a small circle, which means real mentorship, real relationships, and a container that actually transforms you rather than just training you.

    The educators you'll learn from aren't drawn from one tradition. This gathering brings together Maya parteras from an unbroken lineage, Guatemalan midwives trained in the highlands, clinical herbalists, movement teachers, and more who each carrying a different thread of this work. The perspectives here are as wide as we can make them, and they honor many different lineages of birth keeping.

    You'll leave not just with skills but rooted in who you are as a birth keeper.

  • Fly into La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City. From there it's a 3.5-hour journey to Lake Atitlán (traffic dependent). We recommend arranging a private transfer directly from the airport, or taking a shared taxi from arrivals. A travel tip worth taking: consider flying in a day early and spending a night in Antigua to break up the journey — it's a beautiful city and a gentle way to arrive.

    • Passport and important documents

    • Comfortable clothes and light layers

    • Comfortable walking shoes — we spend time outdoors

    • A reusable water bottle (filtered drinking water on site)

    • Sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses

    • A light jacket or sweater for mornings and evenings

    • Shower and bathroom toiletries

    • Herbal or non-toxic bug spray

    • Earplugs if you're a light sleeper

    • Your journal

    • Any personal herbal supplies or altar items you'd like to have on hand

  • Let us know in advance and we'll do our best to accommodate you. Email us at info@casacurativa.com before the course begins.

  • Guatemalan Quetzales. The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 7.2 Quetzales. ATMs are available in nearby towns.

  • Yes. We offer optional on-site bodywork, herbal baths, and sauna sessions. Some students book something early to decompress after travel or others toward the end to integrate the experience.

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Discover personalized guidance and answers to your questions about our in-person doula course. We want you to feel sure that this course is what you are looking for. Book your call today and take the first step on your journey with us!

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