Maddy The Doula Lady Maddy The Doula Lady
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Where Evidence Meets Heart

The Data Driven Doula

by Maddy The Doula Lady

The Data Driven Doula is a complete, ICEA-approved birth doula training manual spanning 21 chapters and five units of comprehensive perinatal education. Written by Madeline Harris LeBlanc (MHA, RNC-OB, IBCLC, IAT), the manual covers the full scope of doula practice: pregnancy physiology and prenatal support, comfort measures and labor support, cesarean birth, the fourth stage and golden hour, newborn care, infant feeding, postpartum recovery, perinatal mental health, grief and loss, and the ethics and business practices of a sustainable doula career. Grounded in current research, including the 2024 Medicaid doula study, the Cochrane Review on continuous labor support, and ICEA position papers, the content is evidence-based, equity-centered, and written at a level accessible to students from all educational backgrounds. Each chapter includes learning objectives, clinical notes, doula scripts, real-world case studies, a glossary of terms, and a 10-question quiz. A complete answer key, 331-term master glossary, and APA 7 bibliography are included in the back matter.
This training is designed for aspiring birth doulas, postpartum doulas expanding their scope, and community health workers seeking a rigorous, culturally humble foundation in perinatal support. It is the primary training text for Mary's Hands Network, a Louisiana-based nonprofit providing community doula services to families facing the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. Students who complete training through Mary's Hands Network and fulfill volunteer service requirements are eligible for a scholarship toward ICEA certification. Whether used as a standalone self-study resource or as part of a structured training program, The Data Driven Doula gives aspiring doulas not only the knowledge to walk into a birth room, but the preparation to stay.

More books by Maddy The Doula Lady

Data Driven Doula - Student Workbook

Guidebook

The Data Driven Doula: Companion Workbook is the active-practice resource designed to be used alongside the Data Driven Doula textbook. Where the textbook teaches the science, ethics, and skill of community doula work, the workbook is where students put it into their hands.
Twenty-one chapters mirror the textbook chapter for chapter. Each one opens with the same learning objectives, then moves into a structured vocabulary review built from the chapter's glossary, an anatomy and physiology review (in chapters where the science calls for it), discussion questions with full writing space for personal reflection or small-group work, and a ten-question multiple-choice chapter quiz. At the end of each unit, a twenty-question cumulative quiz draws across all of that unit's chapters to support synthesis and exam preparation. A complete answer key with rationales lives in the back matter, with every quiz answer evenly distributed across A, B, C, and D.
The back matter is where the workbook becomes more than a study aid. A single-page diagram lays out the full doula care journey from intake through archive. Six sample visit agendas walk through every visit a doula will run, including SOAP-style record-keeping notes that support insurance reimbursement. The complete 39-question pre-birth questionnaire and the postpartum questionnaire (with the PHQ-2 depression screening tool, scoring, and full escalation guidance for crisis disclosure) give trainees the actual conversation guides they will use with clients. A red-flag warning-signs reference covers both mom and baby. A common medical abbreviations reference card decodes the language of the hospital chart. A printable "What Is a Doula?" one-pager is ready to share with potential clients, providers, and community partners.
Designed for ICEA-aligned birth doula training programs and self-paced learners alike, the workbook supports retention, self-assessment, and the transition from study to practice. Pretty pastel design, generous writing space, and a chapter-by-chapter completion tracker make it as warm to use as it is rigorous.
331 pages. First Edition, 2026. Published by LeBlanc Health Training in partnership with Mary's Hands Network.

MHN Doula Field Guide

A Guide to MHN Doula Support and Care

The EVERYTHING Guide

To Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Postpartum

The birth book that feels like having a doula in your pocket.
Most pregnancy books fall into two categories: dense medical textbooks that read like instruction manuals, or fear-based bestsellers that leave you more anxious than informed. This book is neither.
Madeline LeBlanc is a registered nurse, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, birth doula trainer, ICEA faculty member, and nursing professor who has supported hundreds of families through pregnancy, birth, and the messy, beautiful weeks that follow. She wrote this book because every family deserves access to the kind of honest, evidence-based support that has historically only been available to people who could afford it. No jargon. No judgment. No leaving you with more questions than answers. Just real talk that helps you make real decisions, across every background, birth setting, and circumstance, because good birth support does not have a single face.
Throughout the book you will follow Jasmine, a first-time mom navigating every fear, question, and unexpected twist that pregnancy brings. Her story unfolds chapter by chapter alongside yours, from the first positive test through those hazy postpartum weeks, showing you what this whole experience really looks like when someone is honest about it. Her questions become your questions. Her journey becomes your roadmap.
The book takes you through the entire experience in three parts. Pregnancy first, including how your body changes, what warning signs to never ignore, how to choose the right provider, and what a doula actually does and why you might want one. Then birth, covering every stage of labor, comfort measures that work, honest explanations of pain management and interventions, everything about cesarean birth, and why the Golden Hour deserves to be protected. Then postpartum, the part most books rush through, including what your body actually goes through after birth, how to recognize when emotions go beyond baby blues, how to take care of yourself while taking care of everyone else, and a full chapter written specifically for partners because they need real guidance too. Woven throughout is the B.R.A.I.N. framework, a practical decision-making tool that helps you evaluate your options and advocate for yourself no matter what room you are sitting in.
This book is for first-time parents who want real information without the overwhelm. It is for partners who want to actually understand what is happening. It is for nursing students and doulas in training who want a resource that speaks to the whole person, not just the clinical picture. It is for anyone who has read three other pregnancy books and still has questions, or anyone shopping for a baby shower gift who wants to give something that will actually get used. It is for every family who deserves to walk into their birth feeling prepared, supported, and seen.
Your body already knows how to do this. This book just helps you trust it, ask the right questions, and navigate the system with confidence. Plus, you will finally understand what a mucus plug is and why everyone keeps talking about it.

The Bereavement Doula

Bearing Witness to Love and Loss Intertwined

Approved for 16 ICEA Continuing Education Units toward Doula Recertification.

When a family loses a baby, the clinical team knows how to manage the medical crisis. Almost no one knows how to manage what comes after. Bereavement Doula: A Comprehensive Guide to Supporting Families Through Pregnancy and Infant Loss fills that gap.
Written by Madeline LeBlanc (MHA, RN, IBCLC, IAT-BD), labor and delivery nurse, founder of Mary's Hands Network, and one of Louisiana's leading voices in evidence-based doula training, this is the most comprehensive bereavement doula training resource available. Every framework, protocol, and clinical communication approach was developed in collaboration with an expert review panel that includes morticians, obstetricians, social workers, and labor and delivery and NICU nurses. The result is a resource that reflects the full reality of pregnancy and infant loss across every setting where it occurs, the delivery room, the NICU, the funeral home, and the months that follow.

This is not a book about what to say. It's a book about becoming trained well enough that the right response becomes instinct.
Madeline LeBlanc has trained over 254 doulas and supported more than 450 families across Louisiana through Mary's Hands Network, achieving a 22.1% cesarean rate, compared with Louisiana's state average of 36.1%, outcomes that reflect what happens when support is treated as a clinical discipline, not an afterthought. This book is for doulas seeking bereavement specialization, labor and delivery, and NICU nurses wanting to expand their practice, social workers supporting families through pregnancy and infant loss, and anyone called to show up with skill, not just sympathy, for families navigating one of the most devastating experiences of human life.

The Bereavement Doula - Workbook

You're choosing sacred, harrowing, heartbreaking, beautiful work. This workbook is for anyone willing to walk alongside families experiencing pregnancy and infant loss—whether it's an early miscarriage, a stillbirth, a neonatal death, or a termination for medical reasons. You won't find sanitized language that distances you from the reality of loss. You won't get platitudes about everything happening for a reason. Instead, you'll get honest, practical, evidence-based training from someone who's held hundreds of babies who never took a breath and sat with countless families saying goodbye far too early. Through eight chapters and five composite family stories, you'll learn the medical reality families face, how to support them through impossible decisions, what words actually help, how to honor their babies, and how to care for yourself in work that will change you. This is training in presence, not therapy. In witnessing, not fixing. In the profound difference that showing up with compassion and clarity makes in someone's darkest moments. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be present. This workbook will teach you how.

The Pocket Doula

50 Doula Tricks for Support & Comfort During Birth

Pocket Doula delivers 50 practical, evidence-informed comfort strategies to help families prepare for labor and birth. Compact and easy to use, this guide empowers partners, friends, and loved ones to actively support the birthing person with confidence and clarity. Use it as a conversation starter with your provider, a planning tool for your support team, and a reminder that informed, compassionate care makes a difference. Discover more about community-based doula care at maryshandsnetwork.org.