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.