Required Reading List

You must read at least six books from the PALS Doulas Required Reading List and DONA’s Birth Doula Position Paper. A Statement of Completion of the Required Reading List form is included in your certification packet.

Please consider ordering these books by clicking on the titles below. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it will help raise money for our organization!

Please read all of the following:

1. The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin
2. The Doula Book by Klaus, Klaus and Kennell (formerly “Mothering the Mother”)
3. Bearing Witness: Childbirth Stories Told by Doulas by Doran and Caron
4. DONA’s Birth Doula Position Paper (available online from www.dona.org)

Please read at least one of the following:

• Birthing from Within by Pam England
• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• An Easier Childbirth by Gayle Peterson

Please read at least one of the following:

• Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper
• The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
• The Birth Book by Sears and Sears
• A Good Birth, A Safe Birth by Korte and Scaer

Please read at least one of the following:

• The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International
• Your Amazing Newborn by Marshall & Phyllis Klaus
• The Baby Book by Sears and Sears

Also recommended but not required:

• The Labor Support Handbook by Penny Simkin
• Pregnancy, Childbirth and The Newborn by Penny Simkin