Training
For the last 100 years the care of our dead has gradually been turned over to businesses. The recent decade has seen resurgence in families providing end-of-life care to loved ones through home hospice care. As a natural extension of hospice more and more families are choosing to care for their loved ones — before and after death – in their homes.
The work of Death Midwives and home funeral guides does not duplicate the work of professionals such as nurses or funeral directors. We work alongside them and our skills are not medically oriented, they are community, spiritually, traditionally, hands and heart-oriented. We use the ancient and time-proven techniques of an open and compassionate heart, touch, and our voices. This work can be done in any setting, whether in a hospital, nursing facility or a home.
When a loved one’s death is dignified, peaceful and meaningful, it can be a sacred experience for those left behind. Often an event such as this heals family rifts and enables people to reconnect with each other in ways that are life-changing for everyone involved. When families are able to participate in the ending of a loved one’s life it can be very empowering.
Earth Traditions is sponsoring a Death Midwife Certification Training in intensive fashion. This workshop is intended to focus and sharpen our natural skills and to give confidence, credibility and certification to those skills, building community and inspiring us as we embrace the most sacred threshold in the spiral of life, our final passage.
This training encourages participants to work with people before and after death. There is also a strong personal commitment component of this training that encourages community volunteering, especially with Hospice, elder or end-of-life environments such as Children’s Hospitals, AIDS Housing or senior living environments.
In this training you will:
• Learn tools and techniques to midwife the dying.
• Consider family dynamics that occur as someone dies.
• How to determine if a family is a good fit for a home funeral.
• Experience the practice of dying; visioning our own death before we die.
• Learn tools for creating a sacred space for transition, before and after death.
• Legal paperwork required - how to research state laws and build bridges with others presently working in the funeral industry.
• Awareness of the many on-line issues of after death and social networking.
• Will receive certification as a Death Midwife through Earth Traditions.
Who will benefit from this training?
• Patients facing a terminal illness.
• Communities, friends and families caring for someone who is dying.
• Individuals who want to accompany a loved one through this process.
• Professionals working as birth midwives, nurses and physicians working in hospices, hospitals, and nursing homes, who are seeking to expand their skills and effectiveness in assisting with death and dying.• Hospice volunteers or those wishing to become volunteers.
• Healers and therapists who want to learn more.
• Celebrants, Chaplains and Community Activists or Educators.
• Mental Health Professionals • •Veterinary personnel, Veterinarians, vet assistants, vet technicians and pet groomers.
• Anyone who wishes to learn more about cultivating presence and personal awareness in death, dying and living well.
• Those who want to prepare gracefully for their own journey through dying into death.
• Those who want to embrace the mystery of death, and educate others as well as participate in what can be the most sacred and deeply moving experience of their life.This training is authorized to issue 23 CEUs to Nurses, Clergy, Massage Therapists and more.
The Schedule is (loosely):
Friday: 9am-7pm
Saturday: 9am-7pm
Sunday: 9am-6pm
Death Midwife Training – Syllabus
Lunch is typically 1:00-2:00pm
Dinner is typically at 6:00pm
Please be flexible. Much of this is contingent upon how large the class, and how much material we get covered each day.
Day One
• A History of Death and Dying
•. Envisioning our own death
• What is a Death Midwife?
• Practices of Death Midwifery
• Advanced Directives, Death Planning
Day Two
• Grief
• Comportment
• Self-Care
• Medical Assistance in Dying
• Body Disposition
• The Funeral Industry
Day Three
• What Happens When We Die?
• Care Ceremony and Honoring of our Beloved Dead
• About Home Funerals
• Building Your Business
• Exam
In order to receive the certification you must be present, on time, participate in all class activities and discussions for the duration of the class each day, and pass the exam.