Home Sweet Homebirth
Bringing Birth Back Home
A 6-week online program for midwives, doulas, and birth workers ready to offer homebirth with confidence, skill, and reverence.
April 1 – May 10, 2026
You became a birth worker because you believe in birth.
You believe in the body's wisdom. In the power of a woman laboring in her own space, on her own terms, surrounded by people she trusts. You know, in your bones, that homebirth is safe, sacred, and profoundly needed.
But when it comes to actually offering it? Something tightens.
Maybe your training barely touched homebirth. Maybe you've attended a handful but still carry fear you don't say out loud. Fear of the rare emergency. Fear of complaints. Fear of missing something. Fear of being alone in the decision-making. Maybe you've wanted to offer homebirth for years but haven't felt ready.
You're not alone. And you're not lacking.
You just haven't been taught.
This Is For You If...
You're a midwife, doula, or birth worker who wants to offer homebirth but doesn't feel fully prepared
You trained in a system that prioritized hospital birth and left homebirth as an afterthought
You've attended homebirths but still feel uncertain when things deviate from the textbook
You want evidence-based confidence. Not just protocols, but real skill in perception, regulation, and trusting the process. Because there's what you were trained to do, and there's how you actually show up when things get intense. Those are not always the same thing.
You know homebirth is more than a location. It's a philosophy of care. And you want to practice it with integrity.
You want to feel grounded enough in your skills that your own fear doesn't run the show
What Happens When You Trust Your Homebirth Skills?
You stop second-guessing and start truly seeing what's in front of you.
You hold space with a quiet confidence that the birthing person can feel. And it changes everything.
You know when to wait and when to act. Not because a protocol told you, but because your body and your training agree.
You can speak to homebirth with authority, to clients, to colleagues, to the system, because you have the research, the language, and the lived skill to back it up.
You stop losing sleep over "what ifs" and start trusting your capacity to respond.
You remember why you entered this field in the first place.
You trust your ability and capacity to recognize and respond to birth emergencies.
You have a clear vision on whats normal, what's not and when to transfer.
The Truth About Homebirth Training
People have given birth at home for thousands of years. And the evidence is clear: well-supported homebirth means higher vaginal birth rates, less pharmaceutical pain relief, reduced perineal trauma, healthier microbiomes, easier breastfeeding and bonding, lower rates of birth trauma, and fewer postnatal complications for both birthgiver and baby.
And yet most midwifery and doula programs offer almost nothing on how to actually do it.
The skills that once passed seamlessly between generations of birth workers are being lost. Not because they aren't needed, but because the system stopped teaching them. Meanwhile, birth trauma is rising. For birthgivers and for the care providers who attend them.
This course exists to close that gap.
What You'll Learn
Module 1 — Welcome & Foundations
Setting the ground. Strengthening the ancient and traditional skills of birthcraft that modern training left behind.
Module 2 — Dropping Into the Rhythm
The history, politics, and development of homebirth practice. Practical considerations for birth at home, including equipment, setup, and preparation.
Module 3 — Finding the Beat of Physiology
The science, skill, and confidence of supporting physiological birth. How to recognize when to act in labor, and what to do.
Module 4 — Moving With Care
The discerning use of intervention and the Holy Trinity of Birth: Observation, Discernment, Action. Considerations for water birth. The art of presence and deep listening. Regulation under pressure, because if you cannot regulate yourself, you cannot lead the room.
Module 5 — Being in the Groove
Trauma-informed care in practice. Shared decision-making and models of consent. Preparing for unexpected outcomes with skill and grace.
Module 6 — When the Music Changes
Emergency skills at home. How to respond appropriately and effectively. In-depth preparation for birth complexities.
Module 7 — Dancing Between the Worlds
Transfer from home to hospital. Tools, skills, and strategies for interfacing with other practitioners when birth changes course.
Module 8 — Resting in Stillness
Resources for resilience and community. Weaving your web, building the support systems that sustain you in this work.
How It Works
Format: Live online sessions + recorded video lectures, readings, research, and resources for your personal development and to enhance your practice.
Duration: 6 weeks (April 1 – May 10, 2026)
Community: Depending on intake, there may be group Zoom calls to connect with birth workers globally.
Resources: A full library of current research you can use and share with the families you serve.
Approved Education: 8 hours of elective education approved by the New Zealand Midwifery Council and endorsed for continuing professional development by the Australian College of Midwives.
Your Guide
Claire Eccleston
Homebirth midwife. Mother. Grandmother. Wild Nanny.
For 25 years, Claire has been catching babies at home and teaching birth workers around the world to do the same.
Claire teaches midwifery emergency skills with the New Zealand College of Midwives and also internationally, she teaches Birth Craft online, midwifery mentoring, perineal suturing and is a Spinning Babies ® Approved Trainer. She has worked with hundreds of families and trained birth workers across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and the Americas.
Claire is the founder of Womb Craft bodywork practice, a somatic sexologist, STREAM practitioner, and craniosacral therapist.
Claire's teaching sits at the intersection of grounded clinical skill and deep reverence for the birthing body. She brings the practical tools you need alongside something harder to find: an unshakable faith in the ancient skills of birthcraft, and a gift for rekindling that faith in others.
What Others Are Saying
"Immense gratitude for the links to studies and research provided in this space, as I feel this is something I have been lacking in my exploration of homebirth. I also was deeply moved by 'how do we birth when the boy keeps crying wolf.' I love the balance Claire brings, of grounded facts and experience, with heartfelt intuitive expression." — Ella
[Add 2-3 more testimonials here if available]
By the End of This Course, You Will...
Understand the current global research on homebirth outcomes and be able to speak to it with confidence
Know the practical equipment, setup, and considerations for supporting birth at home
Recognize the rhythms of physiological birth and know when to act, and when to wait
Have clear strategies and plans for managing transfers from home to hospital
Practice real skills in informed choice, shared decision-making, and sovereign care
Develop your ability to discern between "abnormalizing the normal" and "normalizing the abnormal"
Know how to regulate yourself under pressure so your fear doesn't drive your clinical decisions. Because knowledge without regulation collapses under stress.
Have communication tools for working respectfully with other healthcare professionals
Walk away with sustainable practices for self-care, boundaries, and resilience in your work
Investment
$550 USD
Payment plan available: [details TBD]
This is an investment in the kind of birth worker you want to be, and the kind of care the world needs more of.
Preserving the ancient arts of birth support.