The Data Driven Doula — Maddy The Doula Lady

The training manual that takes the work seriously.

Written by a registered nurse, lactation consultant, and ICEA-approved doula trainer with more than fifteen years of maternal-newborn experience. This guide moves through the full arc of perinatal care — from the first prenatal visit through the postpartum year — with the clarity of a clinical textbook and the warmth of a mentor who has actually done this work.

It names the racial disparities in maternal mortality. It teaches what to say when a baby has died. It gives you the language for every difficult moment and the structure to stay in this work for years.

Passion brought you here. This book will prepare you to stay.

Buy on books.by — $79.99

Paperback · 965 pages · First-class evidence base · Where evidence meets heart.

Who it’s for

Built for the people actually walking into the room.

Doulas in training

If you’re working through a doula certification — ICEA, DONA, ProDoula, community-based, or independent — this is the textbook the program assumes you have. It’s the manual that makes the rest of the curriculum click.

Practicing doulas

For the doula who has been to twenty births and wants the deeper why. The chapter on the second stage will change what you do at a bedside. The chapter on grief will change what you do when there is no birth at the end.

Nurses & midwives

Labor and delivery nurses cross-training as doulas. NICU and postpartum nurses who want the full perinatal arc. Midwifery students looking for a non-academic companion to clinical training.

Educators

Trainers building a curriculum. Programs looking for a primary text. Universities offering perinatal electives. The book is structured for classroom use with chapter objectives, summaries, and review questions.

What’s inside

Five units. Twenty-one chapters. The full arc.

Unit One · Foundations

The role of the doula. Scope of practice. The history of birth work in the United States. Racial disparities in maternal mortality named clearly. The ethical and legal frame for everything that follows.

Unit Two · Pregnancy

Anatomy and physiology of pregnancy. Common discomforts and red flags. Prenatal visits, screening, and decision points. Mental health across pregnancy. Building the prenatal relationship.

Unit Three · Labor & Birth

The mechanics and emotional landscape of every stage of labor. Comfort techniques with evidence behind them. Cesarean birth as a normal birth. Interventions, complications, and how to advocate without overstepping.

Unit Four · Postpartum & Newborn

The fourth trimester. Newborn assessment and care. Lactation, supplementation, and feeding without dogma. Postpartum mood disorders. The slow return to wholeness.

Unit Five · The Doula in the System

Building a sustainable practice. Working with hospitals, providers, and other birth workers. Bereavement and pregnancy loss. Trauma-informed care. Staying in the work for the long haul without burning out.

Inside the pages

Designed for working clinicians.

Color-coded callouts

Intro Boxes, Clinical Notes, Doula Scripts, Case Files, and Key Takeaways — the same scaffolding throughout the whole book, so you can scan a chapter and find what you need.

Chapter glossaries

Every term defined where you first meet it. A master glossary in the back. No assumed vocabulary, no reader left behind.

Review questions

End-of-chapter review with a full answer key in the back of the book. Designed for self-study, classroom use, or board-style preparation.

Doula scripts

Real language for hard moments. What to say to a partner. What to say to a provider. What to say in a room where a baby has died. Ready to use, never canned.

The Data Driven Doula.

Built for the people actually walking into the room.

Five units. Twenty-one chapters. The full arc.

Designed for working clinicians.

Where evidence meets heart.

The other three books.

Built for the people actually walking into the room.

Five units. Twenty-one chapters. The full arc.

Designed for working clinicians.

Where evidence meets heart.

The other three books.

The EVERYTHING Guide

The Bereavement Doula

The Pocket Doula