Gentle Birth Doula Retreat
DONA approved birth doula training
March 17-25, 2025
©KasiaForman
Once a year, aspiring doulas from all around the world gather in Bali, Indonesia for the only doula training retreat of its kind. World-renowned doula trainer and Director of Orgasmic Birth, Debra Pascali-Bonaro joins CNN Hero and Bumi Sehat Founder, Midwife, Ibu Robin Lim for seven days of blissful teaching, learning, connecting and loving.
Join the Gentle Birth Doula Retreat!
**Local Indonesian Pricing is available, please contact us for more information.
Pathway to certification
All in person classroom requirements for DONA Birth Doula Certification will be fulfilled while attending Eat Pray Doula, all while immersing yourself in beautiful Bali culture, doula sisterhood, in gorgeous, relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.
- Introduction to Childbirth
- DONA Approved Birth Doula Workshop
- Breastfeeding for Doulas
The remaining requirements will be self-study. To learn more about certification, review blog article on steps to certify.
Eat, Pray, Doula is the right choice for you if...
- You are fascinated with birth and supporting MotherBabies and Families.
- You feel called to study, learn and experience the nourishing sisterhood that becoming a doula will provide.
- You are ready to use your special gifts, compassion, love and desire to make a difference in a career that will fulfill you, your soul and help to change the world.
Immersive Learning
A typical birth doula training takes place over 2-3 days. Our unique immersive experience allows time to dive deeper into learning, understanding, practicing and connecting.
- Visit Bumi Sehat Birth Center with CNN Hero Ibu Robin Lim
- Connect to a community of like minded women
- Discover the role and her-story of doulas
- Deepen your passion for providing a doula’s nurturing care and touch to women in childbirth
- Explore current practices vs supported care
- Learn 10 tips for doulas to support a mother hormonal physiology – making birth safer and easier
- Develop a toolkit of comfort measure
- Create a language for gentle birth and enhance your communication skills
- Learn birth traditions: dance, sing and comfort
- Learn how to protect a woman’s memory of her birth in any situation and any setting
- Discuss the emotional, spiritual, and sexual aspects of childbirth and how to help release fears and open to birth on every level
- Discuss how to support fathers and other partners
- Deepen your breastfeeding skills and wisdom
- Revel in placenta wisdom
- Practice doula skills in a safe circle of support
Join the Gentle Birth Doula Retreat!
**Local Indonesian Pricing is available, please contact us for more information.
The Island of the Gods
Eat, Pray, Doula is located in the clean, safe, and beautiful village of Nyuh Kuning. It is just a short
walk from The Sacred Monkey Forest and Bumi Sehat Birth Clinic, as well as shopping, dining
and top spas. We'll spend each day together at our retreat home, Peace Kitchen, while still
leaving you with ample time in the evenings for explore these local treasures.
Our teachers: A combined force of love and wisdom
In 2012, Ibu Robin Lim and Debra Pascali-Bonaro came together to teach the first Eat, Pray, Doula
Workshop in Bali. In 2017, they were joined by Midwife Mala Landt (CPM).
Since then, their vast individual and collective experience and passion for culturally safe, gentle birth — including informed and respectful decision-making as the pathway to Peace on Earth — has offered retreat participants an unparalleled wellspring of tools, inspiration, information, and hope for their own futures as
Doulas, Midwives, Nurses, Physicians, Acupuncturists, Therapist and Body Workers
to become change-makers in birth for the future of planet Earth.
Together, they provide our promised doulas with wisdom, research, song and ceremony which
has been acquired from traditional birthkeepers from around the world.
Learn more about our teachers
*click to expand
Debra has trained thousands of doulas, birth keepers and parents around the world in the practices of gentle birth support. She is the Founder & President of Pain to Power Childbirth Experience, Director of the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret , author and inspirational international speaker, and chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization. Debra’s passion comes from her years as a Lamaze International childbirth educator, and birth and postpartum doula trainer with DONA International where she has worked with women, men, midwives, doulas, nurses and physicians in over 40 countries bringing comfort, love and pleasure to birth and life!
Mala has been a CPM for over 20 years and lives on the Big Island of Hawaii on a small organic farm with three of her four sons and their families. Her farm has been dedicated as a Gentlebirth Sanctuary and Education Center. Mala has had a home birth practice on the Big Island for 18 years now yet she has spent 10 of those years traveling to Bali to work with Ibu Robin in Ubud, Bali.
Mala has a BA in Anthropology and Psychology and a Masters in Special Education. She worked as a Dance Therapist in the North Carolina State School for the Handicapped and later on in the Virgin Islands Public schools, she taught Adaptive Physical Education. She orchestrated Preschools to begin combining special needs children and “normal” children, and proved the benefits for both populations in social adaptation and motivation in learning.
She is an International Yoga Teacher of 40 years, a professional Massage therapist of 20 years, a Cranial Sacral Therapist and Prenatal Yoga instructor and Postpartum Exercise Instructor. She studied at the Oneness University in India and became a Trainer of “Deeksha”, which is a
force for Global Awakening. She was an Instructor of Doula Certification and training with
the Barefoot Doctors Academy in Hawaii in 2004, 2009 and 2014.
Our home in Peace Kitchen
A dream realized
It became apparent that Eat, Pray, Doula and many other Awakening Birth gatherings needed a home of our own, a place where we could learn, grow and heal together.
This safe haven for BirthKeepers would function as the center of a mandala. From this fulcrum Doulas, Midwives, Nurses, Doctors, Childbirth Educators, Prenatal Yoga Teachers, and BirthKeepers of all descriptions from all parts of our Earth, could be nourished.
This strength, we believed, would have a profound impact upon access to gentle respectful skilled, loving MotherBaby care, worldwide. Human rights in pregnancy, birth and postpartum, begins in circles, circles of Women.
Who makes a wish, like, “I need a big recycled house for BirthKeepers.” and gets that wish fulfilled the very next day? Ibu Robin. When her friend Katia offered her the ancient teak house, all she could do was cry, laugh, hug and be in gratitude!
The Divine plan for a place for Women, Children, Families… for BirthKeepers has sprouted.
Join the Gentle Birth Doula Retreat!
**Local Indonesian Pricing is available, please contact us for more information.
Our daily ritual
Sample Daily Schedule
- 7:00-8:00 AM: Daily Optional Yoga
- 8:15-9:15 AM: Nourishing Communal Breakfast
- 9:30-11:00 AM: Blessingway: Your Path to Eat Pray Doula
- 11:00-12:30 PM: The Her-story of childbirth
- 12:30-1:30 PM: Nourishing Communal Lunch
- 1:30-4:00 PM: Our bodies, Our babies: The physiology of pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum
- 4:00 PM and on: Enjoy dinner on your own, with your family or new friends!
- 7:00 PM: Optional Film Night at Peace Kitchen
*times and topics subject to change
Registration Information
**Local Indonesian Pricing is available, please contact us for more information.
Reserve your spot by paying our deposit of $850. This will be applied to the total retreat fee of:
-
$3,295 through September 30, 2024 -
$3,595 through December 15, 2024 - $3,895 through January 15, 2025
- $4,100 through workshop start
- Easy Payment Plans Available!
Our retreat fills quickly – join today for the best pricing and lowest payment plan options. Your deposit will be applied to the balance, please note it is non-refundable, no matter the circumstances. As soon as you book be sure to purchase travel insurance that will cover your retreat expenses even in the event of postponement or cancellation. Mother Nature and Father Time do not always share their plans. Volcanos, earthquakes, and pandemics have caused our retreat to be postponed in the past.
*Pricing above is in US dollars and based on double-occupancy lodging. Pricing without accommodations is $300 less.
What's included
- $850 Non-refundable deposit books your spot
- Easy automatic payment plans available
- Single + Double Occupancy Lodging at Peace Kitchen available
- Retreat without Accommodations available
- Welcome Dinner
- Daily Yoga
- Daily Nourishing breakfast
- Daily Healthy pleasurable lunch
- Celebration Dinner
Peace on Earth begins with you
Accommodations at Peace Kitchen are limited to 13 individuals. There are 11 double bedrooms and 2 single bedrooms. Once full, we will suggest local lodging suggestions for our participants.
| Check in | Welcome Dinner | Daily Retreat | Celebration Dinner | Check out |
|---|
| March 17th after 2PM | March 17th at 6PM | March 18-24th | March 24th at 6PM | March 25th at 11 AM |
|---|
There will be one free day to explore on your own or join for a special group activity.
Join the Gentle Birth Doula Retreat!
**Local Indonesian Pricing is available, please contact us for more information.
If you find it necessary to cancel your reservation, the following cancellation policy will apply:
Your $850 deposit is non-refundable
Three Months prior
We will refund all workshop monies received, less your $850 non-refundable deposit and unrecoverable monies from accommodations and other deposits made on your behalf.
Less than 3 months prior
A cancellation charge of 50%, less your $850 non-refundable deposit and unrecoverable monies from accommodations and other deposits made on your behalf.
One month prior
No refunds will be made at this point
Your deposit is non-refundable, no matter the circumstances. As soon as you book be sure to purchase travel insurance that will cover your retreat expenses even in the event of postponement or cancellation. Mother Nature and Father Time do not always share their plans. Volcanos, earthquakes, and pandemics have caused our retreat to be postponed in the past.
Common Questions
You do not have to have a professional background to take the Eat Pray Doula Retreat, but should have the following: fascination with pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn babies; a desire to work with women or couples during this most meaningful and demanding time in their lives; emotional maturity, stamina, and reliability.
There are no DONA Doula Trainings that will provide you with certification at the end of the workshop/retreat. Our DONA Gentle Birth Doula retreat fulfills 2 of the requirements of certification – an Introduction to Childbirth, DONA Doula Workshop. Beyond those, you will need to do additional reading, take a breastfeeding course, attend births, do some writing and create a resource list. Only our Birth Doula Retreat is a pathway to certification though, so please keep that in mind as you decide between our Advanced Retreat and Birth Doula Retreat.
After the retreat, you will begin doing independent/self-study to finalize your certification, including attending births. A requirement of DONA Doula Certification is that you attend at least 3 births as a doula and document those experiences for certification.
From experience we’ve found that doula trainings are incredible – inspirational, educational and full of sisterhood. BUT they are short! 3 days just feels too quick, and most of the time everyone wishes it could be longer and more immersive. You do learn so much in a “typical” workshop, and we encourage you to take one if you can’t attend Eat Pray Doula – but the retreat atmosphere is something that just can’t be replicated.Sisterhood – replenishment – self-care – connection – deep immersion – delicious food – daily yoga – gorgeous scenery – culture – love.
Each day you’ll have the opportunity for morning yoga and breakfast, the workshop, lunch together, opportunities for swimming at the retreat center pool, evenings together connecting with your new found sisterhood, time to take walks, explore and grab dinner together – it’s like nothing else.
Absolutely! You are welcome to book your own accommodations and have your family join you in Bali. The retreat is less if you stay offsite, and your welcome to include your family in the Welcome Dinner and Celebration Dinner for a small additional fee. Non-mobile babies can join you at the retreat each day, but mobile children will need a care-taker so that you can fully engage in the retreat. Small children are welcome to come by during the training to snuggle and nurse as needed.
When purchasing your flight to Bali, you will be flying into Denpasar airport (country code DPS).
Once you book your retreat, you’ll receive a number of forms to fill out letting us know when you’ll be arriving in Bali. We are happy to arrange aiport pick up for you. You will pay the driver directly, and they will bring you to Peace Kitchen or the location of your choosing.
Please check here to determine if you live in a country which requires a visa upon arrival. Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months Indonesia will NOT allow you into the country and your airline will NOT let you on the plane. If your passport is due to expire in 6 months or less, please have it renewed before coming
If you are traveling from outside Indonesia, you will require a passport. Please be sure your passport is valid for at least 6 months after your departure date. Indonesia will not allow you into the country and your airline will not let you on the plane, if your passport is due to expire in 6 months or less, please check and have it renewed before coming if necessary.
There are currently no travel warnings for Bali, but you can check for current travel warnings. Bali is a small island province of Indonesia and the country’s most popular tourist destination. The Balinese tend to be kind and helpful people. As for safety in the streets, there is very little violent crime in Bali, especially in Ubud. As a traveler you must take common sense precautions against petty crime, just as you would in any tourist resort.
Our welcome dinner takes place on the first day of the retreat in the evening. You are welcome to check in to Peace Kitchen anytime after 2PM, or let us know when you will be arriving so that we can make early arrival arrangements.
You may want to arrive a day or so early, so you can adjust to the time difference. We welcome early arrivals at Peace Kitchen for an additional fee, or you can stay locally at Villa Sonia, Bali Spirit or search for an Air B&B in Nyuh Kuning.
If you prefer to stay near the beach, the Village of Sanur is lovely and not far from the airport.
The last evening of our retreat is our celebration dinner – we’d love to have you join us! We suggest you stay that evening over night and check out the following morning to travel or fly home.
If you book the retreat with accommodations, you’ll be staying at the retreat hOMe, Peace Kitchen. Peace Kitchen is located in Nyuh Kuning. The exact location will be sent after registration.
Once our retreat rooms fill, we will recommend our overflow participants book rooms at Villa Sonia, located within walking distance.
Be prepared to be hot! The average temperature during the day is 84 with occasional brief rainstorms.
Bumi Sehat appreciates your wishes to volunteer as a doula. Unfortunately, the county has restrictions on foreign volunteer doulas. Bumi Sehat does have a non-doula volunteer program. Learn more HERE.
Want to help in another way? More than anything, the birth center is in need of financial support. If you are an organizer and can put together a fundraiser in your local community to raise funds for Bumi Sehat, that would be amazing!
It is hot outside during the day and a bit cooler in the evening. Bring light clothing in natural breathable materials and layers. When you arrive in Bali, you will have ample opportunities to shop for any clothes which you may need/want in order to help acclimate to the difference in climate. There is GREAT shopping in Bali!
Be advised that if you want to go to a temple you will need a blouse or shirt to cover your shoulders and a sash and sarong, which you can purchase in Bali. The Balinese welcome you to their temple festivals but you must dress properly.
Summer clothing is perfectly appropriate for classes.
You will need an electrical converter available at drug stores or office supply shops.
Please bring a reusable water bottle and refill with filtered water. The water in Bali is unsafe for tourists to drink or brush teeth unfiltered.
Most restaurants catering to westerners use bottled water for all cooking purposes. There is ample bottled water available all over the island and at all small food shops and convenience stores.
You will be traveling in a civilized, built up area. Your doctor may suggest all kinds of vaccinations for traveling in the jungle. Please impress upon your provider that you are staying in nice resorts and eating at good restaurants and discuss the question.
There are plenty of international medical clinics near the clinic. These clinics usually do not accept health insurance, but they do not cost much. Should you need specialized care in an emergency, you would be evacuated to Singapore. We require you purchase travel insurance.
There are pharmacies in Bali that have most common drugs, such as antibiotics, anti diarrhea, cold and flu remedies. If you are on a prescription, you need to bring enough for your trip. Make sure they are in pharmacy bottles with your doctor’s name on the label. Be sure to bring any and all natural remedies you like to have on hand.
The easiest way to access money in Ubud is via the ATM or to bring cash (large bills have better exchange rates) and exchange it at the airport, bank or authorized money exchangers. Banking hours are usually from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm from Monday to Friday and until 1:00 pm Saturday.
Please be sure to exchange enough money to pay your driver upon arrival as you will be responsible for their fee + gratuity.
Prior to your trip, please tell your bank and credit card companies the dates that you will be in Bali, as they may cut off your funds for fraud protection if they don’t know you are using your cards in a foreign country.
PLEASE NOTE:
Using a credit card or traveler’s checks for purchases is almost impossible anywhere in the village or in Ubud except in hotels and larger establishments. Be sure you travel with sufficient funds in your bank account to be able to access them via ATM. Your other alternative is to have money sent via Western Union to numerous locations in Ubud.
You can easily stay for about $100 per day. This includes housing, meals, local transportation, and some spending money.
During the retreat, breakfast and lunch is included each day, so you will only need money for dinner, shopping and attractions.