Felicia Roche

CD-DONA,
DONA Approved Doula Trainer
Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator

Felicia is a Certified Doula through DONA International since 1998. She has been offering DONA Approved Birth Doula Trainings since 2002 and has trained hundreds of women in this time - women travel from all over the world to take her trainings. She served as the DONA Northern California Representative for 7 years, only recently retiring to pursue other positions.

In June 2006 she became certified with
Lamaze International as a
Childbirth Educator (LCCE)

Her most recent accomplishment is the video compilation
Working Women in Labor and In the Doula Spirit - two years in the making. Woven together with beautiful music, captivating photography and insightful interviews the videos artfully illustrate the positive role that doulas play in birth.

She is the founder of Working Woman Productions and has created the much acclaimed Doula Client Contact Files (a file system for doulas for organizing and charting client information). She also designed the 2001 DONA poster “How To Be A Fabulous Doula" The poster was modified to become a design on a bag given to doulas at the 2001 DONA Conference.

Felicia has assisted over 1000 families during their labors and births in the Bay Area and continues to make a difference for women and families on nearly a weekly basis. She has successfully built strong professional alliances with many care providers and nurses at local hospitals. She is very involved in many aspects of building a doula community locally and nationally. She is the Coordinator of the East Bay Doula Circle, which is currently being facilitated by the very lovely Jennifer Heystek www.eastbaydoulas.org

In 2004, the Learning Annex in San Francisco contracted Felicia to teach a course titled "How to Start a Career as a Birth Doula." The course was so successful that in the spring of 2005 Felicia presented the same topic for the Learning Annex in Sacramento.

In the fall of 2004, Felicia, along with a group of equally dedicated and diverse professionals, was called to found the non-profit organization, Bay Area Birth Association who's mission is to be a much needed resource for the local birth community.

She previously served as the executive director and publications coordinator for Birthways, a non-profit childbirth and pregnancy resources and referral center in the Bay Area.

Before finding her calling as a doula Felicia served for many years as a rape crisis counselor, joining women in trauma and guiding them through a heightened and volatile process. She was also a sex educator and lifeskills coach for Planned Parenthood, working with inner-city school kids.

Since 2009 Felicia has been fortunate to collaborate with Connie Sultana to teach the Introduction to Childbirth segment of the doula workshops.

Connie Sultana

B.A., CD(DONA)
ICCE, LCCE
Connie is a two-time member of the Board of Directors of DONA International. DONA is the oldest, largest and most respected doula association in the world. She was Director of Certification for DONA and a member of the Certification Committee for 15 years. She is one of DONA's first doula trainers.
She has worked in a variety of settings from Amish and Mennonite home births in the Ozark Mountains to serving as a co-director and founder of a doula program for inner-city teenagers in Cleveland. She has been a Midwife’s Assistant at a Missouri Birth Center.
Over the last 16 years she has operated private doula services in New York City, Cleveland, Missouri and California. She teaches childbirth education privately and at hospitals. She has worked for two hospital-based doula programs and was associated with Dr. John Kennell’s research regarding doulas.
She is certified as a childbirth educator by ICEA (International Childbirth Education Association) and Lamaze. Connie is a Lamaze-approved trainer for those who are interested in becoming childbirth educators. Her articles appear in the International Doula Magazine and The Journal of Perinatal Education.
She has served in the childbirth field in 2 countries, 5 states, 30 hospitals, 3 Birth Centers and over 70 homes. She is grateful to the families who have made it possible to attend over 500 births.
In her previous life, she was a television producer at CNBC.