Support People

Our new course, Labor and Birth before 20 Weeks Gestation, fills that gap. It provides 6 hours of evidence-based, easy-to-understand material for any support person who wants to become more knowledgeable in supporting families physically through miscarriage.

Come join our free 5-day mini course, Prepared Presence 2025, September 22-26. Each day, you’ll get access to a short video with instructions for a 10-minute activity designed to help make your online presence more welcoming and supportive of loss families.

In this spotlight, we feature Carli Herzog, a Haven-trained bereavement doula in Iowa.

As bereavement doulas, one of the ways we support families is through connecting them to grief-informed care providers, of many kinds! Today’s blog post is part of our ongoing effort at Haven to help you strengthen your resource list – that collection of care providers that you have on hand and ready for the moment a family needs it.

Doulas and other support people may find themselves in situations where a baby is rushed off to surgery immediately or shortly after birth. How can we support families in this situation? Here are five suggestions for you.

In many bereavement cases, we as bereavement doulas (or any kind of support people) can benefit from a consultation with another professional. You may want to ask a neonatologist their general standard of care for a certain type of case, or an experienced bereavement doula how they might handle the family dynamic you’re presented with, or a grief therapist what modalities of therapy might be most useful to someone in your client’s situation.

When a little one needs a burial vessel, you might not realize that you have options.

A useful tool for bereavement doulas and loss families.

Mental health therapists are an important part of any bereavement resource list, and Haven Certified Bereavement Doulas are required to find a few as part of their certification process. Here are six things you should think about when finding therapists to add to your list.

We were so grateful to host therapist and author Julia Marie Hogan recently for the February 2025 Haven Skills Session!

On what it means to receive the same story - for the teller and for me.

When you're administering emotional first aid, one key component of your preparation is having resources ready should a client need them. Here are some resources you may need if you're administering emotional first aid to a client who has experienced a loss.

In this spotlight, we feature Amanda Smith, Haven-trained bereavement doula in North Carolina.

What should we know as support people about loss parenting during the holidays? I have developed a short guide, so we can better companion those we serve.

If you love to learn, to read, and/or to discuss tough topics with thoughtful people, this book club is for you.

In the midst of supporting families through miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss, it can be easy to lose sight of the beauty and joy in life. However, two things can be true; we can hold the grief of the families we support and our own grief along with joy and gratitude. Here are 5 practices that I have incorporated into my life to help me tune into the beauty of life while working as a bereavement doula.

In this spotlight, we feature Haven doula TaKiesha Smith in Fishers, IN.

A conversation with Haven doula Erica Lane.

It’s difficult to talk about loss on social media, but you don’t have to start from scratch. We have templates available for several different groups of folks, to equip you to talk about things that are often considered unspeakable.

You're a birthworker looking for strategies to talk more about loss on your online presence, we've got you.