Against Certification: Stop Bringing Bureaucracy into Motherhood
"Potty training certification" should not be a thing.
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Over the last five years, I’ve noticed a glut of certification programs in the mommy space. Everything from hypno birthing to potty training has a curriculum and an exam fee. Many of you, gentle readers, may be certified in one of these type programs. I’m not here to knock your hustle. If you’re a certified placental encapsulator or a toddler probiotics coach and you’re getting paid to do what love, then keep thriving!
After breastfeeding my first baby, I wanted to become a lactation consultant (IBCLC). I went to an info session about how to become an IBCLC and I left totally discouraged. It was really geared towards people who wanted to work in hospitals/clinics and it was so.much.work. Almost all of it was unpaid. I would need to take 14 courses, 8 of them college classes ranging from human anatomy to sociology, and complete 90 clinical hours.
While on the surface this may seem like a reasonable amount of work for a medical professional, the fact is: moms have been coaching other moms on how to breastfeed since we were living in caves. Somehow these uncertified cave women nourished the human race long enough that we would dominate the entire planet.
Look, I understand that pregnant women/ new moms often feel vulnerable (understatement, I know) in this society and they want an expert to help guide them. There's a tidal wave of information online, not all of it quality, so having some sort of standard of who to listen to makes people feel safe. But does this rush to credential and certify ourselves in order to help women and their babies really help empower mothers? Or are we recreating a system of bullshit credentialism that discourages women from trusting their own instincts and experiences?
Certification is also straight up gatekeeping. It’s a bureaucratic tool to decipher merit based on ‘formal’ schooling instead of skills and experience. It also costs money and the more money people are willing to spend on these certifications, the higher the cost to entry. This narrows the view of what’s possible for women and dims the imagination for other ways of learning. Or in the words of anthropologist David Graeber, “bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible."
We’re selling ourselves short if we discount other women because they don’t have enough certification.
And in the birth/mommy space, certification can be preettttaayyyy flimsy.
Let’s just take a look a couple ‘certifying bodies’:
Oh Baby School of Nutrition: “An innovative approach to nutrition education. Rooted in traditional wisdom, supported by modern science.” This starts at $3,600
The Institute of Pediatric Sleep and Parenting: you can be certified as a newborn sleep consultant ($3,500) or certified in potty training ($675)
Healthy Institute: Become certified in helping babies start solids ($809)
Doula Trainings International: You can become a certified postpartum doula ($997) where you will learn, “postpartum basics, birth anatomy, infant feeding and business basics through our course platform as well as live calls with your educator.”
So to recap: birthing, feeding, chewing, dealing with poop, and putting your kids to sleep—things mothers have been doing before THE WHEEL WAS INVENTED— are now complicated enough to build little school around each of them.
But what even is a certification?
Certifying bodies can be anyone. Typically it's a standard curriculum set by a group of people, some can be very credible and others not so much. Sometimes (in the case of re-certifying as a teacher), all you have to do is pay!! What a scam!
I could start an Elephant Cuddler Certification program. Our curriculum would be established by an esteemed elephant enthusiast: my son. After you’ve taken the 72 hours of Zoom courses (mostly my son playing his favorite Youtube videos of elephants) and 20 hours of hands on cuddling with my son’s favorite elephant toy, you will be certified and $300 poorer! YAY!
These certification courses also pitch themselves as business coaching.
Take this “baby nutrition course” from Oh Baby. Their “certified postpartum nutrition program” costs a cool $3.6K and includes options to add on and get multiple certifications in baby or pregnancy nutrition for another two grand. You can also pay extra for the “business course. “ I imagine most of the women taking these courses are moms trying to earn an income while staying home. In my experience, the business portion of these big certification programs (mine included) is lacking and not up to date with the best practices, especially for starting a digital business. A lot of these certification programs are going to give you the basic education and then leave on the side of the information superhighway with a printable certificate and absolutely no tools to start your business.
The sleep consultant curriculums are some of the most unethical out there because they’re typically awash in all the same awful, anxiety inducing myths about baby sleep that absolutely destroyed my first postpartum experience.
Ok, so welcome to the Radical Moms Institute of Infant Sleep. Here’s the crash course:
Your baby is crying because as a defenseless baby who’s been on the earth for a shorter period than the most recent season of Vanderpump Rules has been on the air, and that’s his only form of communication.
Put the baby in bed next to you, you both will sleep better.
You CAN share your experiences, knowledge, struggles, triumphs and help moms without shelling out thousands to these companies--I sure do!
After I left that info session, I started the process anyway not really knowing if I’d get officially certified. I started volunteering in my local La Leche League, I became a leader in the group, and have been working hands-on with new moms for years now. eventually decided to pursue certification to be a lactation counselor—think of it as the ‘bachelors’ in lactation and IBCLC is the ‘masters’. It was a good program but I’ve done an incredible amount of self study as well. I teach breastfeeding workshops and help new moms breastfeed any way I can. I don’t think moms come to me because of the classes I took. I don’t think they care if know the latin name for a shoulder blade (I don’t!). I think it’s the fact that I’ve spent seven years nursing two children through toddlerhood. It’ my voice, my values, my background and my personality that draws them to me. And they come back because they feel heard and supported.
Whatever you’re passionate about as a mother, that is enough to qualify you to share in this weirdo world we call the mommy space.