Eighteen identified motivations for attending a birth doula training workshop were ranked by 467 participants (466 females, 1 male) in 2010 and 2013. Participants selected a variety of reasons but only 30% chose to "become a professional doula" as their main reason. Another 20% wanted to "become a midwife." Remaining participants selected 16 other professional and personal motivations, such as "increase birth knowledge," "understand my own births," "make future births better," and "help women have better births (not as a professional)." One quarter had not attended a birth or had a child. Besides career training, these workshops are filling a cultural gap in childbirth education for people who are not expectant parents, and who intend to use this knowledge in unanticipated ways.
Keywords: doula; doula training; midwifery education; motivation; nursing education; nursing students.