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Art of Home

Natural Building Retreat

In-Person Immersive · 7-Day Course

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Become a Birth Ally: Doula

Join us for this seven-day immersion into the ancient and essential work of the Doula.

Together, we will walk the full arc of the reproductive journey—conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release. Learning what it truly means to protect the sanctity of each stage. Birth is not merely a moment; it is an initiation that reshapes a woman's entire being, and those who tend this portal carry a profound responsibility.

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Birth keepers are one of the guardians of the birth portal—the ones who hold the invisible architecture of safety so that the mother–baby dyad can remain intact, undisturbed, and sovereign. To serve in this role is to become a protector of physiologic birth, an embodiment of what it means to trust our physiologic wisdom, and a witness to the ancient power that moves through a woman's body when she is held with reverence. 

This in-person gathering is a weaving of classroom learning, ritual, hands-on practice, and embodied knowing. You will study the hormones, nervous system, biomechanics, fetal rhythms, and birth ecology that must be safeguarded for physiologic birth to unfold in its true design. You will also learn how to tend the subtle, unseen dimension of birth—the realm where intuition, presence, and ceremony anchor trust into the experience. 

You will receive the mentorship, practical skills, and deep inner inquiry needed to serve with integrity, devotion, and embodied clarity. This training prepares you to step into your role as a doula or birth keeper—rooted, ready, and aligned with the sacred nature of this work.

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  • The Curriculum •

A pregnant woman with curly hair, wearing a white dress and jewelry, stands outdoors amidst greenery and flowers, gently holding her belly and looking down with a smile.

    • Deep dive into the richness of the feminine form, exploring female physiology to understand the stages of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. 

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    • Learn how to support women and families as they navigate the initiation of the prenatal times.

    • Nutrition, neonatal development, the phases of pregnancy, and more.

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    • Explore how to be the most potent ally for the birth journey through understanding physiologic birth care and what it takes to be a protector of the space. 

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    • Learn how to hold space and support families in the first 40 days of postpartum. 

    • How to nourish, tend the family, process birth, and support a household with grace and deep presence.

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    • Understand how to care for a woman in chosen or unchosen pregnancy loss, honoring each woman's process and choice. 

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    • Learn how to ally with plants to create formulas, teas, broths, steams, smudges, and sitz baths.

    • Remedies for the whole family, including placenta encapsulation and tincture.

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    • Songs and ceremony to guide and ground this profound journey of space holding. 

    • Traditional practices that can be shared with reverence.

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    • An exploration of the ancient practice of Mayan Abdominal Massage. 

    • Support prenatal and postpartum mothers with abdominal massage practices. 

    • Learn proper techniques of how to wrap a faja.

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    • The journey of the Doula is steeped in the magic of collaboration—learn how to build resilient community and birth culture. 

    • Connect with other doulas and create a supportive environment of collaboration.

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Why Join Us

The world needs more doulas who uphold women's sovereignty in birth. Our current system often prioritizes medical intervention over a woman-centered experience. As a doula, you'll empower women to make informed choices, reclaim control of their birthing experience, and honor the ancient tradition of women supporting women. 

You'll be a vital advocate for holistic, woman-centered healthcare that prioritizes a mother's well-being alongside the well-being of her baby and family as a whole. By providing emotional support, evidence-based information, and practical guidance, doulas bridge the gap between traditional wisdom and modern healthcare, fostering a safe and sacred space for birth. 

Becoming a doula or birth/postpartum ally is a powerful step toward reclaiming our sovereignty as women. By educating ourselves and others about the natural birthing process and the importance of honoring our spiritual and biological needs, we can challenge the medicalized and patriarchal systems that often dictate women's reproductive experiences. 

This work is not just about supporting birth; it is about reclaiming our agency, challenging societal norms, and fostering a more equitable and empowering world for women. 

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This is for you if

This training is for the women who feel the ancient pull in their bones—the whisper that birth work is not a "career," but a remembering. A return to ourselves, to who we have always been and to who we are becoming. A reclamation of something older than language. 

  • You feel called to birth work as a sacred vocation

If the mysteries of womanhood stir something deep in your belly... if you have always known you are meant to stand at the threshold with other women... this training will feel like coming home to the best parts of yourself.

  • You are a new or aspiring doula craving real, embodied, hands-on learning

Not online modules. Not sterile information. You want the heat of the fire, the presence of mentors, the living transmission that only happens in circle and on the land with each other.

  • You are a mother who understands birth as initiation

Perhaps you've walked the path yourself, and now you feel the call to carry the torch for others. You know the terrain of thresholds, and you're ready to support women as they step into their own becoming.

  • You are a woman reclaiming our ancestral ways

If you feel the ache of severed lineages… if you long to reweave yourself into the web of midwives, aunties, sisters, and birth keepers who tended birth since the beginning—this immersion will feed you.

  • You are a practitioner wanting to deepen your medicine

Herbalists, yoga teachers, therapists, bodyworkers, space holders—anyone who serves women and families. You want tools that are embodied, ancestral, trauma-informed, and rooted in the physiology of the feminine. 

  • You are an activist committed to protecting reproductive rights

If you are devoted to rebuilding a world where mothers, babies, and families are protected… if you know that real change requires skills, embodied knowledge, and the courage to stand firm in sacred truth—this training gives you the tools, the language, and the backing to become a true advocate. 

  • You want to support the rebirth of community-based reproductive care

If you believe in women's sovereignty, mother-baby protection, village support, and the quiet revolution happening through birth keepers reclaiming their power—you are ours, and we are yours.

Join the Waitlist
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  • Meet Your Guides •

A woman with short dark hair, wearing red lipstick, jewelry, and a patterned shawl, practices a ritual with bowls of herbs and rose petals outdoors during sunset.

  • Certified Nurse Midwife (APRN, CNM) · Certified Birth Doula (CD-DONA) · Registered Nurse (RN)

    Isa is a compassionate leader in women's health, devoted to empowering families through her roles as a Certified Nurse Midwife, certified birth doula, and registered nurse. Her approach views birth as a sacred journey—a powerful, transformative experience deserving of holistic, respectful support. Isa combines modern clinical expertise with traditional wisdom, creating a complementary space that honors each family's unique vision and values. She started her path as a birth worker in service to immigrant and refugee families in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The past year and a half, she has cultivated experiential midwifery knowledge in the context of a free-standing birth center at the borderlands between the US and Mexico. 

    Her work is deeply rooted in empathy, building genuine connections and fostering an environment where women feel empowered and secure. A lifelong learner, she integrates indigenous teachings into her practice, enhancing her awareness of the elements and honoring the natural rhythms of women's bodies. She is honored to represent her community on the Red Road as a Sundancer and former Moondancer. Isa's dedication goes beyond professional commitment; she serves as a guide, providing families and birth supporters with the tools and trust they need to embrace the birthing journey with confidence, reverence, and strength.

A woman with long wavy hair, wearing a white dress with a polka dot pattern, is kneeling outdoors in a garden, holding a sprig of lavender with her eyes closed.

  • Clinical Herbalist · Natural Builder · Birth Keeper · Educator

    Ashley McDonell is a birth keeper, clinical herbalist, natural builder, and educator whose work weaves together physiology, ancestral wisdom, and the sacred arts of womanhood. For more than 15 years, she has served families across the reproductive continuum—guiding women through conception, pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum, and pregnancy release with deep presence, sovereignty-centered advocacy, and unwavering devotion. 

    Her lineage of study includes mentorship with Whapio, Rachelle Segal, traditional midwives, birth attendants, and teachers of the Wise Woman and physiological birth traditions. Ashley's approach blends evidence-informed understanding with ancestral knowledge, nervous system literacy, and trauma-aware birthkeeping. She holds a rare capacity to translate complex physiological processes into embodied, intuitive knowing. 

    As the creator and lead educator of the Doula & Birth Keeper Training at Of Ash and Bone: School of Ancestral Arts, Ashley teaches from the intersection of activism, ritual, and biology. Her work centers the protection of the mother–baby dyad, the restoration of undisturbed physiologic birth, and the remembrance of birth as a profound initiatory rite. She is known for helping women reclaim their sovereignty while preparing birth workers to stand as guardians of the sacred, skilled advocates within medical systems, and compassionate stewards of community-based reproductive care.

    Ashley's teaching style is both deeply rooted and radically human—equal parts technical, poetic, and fiercely aligned with the values of reciprocity, reverence, remembrance, relationship, and responsibility. In every container she leads, she brings her full self: the herbalist, the builder, the ritualist, the activist, and the woman devoted to reweaving our connection to the earth and to one another. 

    Her mission: to restore the dignity of birth, to return power to women, and to train a generation of birth keepers who can hold the thresholds of life with skill, integrity, and sacred regard. 

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  • Midwife · Birth Keeper · Belfast, Ireland

    Deirbhile has been devoted to this path for over fifteen years, first called to midwifery at the age of fourteen through vivid dreams and an inner knowing that never left her. She completed a BSc in Midwifery Sciences at Queen's University Belfast and spent five years as a clinical midwife in the UK, attending hundreds of births across homebirth settings, postnatal wards, birth centres, and the operating theatre. Her journey has also led her through Canada and Guatemala, where she apprenticed with traditional Mayan midwives, integrating their teachings—abdominal massage, rebozo, ceremony, and ancestral birth practices—into her work. 

    In 2025, after six years of professional registration, she consciously stepped outside the medicalized maternity system to serve women who choose to birth in their full sovereignty, while still honoring the value of medical intervention when truly needed. She believes birth is a sacred rite of passage, safest at home, guided by physiology, intuition, and spirit.

• Meet Your Guest Teachers •

A young woman with long wavy hair, wearing a headband, green tank top, and denim shorts, smiling at the camera in a kitchen with wooden shelves and containers in the background.

  • Herbalist · Mother · Teacher · Birth & Postpartum Doula 

    Julia Bentley, originally from Tennessee (ancestral territory of the Cherokee people), found her path into herbalism through her own healing journey from eczema and psoriasis. After studying with Sajah Popham, Julia moved to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, where she has cultivated deep roots in herbal healing and education. A humorous and engaging teacher, Julia blends lightheartedness with deep wisdom, encouraging students to laugh and find humility in their practice. Her lectures on alchemy and the spagyric arts invite exploration into the more mystical aspects of herbal medicine.

Four women wearing traditional, colorful, patterned clothing and headscarves sit outdoors among lush green plants, participating in a cultural or spiritual gathering. There are bowls, cups, and food items on the ground in front of them, and a large pot of water nearby.

  • Traditional Mayan Birth Keepers (Parteras)

    The Zavala family come from an unbroken lineage of traditional Mayan birth keepers, carrying forward ancestral knowledge of pregnancy and postpartum care. 

A woman with dark hair tied in a bun, wearing a white tank top and black pants, sitting on the floor on a striped rug, holding her stomach. She is indoors in a room with wooden floors and a large window with greenery outside. There is a brown pillow behind her, a white ottoman on her right, a whiteboard or screen, and some writing utensils on the floor near her.

  • Midwife · Mother · Herbalist · Abdominal Massage Specialist 

    Mariu is a Guatemalan midwife, healer, and massage therapist, born and raised in her craft. After working with indigenous midwives for ten years in the Maya highlands and studying midwifery for four years, she gracefully integrates traditional and professional midwifery—offering her services to local indigenous women and foreigners alike, especially those who seek a safe, humanized birthing space in the comfort of their home. 

A woman with curly red hair holding a yellow flower with a green stem and white base, smiling and wearing a yellow top, outdoors with blurred green background.

  • Tantra · Somatic Healing · Ritual · Womanhood

    Venus has spent more than 10 years exploring the question: What does it mean to be embodied in a female body? Through Tantra, Motherhood, Dance & Movement, Yogatherapy, Breathwork, Somatic Healing, Conscious Touch, and Ritual, her devotion toward the Heart is her commitment to Spirit. Her life experience of birthing three daughters and her devotion to womanhood has taken her to mentor women through their paths of Maiden, Mother, and Crown.

A woman with long reddish hair smiling outdoors, standing with her hands pressed together in a prayer position, in a lush green garden with sunlight filtering through the trees.

  • Prenatal Yoga Facilitator · E-RYT 500

    Jessi has been teaching yoga since 2009 and facilitating yoga teacher trainings since 2012. She attended a Holistic Doula Training in 2019 and immediately knew it was a calling for her work with women and birth. Jessi teaches a Vinyasa-based practice that combines elements of dance and natural movement with traditional yogic sequencing, incorporating attention to the rhythm of the breath and allowing organic movement to flow in each pose. She will offer morning yoga throughout the training.

Woman with long reddish hair leaning over a low table, arranging rocks on a red patterned fabric. In the background, two women are seated, one with glasses, and a person standing behind them. Several mugs are placed on the table, and the setting appears to be indoors with colorful decorations on the wall.

  • Mother · Devotee · Intuitive Medicine

    Annika is a mother and a devotee to humanity's umbilical connection to life itself, to reciprocal prayer, and to intuitive medicine. She weaves together the threads of tradition and new culture to create continuously evolving and integral ways of collective living, bridging the teachings of elemental laws into everyday living prayer.

  • "Finding a training where I could be immersed in the world of ritual and song, traditional practice, and a supportive environment was so amazing.

    These teachings changed my life and I am forever grateful."

  • "The energy Ashley brings into the space is beyond.

    It has been so passionate and everything she told was so profound. The passion and enthusiasm was highly contagious—thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge, time and energy with us."

  • "For me, all of the hands-on, ritual-type experiences—working with the faja, the temazcal, singing together—are what really help distinguish this from an online training. These are parts of the practice you can't get anywhere else."

  • "Thank you Ashley and Isa for your unique magic, wonderful teachings, and for holding us all in this beautiful space.”

    "Being together with you and all the amazing women was so healing for my soul."

  • "There is nothing like an in-person training to give you the confidence and support you need to feel able to hold powerful space for birthing people. This training gave me the soul food to go back and support my community in a more skillful way."

  • "Ashley is amazing. I love her passion, her fire, and the deep well of wisdom she carries.

    It truly feels like she’s channeling the voices of the ancestors. She embodies this wonderful wild woman of the mountain energy — someone who weaves many medicines together to serve her community. This course felt like an especially potent transmission, and I feel so grateful to be in continued relationship with her — not just as a teacher, but also as a sister and a friend.”

  • "I'm not sure words can describe how much I appreciate Ashley.

    She is fierce, badass, hilarious, shame-free, and so kind-hearted — truly an inspiration. She has an incredible way of explaining things and weaving in playfulness and humor that is so engaging. I could listen to her all day.”

  • "Blessed to have learned from her and am so damn grateful to start sharing this knowledge.

    Super amazing, inspiring and incredible teacher. Worded things so well, easy to understand, took time to explain everything but also stuck to the schedule making sure we got through it all. “

Course Cost

A 7-Day Doula Training

Course Only Tuition: $1,450 USD

  • You will receive a comprehensive and embodied doula training that includes all course content, 3 nourishing meals a day, an in-depth notes packet, daily yoga and grounding practices, multiple temazcales, practical rituals you can use with clients, connection to a new community of birth keepers, and a supportive group of sisters to tend you as you grow as a doula. You'll also get access to recorded supplemental classes to support your continued learning. This is more than a training—it's a transformational journey into the heart of birth work. 

  • This training blends practical, evidence-based birth education with ancestral wisdom, ritual, and deep personal transformation. Beyond learning how to support births, you'll be held in a ceremonial container that invites you into your own healing and growth. With temazcales, daily movement, embodied practice, and a heart-centered approach to care, you'll leave not just certified—but deeply rooted and ready to serve. Our educators come from vastly different backgrounds, countries, and cultures, ensuring that the perspectives offered honor many different lineages of birth work. 

Register

Schedule a free Discovery Call. 

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Our Daily Flow

8:30 – 9:30

Embodiment Practice

9:30 – 1:00

First Lecture (e.g. Birth Physiology)

1:00

Lunch

2:00 – 5:30

Guest Teacher & Hands-On Practice

5:30 – 7:00

Optional Evening Activity
(Sauna, Fire, Etc.)

 
 

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