Kristen Downer, CPM, LDM, TLCD
Your Instructor & Co-Founder

Kristen Downer

CPM · LDM · TLCD

Over the last two decades, Kristen has devoted her knowledge, experience, and practical understanding to helping guide mothers and families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She has three children and three very different birth experiences.

Her first birth was in a hospital with lots of interventions and very little support. She left that birth confused, frustrated, and in pain. She knew there had to be a better way. She vowed to offer her emotional, physical, and practical support to women in labor as often as they would let her. At the time, she had no idea what she was doing was called being a doula.

When her second baby was born, she gave birth in a birth center with a nurse midwife and not just one doula, but two. It was completely natural and the most empowering experience of her life . After her second son was born, she was convinced that doulas should be available to every woman who wants one, and she set out to make that happen.

Certified Professional Midwife Licensed Direct-Entry Midwife DONA-Trained Doula Doula Trainer Certified Preceptor
Her Journey

From student to midwife to your guide.

Kristen started mentoring new doulas and simultaneously began her path to midwifery. Finally, she had her last baby at home in water, with two midwives and an amazing doula. She couldn’t have asked for a better or more beautiful birth experience.

She loves birth. She loves watching women transform into mothers. She loves providing opportunities for women to touch another woman’s life on what is arguably the most important day of her life.

Kristen is a DONA trained doula, experienced educator, and the founder of Womb Service Doula Services. She has led countless advanced doula trainings, including Childbirth Education, Doula Business Fundamentals, and hands on support for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and breastfeeding.

Her work has taken her into homes, birth centers, and hospital settings, where she has supported families with calm, practical, and compassionate care. In 2009, Womb Service Postpartum grew from that work, offering breastfeeding and postpartum support to families throughout Central Texas.

Kristen was an active volunteer with GALS, Giving Austin Labor Support, and a founding member of the Central Texas Doula Association. She was also a Certified Preceptor for Birthingway College of Midwifery, the Utah School of Midwifery, the North American Registry of Midwives, and the National College of Midwifery.

Kristen currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to bring decades of birth, postpartum, education, and mentorship experience to the Tiny Love Doula Certification program.

Having small children and working as a doula is not only possible, it is extremely rewarding. Can you think of a better reason to leave the house?

What You Learn With Kristen

More than technique. More than knowledge.

Kristen teaches from the inside out, from real births, real families, and real moments that shaped this curriculum.

Emotional Presence

How to hold space without taking over. How to read a room and know when words help and when silence does.

Practical Skills

Comfort measures, positioning, labor support techniques, and postpartum care built from 1,700+ real births attended.

Business Foundations

How to interview clients, set your rates, create contracts, keep records, and build a sustainable doula practice.

Advocacy

How to support families in navigating their options, communicating with providers, and advocating for their birth preferences.

Evidence-Based Practice

Every recommendation grounded in current research. No guesswork, no outdated advice, nothing that hasn’t been tested in real birth rooms.

Professional Standards

The TL Standards of Practice, ethics, boundaries, and how to show up as a professional in every birth space you enter.

Ready to write your own story?

Join over 2,500 certified doulas who began their journey with Tiny Love. One price, lifetime access, no renewal fees.

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