Donyale Abe is the executive director and leading faculty member of Childbirth Professionals International. She is also author of the book, Called to the Childbirth Profession.
She attended her first birth as a doula in 1996.
Ms. Abe is passionate about serving childbirth professionals and childbearing families.
She has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, a Masters of Science in Medical Education Leadership from the University of New England, and has over 20 years experience in the field as an Instructor, Workshop Facilitator, Childbirth Educator, Doula, and Prenatal Yoga Teacher.
Currently, she is a professor and leading faculty member of the Community Healthcare Worker certificate program at Sacramento City College. Additionally, she is a course developer and instructor at Rutgers University for the Health Communication and Information Certificate.
She travels around the United States, Canada, and Asia to lead workshops. For 15 years she worked as a health educator teaching childbirth, breastfeeding, newborn care, and prenatal yoga classes at Kaiser Permanente hospitals, Dignity Healthcare, and the UC Davis Health System.
She designed and wrote the training and certification programs for CPI. As an ambassador and advocate for the Childbirth Profession she spreads the knowledge about the amazing opportunities for those seeking careers serving childbearing families.
She is a past board member of the International Childbirth Education Association, serving as treasurer, and also managing editor of the International Journal of Childbirth Education.
She has prepared thousands of families and professionals across the globe through her classes, articles, podcasts, and workshops.
She wrote the Blueprint for Childbirth Health Care Studies, a college curriculum that fills the gap so that professionals can graduate college with a Bachelor’s degree prepared to serve families without needing further certification.
Her long term goal is to improve maternity care by increasing the number of licensed midwives/certified professional midwives in the United States. To this end she serves on the Midwifery Advisory Council of the California Medical Board.