MENTORING
Doula and Birth Photography Mentoring with Morag Hastings
Doula Mentoring with Morag Hastings
Are you looking to sharpen your doula skills? Do you want to learn how to help your clients with low intervention, informed-based care?
This 10 birth / one-year mentoring program works well on its own or it can be added to the birth photography mentorship. During our one on one sessions, we will cover prenatal visits, comfort measures, what normal birth looks like, how to help your clients get the birth they want, running your business, self-care, how to run a successful doula business and get clients. Included with the on-call portion you will get personalized on-the-spot birth support, post-birth debriefing sessions and business support. This one-on-one training will help you take your doula business to the next level.
Would you like more information about the Doula Mentorship? Click Here.
Birth Photography Mentoring with Apple Blossom Families
Are you looking for birth photography mentoring? Apple Blossom Families mentor program is a one year mentorship including 12 hours of instruction. The sessions are focused on what you need to become a professional birth photographer in your city. Our sessions cover everything from what gear you need, shooting births, editing, portfolio review, promotion, contracts, and workflow.
Once your mentorship has started you will have access to Morag for a 1 year period to ask questions as needed. The birth photography mentoring program was created to meet you where you are at in your business, to help you grow as a photographer.
Morag has mentored both new photographers and experienced photographers, both of who gained knowledge from the mentoring sessions. For more information and to apply click here.
About Morag Hastings
Morag always shares her insight with extremely refreshing, no-holds-barred honesty and humour. Her work with her busy doula and birth photography business, Apple Blossom Families, has not only helped individual families to have positive births but also has been hugely successful at increasing awareness of normal birth and breastfeeding practices through her photography. Morag has photographed over 400 births, averaging 40-50 per year, in both home and hospital, including many cesarean births as well as some unassisted births.
Upon graduating from the Langara Professional Photography program in 2000 I have continued to improve my work through self-education. I started my business in 2011, since then I have lead the pack locally and nationally in professionalizing the Canadian birth photography industry. People follow my work from around the world through my extremely popular Facebook and Instagram feed.
I co-founded the Canadian Birth Photographers Directory in 2012. It is a listing site for birth photographers all over Canada. Our website promotes birth photography nationally, while the private Facebook group, is a place for birth photographers to support each other. I love the community and people supporting each other through business.
My image won the Best in Labour category in the 2016 International Birth Photography Contest and I was voted one of Vancouver’s top Family Photographers on Vancouvermom.ca. My work has been published in top magazines and websites including Elle, Cosmopolitan, Self, Redbook, The Independent, BBC, huffingpost.com, Today’s Parent, and featured in TED Talks.
In 2020 I acquired Dancing Star Birth a well known childbirth education business in Vancouver. I shifted my work to teaching prenatal classes and mentoring doulas and birth photographers full time.
When I am not talking about birth I am often found in the endowment lands walking my two rescue dogs or hanging out on the Gulf Islands with my kids, dogs and partner.
Apply for Mentorship
Please fill out the application below to apply for the Apple Blossom Families birth photography and/or doula mentoring program. There are limited spots available throughout the year. Potential photography mentees must have attended at least two births and must have or be willing to purchase professional quality photography equipment.
Still have questions?
Overview
Doula mentoring with Apple Blossom Families includes 4 – 3-hour personalized sessions on various subjects to do with running a successful doula business. This includes but is not limited to interviews, prenatal visits, normal birth and how it progresses, running your doula business, self-care, and how to use proper comfort measures at the right time. I also will be on call for you for one year to help within the moment birth support, post-birth debriefing, and business support.
Can you combine doula mentoring with birth photography?
If you are adding this session to your birth photography mentoring it is added to the one year period already covered with the photography mentoring program.
Do I need to be listed on your website or can I just do the mentoring?
It is optional to be listed on the Apple Blossom Families website. I am perfectly happy to offer you the mentorship without the listing. If you live in the Lower Mainland and want to be part of our Apple Blossom Team we have a option for added fees to be listed on our site. It is a great way to build your client list while being part of a growing community.
This sounds great how do I apply?
To apply for a doula mentorship with Morag please answer the following questions and email them to moraghastings@gmail.com.
Have you have had attended a doula program? Please include a link to the program and the date you completed it.
Are you looking to mentor with me but do not want to be listed on the websites? If so where are you located and is there any information you would like to share with me about this?
Do you have an interest in expanding your knowledge to support low intervention, informed-based care? Please let me know what this looks like for you and what type of doula you would like to be. Also include a few sentences explaining what brought you to want to do birth work.
Are you interested in running your doula business as a full-time job? Do you have the ability to be on-call 24/7? Do you have your own transportation, appropriate childcare (if needed) and a support network to help you with the unexpected challenges of being a birth doula? if you have another job, do you have the flexibility to leave it immediately? Please tell me a bit about your lifestyle and how being a full-time on-call doula will fit into your life.
Are you are interested in continually learning and gaining knowledge around birth, the medical system and the current local birth culture? Which books, websites or other resources have inspired you?
How many births have you attended? Please tell me a little about a couple and how you felt about your support role at these births. If you have yet to attend a birth, please let me know and I can point you in the right direction to get started.
Birth Photography Mentorship Overview.
Check out this detailed article for more details about birth photography mentoring with Apple Blossom Families.
Is your mentoring program set or can we adjust it to what I need?
I have four set classes that go over all of the basics of gear, shooting, editing, portfolio review, running your business, contracts, and workflow. Depending on your experience and your needs I will adjust each program to suit what you need to learn about most.
What is in your camera bag?
Lucky for you, I wrote an article where you can find what is in my camera bag.
What if I don’t live in your city?
That is totally fine. We will use zoom which allows us to video chat and you can see my screen as I edit. All you need is high-speed internet, a webcam and a computer.
How do you choose a birth photography mentoring program?
I wrote this article about making this big decision on who to hire for birth photography mentoring.