Birth Coach Method Code of Ethics

Birth Coach Method (BCM) is committed to maintaining and promoting excellent leadership in the field of birth support by coaching expectant women and their entire support group, as well as new parents. Therefore, BCM expects all members and credentialed coaches (coaches, coach trainers or students), to comply with the elements and principles of ethical conduct: to be competent and integrate the coaching core competencies effectively in their work. The Code of Ethics is designed to provide appropriate guidelines, accountability and standards of conduct for all BCM practitioners.

Birth Coach Method Misson

BCM mission is to empower expectant parents and professionals who lead them throughout the journey of pregnancy and birth. We teach birth professionals to integrate the coaching principles and strategies, used by coaches in a variety of fields, into the field of birth support. Integrating coaching into birth support is the pathway to patient/client-centered maternal care, which allows birth clients to overcome internal resistances and challenges, and optimally conduct themselves during birth.  In addition, the coaching process involves helping your clients distinguish truth from myths and fears from reality about pregnancy and birth. This type of care allows expectant mothers and their families to make choices based on their belief systems, individual needs, personal goals, strengths and skills, and with consideration of their areas of challenge. It elicits women’s accountability to their own process, with no attachment to the outcomes. Birth Coach Methods strives to lead pregnancy and birth support based on mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual growth, and partnership.

Our Values:

BCM values emphasize client-centered relationships and partnerships between birth coaches and expectant parents who engage in a thought-provoking and creative process. This engagement inspires the clients to maximize their personal choices and solutions, which are physiologically, mentally and emotionally appropriate for pregnancy and birth, and to pursue their desired pregnancy and birth experiences with respect to their health.  

BCM values the non-invasive, non-stressing physiological approach with respect to clients’ personal beliefs and choices. All expectant parents are treated with fairness, kindness and a nonbias recognition of their unique beliefs, wishes and inherent value of every individual. BCM practitioners assume responsibility and accountability for individual judgments and actions.

We value mutual respect between all birth support practitioners and caregivers and respect different practice styles. All professions are spoken of with respect assuming their sincere efforts to provide the best maternal care available for them, based on their training and resources.  

 

BCM Scope of Practice:

A Birth Support Coach must practice within the scope of practice in order to conduct themselves ethically. Practicing outside the scope of practice as a Birth Support Coach can lead clients to misunderstand the abilities of the coach(coaching) and can undermine the work of other coaches.

Birth Support Coaching is a new profession and practitioners who meet the coaching competencies will experience more sustainable results with their clients and naturally practice within the scope of practice.

As a coach, your primary role is helping your clients become more in touch with their own intuition and confidence that they have the resources within themselves to go through the journey of pregnancy and birth.  When you provide information, you can rob the client of the confidence that comes from arriving there themselves. The scope of practice illustrates that regular information sharing is not coaching, but that some information can be shared when it is in the client’s best interest. A coach adhering to the scope of practice, the BCM code of ethics, and skilled in the BCM competencies will be able to share information in support of their clients and help clients find the information themselves to build their own skills and confidence.

The scope of practice also highlights that if a coach holds active and nationally recognized credentials they may provide expert guidance related to that topic.

Birth Coach Method Codes of Ethics:

BCM practitioners participate in the efforts of the Birth Coach Method and uphold the BCM Mission, Standards of Practice, and Code of Ethics.

BCM practitioners carefully explain, prior to or at the initial meeting, the nature of the coaching engagement:

1. Make sure our clients understand that we are not medically trained, and therefore will not provide any medical advice.

2. We make sure our clients understand that we do not provide therapeutic services, but focus on leading them to achieve their desired experiences and goals.  

3. We make sure our clients understand the scope of our practice, our education and training, and the resources we rely on during the coaching engagement.

4. We make sure our clients understand that the coach’s role is to clarify, inquire, inspire, suggest resources and hold the clients accountable to their process, based on the clients’ beliefs, wishes, and actions.  

5. We make sure our clients understand the nature, and limits of confidentiality, financial arrangements, and any other terms of the coaching agreement.

6. We provide our clients with a clear coaching service agreement with clients before beginning the coaching relationship and honor this agreement. The agreement shall include the roles, responsibilities, and rights of all parties involved. BCM practitioners hold responsibility for setting clear, appropriate and culturally sensitive boundaries that govern interactions.  

BCM practitioners are accountable to comply with the core coaching competencies taught by Birth Coach Method:

1. Establish rapport, intimacy and mutual trust with coachees.

2. Practice active listening with no judgment.

3. Introduce strong search questions.

4. Facilitate clarity and awareness.

5. Set Goals

6. Design actions.

7. Manage progress and accountability to one’s process.

8. If hired in the capacity of a birth doula, you will provide client-centered physiological and emotional support to birth givers and their families prenatally, during childbirth and shortly after.

BCM practitioners are committed to clients’ privacy by maintaining the strictest levels of confidentiality with all clients.  The partnership we establish with clients dictates that we share all records with them during the coaching engagement. We maintain, store and dispose of all records, including electronic records created during the engagements, in a manner that promotes confidentiality, security, and privacy.

BCM practitioners are advocates who promote patient-centered maternal care, informed decision-making, assume the competence of clients, and encourage collaboration among all the different agents who take part in clients’ pregnancy and birth experiences.

BCM practitioners agree to practice within their professional scope of practice, for instance not to attempt to provide medical advice or to serve as therapists,  in light of mental and emotional distresses or disorder. 

BCM practitioners strive for professional excellence and reach for high standards as a public servant.