The Flagship Course · 9 Weeks · Self-Paced
The Unfiltered Birth Academy
A confident birth starts here. A 9-week, self-paced online course that helps you learn about common birth decisions, practice communication, and build birth and postpartum planning documents.
Why It Exists
A class built for the birth no one warns you about.
If short videos and scattered advice have left you with more questions than answers, the Academy provides a structured place to learn. The course organizes childbirth education, communication practice, and postpartum preparation into nine self-paced modules.
The Academy goes beyond the stages of labor to organize common options, informed-consent concepts, questions you can bring to your care team, and a postpartum support plan you can prepare before birth.
You receive customizable birth and postpartum planning worksheets, comfort-measure education, decision-making frameworks, feeding foundations, and a postpartum mental-health resource guide.
Course creator
The Academy was created by Erica Battista, LCSW, PMH-C, a Florida Licensed Clinical Social Worker and childbirth educator. Her Florida clinical license is separate from this educational course.
The Three Pillars
Built on three non-negotiables.
Clarity
Review common birth options, interventions, and decision points so you can prepare informed questions for your own care team.
Autonomy
Practice shared decision-making language and ways to communicate your preferences. Medical and legal standards vary by location and circumstance.
Confidence
Build a preparation toolkit and customizable birth and postpartum plans that you can discuss with your licensed medical team.
The 9-Week Curriculum
Every week, every detail.
Self-paced and packed with worksheets, blueprints, and decision guides you can use in real time.
Week 1Foundational Birth Prep
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Foundational Birth Prep
Establish your birth vision and understand the design of physiological birth.
Included Resources
- Birth Vision Worksheet
- Birth Stories PDF
- Physiological Birth Blueprint
Week 2Decision Making: Where Evidence Meets Intuition
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Decision Making: Where Evidence Meets Intuition
The history of modern obstetrics, your own birth biases, and the structured process of informed consent.
Included Resources
- Birth Biases Worksheet
- Decision-Making Blueprint
- First Decisions Comparisons Guide
- Conversations with Your Care Provider PDF
Week 3Autonomy: Taking Full Ownership Over Birth
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Autonomy: Taking Full Ownership Over Birth
Informed-consent concepts, shared decision-making, and ways to ask questions or communicate preferences in real time. Laws and facility policies vary.
Included Resources
- Informed Consent Learning Guide
- Questions and Communication Guide
Week 4Options & Interventions: The Decision-Making Blueprint
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Options & Interventions: The Decision-Making Blueprint
Prenatal testing, labor and postpartum options, induction and augmentation, comfort measures, pushing options, cesarean options, and labor complications.
Included Resources
- Guide to Pregnancy Choices
- Birth Decisions Worksheet
- Guide to General Labor Options
- Guide to Normal Variations
- Guide to Induction
- Guide to Comfort Measures
- Guide to Pushing Options
Week 5Pain Coping & Comfort Measures
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Pain Coping & Comfort Measures
Movement, breath, pressure, water, sound, partner support, and the medical pain-relief decision tree – so you can match the tool to the moment.
Included Resources
- Pain-Coping Toolkit
- Partner Support Cheat Sheet
Week 6Building Your Custom Birth Plan
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Building Your Custom Birth Plan
A guided framework to translate your values, preferences, and back-up plans into a concise one-page document to discuss with your provider.
Included Resources
- Birth Plan Template
- Provider Communication Scripts
Week 7Postpartum Reality & Recovery
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Postpartum Reality & Recovery
The first six weeks – physical recovery, hormonal shifts, sleep, mood, identity, boundaries, and visitor management.
Included Resources
- Postpartum Recovery Guide
- Boundaries Scripts
Week 8Foundations of Feeding & Newborn Care
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Foundations of Feeding & Newborn Care
The realities of breastfeeding, bottle feeding, and combo feeding – plus newborn cues, hunger signs, sleep patterns, and what truly matters.
Included Resources
- Feeding Foundations Guide
- Newborn Cues Cheat Sheet
Week 9Mental & Emotional Health for the New Mother
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Mental & Emotional Health for the New Mother
Knowing the signs of postpartum mood disorders, building your support network, and creating the postpartum mental-health plan most birth classes skip entirely.
Included Resources
- Postpartum Mental Health Plan
- Resource & Referral Directory
What You Walk Away With
A practical set of plans you can adapt and revisit.
- A customizable birth-preferences worksheet
- A customizable postpartum support plan
- Pain-coping toolkit (movement, breath, pressure, water)
- A framework for discussing common birth decisions
- Questions about informed consent and shared decision-making
- Conversation scripts for your provider
- Foundations of breastfeeding & combo feeding
- Postpartum mental health planning and resource guide
- Nine organized modules to revisit at your own pace
- Workbook and worksheets you can revisit
Want to prepare now? Explore the free pregnancy, birth, and postpartum planning tools. They are separate educational tools from the Academy course itself.
Enrollment
Join us inside the Academy.
Self-paced lessons and practical worksheets for birth and postpartum preparation.
$279
or 4 payments of $75
Or Begin With Therapy
One-on-one care, when you’re ready.
Psychotherapy is a separate clinical service available in person in Boca Raton and by telehealth when the client is located in Florida. A free 15-minute call can help you understand that option.