Competency standards for childbirth and parenting educators

Competency Standards for Childbirth and Parenting Educators were developed by expert Australian Childbirth and Parenting Educators in 2011 and were published by NACE (now known as CAPEA) in 2012. CAPEA are now delighted to present the second edition, Competency Standards for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators 2nd edition, with this edition being published in December 2018.

Back in 2013 these were the first known Competency Standards in the world specifically for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators, and as such they were largely adopted by the NCT, the UK’s largest provider of childbirth and parenting education.

It is intended that these Competency Standards for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators will:

  • Assist women and their families to gain better access to high quality, responsive, learner-centred education during pregnancy and the early parenting period;
  • Assist educators in identifying their practice development and their learning needs;
  • Provide a nationally consistent approach for educator’s competency to be assessed;
  • Be dynamic enough to act as a benchmark for assessing competence to practice in a range of settings by the diverse group of professionals working in childbirth and early parenting education;
  • Be applicable to novice and expert educators, coordinators and managers of childbirth and early parenting education services.

2018 National Competency Standards

This PDF document also contains the Birth and Parenting Educator's Assessment Tool, CAPEA Guideline for Practice for Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators and a revised CAPEA Philosophy.

Using the Birth and Parenting Educators’ Assessment Tool: Student, New or Experienced Educator

The Birth and Parenting Educators’ Assessment Tool: Student, New or Experienced Educator aims to provide a user-friendly guide to a meaningful, professional conversation between the educator and the assessor or mentor.

Ideally, the Childbirth and Early Parenting Educators chooses the assessor or mentor to observe the facilitation of a group session and then provide feedback for further professional development, in a similar way to clinical supervision provided in other health professions, unless the assessment is part of completing a formal education program.

The Assessment Tool aims to assess how well the Educators applies the Competency Standards to their practice and can be adapted to various contexts.

Birth and Parenting Educator's Assessment Tool

Printed copies may be obtained by contacting us. A small fee to cover printing and postage will be charged.​

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