The Prenatal and Perinatal Educator Certificate Program (PPNE) offers information in 12 competencies that make up our paradigm regarding early optimal development for babies starting in utero. These competencies are represented in our modules:

Module 1: Foundations of Pre and Perinatal Psychology

Guiding Principle of the Primal Period: The primary period for human development occurs from preconception through the first year of postnatal life. This is the time in which vital foundations are established at every level of being: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and relational 

Learning Objectives: 

• Define pre- and perinatal psychology and its importance to the comprehension of human development
• List the 12 Guiding Principles of the Pre & Perinatal Sciences
• Identify pioneers in the PPNE field
• Describe the trends and influences for the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology
• List the four foundations of birth psychology
• State APPPAH's position on abortion
• Describe how somatic therapies are intertwined with psychology

Module 2: Histories & Theories of Pre and Perinatal Psychology:

Guiding Principle of Forming the Core Blueprint: Experiences during this primary period form the blueprint of our core perceptions, belief structures, and ways of being in the world with others and ourselves. These foundational elements are implicit, observable in newborns, and initiate life-long ways of being. These core implicit patterns profoundly shape our being in life-enhancing or life-diminishing directions.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify pioneers in the prenatal and perinatal psychology field
• Describe the trends and influences for the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology
• List the principle theories regarding stress and trauma patterns, demonstrating their therapeutic applications
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• Define craniosacral therapy

Module 3: Neuroscience & Epigenetics 

Guiding Principle of the Continuum of Development: Human development is continuous from prenatal to postnatal life. Postnatal patterns build upon earlier prenatal and birth experiences. Optimal foundations for growth and resiliency, including brain development, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation are predicated upon optimal conditions during the preconception period, pregnancy, birth and the first year of life. This module explores the seminal impacts of ancestral trauma and prenatal life issues. 

Learning Objectives:

• Explain early influences on cellular development and how they subsequently affect life
• Differentiate shock from trauma and explain the impact of both on the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), specifying how violence and empathy directly affect the ANS
• Define interpersonal neurobiology and its centrality to the PPNE field
• Identify parts of the brain that develop in utero and during the first year of life, describing related neuro-anatomical phenomena in depth, such as: implicit memory, nervous system imprinting, neuroplasticity, mirror neurons, the infant nervous system, self- and co-regulation, social engagement, polyvagal theory, and neuroception
• Explain the functions of the autonomic nervous system and its relation to health, clearly defining the parameters of optimal development in nervous system regulation and development
• Explain epigenetics and its significance in human development
• Identify major influences, practitioners and authors that model the integration of neuroscience, psychology, trauma and bodywork in the PPNE field, and supply resources for further training and development

Module 4: Consciousness & Cellular Memory (new module)

Guiding Principle of Capacities & Capabilities: Human beings are conscious, sentient, aware, and possess a sense of Self even during this very early primary period. We seek ever-increasing states of wholeness and growth through the expression of human life. This innate drive guides and infuses our human development. From the beginning of life, babies perceive, communicate, and learn, in ways that include an integration of mind-to-mind, energetic, and physical-sensorial capacities and ways of being. This module presents how prenatal life and the birth story have life-long psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual impacts that can be addressed through consciousness and compassion to create healing. 

Learning Objectives

• Describe the history and philosophy of consciousness
• Discuss the leading theories of consciousness and the ways they are being tested
• Define the cortico-centric hypothesis and quantum biology 
• Identify evidence in the pre and perinatal sciences that disproves the cortico-centric theory
• Explain the meaning of embodiment according to Dr. Jaap Van der Waal and how the body and mind are vehicles for the expression of consciousness
• Compare post-Cartesian mind-body dualism to the polarity concept of the inseparable mind-body entity as a whole psychosomatic reality produced by consciousness versus mind and body producing consciousness
• Discuss the neurobiology of nurture 
• List 5 pathways through which our hearts operate to connect, nurture, and heal the traumas of separation.  

Module 5: Parenting Styles

Guiding Principle of Relationship: Human development occurs within relationship from the beginning. Human connections and the surrounding environment profoundly influence the quality and structure of every aspect of a baby's development. From the beginning of life, baby experiences and internalizes what mother experiences and feels. Father’s and/or partner’s relationship with mother and baby are integral to optimizing primary foundations for baby. All relationships and encounters with mother, baby, and father during this primary period affect the quality of life and baby’s foundation. Supportive, loving, and healthy relationships are integral to optimizing primary foundations for baby. This module delves into how parents can uncover more about their own earliest experiences as a child prior to conceiving, or at any point along their parenting journey, to create optimal conditions for bonding and meeting the emotional needs of their child. 

Learning Objectives:

• Explain how adult attachment styles correspond to parenting patterns, the “rupture” and “repair” process, coherent story analysis, and the importance of fathers
• Affirm how babies implicitly remember their experience and how parents can attune to the emotional needs of their babes when they experience implicit memory
• Explain Robin Grille’s five rites of passage of children
• List and explain the neuro-anatomy connected to parenting and communication, specifically relating the importance of Dan Siegel's brain anatomy theory to interpersonal neuro-anatomy
• Explain re-patterning and the outcome of "earned secure" attachment for adults

Module 6: Psycho-Emotional Developmental Stages of Humans: Innate Emotional Needs 

Guiding Principle of Innate Needs: The innate need for security, belonging, love and nurturing, feeling wanted, feeling valued, and being seen as the Self we are is present from the beginning of life. Meeting these needs and providing the right environment supports optimal development. This module builds upon Module 5 by analyzing the universal needs all humans have and maps where these needs come on line in the developing embryo, fetus, child, youth, and young adult. This presentation of the psycho-emotional developmental stages of humans reveals how we can create more coherent, regulated relationships in life. When a person can identify needs and understand how to meet them, then compassionate communication styles can unfold along with safe, secure attachment styles. 

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and its implications regarding the impact of early traumatic experiences on the adult body
• Describe how early experiences correlate with adult physiology with research on the impact of the HPA axis, stress versus trauma, maternal depression, disorganized attachment, ADD, ADHD, addiction and interpersonal violence
• Describe the main discoveries in the study of genetics, epigenetics, and attachment that led to therapies which augment repair approaches or recovery from trauma strategies
• Explain the ways in which cultural ‘norms’ undermine health and wellbeing through various forms of identification and denial
• List compassionate birth practices that preserve the psycho-emotional needs of babies as defined by Robin Grille’s 5 Rites of Passage
• Discuss the short-term and long-term psychological consequences of common birth interventions used today, such as pitocin, C-section, and obstetrical interventions

Module 7: Communication through Cultural Impacts

Guiding Principle of Communication: Babies are continually communicating and seeking connection. Relating and responding to baby in ways that honor their multifaceted capacities for communication supports optimal development and wholeness. The way we communicate is influenced greatly by culture, which in turn has an undeniable impact on how efficient and effective communication is. Babies have their own way of expressing their inner world through non-volitional, non-random gestures. This non-verbal, somatic language has not been recognized in the majority of cultures across the globe. This module explores numerous birth cultures, as well as cultural impacts on the psyche of babies, and in turn how the psyche of a baby impacts society at large.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe birth models that support the subtle/etheric body
• Identify ways in which human biology is linked to nature
• Trace the historical demise of the midwifery model of care in Western societies and the origins of the medicalization of birth
• Identify ways sleep training harms babies
• Discuss the somatic, pre-verbal language of babies and how non-volitional, non-random gestures have been mapped by pioneers in the pre and perinatal sciences to specific periods in prenatal development and during birth
• Compare and contrast cultural influences on birth practices from the East to the West, including indigenous peoples

Module 8: Prenatal Bonding & Attachment

Guiding Principle of Mother-Baby InterConnectedness: Respecting and optimizing the bond between mother and baby and the mother-baby interconnectedness during pregnancy, birth, and infancy is of highest priority. This module explores the science of nurture and methods of compassionate birth practices that can be implemented in birthing environments to create optimal conditions for protecting and nurturing the sacredness of mother-baby bond, the most inalienable of all human rights.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the process of prenatal parenting with examples from research and anecdotal evidence 
• Demonstrate how prenatal parenting and bonding increases health indicators on many levels, including intelligence scores, language skills, physical development, mental acuity, emotional dimensions, and fine motor skills
• Explain how the prenate’s experience within varying cultural, familial or maternal contexts correlates to learning styles that develop later in life
• Facilitate prenatal bonding and learning through storytelling and teaching examples
• List and demonstrate strategies for supporting stress during pregnancy
• Describe 7 evidence-based practices at birth that support secure attachment

Module 9: Special Situations: ART, Surrogacy, Adoption

Guiding Principle of Bonding: Birth and bonding is a critical developmental process for mother, baby, and father/partner that form core patterns with life-long implications. What happens when this bond is ruptured, wielded through reproductive technology, or strained due to circumstances of infertility? This module documents current trends in family structures, birthing practices, and reproductive technology while also presenting therapeutic modalities to address conception and birth when adaptive strategies that deviate from natural birth scenarios are undertaken. 

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the ways in which cultural ‘norms’ undermine health and wellbeing through various forms of identification and denial
• Describe how ART-derived pregnancies are different to naturally conceived pregnancies.
• Evaluate the impact of the ART embryo and perinatal outcomes
• Name psychological and emotional challenges that present with IVF conceived babies during birth regression research sessions and in somatic-based therapy sessions
• Outline natural conception pathways to treat infertility issues and common circumstances women face that interfere with their natural biorythms
• Describe social and cultural issues in adoption and the attachment narrative of the adoptive parent
• List ways to support connection between the prenate (intended adoptee) and the first mother, while also supporting connection between the prenate and the adoptive parent before birth 

Module 10: Resolving & Healing

Guiding Principle of Resolving & Healing: Resolving and healing past and current conflicts, stress, and issues that affect the quality of life for all family members is of highest priority. Doing so before pregnancy is best. When needed, therapeutic support for mother, baby, and father provided as early as possible during this vital primary period is recommended for optimal outcomes. This module surveys the types of psycho-somatic therapies and cultural support systems available to family structures in the world today that promote trauma resolution and healing.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and its implications regarding the impact of early traumatic experiences on the adult body
• Describe how early experiences correlate with adult physiology with research on the impact of the HPA axis, stress versus trauma, maternal depression, disorganized attachment, ADD, ADHD, addiction and interpersonal violence
• Describe the main discoveries in the study of genetics, epigenetics, and attachment that led to therapies which augment repair approaches or recovery from trauma strategies
• Articulate the observed impact of prenatal and birth shock and trauma on the body and the psyche, detail healing regimens, name the characteristics of non-traumatized newborns, and list the skills that practitioners use to renegotiate prenatal or birth difficulties
• List somatic and energetic therapy modalities used to treat trauma experienced during prenatal life, birth, and/or early childhood 

Module 11:Underlying Patterns of Birth

Guiding Principle of Underlying Patterns: When unresolved issues remain or less than optimal conditions and experiences occur during conception, pregnancy, birth and the first postnatal year, life diminishing patterns often underlay health issues, stress behaviors, difficulty in self-regulation, attachment, learning, and other disorders over the life-span. This module explores how the birth sequence is directly linked to an infant’s sleep, bowel movements, feeding, and crying patterns during the first year of life, as well as adverse experiences in infancy and childhood impact disease, trauma, and mental health disorders that underscore interpersonal neuro-anatomy. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify conditions for optimal birth experiences in birthing practices for both the mother and prenate
• Identify and list the impact of hormones, internal chemicals, and potential obstetrical interventions related to the birthing process, related to the maternity system, and how they influence birth outcomes
• Explain birth trauma and cite circumstances that contribute to birth trauma, identify optimal birth conditions for mother and prenate, and explain birth models that facilitate easier birthing experiences from actual life examples 
• Describe different pre- and perinatal psychology theories, with particular focus on recapitulation, as well as medical, institutional and social practices and attitudes that affect the experiences of pregnant mothers and their unborn or newborn babies
• Identify the impact of Skin-to-Skin, breastfeeding, and mother-baby bonding on health outcomes and nervous system functioning in newborns, within the PPN psychology context and from the baby’s perspective
• Explain the key elements of the nine stages that babies experience during the first hour after birth, including the Breast Crawl, keys to interpreting infant cries and emotional expression, the imprinting process, the role of memory, “healing betrayal”, and trust building after trauma

Module 12: Professional Support & Ethics

Guiding Principle of Professional Support: These early diminishing patterns embed below the level of the conscious mind in the implicit memory system, subconscious, and somatic patterns. Professionals trained in prenatal and perinatal psychology can identify these patterns and support babies, children, parents and adults to heal and shift these primary patterns to more life-enhancing ones at any age; but, they also must commit to addressing their own unresolved implicit memories. This module integrates the summation of the previous modules while exploring experiential somatic practices that support professionals maintain self-care, heal their own past experiences, and uphold a code of ethics in the pre and perinatal sciences.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify ethical issues that may confront the pre- and perinatal psychology educator, listing three or more specific ethics that should govern an educator’s curriculum
• Differentiate between education and treatment
• Name the ten steps of Mother Friendly practice and the seven unique principles that support an ethical PPNE approach
• List support resources for PPNE educators