LIVE ONLINE COURSE FOR MIDWIVES · 5 SESSIONS · NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2026
The Midwife's Guide to Policies, Procedures, Protocols & Guidelines
Build the documents your midwifery practice—and your charting—depend on.
Build the practice documents that guide your care and support your charting. Join Augustine Colebrook, for a five-week live online course on midwifery policies, procedures, protocols, and clinical practice guidelines.
You’ll draft documents for your own practice, learn a repeatable structure for writing the next ones, and assemble a starter binder that’s already yours—not hypothetical.
NOVEMBER 11, 18, 25 & DECEMBER 2, 9
Build Clinical Practice
Guidelines You Can Use
Your practice documents should reflect how your practice works—not how someone else’s practice worked years ago.
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If your guidelines are outdated, incomplete, or borrowed from another binder, it can be difficult to explain where your written standards begin and how your clinical decisions connect to them.
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This course gives you dedicated time and a clear method for developing those documents.
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Across five live sessions, you’ll work through clinical practice guidelines, policies, procedures, and protocols using real examples from midwifery care. You’ll learn what belongs in each document, how the document types work together, and how to apply the course’s 7-Part Clinical Practice Guideline structure to your own drafting.
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The goal is more than understanding what a binder should contain. It’s leaving with one you’ve started building.
Welcome to PPPGs!
Who This Live Online Midwifery Course Is For
This course is designed for:
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Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) developing or updating their practice guidelines.
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Student midwives learning how written practice standards connect to clinical decisions and documentation.
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Birth center owners and operators building or reviewing a clinical practice guidelines binder.
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Practice managers responsible for organizing and maintaining practice documents.
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Midwives whose existing policies, procedures, protocols, or guidelines no longer reflect their practice.
Whether you’re starting from a blank page or revising an existing binder, you’ll have a structure to work from and documents to keep developing.
How This Course Complements Defensive Charting
Each session combines explanation, worked examples, and practical application. You’ll move from defining the document to drafting its content, including decision points and referral thresholds where relevant.
Five Live Sessions: Course Curriculum
Each session combines explanation, worked examples, and practical application. You’ll move from defining the document to drafting its content, including decision points and referral thresholds where relevant.
Session 1: Policies, Procedures, Protocols, and Guidelines—Definitions and Legal Function
November 11, 2026
What makes a policy different from a procedure? When do you need a protocol, and what belongs in a guideline?
Start by distinguishing the four document types and examining their roles in documenting practice standards. Explore the Standard-of-Care Spruce Tree, the Midwife’s Holy Trinity, and three legal case examples.
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You'll leave with:
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A personal glossary of policies, procedures, protocols, and guidelines.
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A clearer framework for organizing your practice documents.
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A first-pass audit of your existing materials.
Session 2: Clinical Practice Guidelines and AI-Assisted Drafting
November 18, 2026
Watch a urinary tract infection (UTI) guideline and a waterbirth guideline take shape live.
Learn how to use the 7-Part Clinical Practice Guideline structure and the Perfect Prompt Formula to support your drafting process, so your next document doesn’t begin with a blank page.
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You'll leave with:
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Draft UTI and waterbirth guidelines.
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A reusable prompt script for AI-assisted drafting.
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A design for your binder’s cover sheet, table of contents, and signature sheet.
Session 3: Due-Date and Post-Dates Guidelines
November 25, 2026
Work through due-date determination and post-dates care—topics that call for clear language about your practice’s approach, decision points, and referral thresholds.
See how a policy and a guideline can address related questions without becoming interchangeable documents.
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You'll leave with:
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A draft due-date guideline.
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A paired due-date policy.
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A draft post-dates guideline with referral thresholds.
Session 4: GBS Testing, Treatment, and Labor Admission
December 2, 2026
Draft a protocol and guideline for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) testing and treatment, then develop separate documents for labor admission.
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Practice distinguishing mandatory requirements from recommendations and separating a practice’s policy from the procedure used to carry it out.
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You'll leave with:
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A draft GBS protocol and guideline.
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A draft labor admission policy.
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A separate labor admission procedure.
Session 5: Discharging from Care and Organizing Your Starter Binder
December 9, 2026
Work on a document many practices put off writing: the discharge procedure.
Then bring the series together by organizing your drafts according to document type and identifying what your binder still needs.
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You'll leave with:
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A draft discharge procedure.
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An organized starter binder containing your course documents.
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A plan for your next three guidelines and two protocols.
Meet your Mentor
Augustine Colebrook
Retired CPM, MA-MCHS
Augustine Colebrook is the Founder & Principal Mentor of Midwifery Wisdom Collective.
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A midwife since 1999 and a preceptor since 2003, Augustine has owned and operated three birth centers. She also teaches Defensive Charting.
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In this series, she brings that practice, teaching, and operational experience to the documents behind clinical care—helping you move from an unfinished binder to a practical drafting process.
How the Live Online Course Works
Live Teaching
Learn the frameworks, supporting evidence, and worked examples through live slides and instruction each week.
On-Screen Drafting
Watch documents develop in real time, with explanations of their structure, wording, and decision points.
Small-Group Breakouts
Apply each week’s topic to questions and gray areas from your own practice.
Questions and Discussion
Bring your questions to the open Q&A each session.
Each session lasts approximately 2 hours including or Q&A.
What You’ll Create and Learn
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By the end of the five-week series, you’ll have:
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Draft practice documents addressing UTI, waterbirth, due dates, post-dates care, GBS, labor admission, and discharge.
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A starter binder organized around policies, procedures, protocols, and guidelines.
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A working understanding of the four document types and when to use each.
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The course’s reusable 7-Part Clinical Practice Guideline structure.
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The Perfect Prompt Formula for AI-assisted drafting.
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A plan for developing your next three guidelines and two protocols.
You won’t just hear what these documents should contain. You’ll see them built, work on your own drafts, and leave with a method you can use again.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is this course for practicing midwives or students?
Both. The course is designed for CPMs, student midwives, birth center owners and operators, and practice managers involved in developing or maintaining practice documents.
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What topics will the course cover?
The five sessions cover document definitions and legal function, AI-assisted drafting, UTI and waterbirth guidelines, due dates and post-dates care, GBS testing and treatment, labor admission, and discharge from care.
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Will I draft documents during the course?
Yes. The series includes live document drafting, practical application, and small-group work. You’ll leave with drafts to continue reviewing and developing for your own practice.
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What if I can’t attend a live session?
The live sessions will be recorded on Zoom and shared with all participants.
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Do I need an existing practice guidelines binder?
No. You can use the course to begin a starter binder or review and develop documents you already have.
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Do I need to take Defensive Charting first?
No. You can take the courses in either order. This series focuses on written practice documents; Defensive Charting focuses on documenting clinical decisions.
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Do the documents need further review before I use them?
Treat the course documents as drafts for your practice—not a promise of automatic compliance or legal protection. Review and adapt them to your setting and applicable requirements before putting them into use.