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Welcome Dr. Andy Hau Yan Ho, INELDA’s New Board President
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On May 8, 2025, we announced that Dr. Andy Hau Yan Ho, PhD, EdD, MFT joined INELDA’s board of directors. Dr. Ho brings decades of end-of-life expertise to our organization. Dr. Ho’s commitment to compassionate end-of-life practices and research will inform his work with INELDA to build upon the organization’s mission to encourage the presence of end-of-life doulas and to normalize death, dying, and grief through conscientious education, equity, community stewardship, and advocacy.
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Laura has a degree in speech communications from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh; is an INELDA-trained death doula, hospice volunteer, active member of the New Hampshire Health Care Decisions Coalition, public speaker, and entrepreneur; shares a medical device patent on a heart pump designed for open heart surgery; and believes in the benefits of talking to strangers. She also is a functional artist, creating one-of-a-kind sailbags from retired sailboat sails. She became a mother in 1990 to her “favorite daughter” and is a life partner to Geoff. When she’s not diving into dying and death she can be found growing things in her 2,000-square-foot garden.
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When and why did you decided to become and end-of-life doula?
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I decided to explore becoming an end-of-life doula in 2022, but the journey started in 2017. I just didn’t know it at the time. Like a lot of folks who find themselves diving into the end-of-life doula realm, I had a life experience—more like a series of them. The first crossroad was when my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer and her medical team gave her three months to live. She lived in Wisconsin and I lived in New England. I realized getting on a plane to see her a couple weeks after her diagnosis that I had no skills to support one of the most important people in my life and wondered how I got to be so old without these skills (I was in my early 50s).
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May 14, 2025
Wednesday 7pm – 8:30pm ET
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Location: ZOOM
Host: Shelby Kirillin
Price: This group is offered for free to all doulas who have trained in our INELDA Doula Approach curriculum launched July 2024.
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IMMERSIVE END-OF-LIFE DOULA TRAINING
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May 29 to June 16, 2025
THU/FRI 6pm – 10pm ET, SAT/SUN 10am – 7pm ET
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Location: ZOOM
Host: Jason Callahan & Omni Kitts Ferrara
Price: $895 (discounts available for INELDA-trained doulas and members)
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End-of-Life University Podcast
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Hosted by Dr. Karen Wyatt
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End-of-Life University is a podcast and interview series created by Dr. Karen Wyatt that examines different aspects of the dying process and death. The podcast—which is currently celebrating its 10th year—features guests who are engaged in providing deathcare that counters what Dr. Wyatt refers to as our medical system’s failure to “provide compassionate, reasonable care at end of life.” From TikTok deathcare teachers to ritual-makers to hospice care thought leaders, guests on this podcast share their contributions to the end-of-life community and the ways in which their work provides what is missing in our system’s deathcare model.
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Nowhere to Be, Nothing to Do
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by Erika Lim, INELDA educator
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“Difficult situations cannot be resolved through denial and healing cannot happen
through brute force. Moving through any difficult situation requires tenderness and
vulnerability.” —Sienna Gonzales
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Healing cannot happen through brute force. This sentiment struck me. In the past, I have been intentional and a bit rigid with my practices of self-care. Meditation in the mornings and evenings, yoga classes three times a week, designated social time with friends, balanced meal prep for the week; everything was structured in order to pursue a visually well-balanced schedule. The color-coded boxes that signified various categories of projects/meetings/family/social/self-care were all measured in relation to each other. But just as routines go, my self-care started to become a checklist that added “to-dos” to the already long lists of to-dos. My pursuit of self-care stopped feeling like care. While the intention of discipline originated as tenderness for myself, it evolved into a feeling of healing through brute force.
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GMT TRAININGS ANNOUNCED FOR JULY
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After hearing a need for more accessible trainings for those not based in the Western hemisphere , INELDA is launching an end-of-life doula training geared to those living in GMT time zones this July. This offering will have earlier start times enabling those living in Europe and West Africa to join. Come learn alongside an expansive group of deathcare workers and strengthen the INELDA community globally. We always invite you to share what times work for you and will do our best to accommodate!
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VOLUNTEER SHARES HER EXPERIENCE
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Mary Connor shares, “It was an exciting opportunity for me that INELDA scheduled in-person training at University of Texas, Austin. By volunteering, I got to see how the training evolved since I’d taken it online, and I got to connect to new doulas in my area and help them connect with our Austin Meetup groups for death doulas and Death Cafes. For example, I met a woman in the training who has a major role with a hospice home at the tiny house community right next to mine, and we plan to volunteer together. I was gratified by how regularly the instructors pulled me into the class and invited me to share, such as when I explained my mother’s items that I brought in for the memorial altar. I also felt very involved and useful by serving to round out the pair processes, when attendees needed partners. For me, volunteering was a gift and the time was very well spent!”
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Austin training participants
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DEATHCARE EVENTS FROM FRIENDS OF INELDA
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From Pause, a group focused on creating deathcare spaces with the needs of people of color at the fore, comes In Good Company: A Community Gathering for People of Color Working in End-of-Life in Los Angeles. The June 13 event will be held at the California African American Art Museum, bringing together Pause and attendees for connections among art, justice, grief, and death. Events include gallery-led tours, art-making workshop, and brown-bag lunch. | REGISTER HERE.
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Shomer Collective is hosting a seminar May 28 called Let’s Talk: What’s an End-of-Life Doula? with Zoë Goldblatt, Jewish end-of-life doula, in conversation with Rabbi Melanie Levav to discuss the value provided by end-of-life doulas. Together they will explore real-life stories, highlighting the role of doulas and learning how they work with existing health care systems, as well as Jewish communal supports. Zoë Goldblatt is an INELDA-trained doula who cofounded the East Bay End Of Life Doula Network in 2018 in the San Francisco area. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
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INELDA educator Wilka Roig appeared on the podcast This is Nashville on WPLN, the city’s NPR station, discussing near-death experiences.
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Shared Learnings from Doula Collectives and Collaboratives
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May 28 | WED 7 – 8:30pm ET
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This May we will hear from three doula collectives about the ways in which practicing together has shaped their experience of providing deathcare. Join our discussion to learn lessons from these three different models: the statewide Minnesota Death Collaborative, the regional Death Collective North Texas, and the Pacific Birth Collective in Maui that is steeped in a multitude of services and advocacy work.
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The guests will discuss how they support in various capacities to practice together, share knowledge with each other, and advocate for the work they do. This webinar will introduce you to three collectives at different stages of growth and offer insights to starting your own. The evening will be moderated by Shelby Kirillin, who is currently part of a group launching a new statewide collective.
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Guests include:
- Ki’inaniokalani Kaho’ohanohano and Mariah Strong | Pacific Birth Collective
- Nina Guertin and Michelle Kolling | Minnesota Death Collaborative
- Tammy McNary | Death Collective North Texas
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Cost: Free with INELDA Tier 2 & 3 Membership | Tier 1 and Non-members $15
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“I had the honor of acting as a doula to a dear friend as she died from cancer at home on hospice. After more than two days of being unconscious she developed an intestinal obstruction, causing dark fluid in her mouth—her last hours were horrible. Her partner, her son, his fiancée, and I were traumatized, exhausted, and incredibly stressed, but we performed a Last Breath Ritual before the funeral home transport. We each said our favorite things about her mind, eyes, mouth, heart, hands, and feet, placing flowers on those areas, reliving happy times. It was incredibly healing for all of us and replaced the images of her last difficult days, with her covered in flowers and wonderful memories—easing our grief.”
—Laurie Brooks, end-of-life doula
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The National Alliance for Care at Home
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The National Alliance for Care at Home (NACH) is the largest organization representing, advocating for, educating, and connecting providers of care in the home for millions across the United States who depend on that care. The alliance also offers educational resources to educate and empower patients and caregivers making decisions about serious illness and end-of-life care and services through its program CaringInfo.org.
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In a training session last month, someone asked us to break down the different group offerings. Here you go!
—Janine Cuthbertson, membership coordinator
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Community Meetup: Connect with your global INELDA community at our monthly meetup open to all members (no training pre-requisite.) Organized around a doula-related theme, these casual gatherings offer a live and interactive hour to meet, share, and reflect with others.
Community of Practice: INELDA’s Community of Practice is a space for continued practice after completion of the end-of-life doula training. We come together monthly for an hour-and-a-half of facilitated learning around INELDA Doula Approach scenarios. This group is offered to all doulas who have trained in our INELDA Doula Approach curriculum launched July 2024.
Peer Mentoring Groups: INELDA’s End-of-Life Doula Peer Mentoring Groups are a space for mutual support and community sharing. We come together monthly for an hour-and-a-half conversation to explore the current needs you are experiencing with the people you support. This group is open and available at no additional cost to current Tier 2 and Tier 3 INELDA-trained members.
Webinars: Held the last Wednesday of each month, INELDA partners with guests around topics central to doula work and the deathcare community in-general. Tier 2 & 3 members have access to all webinars, as well as an archive with over 50 conversations. Tier 1 members have access to two webinars a year. Anyone can purchase a webinar for $15.
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Permission to Rest: Supporting Our Physical Health
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In this busy world, many of us are pushed to produce, check e-mails, answer texts, and get things organized rather than truly rest. A 2025 study reveals that 66% of employees are reporting some form of burnout. This is an astronomical upward trend that continues to increase each year. With the rising costs of living, increases in technology dependence, and many other factors, people are no longer getting true rest. | READ MORE
—Marady Duran, MSW, LMSW, MATD
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Native Americans Face More EOL Interventions
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The health disparities among disadvantaged groups appear to continue through the end of life, according to recent research published in JCO Oncology Practice. A study comparing medical interventions in the month leading up to death of both Native American and White people with lung cancer revealed differences in how end-of-life care is experienced among these two populations.
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United States Is an Outlier in Avoidable Deaths
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The number of avoidable deaths in high-income countries around the globe has decreased, according to research recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine. One notable outlier: The United States, which saw an increase in avoidable deaths in the decade of 2009 to 2019, to the tune of 33 additional deaths per 100,000 people.
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Promising Alzheimer’s Drug Approved for Use in Europe
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People in Europe who have Alzheimer’s disease are on track to have a new medication option. The European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use reversed an earlier decision regarding the drug Leqembi, approving it for clinical use, reports the Associated Press.
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to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.
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Support Accessible, Equitable, and Compassionate Deathcare
DONATE HERE
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© INELDA 2025 International End of Life Doula Association is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization that relies on public support to do it’s work.
Tax ID#: 47-3023741
Phone: 201-540-9049
[Account Login]
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