Terms and Conditions

Thank you for being part of the DONA Connect Community, a beneﬁt exclusive for DONA International members. The purpose of the DONA Connect Community is to connect our membership with one another, with leadership and with our staﬀ more intentionally. This is a supportive community, one for connection and growth as a profession together. DONA Connect is a hub of resources for our doulas. You will ﬁnd announcements, ﬁles, and resources right within your community groups.

To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared ﬁles and content to that best suited to the communication platform. This is a great communication platform with which to solicit the advice of your peers, beneﬁt from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to our member services team via the Contact Us link on this site or this Feedback Policy link.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, contact member services. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to moderate, suspend or terminate membership on this platform for anyone who violates these rules.

Community Rules

Be kind. Do not use hate speech, insulting language or bully members or non-members of this Please model the core of doula support, by supporting one another in this group. We are better together. Please extend the beneﬁt of the doubt to all guests and members; all posed questions and inquiries are valid, please request some clarity if necessary.
Uphold and abide by our Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice at all times- with one another, with leadership and with staﬀ.
Protect conﬁdentiality of members and clients, do not use names of clients or other identifying information. Instead of “I have a client who has pre-eclampsia” please use broad conversation such as “What’s your experience with serving a client with preeclampsia.” Comments with revealing personal information will be moderated or removed.
Respect Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the beneﬁt of the doubt to newer guests and members; all posed questions and inquiries are valid; please request some clarity if needed.
Respect the purpose of the Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals. Do not promote products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way. No advertising except with prior approval. No spamming.
To uphold the intent and to make the environment of the community enjoyable for all, do not utilize this community to “call out” fellow members, leadership or staﬀ. Should you have a speciﬁc need or complaint, please reach out individually to the appropriate person. If you need assistance beyond direct contact, the Membership Department leaders are a great resource (Ambassadors, Regional Membership Chairs, Membership Directors, and Membership Staﬀ) and can assist you. Think before you report. Don’t report posts or comments that aren’t breaking any rules simply because you don’t like or agree with their content or the original posting member.
Use caution when discussing products, classes, or Do not promote or discredit other doula training and certiﬁcation programs. Information posted on the discussion boards within the communities and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, oﬀensive, discriminatory, illegal materials, hate speech or foul language are strictly Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
Respect intellectual Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise." Use the search option to ﬁnd questions that have already been asked before.

Discussion Group Etiquette

State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire thread. Do this by using the "Reply" tab and selecting the appropriate reply from the drop-down menu in every message.
Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, click the Profile menu, go to My Accounts and change your account settings or to opt out of receiving communication from the If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.

“Three Strikes” Policy

DONA International Leadership adheres to the following "Three Strikes" Policy outlining consequences for members/participants who violate the Terms & Conditions or The Rules.

Upon the ﬁrst violation, the member/participant will:

receive a written warning from a DONA International staﬀ member or DONA Connect Task Force member
The written warning will be made public in DONA Connect and also delivered by email or private message
the message will cite the broken rule
the member/participant will be asked to discontinue similar actions
the member/participant will be asked to conﬁrm they understand the violation in writing and it will be kept on ﬁle
the member/participant will be notiﬁed that any subsequent violation will result in the member/participant being put on probation with posts being moderated prior to posting for a period of 60 days.

A second violation of a similar nature will result in:

a 2-month moderation mode within the DONA Connect Community
the member/participant will be notiﬁed by a DONA International staﬀ member or DONA Connect Task Force with a public acknowledgment of the violation and by email or private message
the message will cite the broken rule
the member/participant will be asked to conﬁrm they understand the violation in writing which will be kept on ﬁle
the member/participant will be asked to discontinue similar actions
the member/participant will be put on probation with posts being moderated for a period of 2 months. Moderation will be broken down as: 2 weeks of no posts and 6 weeks of posts being reviewed and moderated by the group admins.

A third violation will result in:

a six month moderation of all DONA Connect Community privileges with a review of whether or not privileges should be restored at the end of the six months
the member/participant will be notiﬁed by a DONA International staﬀ member or DONA Connect Task Force with a public acknowledgment of the violation and by email or private message
the message will cite the broken rule
a peer group of DONA Connect Task Force members will review all actions to date to determine if any other actions are necessary (for example, a total ban from the DONA Connect community)
DONA International members may seek to appeal the task force decision by contacting the DONA Connect Management Team in writing at feedback@dona.org.

The Legal Stuﬀ

This site is provided as a service for the members of DONA Connect. DONA Connect is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. DONA International disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by DONA Connect or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and ﬁtness. In no event shall DONA Connect be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or proﬁts, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, oﬀensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants DONA Connect and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price ﬁxing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; proﬁts, proﬁt margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

DONA Connect does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of DONA Connect we will take all appropriate action.

After more than three violations, DONA International leadership reserves the right to permanently ban the member/participant from access to DONA Connect.

Privacy Policy

Any personal information you provide on DONA Connect including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:

Our Service Providers

We may share your personal information with companies (including our aﬃliates) that perform services on our behalf. For example, companies that help process credit card payments have access to your information. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the conﬁdentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide speciﬁc services on our behalf.

Business Transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an aﬃliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Government and Legal Disclosures

We may disclose the personal information we collect through this communication platform , when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this communication platform ; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External Sites

We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies

A "cookie" is a small data text ﬁle that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this communication platform (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and DONA International does not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as newsfeeds.

Remember the Risks Whenever You Use The Internet

While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other internet sites or services that may be accessible through our communication platform have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies. For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page.