About Nona Birth Education & Counseling
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Neuroscience-Informed, Mind-Body Birth Education
Nona Birth Education offers neuroscience-informed, mind-body birth education for expecting parents and professional training for doulas, prenatal yoga teachers, and childbirth educators. Our approach recognizes birth as a neuro-psycho-social process shaped by physiology, nervous system regulation, relationships, environment, and care context.
Rather than treating birth as only a physical or medical event, Nona’s work integrates evidence-based education, embodied learning, and trauma-aware care to support informed decision making, self-advocacy, and attuned support during pregnancy, birth, and early parenting.
The Meaning of Nona
In Roman mythology, Nona was a goddess associated with the ninth month of pregnancy and was one of the three fates said to spin the web of life.Â
Mind-Body Birth Education
Birth is regulated by autonomic systems that respond to internal and external cues. Birth Coherence™, a Nona Birth Framework integrates nervous system science, embodied awareness, and relational support to help parents and professionals understand how stress, safety, and connection influence labor, coping, and recovery.
Evidence-Based
Evidence-based care integrates the best available research, clinical expertise, and the values of the birthing person. Nona emphasizes individualized care and critical thinking, challenging routine interventions that are driven by policy rather than physiology or lived experience.
Trauma-Informed
Because many people enter pregnancy with a history of trauma, all Nona classes and trainings are trauma-informed and focused on prevention. This includes realistic expectations, informed choice, self-advocacy skills, and attention to nervous system responses in birth and care environments.
Honest and Practical
Nona provides clear, accurate, and realistic education about birth, care options, and support roles. Rather than reinforcing cultural myths or idealized narratives, the focus is on helping people make decisions aligned with their values and circumstances.
Advocacy
Self-advocacy involves understanding options, communicating needs, and collaborating with care providers. Nona teaches practical skills for informed decision making and effective communication in pregnancy and birth.
Collaborative Advocacy Doulas and educators are taught collaborative advocacy skills rooted in helping our clients have agency in their care by helping them have the necessary information to make informed decisions.
About Erica
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Erica Kroll has been teaching and studying mind-body birth education and prenatal yoga for over 25 years. She is a licensed perinatal therapist, educator, and retired doula, with a professional background that bridges birth support, mental health, and embodied education.
Erica began working in women’s health in 1999, first training as a doula through Doulas of North America (DONA). While working as a doula, she also worked for the Boone County Health Department’s WIC program, providing peer counseling and developing breastfeeding education and support curricula.
In 2000, Erica completed training in Whole Birth Yoga & Support, a mindfulness-based prenatal yoga and group support program. She later assisted in teacher trainings and facilitated Whole Birth Yoga classes and support groups for more than a decade.
In 2003, she studied Birth Educational Counseling and Body-Centered Hypnosis with Dr. Gayle Peterson, whose research informed the development of Birthing From Within and Whole Birth Prenatal Yoga. These early influences continue to shape Erica’s emphasis on mind-body coping, and embodied awareness in birth.
Recognizing a need for specialized mental health support during the childbearing year, Erica completed a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri–Columbia in 2010. She earned her professional counseling license working with survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence.
In 2012, Erica founded Nona Birth Education to integrate birth education, prenatal yoga, therapy, and group support for families in mid-Missouri, as well as professional training for birth and mental health professionals nationwide. Since 2020, Nona’s educational offerings have expanded online, with a focus on training prenatal yoga teachers, doulas, and childbirth educators in nervous-system-informed practice.
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Education & Credentials
Erica’s education and professional training include graduate-level counseling education, advanced trauma training, prenatal yoga certification, and applied polyvagal theory. She has served as a consultant and instructor in academic, clinical, and public health settings and has provided professional trainings for hospitals, health departments, and behavioral health organizations.
Polyvagal Informed Certificate. Polyvagal Institute 2025
Training in Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga: simple practices to enhance wellbeing. Polyvagal Institute 2023
Registered Experienced Yoga Teacher, E-RYT Yoga Alliance 2023
EMDR Training and Consultation, EMDR Training Center, LLC 2017
Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher, Yoga Alliance (RPYT) 2015
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, RYT-200 Registered Yoga Alliance 2015
Consultant, University of Missouri, Women’s and Children’s Hospital Low Intervention Birth Program 2015
Instructor: Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies
University of Missouri, Columbia. Fall 2013
Postgraduate Training Postpartum Therapy and Assessment
Postpartum Stress Center 2011
Counselor/Program Coordinator
True North of Columbia. 2010-2012
Masters of Education, Counseling Psychology
2008-2010 University of Missouri, Columbia.
Graduate Minor:  Women’s and Gender Studies
2008-2010 University of Missouri, Columbia.
Bachelor of Arts and Science, General Studies
2005-2008 University of Missouri, Columbia.
Certificate in The Peterson Method: Birth Educational Counseling and Body-Centered Hypnosis 2003
Certified Whole Birth Yoga Instructor: Mindfulness-based prenatal yoga and group support 2000
Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, Columbia/Boone County Health Department 1999
DONA Birth Doula Certificate 1999
Trainings & Presentations by Erica
Erica has provided professional education on perinatal mental health, birth education, and nervous-system-informed care for hospitals, health departments, behavioral health organizations, and birth professionals since 2014.
Professional Training for Burrell Behavioral Health, “Part 2: Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Intersections of The Social, Psychological, and Physiological” 2020
Professional Training for Boone County Health Department, “Evidence-based Policies and Practices for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders” 2019
Professional Training for Callaway County Health Department, “Evidence-based Policies and Practices for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders” 2019
Professional Training for Burrell Behavior Health, Part 1: Overview of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders 2019
Professional Training for University of Missouri Women’s and Children’s Hospital Labor and Delivery Nurses, “Nona Birth Education Doula Training” 2015
Nona Birth Doula Trainings 2014-Present
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