Badu wants midwifery certification

Soul icon Erykah Badu is working towards a certification in midwifery after becoming a birth doula and helping to deliver babies in her spare time.

The Bag Lady singer and mother-of-three first realised her medical calling in 2001, after helping her best friend through her natural birth.

She tells People magazine, "I've always had a mothering nature. But I didn't plan on becoming a doula. I just wanted to care for my family and friends.

"When I saw the baby, I cried. I knew what I was supposed to do with my life."

Badu began reading up on the job more and has now been offering her services as a support coach for years.

She helps mums-to-be relax and maintain their health by giving them massages and practising stress reduction technique Reiki, while she also helps calm her patients during labour.

Badu, who provides all of her services for free, has since become a spokeswoman for the International Center for Traditional Childbearing and she is now aiming to get her professional certification so she can open birthing centres in inner cities in the future.

She reveals patients call her "Erykah Badoula" and insists "nothing gives me more pleasure" than assisting in anaesthesia-free births.

Badu has a 13-year-old son, named Seven, with Outkast star Andre 3000, as well as two daughters - Puma, seven, and Mars, two - from her relationships with rappers The D.O.C. and Jay Electronica, respectively.