What is a doula and why should I hire one?
Doulas are becoming well-known throughout the prenatal and postpartum community. Some of you may have heard of Doulas from family and friends that have hired or thought of hiring one, but many of you have no idea what a Doula is. So let me start by explaining that:
What is a Doula?
The actual definition of a Doula is, a non-medical professional that provides physical, emotional, and evidence-based educational support to you and your partner throughout your pregnancy, labor, and postpartum journey.
What does that support look like?
Doula support starts by getting to know you and your partner. This way we can learn how to best support you, and help you achieve the best experience possible. We will meet with you during your pregnancy to teach you comforting and breathing techniques, help you create a birth plan, talk about your fears and joys, and help educate you to reduce the fear that is sometimes associated with childbirth. We will be in contact with you through text, email, and/or phone calls throughout your prenatal and postpartum journey. This way you can ask questions, vent, share stories, give us updates, and get resources. We will support you during your labor and birth by being a constant in the room, creating an atmosphere that you are most comfortable in, helping you feel safe, helping you keep a calm mindset, by suggesting optimal positions for your labor to progress, by using comforting and breathing techniques for pain management, by showing your partner how to best support you and by making sure you are following your birth plan as close as possible. Our Doula role does not end with childbirth. We will visit with you postpartum to reflect on your labor and birth experience, assist you with newborn care, give breastfeeding guidance, assist with light household chores, assist with meal prep, and/or emotional support. You may choose to hire us for additional postpartum visits up to 12 weeks postpartum, for continued physical and emotional support.
Why hire a Doula?
The question is, why not hire a Doula? If you look back in history before there were hospitals, you will see that laboring people were guided through their labor and birth by family members, friends, or midwives. They were able to move freely around the room and position themselves in ways that were most comfortable for them. Labor was left to progress on its own while the pregnant person was cared for and nurtured. When a pregnant person feels safe, heard, and cared for during their labor, it will help labor progress. To help you understand that better I like to use this analogy: When a deer goes into labor out in the wild and a predator approaches, her labor will stop or stall until she finds a safe place to deliver her fawn. In that same aspect, this is the same with people. If you feel scared, sad, angry, or unsafe during your labor it can cause your labor to stall. A Doula is professionally trained to help you feel safe, loved, supported, comforted, and heard so labor can progress smoothly. For many Doulas, this is how we are by nature, and we have been practicing these skills our entire lives. Every pregnant person deserves the chance to labor and birth the way they choose and a Doula can help you attain that. Whether it’s in a hospital, at home, or at a birthing center; whether it’s unmedicated, medicated, cesarean, vaginal birth, or vaginal birth after cesarean, we support you 100%. It’s your body and it’s your birth! Statistically, it is known that having continuous support during labor decreases the length of labor by an average of 41 minutes, decreases the risk of cesarean by 25%, increases the chance of spontaneous vaginal birth by 8%, decreases the use of medications for pain relief by 10%, and decreases the chance of a dissatisfied birth experience by 31%. So, why not hire a Doula?
