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Today we are taking a break from our “Safe in the Sun” series to hear about the importance of using a doula to achieve a natural labor! Contributing writer, Sara, is actually a doula herself! I used a doula during my second labor and am using one for baby girl #3 (due in 2 weeks!).
By Sara Shay of Your Thriving Family, Contributing Writer
I believe I have started this post for the fifth time now. I find my brain scattered with all the great things I can tell you about doulas. You can look here and here for what a doula is and here for what they provide and here for how amazing they are during birth. There are stats on how beneficial a doula is for having a successful birthing experience.
From Mothering The Mother, “Doula is a Greek word referring to an experienced woman who helps other women. The word has now come to mean a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during, and just after childbirth.”
Image by TheLawleys
Before, During and After
Once you have found your doula she is available to you ALL the time. Because she doesn’t have multiple births at the same time and only a handful of mothers at any given time, you will receive much more attentive care. You will have personal care and thought, not just routine procedures.
At an email, text or phone call you can get those small, irritating questions answered – you know, the ones you forgot to ask at your last prenatal visit (or that one that only rarely comes up, but seems too small for an actual call into your doctor or midwife).
During labor she is always there. This allows your husband the peace of mind to be able to repark the car, use the bathroom or take a quick nap – never leaving you on your own. She can also run out to get those things that may be taking the busy nurse a little too long to retrieve–or become the liaison between you and family stuck in the waiting room.
As a doula, I always stay a bit after baby has come, mostly to make sure baby and mom are getting a good start on breastfeeding. Just as before the birth, I can be reached for all those new born baby questions that may come up! It is also really nice to have a post-birth chat about how things wen, what you liked, didn’t like and all those precious moments that you may have been too tired or focused to remember.
Image by TheLawleys
Informational Support
Your doula should have a clear picture of the kind of birth you want to have. Whether it is all-natural or perhaps with an intervention of some kind. Their role is to support your informed decisions. That being said, her personal views should not dictate your birth. Instead she may gently provide you with information if she feels you are ill-informed.
In addition, I hope she has talked to you about the importance of breastfeeding and provided you with information in case you need some help after baby is born. There are also a handful of routine procedures, which the doctor rarely talks to you about beforehand. Many of these are not necessary depending on your situation. Your doula should be able to talk through these situations and help you make informed choices.
If a birth is going long or not going the way the doctors would like it to go, you have another brain in the room. Many times in the medical world quick and safe is the standard – instead of just safe. And many times the quick part can cause problems, even if it is deemed as safe.
After almost every exit of the doctor from room the parents have a little pow-wow. Then, we three have a discussion about which way we should go. Many times at this point mom is in that “I’m done” stage of pregnancy and dad is just wanting to do what is best.
Having an objective third party who has real experience and maybe a little more knowledge than the doctor is letting on is priceless. Another person to confirm you decision to go with the doctor recommendation or someone enabling you to say, “No, we would like to be able to wait it out a bit longer” can be so reassuring.
Emotional Support
Dads can sometimes feel superfluous in the labor room. Having a doula there to help him focus on his wife and keep him calm is a huge part of the doula’s job. This enables him to be there emotionally for his wife – even if all that means is reminding him to hold his wife’s hand.
Seriously, I do not think there has been a birth yet where at some point I have not had to remind hubby to be a little more attentive. And often times the questions I receive from dads are, “Is this normal?” and “Should I be worried?” Giving facts, experience and information quells these fears and allows husbands to maintain the masculine role of secure provider which they so desperately want to fill at a time when everything is beyond their control.
That emotional support role is much different for the laboring mother. Oftentimes it is the reassuring words of, “You are doing a great job.” Or steady, calm eyes to look at during a contraction. Or simply the knowledge that she will not be left alone. And, if she is a Christian, being able to suggest a prayer when it is evidently needed.
Image by anathea
Physical Support
“Attending a birth” or as I sometimes call it, doula-ing, is some hard physical work. Staying alert for a long labor and giving of your body to alleviate some pain from the mother are two big parts of being a doula.
Your doula will give you her hand to wrench, let her arm go numb while applying pressure for back labor, tirelessly massage where you need, continually keep a cold or hot cloth on your forehead, take your socks off – put your socks on, take your socks off – put your socks on, take your socks off – put your socks on, hold you up when you legs no longer can, help you change positions when you are just out of energy, support your leg while counting you through pushing, or simply leave you alone while she uses encouraging words because even skin to skin makes you seize up.
She does all these things with a calming spirit, reassuring smile and forceful quiet nature.
From a first time mother on having a Christian doula, “Doctors and nurses are there to take care of your and the baby’s physical needs, but they are not gifted, trained, or have time to be there for your emotional needs. I was really grateful to have an advocate who was committed to being with us through the entire process and knew how to interface with the hospital staff. Also, having a Christian sister who could help me practically apply my faith — reminding me to look to God and seek His help and strength — in an unfamiliar, intense, and sometimes scary situation.”
Have you ever used a doula? What did she do for you that was invaluable?
Check out the other posts in this series:
- 5 Simple Tips for Combating Morning Sickness
- Reflections on my First Pregnancy
- 10 Reasons We Opted to Give Birth at a Birth Center
- Easing Leg Pain During Pregnancy
- Pregnancy Posts Around the Web
- A Tale of Two Births: Medicated vs. Natural Hospital Births, part 2
- A Tale of Two Births: Medicated vs. Natural Hospital Births, part 1
- How to Achieve a Natural Birth in a Hospital Setting
- Real Food Pregnancy Cheats/Shortcuts
- OB or Midwife: Finding the Birth Provider Who Works for You
- A Comparison of Birth Settings: Home, Hospital and Birth Center
- Resources for a Natural Pregnancy
- 10 Things Never to Say to Pregnant Women
- What Every Pregnant Woman Wants to Hear
- Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Much More than Severe Morning Sickness
- Pregnancy Posts Around the Web, Take 2
- Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy
- Breastfeeding While Pregnant
- Preparing for a Water Birth
I’m linking up with: Simple Lives Thursday, Your Green Resource, The Better Mom, The Prairie Homestead, Far Above Rubies, Growing Home, Deep Roots at Home, Time-Warp Wife, Raising Homemakers, Women Living Well
Works for Me Wednesday,Fight Back Friday, Monday Mania
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About Sara Shay @YourThrivingFamily
I’m 33 weeks pregnant and already I don’t know what I did without my doula the first time…forever, I will say they are essential. When I start to freak out or think I’m losing my mind, I know I can give her a holler.
I’m so glad you have Brandy this time around!
Great post. I find many people give me the deer-in-the-headlights look when I mention doulas. Such a bummer, because I think doulas are awesome and extremely helpful. My mother hasn’t finished her doula training, but she’s acted as a doula for all of my deliveries and will also be attending my third very soon. My husband didn’t know a thing about childbirth when we were pregnant with our first (and that was a scary delivery), so he says it was very comforting to have someone who knew how to talk to the doctors/nurses and relay information in “layman’s terms”. The emotional support is so important, not just for the mom, but for the dad as well.
And breastfeeding support is essential – couldn’t have figured it out without my doula’s expertise!
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That is so neat that your mom could be your doula! You know you are in good hands!! I pray this next delivery goes well…I know it is super close!!!
Experience is so important! So glad she is able to be there for you. Yes, even though my husband knew a bunch, it still didn’t mean he knew what to do practically to help. So do and others even with knowledge are clueless.
Sara Shay recently posted..Mad Mad Giveaway
I wish I’d had a doula with both of mine. I actually was close to having one with my second, but it didn’t work out.
Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy recently posted..Iced Tea… or Iced Coffee? {Food Waste Friday 7/27/12}
But from what I’ve heard–you did great without one! I don’t think I could have a natural labor without one! My first one was a doula in training…so I got a freebie.
Sara,
Where do you recomend going to to learn about becoming a douula? I’m actually a Student Midwife, but a midwife I know suggested that I also learn about doula-ing.
Thanks,
Caitlin
I will let Sara know about this comment! I know my doula was trained through DONA International. Hopefully Sara will hop on over soon.
Congrats on becoming a midwife!! 
DONA has great resources. Though Childbirth International seems to have a much more comprehensive online program. Actually if you are already training to be a midwife many of the curriculum would be easy for you!
Above all EXPERIENCE. Find a doula you can apprentice with. It is a little tricky because quite often in the world of “natural” you can run into a lot of mother-earth woman-power stuff, so you want to find someone who has your same worldview.
Personally, I have only doulaed for other Christians, I’m not against supporting someone who isn’t – but my business is A Christian Doula – so that is who I get
Sara Shay @YourThrivingFamily recently posted..Coconut Oil {review and giveaway}
I was my little sisters doula a couple weeks ago – something I have always wanted to do!
She had a successful home birth with her first baby and I am so proud of her.
My first baby was 28 hours and my doula was wonderful, especially for hubby. Since then we have not needed one… now I go quick – they’d never make it in time!
I wish I could go quickly like that–maybe this time!
You are SO right! There is NOTHING like having a trained doula! OH my word! I preach it to everyone I meet who is pregnant (that and choose a midwife instead of OB if you can and get your birth photographed! LOL )My mom and sis are both DONA birth doulas and it’s such a neat job and helps SOOOO much!!
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I LOVE my DONA-certified doula!
Great post!! I am a certified doula with DONA and I think the hardest thing is educating people about what a doula is and why they would want one. Thanks for spreading the word!
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My doula is DONA-certified as well!
When is a good time to find a doula? Is there a point where it might be too late?
It is never to late to find a doula! I had someone hire me while they were hooked up in the hospital ready to be induced.
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