lloyddoulas.org - What is a Doula?

WHAT IS A DOULA?

The word "doula" comes from the Greek word for the most important female slave or servant in an ancient Greek household, the woman who probably helped the lady of the house through her childbearing. The word has 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.
(from Mothering the Mother by Klaus, Kennell and Klaus)

WHAT DOES A DOULA DO?
My goal as your doula is to help you have a safe and satisfying childbirth as YOU define it. When a doula is present, some women feel less need for pain medications, or may postpone them until later in the labor. However, many women choose or need pain relief. It is not my role as your doula to discourage you from your choices. I want to help you become informed about various options, including the risks and benefits. Doulas can also help maximize the benefits of pain medications while minimizing their undesirable side effects.
A doula:
- Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor
- Recognizes birth as a key life experience that the woman will remember for the rest of her life- Understands and encourages the important role the partner has in the birthing process
- Assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth
Provides a calm and stable presence for the laboring woman throughout the entire labor
- Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, and positioning to help labour progress, and to help the woman cope with the everything that is going on.-Provides an objective viewpoint and assistance to the woman in getting the information she needs to make decisions that are right for her.
- Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and all clinical care providers
- Helps create a nurturing circle around the laboring woman that can (but does not have to) include her partner, family members or friends
- Helps with immediate recovery and early breastfeeding (if the mother chooses)
- Discusses the birth with the mother a week or so later and helps the mother feel an even greater sense of satisfaction aboutthe experience

WHAT DOES A DOULA NOT DO?
- Offer medical advice or assistance
- Impose her own ideas about how an individual birth should go
- Judge a woman or a couple's decisions regarding their birth
- Diminish or patronize a woman or her partner
- Try to downplay or take the place of a partner, family member or friend the mother is relying upon
- Exclude other key participants such as family or friends
- Mediate directly between the woman and/or her partner and the caregiver(s)

Over the last decade, maternity care providers have come to recognize doulas as an important part of a successful birthing team citing the improved physical outcomes and emotional well-being of mothers and infants that come with doula care. Statistics support this assessment.

Since 1980, research has been done to determine the benefits of doula assisted births. These studies showed that there were significant decreases in birth interventions including:

50 % decrease in cesarean births

60 % decrease in epidurals

40 % decrease in the use of pitocin

30% decrease in the use of narcotics

30% decrease in the use of forceps

Overall, a 25% decrease in the length of labor

You can learn more in the book “Mothering the Mother, How a Doula Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier and Healthier Birth” by Marshall H. Klaus, John H. Kennell, Phyllis H. Klaus

If you are pregnant.....you deserve a doula!

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