What is a Doula?
A doula is someone who is able to provide emotional and physical support during your labour. Though they aren’t medically trained in the same capacity as a midwife, doulas are trained in the physiology of birth, and have an innate understanding of the processes involved in labour and birth. In many ways, doulas bridge the gap between medical support teams and your birth partner, giving you both the emotional support a close friend can offer while also giving you the information you need to make the best choice for you at every stage of your pregnancy, labour, birth, and post partum journey. Doulas, or at least the concept of doulas, has existed since… well forever! Humans have always birthed surrounded by people who are both experienced in birth and able to provide emotional support.
Why hire a doula?
Hiring a doula has many benefits, both for you and for you birth partner. Multiple studies have shown that hiring a doula decreases your likelihood of needing a cesarean section, or of needing an assisted delivery (using forceps or ventouse). It also decreases the likelihood of needing to augment your labour (through the use of syntocinon), and decreases the amount of medical pain relief you would need (gas and air, morphine, epidural etc). On the flip side, having a doula present has been shown to shorter the length of labour for many women, and leaves many women feeling satisfied and happy with their birthing experience. As for partners, having a doula means they have someone to help them. Oftentimes birth partners aren’t too sure of their role, or how to help, but they want to be involved as much as possible. A doula can help point the birth partner in the right direction, allowing them to have a much more hands on approach to supporting a birth. A doula also allows the birth partner to focus on being physically and emotionally present at all times, while the doula can run around grabbing drinks, snacks, and hot water bottles!