What is a Doula?
The word doula (pronounced doo-la) is translated from the Greek word meaning "woman of service". Today it is used to describe a woman who is trained in childbirth support. A doula provides continuous emotional, physical, and informational support to a woman and her partner. This support takes place before labor, during labor, and after the child is born. A doula has knowledge and understanding of the physiological process of birth as well as insight into the emotional needs of a woman in labor. A doula can help with gathering information and facilitating communication between all people involved in a woman's birth. A doula provides non-medical support and can offer comfort measures such as massage, heat/cold therapy, and position changes while helping and encouraging the woman's partner to be involved in the birth process.
Benefits of a Doula
Labor can be intense even if the mother is armed with education and surrounded by people that care for her. A gentle birth is easier to create when the mother chooses and trusts the support team that is in the birthing room with her. Including a doula in the support team increases the mother's chances of having the birth that she desires. A doula will meet with the family before the birth to become familiar with what the mother wants out of her birth experience. The doula will then work diligently to create the mothers expressed desires.
How mothers rated their birth experience with or without a doula
Doula No Doula Rated birth experience as good 82.5% 67.4% Felt they coped well with labor 46.8% 28.3% Felt labor had positive effect on them as a woman 58.0% 43.7% Perceived their bodies as strong 58.0% 41.0% Source: Gordan, Walton, McAdam, Derman, Gallitero, and Garrett. California, 1998. Obstetrics and Gynecology 93. no. 3 422-26
Medical studies have shown that having a doula present provides the following benefits:
- 50% reduction in cesarean rate
- 60% reduction in epidural requests
- 40% reduction in the use of Pitocin
- 25% shorter labor
- 30% reduction in use of analgesia
- 40% reduction in forceps use
Source: Barbara Harper, R.N. Vermont, 2005. Gentle Birth Choices, 96.
Dad's and Doula's
Given today’s birth classes dads are expected to play a very active role in the birthing room. They are expected to be the birth coach throughout the entire labor no matter how long or intense it gets. Witnessing their partner in a state that they have never seen before can be very stressful especially for the men who have never experienced birth before. A doula can take the stress away of being the sole supporter and let the dad experience the joy of their child’s birth. A doula’s role with the dad is to help him in the role that he is most comfortable with. Some dads may want to be the active person while the women is experiencing intense labor pains or maybe he just wants to massage her hands and cool her head with a cloth. This can be decided before labor even starts or be decided when the time comes in the labor room.