I can help you have
- less chance of a cesarean
control
Graceful Birthing Doula Services.....because every woman deserves a graceful birth!
What is a birth doula?
Doula is a Greek word that means "servant". Today birth doulas are child birth professionals that have extensive training and experience with the normal process of childbirth. They offer emotional and physical support before, during, and after the birth experience. A doula supports the husband/partner in his special role, never taking his place but working with him. A doula can offer advice on breathing techniques, physical positions that help labor, comfort techniques, and coping strategies. She is also well trained in the many choices involved in labor and delivery. A doula provides no clinical services (blood pressure checks, cervical checks, fetal heart rates, etc.) but is rather there to complement the birth process with your health care provider by providing emotional reassurance and comfort.
Why do I need a doula?
Women who have a birth with a doula have:
- 50% reduction in the cesarean rate
- 25% shorter labor
- 60% reduction in epidural requests
- 40% reduction in oxytocin use
- 30% reduction in analgesia use
- 40% reduction in forceps delivery
Even if you are planning on having an epidural at your birth a doula can provide support, reassurance, and comfort. She can help you cope with contractions until the medication works, help you understand the normal stages of labor, provide massage, aromatherapy, and light settings to make your birth peaceful and joyful. A doula can help with siblings if they wish to be at the birth. A doula also helps after the birth with establishing breastfeeding. As your doula, I visit you at home during the post partum period to answer questions, help with breastfeeding problems, and answer questions about newborn care.
A labor doula...
- Recognizes birth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life.
- Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor.
- Assists the woman and her partner in preparing for and carrying out their plans for the birth.
- Stays by the side of the laboring woman throughout the entire labor.
- Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, an objective viewpoint and assistance to the woman in getting the information she needs to make good decisions.
- Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and clinical care providers.
- Perceives her role as one who nurtures and protects the woman's memory of her birth experience
Where do doulas work?
A doula can meet you at home in the early stages of labor or at the hospital. Doulas also work with midwives at home births and in free standing birth centers.
