all photography © Julia Chemotti 2010-2022

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How does a professional labor support person (a doula) help an expectant family?

Expectant parents need emotional support.

• a doula can reassure parents if they're feeling anxious 
• a doula is a source of confidence and calm when the parents are tired, discouraged, or stressed

Expectant parents need physical support.  

• When you're having an exceptional day (like when you're in labor), you can overlook the basics!  A birth doula encourages and facilitates proper hydration and nutrition for both parents during the labor
• Mothers in labor often need encouragement to find positions that will facilitate lobar progress and doulas can help them with this, and also find creative ways to make that position comfortable and tolerable.  
• A doula can provide massage or counterpressure to alleviate pain and have expansive knowledge of helping moms to be comfortable in every sense of the word.

Expectant parents need help discerning what information would be helpful, when.

• A doula helps parents put their finger on any uncertainties they might have and formulate questions to ask their health care providers
• A professional labor support person assists in helping the parents plan for their birth and helps them to become aware of all of their options

What is the evidence on supportive care provided by birth doulas?

• Supportive care results in lower rates of medication use, lower cesarean section rates, shorter labors, fewer newborns with low Apgar scores, and increased maternal satisfaction with the birthing process. “Effects of Labor Support on Mothers, Babies, and Birth Outcomes” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing Volume 31 Issue 6, Pages 733 – 741 November 2002

•  "It would appear that continuous support during labour [like that provided by doulas] is an essential ingredient of the labour that has unfortunately been left out when maternity care moved from home to hospital in the early 1930s.  Randomised trials of continuous emotional and physical support during labour have resulted in multiple benefits, which include a shorter labour, significantly less medication and fewer medical interventions, including caesarean section, forceps, and epidural anasthaesia" (Klaus et al. 1992). The authors point out other benefits:  "They [doulas] have also been associated with positive social outcomes such as decreased maternal anxiety and depression, increased breastfeeding and increased satisfaction with interpersonal relations with partners."  Marsden Wagner, M.D.  Pursuing the Birth Machine, Ace Graphics 1994

 
We’re taking a 12-week birth class to prepare my husband or partner to support me at our birth.   Is a doula necessary?   

Fathers and other loved ones are experts in you/the mom!  A doula enhances and fine-tunes the support a husband and/or any other family members provide.  She brings experience and comfort with birth and all the directions a labor and postpartum recovery can take.  She allows a dad to take a break to eat, rest, and use the bathroom when a mom needs continuous support for many hours.  Sometimes complications arise and medical tools are needed, and a doula helps moms and partners cope with this situation. 

How do a father and a doula work together?

• The mother needs a cool washcloth for her face, her hot pack reheated down the hall, a shoulder massage, and lots of reassurance—at the same time.

• The mother needs to lean on her husband while the doula provides pressure on her lower back.

• Supporting a laboring woman is hard work and can last days, and supporters will need to take breaks.  A doula ensures the laboring woman has continuous support.  On the other hand, if labor is short, a mother's labor is often extremely intense and she may need extra support because a lot is happening all at one time.  
• A dad and a doula working together means one of them communicate with a health care provider while the other person focuses on the mother’s needs.