all photography © Julia Chemotti 2010-2021
What is the evidence on the benefits of doula support?
We’re taking a 12-week birth class so that my husband or partner 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?
- 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 so that my husband or partner 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 and advocacy for her needs in the hospital.
- A dad and a doula working together means one of them can answer questions of a health care provider while the other support person focuses on the mother’s needs.
