What is a Doula?

A labor support doula is a knowledgeable and experienced guide for childbirth. She provides comfort measures and suggestions for labor, experienced assessment of your labor, guidance and advocacy, and a continuous presence that is invaluable to women and their partners.

The doula helps you to labor at home for as long as possible, assessing your labor and providing comfort and reassurance. When it is time, she will accompany you to the hospital and stay with you for the duration. She will help you get settled in and will tend to making the environment as soothing as possible. She tends to the needs and concerns of partners as well as laboring women. During a long labor, she will see that your partner gets a break and arrange for meals, in addition to labor support.

While at the hospital, the doula will introduce herself to the nursing staff and to your doctor or midwife and generally work towards creating a team approach to meeting your needs. She will be an advocate in a way that is productive. She can gently remind staff of your wishes and can help you to take the necessary time to make decisions that you feel good about and fully understand. She can reassure you when you might be feeling that your labor is abnormal when it's not, and can help you understand any complications that do arise. The hospital environment can feel intimidating, and the doula plays an important role in making it more friendly and safe.

This care has been proven to make childbirth safer, less interventive, even shorter than births that are not doula attended. Klaus & Kennel compiled data from six randomized trials and showed that when professional labor support is provided to birthing women, the outcome for the whole family is dramatically improved. The benefits are summarized below::

• 50% reduction in cesarean deliveries
• 25% reduction in the length of labor
• 40% reduction in the use of oxytocin
• 60% reduction in the use of epidurals
• 40% reduction in the use of forceps or instrumental delivery¹

Added benefits that were studied in some of the trials showed dramatic increases in breastfeeding rates, attachment behaviors in mother/infant pairs and in parenting confidence as a whole. Another surprising benefit...women who utilized the services of a labor support doula, in addition to their partner, reported significantly higher satisfaction with their partner relationship.²

The American Academy of Family Physicians encourages the use of doulas because [they] decrease the need for pain medication, which in turn increases breastfeeding success rates. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourages the use of doulas because their use lowers cesarean section rates in hospitals.
(Source: Gurevich, The Doula Advantage)

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1. Klaus, Marshall H., MD; Kennell, John H., MD; Klaus, Phyllis H., M.Ed., C.S.W. Mothering the Mother: How a Doula Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, & Healthier Birth. Perseus Books, Massachusetts. 1993. page 51.

2. Klaus, Marshall H., MD; Kennell, John H., MD; Klaus, Phyllis H., M.Ed., C.S.W. Mothering the Mother: How a Doula Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, & Healthier Birth. Perseus Books, Massachusetts. 1993. page 45.