Is a Doula for me?

What is a doula? A doula is a trained non-medical professional that can inform, empower, and support you through your labor. The greek meaning of the word is a woman's servant or a birth servant.

Doula's Job Description

• Helping with a wide range of coping techniques from massage to positions and breathing
• Giving guidance to a partner so he or she can be supportive in the best possible ways (if needed)
• Offering calm and consistent reassurance throughout
• Communicating with a health care provider and hospital staff
• Keeping everyone on track with the birth plan
• Assisting in beginning breastfeeding
• Providing information about infant nutrition and feeding 
  Why would I want to have a doula present at my baby's birth?
  

Numerous clinical studies have proven that when a laboring mother has a doula by her side:

• it tends to result in shorter labors with fewer complications
• reduces negative feelings about one’s childbirth experience
• reduces the need for Pitocin (a labor-inducing drug), forceps or vacuum extraction and cesareans
• reduces the mother’s request for pain medication and/or epidurals

(From the DONA website)

Stats were taken from Childbirth.org. A doula results in:

• 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