A birth doula is a trained and experienced labor support professional who attends to the emotional and physical comfort needs of laboring women so that labor may progress as smoothly as possible. Because the doula's primary focus is the mother rather than the infant, the role of the doula during birth is complementary to that of a midwife or obstetrician.

Birth requires that we surrender in order to open and allow life to pass from us. When a laboring woman becomes fearful or anxious, her body’s innate wisdom stops the opening and baby stops descending. To free her up to continue her work, mother needs to feel safe, tended to, held. So for millennia and across cultures, women in childbirth have sought the reassuring presence of other women whose hands and very being nurture, guide, and support the laboring mother. Today, a doula fills this traditional role.

I draw on my professional training and experience to care for you as I:

• Educate you and your partner. I provide the information you need to make informed decisions as they arise in labor
• Suggest comfort measures during labor, such as massage, breathing techniques, positioning
• Lend a calm perspective and reassuring presence
• Offer guidance to your partner’s hands… his/ her touch with my skill and experience
• Take the pressure off your partner so that s/he can engage at his/her own comfort level
• Translate medical lingo while in hospital
• Facilitate communication between you, your partner, and your care providers
• Initiate breastfeeding and bonding

A doula’s presence has clear benefits:

• Better birth outcomes… for baby and mother
• Shorter labors
• Reduces the need for interventions such as pitocin, epidurals, analgesics and C-sections.
• Reduces anxiety and postpartum depression
• Strengthens confidence level with baby
• Enhanced satisfaction with birth experience
• Greater success with breastfeeding

The Cochrane Review is part of a growing body of research on the effects of labor support with a doula.

 

Kathy Shamoun MS, L.Ac  • 646-642-9381 • openspacewellness@gmail.com