Why Hire A Doula?

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With our increasingly busy lives and more and more of us living further away from our families, we can often find ourselves without the support we need at one of the most important, challenging and wonderful new seasons of our lives. 

A doula provides bespoke support that reflects your circumstances, needs and preferences as you prepare to welcome your baby and in the first weeks and months after their birth. 

Preparing before birth

With the goal of making your birth less scary and more comfortable, your doula can educate you about the process of labour and delivery. I have a treasure trove of non-medical pain-management techniques including massage, hypnobirthing, music and mantras that we can try to find the right combination for your birth plan. 

Support through birth

A doula can provide comfort, support and encouragement, both physical and emotional, during labour. As your mediator and advocate, I work alongside your medical team to ensure you have the best possible birth. Some of the support I can provide includes relaxation techniques, breathing exercises and advice on labour positions. Whilst midwives come and go during your labour I am committed to staying and supporting you until baby arrives.

Postpartum care and recovery

A doula can look after you, so that you can better take care of your baby. 

Support for your partner

It’s important that your partner also receives the support and coaching they need in this process. I can provide them with support and reassurance, 

The Evidence for Birth Doulas:

Findings of Hodnett’s et al meta-analysis of 15 trials from N. America, Europe, and Africa concluded that women cared for during labour by a birth doula, compared to those receiving usual care were:

  • less likely to give birth by caesarean section

  • less likely to give birth with a vacuum extractor or forceps

  • less likely to use any analgesia or anaesthesia

  • less likely to be dissatisfied or negatively rate their birth experience

  • less likely to have a long labour

  • less likely to have a baby that needed to go to special care 

A Cochrane review concluded that:

"Continuous support from a person who is present solely to provide support, is not a member of the woman's own network, is experienced in providing labour support, and has at least a modest amount of training (such as a doula), appears beneficial. In comparison with having no companion during labour, support from a chosen family member or friend appears to increase women's satisfaction with their experience."

The Evidence for Postnatal Doulas:

Research by experts tells us what many have long suspected, that those new parents who have support and feel secure and cared for during this time are more successful in adapting than those who don't. Studies have shown that cultures in which women are cared for by others for a defined period of days or weeks and are expected only to nurture themselves and their babies during that time have superior outcomes in postnatal adjustment. We know that women who experience support, compare to those that don't, have: 

  • greater breastfeeding success

  • greater self-confidence

  • less postnatal depression

Coming into the home during the fourth trimester following birth, the doula's role is to provide education, nonjudgmental support and companionship; and to assist with newborn care and family adjustment, meal preparation and light household tasks. Postnatal doulas offer evidence-based information on infant feeding, emotional and physical recovery from birth, infant soothing and coping skills for new parents and can make appropriate referrals when necessary.

The doula can serve as a buffer for new parents who receive a great deal of unsolicited and possibly outdated advice. The doula can help friends and family members to foster and support the parenting decisions of the new parents. By modelling a deep respect for the wisdom and decision-making abilities of the new parents, she makes clear that supporting them in their own choices will have the best possible results. By dedicating herself to the family in this way, the doula validates and enhances the parents' intuitive ability to nurture and encourages them to develop and implement their own parenting style.

(From the DONA Position Paper on Postpartum doulas)

10 Reasons to Hire a Doula

  1. Continuity of Support through pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatally

  2. Support at home in labour before going to the hospital or calling the midwives

  3. Support for partner/family as well as mum

  4. Lower risk of cesarean birth (see above)

  5. Lower risk of instrumental birth (see above)

  6. Less need for painkillers or epidural during labour and birth (see above)

  7. Lower rate of induction of labour (see above)

  8. Shorter labour (see above)

  9. Greater likelihood of establishing breastfeeding (see above)

  10. Flexible support at home in the early weeks with a new baby