As a birth doula, I will be with you throughout your pregnancy and birth.
During pregnancy, I focus on childbirth education, helping you understand your options, and teaching you techniques to help you have a more comfortable birth.
During birth I will be there to support, comfort, encourage, and assist you however you need to have a peaceful and rewarding birth experience. For more information on birth doulas, see this link: http://www.dona.org/mothers/faqs_birth.php
A Birth Doula:
-Recognizes birth as a key experience the mother will remember all her life
-Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor
-Assists the woman in preparing for and carrying out her plans for birth
-Stays with the woman throughout the labor
-Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures and an objective viewpoint, as well as helping the woman get the information she needs to make informed decisions
-Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and her clinical care providers
-Perceives her role as nurturing and protecting the woman's memory of the birth experience
-Allows the woman's partner to participate at his/her comfort level*
Benefits of a Birth Doula
Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula's presence at birth:- tends to result in short 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 International website
