Do I need a doula?
The beauty of having a doula is that she is there just for you! They often have knowledge of labor and delivery and can even be familiar with your specific care provider. Your doula can be a personal resource guide, helping to answer all of those pressing questions you may have. Paying close attention to physical comfort through techniques such as touch, massage and assistance with breathing, your doula will provide emotional reassurance, comfort and encouragement. Doulas are also there to support and offer guidance to the partner and other family and loved ones. In addition to helping explain specific procedures and facilitate communication between you and your health care providers, studies show that he presence of a doula helps lower birth risks and the need for pain medications. Doula Support For Pregnant Women Could Improve Care, Reduce Costs A recent review titled “Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth”, showed a very high number of positive birth outcomes when a doula was present. With their support, women were less likely to have pain-relief medications administered and less likely to have a cesarean birth. Additionally, the use of vacuum or forceps for delivery is decreased, as well as overall time and duration of labor. Other studies have shown that having a doula as a member of the birth team decreases the overall cesarean rate by 50%, the length of labor by 25%, the use of oxytocin by 40%, and requests for an epidural by 60%. Doula work is gaining momentum every day, and Doulas are becoming so popular that pregnant women are finding the need to lock in the most talented doulas during their first trimester of pregnancy to guarantee their services. It is predicted that in the near future doula care will be an integrated part of maternity care. Given the incredible impact doula care has upon labor it is a wonder why doula care has not been standardly available to every pregnant women. Doulas overall cost less than many medical interventions and have better results at helping women feel good about their birth experience. For doulas and nurses to work together as a team to provide the best possible care for an intrapartum patient, they must develop a relationship based on mutual respect for each other’s different roles While a nurse’s primary role is to provide medical care for a laboring mother, her duties also include psychological and emotional support. Based on this and previous studies, many nurses fail, or are unable, to provide the latter. Clearly, this is why many women choose to hire a doula. Nurses must recognize that the doula is there to “fill in the gap” by offering the numerous comfort measures and intense emotional support nurses are unable to offer because of the enormous responsibility of providing adequate medical care to both mother and baby. Nurses will enhance patient satisfaction if they embrace this idea and recognize a doula can facilitate their own role. Doulas must also acknowledge that they are present strictly to provide support and advocacy, not to make medical decisions. If both members of this labor team are able to distinguish each other’s roles, they can work together to provide women with safe and rewarding births! As the United States continues to grapple with pregnancy-related deaths and infant mortality, which disproportionately affect Black, Native American and Pacific Islander communities, policymakers are taking a closer look at how doulas may be able to help reduce health disparities and there is a growing movement to include the cost of doula services in medicaid and other medical insurance policies.
What are the benefits?
How common a doula?
Working together with the medial community
