What Exactly is a Doula?

"Doula" is a Greek word whose definition has come to mean a woman who helps other women. The word has further evolved to mean a woman experienced in childbrith who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to the mother before, during and after childbirth.

What Can a Doula do for Me?

A doula spends time with the pregnant mother to understand her desires about childbirth and helps her prepare for the natural course of childbirth along with the expectations of labor and birth. The doula understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor and will give her continuous support throughout the entire labor and birth. Immediate postpartum support is given to the mother in the place of birth.

Doulas help moms in many birth settings, such as hospitals, in birthing centers or in the comfort of their home. Doulas work beside physicians, midwives and nurses.

Doulas help preserve the memory of birth, recognizing childbirth as a key life experience that the mother will remember all her life and may help lower the risk of postpartum depression.

Birth Doula

Birth Doula - Labor support doulas (or birth doulas) are trained and experienced labor support persons who attend to the emotional and physical comfort needs of laboring women to smooth the labor process. They do not perform clinical tasks such as heart rate checks, or vaginal exams but rather use massage, aromatherapy, positioning suggestions, etc., to help labor progress as well as possible. A labor support doula joins a laboring woman either at her home or in hospital or birth center and remains with her until a few hours after the birth. In addition to emotional support, doulas work as advocates of their client's wishes and may assist in communicating with medical staff to obtain information for the client to make informed decisions regarding medical procedures.