What is a Doula?

Doula comes from the Greek word meaning woman caregiver.

A doula is someone who cares for and provides support for a woman during birth, and postpartum. Distinct from the role of most other professionals, doulas perform no medical tasks. A trained, professional doula balances three distinct categories when providing support to a mother: emotional, physical, and informational support. The overarching goal is to help the birthing mother achieve a healthy and satisfying birth and postpartum experience.

The Birth Doula

Throughout history, women were supported by other women during childbirth. This need of birthing women, to feel supported during such a vulnerable time, has not gone away. The work of a doula- providing encouragement, continuous support and companionship during birth, continues this historical tradition. The work of doulas ensures that women never feel abandoned during birth.

Doula care is “both risk-free and highly effective . . . doula’s should be viewed by both parents and providers as a valuable, evidence-based member of the birth care team.”* Doula care is very effective at increasing positive outcomes for the birthing family and increases the satisfaction with their childbirth experience. Women who receive doula support are more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and are less likely to use pain medication or epidurals.** They also have a decreased likelihood of needing a cesarean section or holding negative feelings about their birth experience. Mothers and babies are statistically more likely to have better outcomes including higher APGAR scores for the infant. Partners/fathers also benefit from doula support, reporting more positive birth experiences when a doula was present.*** In a recent study, mothers were randomly assigned to doula support vs. no doula support. It was found that the mothers who received doula support had lower pain scores and less anxiety during labor.****

* In the words of Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN APRN of EvidenceBasedBirth.com
** Cochrane review (Bohren et al., 2017)
***(Johansson, 2015)
****(Ravangard et al. 2017)

The Postpartum Doula

Traditionally women were supported by other women after birth, such as female relatives. Women who receive postpartum support have better postpartum adjustment. Today, much of the traditional ‘mothering’ of a new mother has been forgotten and women can be left alone feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or unsure of how to best care for a newborn. A postpartum doula can fill this need by coming into the home and providing support to the new mother. Postpartum doulas help the mother transition into her new role as a mother, heal from birth, and gain confidence in newborn care.

The benefits of postpartum doula support are:

• Greater breastfeeding success
• Less postpartum depression
• Greater self-confidence
• Better postpartum adjustment

To read more about the evidence of Doulas see https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/