What is a doula
What a doula actually does
A doula is not a medical professional. I don't examine you, I don't monitor your baby, I don't give medical advice and I don't make decisions. What I do is everything around that: I prepare you, I stay with you through the whole of it, and I make sure the decisions in that room are yours.
A midwife and a doula
A midwife and a doula are not the same thing, and not a choice between the two. Your midwife is a clinician: she is responsible for your safety and your baby's, she checks, monitors and makes clinical decisions.
She also works in shifts, so the midwife who is with you may change before your baby is born. Your notes travel with you — nothing else does.
I don't change shifts. I know what you decided months ago and why. I know what you said you wanted if things changed. And I'm still holding all of it at four in the morning, when you've stopped being able to say it yourself.
What that looks like
BEFORE BIRTH
We go through your choices and where you want to give birth — at home, on a labour ward or in a birth centre. We make a plan together, and we talk about what happens if the plan changes.
DURING BIRTH
Positions, breathing, massage, counter-pressure, rebozo. I explain what has just been said to you and what it means. I know how the protocols work, so I can see when there is time to think and when it's worth asking about your options.
FOR YOUR PARTNER
I show him what to do with his hands, where to stand, what to say and when to stay quiet. He doesn't have to be the expert. He only has to be your person.
AFTER BIRTH
The first feed, the first hours, and I don't leave until I know you're both settled.
Does it actually help?
There is a Cochrane review of continuous support in labour: 26 trials, almost 16,000 women. Those who had continuous support were more likely to have a spontaneous vaginal birth, less likely to have a caesarean or an instrumental birth, less likely to need pain relief, and their labours were shorter. And the part that matters most to me: they were noticeably less likely to look back on their birth as a bad experience.
The review notes separately that the effect was strongest where the support came from someone in a doula role — not a member of hospital staff, and not part of the woman's own social network.
And what a doula does not do
I don't make your decisions. My job is to make sure the choice is yours. The difference between «I chose this» and «it was decided for me» is what a woman remembers about her birth for years.
I don't push you towards any kind of birth. Your birth should be your experience, not mine.
I don't argue with doctors and I don't speak for you. The moment someone else answers on your behalf, people stop asking you. I hand you back your own questions and buy you the time to ask them.
I don't replace your partner. I make it possible for him to be present with you instead of managing everything.
Still not sure if you want a doula?
That is exactly what the free call is for. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and no one will push you into anything.
