It is clearly demonstrated in the research that doulas are a very useful part of your birth team. With benefits such as drastically lower cesarean rates, shortened labor times and overall higher satisfaction about one’s birth experience, this post almost writes itself. Yet, still many people choose to labor without a doula. So how do you decide if doula care is right for you? Here are three signs that indicate- you may need a doula.
1. You have specific goals for your birth, but aren’t sure how you’ll reach those
When you think about giving birth, you have certain things you’re hoping to achieve. Perhaps you are very very adamant about having a vaginal birth. For some, they don’t care what happens but are avoiding a (repeat) cesarean is at the top of the list. Maybe you want to give birth unmedicated, or at home. Whatever your goals are, if you don’t have a clear path forward, you may benefit from working with a doula.
Doulas are experts in physiological birth: the process one’s body goes through to bring a baby into the world, when we don’t intervene. Physiology is what the body knows how to do without being told. By adding a doula to your birth team, you have a resource available to you that can help you understand what your body will go through when it gives birth. But perhaps even more important is that a doula is specifically trained to know how to support that physiology.
2. You have some fears around birth
Totally, completely and certainly very common and understandable. It’s becoming quite the cliche, but once upon a time we would witness birth so much more than we do now. Heck, giving birth to your own child may be your very first birth experience!
We have neglected to pass down our knowledge and our experiences with birth. As a result, we have forgotten what birth is. All we collectively remember is that it’s really really hard, that it involves pain and that there are so many things that could go wrong. Which, yes, technically is true. However, what has failed to be passed down is this: it is not impossible. It is not inherently an experience you suffer through. And, there is no easy way to give birth- no matter the route you choose or are led down.
A doula is the one person on your birth team who can support you in replacing fears with information and education. Through our knowledge and wisdom about birth, your body and what it’s capable of, we can shine a light into the darkness and facilitate a remembering: you were made for this. Doulas don’t have to hold all the other pieces your other team members hold. Midwives or OB’s will support you as well, though their responsibility first and foremost is to hold all the medical aspects of your pregnancy and birth, to ensure you birth as safely as possible. And we want them to! This is their role and it is vital. Where a doula rounds out the team, is filling the space of holding your emotional and mental wellbeing, while supporting your physical experience. How incredible.
3. Your partner is nervous about birth
Most partners want to be helpful and supportive during your labor. For most partners, however, your labor will be the one of the first ones, if not the first one, they attend. While many partners certainly are very supportive, we have to remember they are also going through their own process. They, too, are becoming a parent. They have to watch you move through labor.
What I have found to be true for most partners is that, in their day-to-day, they are the fixers. If you have a problem, they have solutions! They will do what they can to remove obstacles from your path, or build a bridge over one if need be. That is very well-intended, and completely useless during labor. We cannot fix labor; nothing is wrong. It’s just extremely intense, and often long. So while they are moving through an emotional experience of their own, potentially missing a night’s sleep, their main coping skill to deal with a challenge you are facing is not one they can rely on. Yikes.
Picture, if you will, someone on your team who is there the whole time. Whose job it is to reassure your partner; to give them jobs to help channel any nervous energy into something productive. Someone to direct them on how to best support you. Someone that shows them how to perform physical comfort measures. Someone to be able to relieve them from hip squeeze duty, so they can have a moment to eat and drink something so they can continue being a great support for you. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Doulas, man. We’re a useful bunch.
There are so many reasons to have a doula on your birth team. This post barely scratches the surface. Reach out to talk about how support from a doula might benefit you.
