For a growing number of American women, the birthing process
includes a new face: a doula. Birth-experienced lay-people mostly,
doulas can be hired to help new moms through labor, coaching and
massaging them as well as reminding them of their choices in the
delivery room.
For a growing number of American women, the birthing process includes a new face: a doula. Birth-experienced lay-people mostly, doulas can be hired to help new moms through labor, coaching and massaging them as well as reminding them of their choices in the delivery room.
“It’s a familiar face in the room – someone who knows what they want,” says Lisa Huse, a professional doula and childbirth educator in San Jose. “When labor starts, a lot of times there’s fear.”
During a recent birth, says Huse, she arrived to find a client gripping the bed rail, terrorized by the thought of her next contraction. “I got her breathing, up off the bed and onto the birthing ball [a large inflatable ball for laboring women to rest on],” Huse says. “Her husband came back from getting coffee and couldn’t believe the change.”
Huse began attending her friends’ births long before she ever had a title. A bad experience during the birth of her first child led the single mom of two to act as an advocate for her friends in labor.
“My daughter was posterior, so I had a lot of pain in my back,” said Huse. “I didn’t know that I had the option of moving around, so I just laid the way they’d put me – on my back. Had I gotten on my hands and knees it would have helped the pain and helped my baby to turn, but I didn’t know.”
Doulas, says Huse, should be there to inform women, and let them make their own choices.
“A lot of my clients are women who are getting epidurals,” says Huse. “I try to help them reach their goals … But I also try to help them keep an open mind because the nature of labor is so unpredictable. It’s like a vacation – you can say I want nice weather, but you don’t control the weather. You make the best of what you get.”
Women going through first-time delivery are among the most likely to hire a doula, but medical experts and most professional doulas would urge potential clients to be very selective. No certification is required by law. In fact, pretty much anyone can call themselves a doula.
An article published by the Wall Street Journal in January detailed the frustration of an obstetrician when she encountered resistance to emergency c-section by an unnamed doula and mother.
“There’s the good, the bad and the ugly with any profession,” says Huse. “We’re not all home birth or nothing. [The medical community] can’t base everything on one experience.”
Huse counsels expectant parents to educate themselves on the birth process, so that a doula’s words will simply jog their memory. She says to make sure your doula meets your doctor beforehand to get a feel for each other, and things should go smoothly during delivery. After that, enjoy your birth, however it happens.
For more information on doulas, visit the Doulas of North America homepage at dona.org.
