The Role a Doula Play's During Pregnancy and Childbirth

Many women are choosing to hire doula's to attend to them during their labor and childbirth. Doula is a Greek word that means for a woman to serve another. A doula is a trained non medical professional hired by the mother to assist her during childbirth.

A doula is hired for all sorts of reason's. The most common one being to help support the Mother emotionally and physically through out her labor and birth. The doula will also help explain any medical procedure's to the parents and can sometimes act as am advocate for the parents. Doula's can be hired to attend homebirth's as well as hospital and birth center births. The presence of a doula has been shown to help the mother in labor, that many interventions are not necessary. Using a doula has been shown to increase the odds of a natural birth. It can also let the father or birth partner relax a bit and take some of the pressure off the one supporting the laboring mother.

Many doula's are also trained childbirth educators, hypnotherapist's and massage therapists. They may also be knowledgeable about herbs and aromatherapy. The support a doula can provide a pregnant woman is immeasurable. Many doula's offer prenatal classes and will meet with the parents to be to discuss a birth plan and determine what kind of birth the Mother would like. The doula will help the mom achieve her goals. She will also help the mom formulate her own personalized birth plan so that she knows exactly what kind of support the mom will want in labor as well as any interventions she wishes to avoid or any special requests she may have for her birth.

During the labor the doula will help the mom with positioning and relaxation techniques as well as helping provide comfort and support through massage and counter pressure and keeping mom moving and eating and drinking during labor. A trained doula has many tricks up her sleeve and the extra set of hands is often welcome during the labor and birth. Many doulas will take pictures if requested and a lot of times will present the parents with a birth story after the birth.

After the birth a doula might provide emotional support for processing the birth as well as provide breastfeeding and baby care advice. Some doula's offer postpartum services such as light house cleaning, meal preparation, babysitting and massage. Usually these extra services are not included in the initial pregnancy and birth fee but many doula's will be happy to work out arrangements to help their post partum families.

The cost of a doula varies in different parts of the United States. On average hiring a doula will likely cost between $300-$1200. Most of the time private insurance will not pay for doula's, though some hospital's and birthing center's do provide doula services that may be covered. You might want to look at contacting a national certifying body like DONA (Doulas of North America) or ALACE (Association of Labor Assistants & Childbirth) to find a qualified doula in your area. Student doula's often offer their services at a discount rate so that might be an option to look into as well.

The labor and birth doula has one goal and that is to support the mother. Labor and birth has been shown to go much more smoothly with a doula present. You really can't go wrong if you hire a qualified doula to help you during your labor and birth.