How can a doula help me prepare for my baby’s birth?

During your pregnancy we will maintain regular contact, and I’m always available if you or your partner have questions about any aspect of your pregnancy, labour or care. We will meet, usually in your home, for private consultations a number of times before birth. These sessions are an opportunity for us to get to know eachother, and feel comfortable together. We’ll talk about issues you may be having at the time, as well as exploring comfort measures, labouring positions, breathing tools and other techniques for labour. I can help you to source evidence-based information as you prepare a birth plan, and answer questions about general policy and procedures that may affect you during your stay in hospital. For partners, we will focus on a woman’s needs in labour, and explore labour support skills that he will feel confident using on the day.

As well as practical support, I’m a sounding board for you to use as often as you need to! To talk through your ideas and options, or to talk about those physical or emotional aspects of pregnancy that are hard to share with those closest to you.

By the time you reach term, it’s my hope that you’ll feel confident and relaxed, and more than ready to meet your baby.

What do you do at a birth?

I will come to you either at home, or in the hospital whenever you feel it is time for me to come and will stay with you until your baby is born, has had his first feed and you are all settled with your new family.

I’m comfortable taking whatever role suits you – this is your birth, and I am here to help you make it the most positive experience it can be. My role is often a little different at each birth, but usually involves nurturing mum, helping her to keep focused and comfortable, anticipating her needs, offering suggestions for positions and pain management, massage, and maintaining her birthing environment as she wants it (lighting, music etc). While you’re labouring, I’m also encouraging and supporting your partner to fully engage with what’s happening – giving him ideas and feedback if he seems a bit lost, and of course leaving you both to it when I can see that you’re doing just fine. Labour is such an intimate event in the lives of a couple, and those moments during labour when you are truly connected and close will be respected.

Won’t a doula take away from my partner’s role?

Having a doula at your birth should never undermine or diminish your partner’s support role. Your partner knows you, he loves you and what he brings to the birth of his child is completely unique. I’m there to compliment him, not to compete with him. Supporting a birthing woman can sometimes be a long, tiring and emotionally taxing experience. It benefits both your partner, and you for him to be able to take a break when he needs to, knowing that you’re with someone you trust and who is sensitive to your needs.  Even some of the most skeptical partners are so pleased afterwards that they had someone there for them – to reassure them that what their loved one is experiencing is normal, to help them keep perspective and encourage them to keep going.  In a particularly lengthy labour of 24 hours or more, the value of experienced and attentive support can’t be overestimated.

My partner isn’t comfortable with having a stranger present during our baby’s birth.

When the time comes for your baby to be born, we will have spent many hours together preparing for her birth. I hope that by that time, you will know me and trust me and feel that I am an integral part of your birth team.

If your baby will be born in hospital, you’ll encounter many strangers during your labour – even if you’re using a private obstetrician known to you, the majority of your labour will be spent with midwives who you most likely won’t have met. Hospital birth suites are busy – doctors, midwives, orderlies, medical and midwifery students and other personnel come and go and just as you start to feel comfortable with them…there’s a shift change and more new faces. Choosing to have a doula present can actually provide continuity of care and a familiar presence in an environment where these things are rarely guaranteed.

Do I need permission from the hospital or my obstetrician for you to be at my birth?

You don’t require permission to engage a doula in a public hospital. In my experience, most private hospitals understand the value of a doula to the mother and her partner and are supportive and happy for me to be there. While you don’t require your obstetrician’s permission if you are a private patient, in the interests of open communication it’s a good idea to let them know that you are having a doula at your birth beforehand.

I’m not sure if I’ll have a drug free, natural birth – will you still support me?

My role is not to impose a certain “type” of birth on you – it is to support your choices. No matter how you decide to birth your baby, there are still immense benefits to having a doula support you. Even if you’re undecided about pain relief, or just keeping an open mind – I will help you explore your options beforehand and be there in labour no matter what you decide.