Having a Doula at your birth be it a hospital or homebirth is a wonderful way to have the optimum birthing experience.   

If you talk to your mother, grandmother, sister or friends they will often reminisce the birth of their child/children and will usually want to share their story with you.   This will come mainly from their feelings, and so may have an effect on your feelings and beliefs about birthing.   So whether to her it was a smooth and easy birth or she felt it to be traumatic, stressful and hard, can often effect us in many ways and on many emotional levels, from acceptance to fear of giving birth.   

So to have the optimum birth experience it is good to have an experienced birth attendant at your side, such as a Doula who is not emotionally involved like that of a loved one who can stay neutral under all emotional circumstances and support you and your partner throughout the whole labour.    This is an excellent way to have constant caring reassurance for you during birth and especially reassuring for your partner as  labour  progresses.    It is also important to know that having a Doula with you will mean that your partner is able to go get a tea or coffee, food or have a toilet break without feeling anxious about leaving your side and also so that you instinctively still feel safe and supported whilst he does so.   This ongoing support during labour is quite difficult for the modern midwife to attain as she will be busy with other birthing women and will, if all is well, only briefly come in to check and monitor both mother and baby till birth is eminent.   

Doula's are there to help support you and your partner in a way also to help protect your privacy and keep harmony and calmness in the room, so that the birth experience you remember and have is a positive one.   As a mother you can then pass on your birth story as one of peace and acceptance so that birth as a whole becomes again a normal and positive experience rather than one of fear and apprehension. 

If you are considering hiring a Doula or wanting to know what a Doula is here is some information and facts.

The role of a doula...

The term doula comes from ancient Greece meaning “servant to women”
The aim of a doula is to enhance the well being of the mother during pregnancy, labour and birth. We do not clinically manage the birth but are employed privately by women to give emotional informational and physical support through the birth process.

Current research shows that women who utilise the services of a doula can expect:
• an epidural use rate reduced by 60%
• a 50% less chance of a caesarean birth
• syntocin use reduced by 40%
• narcotics use reduced by 30%
• forceps use reduced by 30%
• the length of labour to be reduced by 25%

What does a doula do?

The doula understands the physical and emotional aspects of the birthing process and though she cannot perform any medical procedures she is able to support women who have natural or medically managed births.

This is especially important for the women requiring induction, forceps delivery or caesarean section because the emotional experience of these birth can seem quite negative for some women. The doula knows that every birth is a supreme achievement of the woman: no matter what manner the "birth" is and supports this.

There are many ways a doula can help achieve a positive birth experience. Some of these are massage, reflexology, visualisation, pain management techniques using pressure and heat, as well as support for partners. Most importantly a doula helps the birthing woman have faith in the ability of her body to birth her baby.