Birth Doula Services

A doula is a trained professional who provides emotional support, physical comfort measures, and informational help during your birth. A midwife is trained to do medical procedures, deliver the baby, and is in charge of the well-being of mother and baby. A doula focuses only on you, but a midwife has medical duties to attend to such as charting, assessing fetal heart rate, blood pressure etc. A doula does not do any medical checks or procedures. Usually your midwife will come to attend your birth when you are in active labour. Often a doula comes before the midwife to help with early labour. 

Absolutely! There are many important differences. Midwives have many other responsibilities that take precedence over comfort measures, such as checking fetal heart tones, charting, preparing for delivery, checking blood pressure, etc.  Midwives also only come to your home or to the hospital once you are in active labour. In contrast, a doula’s only job is to support you and your partner when you need the most help coping with your contractions and labour. Your doula will come to support you whenever you need the support. Your doula is there for you and your partner, supporting you through each contraction, heating up rice packs, making sure you (and your partner, and midwife!) are hydrated. Doulas are super helpful at homebirths, where we can help with cleaning up, or whip up a postpartum meal to a very hungry new family.

I am here to support both you and your partner. Your partner will need to take a break periodically, have reassurance that what is happening is normal, and be reminded to eat and drink. Having a doula helps take pressure off of your partner, who may feel overwhelmed. I also help make suggestions of how they can best help support you. A doula doesn’t take over for the partner (unless asked to!). I am there to help support you both in this new experience. Doulas and partners make a great team! 

I will meet with you 2 times prenatally to answer questions, discuss the birth process, discuss breastfeeding, help write a birth plan, provide local resources, and get to know you and your partner. Once you go into labour, I will be available whenver you need me to come support you; at home or in the hospital. I will stay with you throughout your entire labour, providing comfort measures, information, emotional support, and taking photographs, if desired. I stay for an hour or two after the birth to help you with breastfeeding. I visit you postpartum two times after the birth to talk about the birth experience, answer questions, and provide local resources. 

My goal is to help you have the birth you want. If using pain medications is in your birth plan, I can help educate you about your options so you can make an informed choice. I will help support you and your partner in the early stages of labour before the epidural can be started, offer suggestions to help keep labour progressing, and through the pushing stage. Epidurals do not always work fully (or at all), so it is important to learn comfort measures and coping techniques to help you through labour, even if you are planning on getting an epidural.

A doula will not speak on your behalf to healthcare providers. We work on the skills you will need to make informed decisions, critical thinking, and to advocate for yourself and your partner. We are here to help you understand your options, to give you evidence based information, go over the pros and cons of each option, and to make sure you get the time you need to make an informed decision.

Advocacy and critical thinking is really important no matter what kind of birth you have. Doulas are sometimes are allowed in the OR to support our clients. When your birth plan changes, we can help you stay calm and help you understand the procedures. We help you understand what is happening and take the ’emergency’ out of a non-emergency situation. We are able to meet you in recovery if we were not able to be in the OR with you. We are able to continue supporting you and your partner after the birth of your baby.