What Does a Doula Do?

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A doula does a lot! They offer prenatal education about pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding for both mothers and their partners.

Doulas provide CONTINUOUS labor support for a mother and her partner. This is huge in today’s birthing-world. Mothers are often left for long periods of time in the hospital to labor alone. Doctors, due to time constraints, only arrive to catch the baby.

Doulas offer information for parents to make informed decisions regarding their care. It’s your body, your baby and doulas help you get the information you need to know what is best for you all.

Doulas are well-trained in comfort measures in labor. Whether you want medication or not, doulas are able to offer you a myriad of options to get OPTIMUM comfort, whatever that means to you.

Doulas help maximize the partner’s experience as well. There is a lot of pressure on partners to do the right thing for their loved ones in labor. It can be difficult to always know what that is, so doulas help partners help moms. Doulas do not take away from the intimacy in such a partnership, instead they are trained to help enhance it.

Doulas are not doctors. They are not midwives. They are there to offer emotional and physical support for moms and partners.

A doula DOES NOT perform medical care in anyway. They do not deliver babies, perform vaginal exams, or take fetal heart tones.

Posted in: Sacred Work Doula FAQ’s