Tag: benefits of a doula

If you’re reading this and currently expecting, you’ve likely already researched the best car seats and strollers. But what about your postpartum care?

In the time of easy access to all the information you could ever dream of, right at your fingertips, we have become accustomed to “just Google it” as a quick and easy response to most of life’s challenges. From how to change the oil in our car to online owners’ manuals, and many other “life hacks,” we can learn just about any skill simply by perusing the internet.

Like most expecting parents, Chelsea and Brandon found themselves consulting these same modes of learning we’ve grown accustomed to as they were preparing for their first baby. They read the books, they took the hospital affiliated childbirth class, and they had close family members at the ready to help when baby arrived.

However, things began to reach “you can’t find that on Google” status pretty quickly during their birth. The experience took some twists and turns they hadn’t learned about in their one day class at the hospital.

Chelsea and Brandon had a baby who needed some additional care with a stay in the NICU.  After they made it home with their baby, they were looking forward to settling into their new normal, but there were some additional bumps in the road that made them realize there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to birth, breastfeeding, or parenting.

Enter… the postpartum doula!

A postpartum doula, like the ones you can find at Midwest Doulas, are magical helpers who provide evidenced-based information on things like feeding, emotional and physical recovery from birth, assistance with infant soothing, and basic newborn care. Research shows that new parents (and their babies) have an easier time with this transition if a good support team is in place.

Like most new parents, Chelsea was looking for the answers to some pretty normal postpartum challenges…

• How can I get my baby to sleep longer?
• How many times a day should I pump?
• How can I get my baby to latch?

But the right answers to these questions are personal to each mom, dad, and baby — they simply don’t come from Google. Yes, you may be able to pick up that newborn sleep training book. And you can find some YouTube videos on proper latching of your baby. However, not all of those “Google-able” solutions apply to the very unique little person that you have in your new baby.

When Chelsea reflected on why the postpartum doula was so valuable she said, “None of the knowledge that you get during pregnancy from reading or the hospital based class were applicable to our kid. That’s why we needed more help from people who could individualize our learning and the support we needed for our unique child.”

A postpartum doula is someone who will come to your home and work within the framework of your specific family unit.

You can choose to have someone come over night to help you with getting a little bit more sleep between feedings, or perhaps you need some daytime help with meal prep, troubleshooting some lactation issues, or just learning how to soothe your baby in a way that keeps you sane in the process.

Whatever the challenges you face postpartum, a good postpartum doula will clearly assess you and your family’s needs and fit in seamlessly without feeling like a burden or another person for you to worry about.

Chelsea found that her baby was struggling with reflux so she needed some professional and calm support.

“I felt like the postpartum doula wasn’t going to be judgmental, and they were going to be patient with my baby who was screaming. I didn’t feel like I was inconveniencing them or making it miserable to be around us.”

So how can you better prepare yourself and build the best possible support system for becoming a new parent?

Here are a few top actions you can take:

• Get a birth doula! There are some great ones here, or check out doulamatch.net
• Take an amazing non-hospital based Childbirth Education class that is interactive, fun, engaging, AND covers all the potential twists and turns.
• Hire a postpartum doula

Asking for help is something not all of us are good at doing, but in order to provide your new baby the best care, you must also allow yourself be cared for — because during the experience of postpartum, you too are learning and growing.

Under COVID-19 we have been experiencing an upheaval of everything we are accustomed to in our daily lives. Not excluded from this upheaval is the experiences that expectant families have during their births. As a Childbirth Educator I have spent over a decade talking and listening to pregnant people as they prepare to birth their children. Never have I experienced a moment like this where they are no longer trying to negotiate eating and drinking in labor (yes, you should) or being free to move about the labor room (yes, good idea!), but now are facing the very real and possible reality of not having access to their well crafted birth support team.

The research on doulas is decades old, we already know they reduce cesareans and lessen requests for pain medications in those that were intending to birth without. The research is so strong on this front, we haven’t needed to remind people of it in a while. One study done in 2008, byMcGrath and Kennel, provided some useful learnings that are proving applicable in our current birth climate.

1. They discovered that when comparing a birth where there is a doula present with a birth where there is no doula and the birthing person has support from just a spouse/partner, the Cesarean rate for the doula assisted group was a whopping 11.6 percentage points lower than that of the non-doula group. (25% with no doula, 13.4% with a doula)
2. They also discovered that when a birthing person is induced, this change in cesarean rate with the presence of a doula is even MORE pronounced, dropping the rate by 46.3% (58.8% induced no doula, 12.5% induced with doula)

So why is this important at this moment in history? Because it seems we have all forgotten in our COVID-19 hospital restrictions that having a doula present is sort of a big deal. LIke a REALLY big deal and that the families who hire them are not just doing it for ‘self care’ or ‘an extra massage during labor’ but that it’s actually something they put in place that will have a lasting impact on their physical health and wellness for, quite literally, the rest of their lives.

As of the writing of this blog post on June 25th, 2020 we have some positive news on in person doulas being slowly allowed back into hospitals. Currently the following hospitals allow for in person doula support:

• HCMC
• Riverside // M Health
• Southdale // M Health
• Ridges // M Health

While these new changes are positive, this is certainly not a list of all hospitals in the Twin Cities. We hope that Allina, Methodist and all other hospital in Minnesota will follow suit shortly.  Which brings us to the need for VIRTUAL doulas!

The Benefits of Hiring a Doula

The benefits of hiring a doula are many. The range of support usually encompasses emotional, informational, physical, and advocacy. A virtual doula experience can and should hit all of these marks with some creativity!

1. Emotional Support: Now more than ever we are noticing our students and clients are stressed, anxious, and experiencing emotional strain. We KNOW doulas support families in their emotional well being and this is possible in person before you leave for the hospital, in phone calls, texts, and video chatting throughout your birth and postpartum.
2. Informational Support: The rules and recommendations are changing daily and experienced doulas have their finger on the pulse of what the newest information is. This means your doula can guide you through all sorts of twists and turns in your birth so that you can be holding your baby on the other side and feeling a sense of satisfaction and peace.
3. Physical Support: I know you’re going to balk at this one. Like, “Oh yeah, RIGHT, they can’t do that now!” You’d be surprised at how creative doulas are. They’re teaching comfort measures over zoom calls, meeting in backyards with masks, accompanying you in labor at your home prior to your leaving for the hospital. Showing your partner just how and where to squeeze your hips so that they can continue to be prompted when the time is right at the hospital.
4. Advocacy: While we very knowingly stay in our scope as doulas to not ever speak on behalf of our clients, we adopt the definition of doula advocacy from Rebecca Dekkar of Evidenced Based Birth, which states, “Advocacy is supporting the birthing person in their right to make decisions about their own body and baby.”  We are seeing a surprisingly strong need for this type of advocacy at this time and experienced doulas like Midwest Doulas deliver on this through all sorts of communication sources.

So what does it look like? How does it work?
Virtual doula-ing works best when the family feels the continuous support of their doula ‘as if’ they are in the room with them. In some cases, that can take the form of a tripod mounted smart phone on a video call. For others, it’s more of a periodic check in via video call or standard phone call. Some decide that they simply want the ability to have access to their doula via text or call at any time to help with forming questions, walking through some informed decision making strategies, coming up with some new coping strategies, or getting an emotional pep talk.

We are hearing overwhelmingly positive things from those parents using virtual doulas. Though we know the ideal scenario is that doulas would be in the room, providing in person continuous support throughout your labor no matter the location.

So please, take the Childbirth Educator’s advice, hire a doula and if you’re birthing in a hospital, contact your care provider and ask them their plan for when the Doulas will be let back in.

– Liz Hochman FACCE, LCCE, CLC, CD(DONA) is the owner and lead teacher of birthED

Liz has been heavily involved in  the Twin Cities professional birth community since 2009.  She has served over 1,000 families as a Lamaze educator and lactation counselor.

Liz served several years on the board of The Childbirth Collective and currently sits on the Optimal Outcomes in Women’s Health Conference board.