Over the past weekend, I put together a small website at www.elliedoula.com. It is a start. I want to keep posting new information to my blog, hopefully more often this year, but a recent promotions workshop I attended said that it is essential to have a website, so there you are.
I am also doing a presentation on Friday, January 28th at the Family Centre here in Lethbridge, as part of their 'Parent Talk' program. The purpose of this presentation is to let more people know about birth and postpartum doulas and that we are available here in Lethbridge.
'Doula' is still not a word that most people know, at least in this part of the world. I want people to understand that a good doula will be interested in supporting you to have the birth that you want. What we do see, both anecdotally and through research, is that mothers who had a doula present at their birth consistently report a more positive birth experience and have a better self-image (DONA Position Paper: The Doula’s Contribution to Modern Maternity Care).
As doulas, our role is to ensure mothers feel they had the birth they wanted and that they felt confident and empowered during the birth. Doulas should not be promising women: “If you hire me, you will not need a c-section, epidural, etc.” We should be doing what we can to ensure women feel positive about their birth experiences regardless of the outcome. The doula provides clients with information and helps them advocate for themselves, she must not make judgement calls about what kind of interventions a client might need.
DONA Standards of Practice are very clear: DONA International Standards and Certification apply to emotional and physical support only. The DONA International certified doula does not perform clinical or medical tasks such as taking blood pressure or temperature, fetal heart tone checks, vaginal examinations, or postpartum clinical care. I love this work because it is not medical. I believe that birth is 90% emotional and psychological and maybe 10% medical.
There is a huge need for emotional support in women giving birth, which is not being met in hospital settings in my community. This is not the fault of nurses and doctors, their role is different and broader than a doula’s, and it is not realistic to expect them to provide continuous support the way that a doula can. Professional doulas who understand the scope of their practice are able to meet this need, in a way that is complimentary to the role of medical care providers.
I look forward to the future, when women in my community have the option of a safe home birth with a licensed midwife, and I know doulas will be just as valuable in this situation as in the hospital. In the meantime, I am happy to help clients give birth in a hospital setting, maintaining good relationships with hospital staff, the majority of whom greatly appreciate my role as doula.
