A birth doula trained labour support. I have experienced childbirth myself and studied and trained extensively to learn a variety of methods to provide continuous physical, emotional, spiritual, and informational support to the mother and her partner before, during and just after childbirth.

The word “doula” comes from ancient Greek, meaning “woman’s servant.” Throughout history and in much of the world today, a cadre of women – sisters, mothers, neighbours – support a woman through labour and birth, giving back rubs and providing continuous support. Like their historical counterparts, doulas know how to help a woman in labour feel better. My goal as your doula is to support you and your partner, meeting your unique needs on their journey to parenthood.

Won’t a doula make my partner feel unnecessary? 
I specialise in working with mothers and their chosen birth partner toward the birth of their choice. I have been teaching both Bradley Method classes and more generally, partner support childbirth classes for 3 years and as such, have training in how to help partners enhance and enjoy the birth experience. I believe that the partner is uniquely able to help a labouring woman, especially helping her to feel safe and emotionally supported. My goal is work with you so that you are the centre of the birth team and I am simply there to support you. I achieve this through my confidence in you, my training and knowledge, and prenatal meetings with you. Further, I focus on supporting a woman’s partner so that he or she does not over-extend themselves while providing support and can fully experience and enjoy the birth.

Benefits of a Doula?

Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula’s presence at birth:

• tends to result in shorter labours with fewer complications
  
• reduces negative feelings about one’s childbirth experience
  
• reduces the need for synthetic oxytocin (a labour-inducing drug), forceps or vacuum extraction
  
• reduces the requests for pain medication and epidurals, as well as the incidence of caesareans.
  

When a doula is present during and after childbirth, women report greater satisfaction with their birth experience, make more positive assessments of their babies, have fewer caesareans and requests for medical intervention, and less postpartum depression.

Studies have shown that babies born with doulas present tend to have shorter hospital stays with fewer admissions to special care nurseries, breastfeed more easily, and have more affectionate mothers in the postpartum period.

Contact me for more details.